Christmas is in the air!

The best thing about November coming to an end is that it means Christmas is only weeks away and since I was little I’ve always loved Christmas day. Eating copious amounts of food with my family, backyard games and some years we even got to swim in my Aunties pool which is very inviting on a hot Christmas day. Houses covered in pretty lights, leg ham on toast with butter, prawns on ice, roast pork and crackling, unwrapping presents with the whole family are just some of the memories the word Christmas evokes for me.

 

 

As you get older Christmas loses some of its excitement and although it’s great to have a special day with your family the magic disappears a little, that is of course until you have children of your own then the magic and excitement are ignited once again. My son yells with delight his eyes wide with wonder at anything that resembles Christmas, saying “Christmas mum, Christmas!” Because I want it to be as special for my kids as it always was for me, this year my husband and I are putting Christmas lunch on at our house.

 

 

I also love Christmas crafts, and can’t wait to start doing them with my kids. When I put their advent calendar together placing lollies and little chocolate Santa’s in the boxes I also put pictures in some to hint at what Christmas craft we would be making that day. My son is 3 and daughter is 20 months so they aren’t difficult crafts but both kids always enjoy painting and drawing so it will be great for them to get creative. I have already been getting creative myself, getting some of my Christmas crafts completed by the end of November so we could put them up with our tree.

 

 

Using my Cricut Expressions machine I made a ‘Merry Christmas’ banner in red and green and I also made two Christmas chandeliers which are red and green baubles hanging from different heights with fishing line from a metal ring wrapped in gold tinsel. Having always wanted a wreath for the front door I finally bought one this year and I also purchased a wooden letter ‘H’ for our initial. After painting the letter red with gold trimmings and varnishing it I used a hot glue gun to attach it to the front of the wreath. All of the projects I completed were quite simple but they all look very effective when hung up.

 

 

This weekend I am hosting a Card Making party for a group of friends and family at which we will not only get the chance to catch up but also get creative and make some Christmas cards for the people we care about. I’m really looking forward to it and can’t wait to see what everyone makes.

 

 

December will be a fun but also busy month with Christmas parties and plans to go camping along with landscaping so I’m not going to have much free time. Because of this I won’t be pulling out a motivation card for the month but look forward to sharing my Craft Room make over from last month’s motivation sometime this week. Hope you enjoy my Christmas crafts as much as I did making them.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Photos a Family Tradition

Like a lot of mothers I like to take photos of my kids each Christmas to send out with my Christmas cards to close friends and family. To keep this tradition going, at the end of last week I hung a large beige sheet from my dining room window pulled out our Christmas box which is full of decorations, lights and tinsel to create a make shift photo booth. Excited at the sight of all the pretty things both of my children were eager to have their faces cleaned, hair done and get changed into something nice so that they could play with it all. While they played I took lots of photos and said every now and then I would chime in with a ‘cheese’ or ‘wow look at this’ to get their attention. Despite my efforts they weren’t very good at taking directions as Tahlia is 20 months old and Logan is 3 and a half so I found it easier and less stressful just trying to capture them enjoying the new things to play with. This approach did mean that I managed to get quite a few terrible and blurry photos but luckily modern technology allows us to take hundreds of photos and we only need to keep the good ones, and fortunately there were a few that I was really happy with. It also didn’t help that my camera was broken and the next best things I had was my mobile phone. It wasn’t long before they became distracted and began to wander away so I took that as my cue to finish deciding no one wants photos of crying grumpy children for Christmas.

Of course you could save yourself the trouble and have professional photos taken but for me I enjoy knowing that each year I take them myself and it has become one of our family traditions, also I am a tight ass and couldn’t justify to myself spending that much money on photos when Christmas is just around the corner. So, if you can’t afford to pay a photographer for Christmas photos or you are like me and just don’t want to, this is a great way to capture some pictures of them having fun to send away to family and friends in their Christmas cards this year. Let’s face it, family and friends don’t care how professional your photos look, they just like to receive a memento of how much your children have grown in the past year. Especially those who don’t get to see them as often as they would like. So pull out your decorations and a large sheet and see where you imagination and camera can take you!

Here are some photos that I have taken over the years, they aren’t professional but I like that it is one of our family traditions.

