Seasonally plump

Visiting a friend's newborn today, I felt a pang of broodiness and a little ache in my ovaries. And then it dawned on me: My pregnancy countdown is into single figures. I'll have one of those in less than ten weeks. 

My darling little girl looked positively grown up as she sat on the sofa eating Christmas cake, shhh-ing the adults that spoke as the baby slept peacefully in the moses basket on the other side of the room. Just yesterday D and I had to remind ourselves that she's not yet two years old. Her new fringe has taken away a bit of that messy haired toddler innocence. Having her home for the holidays, her language has come on tremendously. There are so many new words everyday and she is so wise to everything. It makes me well up a little just thinking about it. 

My unborn is currently breech. Christmas Eve eve was a horrible night as it turned itself around. The heartburn was horrific and the pain in my bump intense and tender. E was breech for a long time and now I remember how uncomfortable it was. I have hit the third trimester wall of tiredness and I am thankful that I am blessed with such a hands-on husband who has done the baths and chasing and running around with E that I'm finding more and more difficult. 

Christmas was divine: Round 1, a buffet lunch at home with friends and family before driving to my dad's in Norfolk for Round 2 where we were waited on and spoiled silly and enjoyed being suitably lazy while E lapped up time with the family we don't see so much, then onto Round 3 on Boxing Day for lunch with 'Grauntie' (my mum's sister) and more lovely gifts before returning home and then scratching our heads about where on earth everything would go and how we were going to cope next Christmas with gifts for our two children. Minor palpitations.

If I'm not fortunate enough having a husband who just loves being a dad and does an amazing job of it, he also went over the top with gifts for me, the crowning glory a new lens for my camera and a tripod...  You can expect a deluge of photographs over coming weeks, starting now, with a brief Christmas round-up.

Peace on earth

We are home from a quiet and calm Christmas at my dad's in Norfolk. 

We were all thoroughly spoiled and have no inclination to eat anything for the next week... And purely selfishly, a Christmas out of the kitchen was just wonderful!

Hoping you all had a merry one too and that you're able to take some time to relax and enjoy the peace now the big day has passed.

Festivity

Cabin fever was setting in after a few days at home with a poorly kiddo.

Our tree went up last weekend and is decorated, but our beloved wreath disintegrated last year and we hadn't yet replaced it so inspired by Mummy Rawles' early start and dedication to Christmas tree picking this morning, we headed over to Welford Christmas Tree Farm to buy a wreath, see some animals and enjoy a cheeky mulled wine.

I am sorely regretting not having bought a real tree now. As we browsed the trees, some still growing, the smell of Christmas and the wonderful buzz of anticipation and preparation surrounded us. No one seemed stressed, they were just enjoying the magic that the tree farm had to offer. 

The farm offers a small selection of animals to see, including a donkey who will take your tree to your car for you, some free festive crafting for children, a wonderful little shop selling decorations and lovely Christmas gifts (supplying complimentary mince pies, mulled wine and jelly beans for fussier pallets) and if you're there at the right time, the opportunity to meet Santa. Good old fashioned festive cheer in the outdoors, mud and all. Obviously it's a business, but there's nothing commercial about the way it feels. Just lovely. And the excitement resulted in E's first muddy-knees-and-muddy-bum-with-no-spare-trousers situation. Perfect. I would highly recommend a visit

I ended up buying a plain wreath and spent this afternoon decorating it. I'm so pleased with it! Remember my post about festive traditions? Without even thinking about it, we just started another... 

Overjoyed that we got out to link up with #countrykids and #magicmoment this week.

I'm trying to be more savvy with Facebook, I'd love it if you could join me over there too!

Time flies

We've reached that time of year. Again.

Meeting up with friends and saying "have a wonderful Christmas" when we depart as we wont see them again until next year.

Work gets busy.

There is so much to do in preparation for Christmas.

There is so much to do before we have this baby. I haven't had time to take my 25 week photo. Sigh. So much for being prepared!

I was at work, unusually, on Friday, so I couldn't even post Friday's thoughts. And in an attempt to justify myself, dear reader, today cannot even be a Silent Sunday. 

Goodness.

Today Mr Thursday's Child turned 28, so we went to London to celebrate. E went on a proper train for the first time. HUGE EXCITEMENT.