 

Birth Stories: Oversharing or Inspiring?

Today I found out that a friend of mine has just given birth to a beautiful baby boy and I also have another friend who is still pregnant and expecting a baby girl. It got me thinking of course about having my kids and being pregnant myself.

When you are pregnant you know the only way you are getting your baby out into this world is by giving birth or via a caesarean section. Neither are very much fun to endure but you know it will all be worth it when your baby finally comes into the world and you are a mother. When you are pregnant it seems as though every mum has a birth story, and not many of them make giving birth sound like very much fun, and you wonder “why on earth are they telling me this? Are they trying to freak me out?” but after two emergency caesareans the second after thirty or so hours of labour I think I now know why people feel they need to tell you what they endured to have their precious baby come into the world.

 

That’s right, although I swore I would never be one of ‘those’ mothers, I am. I do try to tell my story in a way that is less frightening and more encouraging but although it may feel I am doing it that way I’m sure my stories manage to scare the prospective mother just as much as other peoples stories played on my mind when I was pregnant, especially with my first. But I now know that the reason we mothers feel the need to share is because some of us can’t believe we actually endured that and came out the other end ok. Sure I had surgery and had to recover but never could I have imagined going through so much pain and recovering so quickly and of course the immense joy and love I had for my gorgeous new born.

At the time it didn’t seem to process for me what I was actually experiencing or going through, I simply focused on getting through the next contraction and resting when I could then after such a long time I was informed I needed a second caesarean and was happy to trust they would do the best for me and my baby. It wasn’t until afterwards lying in the hospital bed looking through the plastic crib at my beautiful little girl that the realisation of what I had endured hit me and I felt enormous pride that despite not giving birth naturally I had been able to withstand so much and come out the other end a proud mother of a healthy baby girl. I could only imagine how much prouder you would feel after giving birth naturally, but wouldn’t swap the experience for the world as the health of my baby was more important to me than my need to have a natural birth.

Next time a mother tells you her birth story, even if you feel she is giving you way too much information, remember that she is simply proud of herself and trying to relay to you that despite what your baby’s birth may be like, in the end all that is important is that you and the baby are happy and healthy.

 

My beautiful babies Logan & Tahlia
when they were born.

Open Minded or Fence Sitter?

Many people, including myself, like to think of themselves as open minded. Open to different ideas and beliefs and trying to understand things from someone else’s point of view. It is perceived as being less confrontational and allows you to understand people in a way you wouldn’t if you weren’t willing to listen to their views if they are different to yours. It can also lead you to experience new things and learn about why people feel and act the way they do.

My only concern is that as a result of being open to the opinions and views of others in some situations we don’t or won’t fight for a cause even if we really believe in it. Some would argue this is the point of being open minded and not being confrontational, but I do have to think is it just taking the easy way out? So, am I really open minded or am I simply being a Fence Sitter never committing to a cause or picking a side in case I may be wrong or criticized? And am I trying to have the best of both worlds?

The area of my life where this is most apparent to me is when it comes to those who believe to their very core that their religion or spiritual belief is absolute and nothing could shake their commitment. Don’t get me wrong I am happy for people to believe whatever they like as long as it isn’t hurting anybody in the process. It must take great courage and self-belief to know that you have chosen the correct belief system and be proud to have made that decision. There have been times where I have thought it might be easier to just choose a religion and run with it, but the fear of choosing the ‘wrong one’ has always stopped me because I don’t have the conviction most religious followers have. This in turn makes me feel like a fence sitter, letting everyone have their ideas and beliefs but never having the courage to fully embrace one for myself; all the while calling myself open minded. I also question if you could truly be open to others if you believe they are making the wrong religious or spiritual decisions?

I feel that it is a fine line between trying to be open and see things through other people’s eyes and not taking a stance on anything or making a decision. Looking at different aspects of my life I could probably be both of these at different times and in different situations. But despite my concerns and thoughts I do believe trying to genuinely be open to other people’s experiences and ideas is a good way to be and that it helps us to be more compassionate and caring towards others whether we know them or not. It also means we don’t condemn those who have a different view from our own. Maybe you can be open minded while still having your own opinion, but instead of trying to convince people yours is the correct one, be open to the fact that they may have their own truth.