I'll be back this week. I promise!

Making Magic

With Halloween out of the way for another year, I am firmly set in C-word mode.

No. Not THAT C-word.

CHRISTMAS!

I am particularly excited this year as E seemingly enjoyed last year a lot, and a year on she'll be even more a part of it. She enjoyed the excitement, the paper, seeing family... And Christmas dinner was so tasty she sat happily in her highchair for two hours! I think we plan to go back to my home for the first time we've been together, which means obligatory Midnight Mass at the Cathedral and even better, not having to cook.

When I think back to Christmas as a child, there are specific traditions or rituals that I remember that made it even more magical, memorable and special, and I'm keen to build up these traditions for my children now.

We made a start last year, but didn't go so overboard in light of E only being 9 months old. We had new jammies, and we bought Christmas (or "seasonal" if you're not so much into reindeer) jumpers for Christmas day and we started documenting that ale and mince pies were indeed left out and consumed by Father Christmas. But I think traditions can go beyond that, and so we started a new family tradition this year: Mixing up the Christmas cake together (and sneaking the odd amaretto soaked raisin in for a snack!).

Now wrapped up ready for icing in the week before Christmas! 

After a little research amongst some mummy friends of mine, I put together my top traditions...

One friend bakes hams to give as gifts on Christmas eve and makes truffles with the children on Boxing Day. Another always receives a gift from her mum through CAFOD and is keen to continue this tradition with her own children. I was told of lots of examples of new pyjamas, slippers, jumpers... A friend whose children are aged between one and 19 still insists that no one goes downstairs without her go ahead and takes a photo of them all waiting at the top of the stairs! What a lovely way to document a family growing up - and proof that even big kids aren't ever that old! Lots of families have a favourite Christmas film that they watch together, while others have staple breakfasts that they share together every year... And a tradition that I'd never thought of being an only child was that of the youngest putting the fairy on the top of the tree. We don't have a fairy, but I'm going to get one this year, just so E gets one shot at it before her brother or sister arrives!!

My ultimate favourite came from Charlie over at Learning Lessons in Mummyography. Of course it did.I shouldn't have expected anything less! She has started a tradition that I am in love with and completely pinching! 
We decided last year we want to make christmas about giving, so every year (starting last year) we fill up a change bottle and then give it to our local hospice. We think it'll give us a good chance to talk to Euna about how lucky we are.

Christmas for me is far more about giving that receiving. I love watching the faces of those I have bought or made for... And I hate opening presents in front of people! I've always been of the spend £2 and buy the perfect gift than spend £100 and get it wrong mentality, and hope that my children will always be grateful for what they receive, irrespective of size or cost. But Charlie's tradition is a beautiful way of teaching about being selfless, humility,giving, being fortunate and helping others, and we've decided that we'll be keeping a change bottle during 2014 for Cransley Hospice, who cared for my late Mother-in-law so wonderfully in her last days.

What are your Christmas traditions? Will this be your first Christmas as a parent and what do you intend to do? I'd love to know!

And seeing as I photodumpted our "mix it up Monday" photos above, I could at least share the recipe, right? It's based on Delia's failsafe recipe, except I use amaretto (trust me - it's DIVINE!) and the following measurements of fruit:

800g dried mixed fruit

100g cranberries

100g of mixed cherries and berries.

Enjoy! 

18 weeks.

I cannot get over how quickly this pregnancy business is flying. I'm very nearly half way, and I only blinked. I've got a tap dancer on board who seems to be awake a lot of the time and a bump that I'm pretty sure you can't miss, yet it seems to have gone unnoticed by many of my colleagues. Maybe I have always been rounder than I thought.

Bump is starting to feel tight and a bit itchy so it's time to get moisturising religiously. If the stretch marks do what they did last time, it'll be just before baby arrives that they suddenly pop... Better be safe than sorry. I'm giving Cussons Mum & Me a whirl this time, having loved their stretch mark fader (which works a treat on C-section scars too!)... And it smells lush. And I have an irrational love of pump bottles. Time to get out more.

So exciting news this week is that I have a date for No. 2's arrival! We're keeping it a secret, but it's a smidge early and I'm due 22 weeks today, so you can probably start working it out. Very exciting, but we have SO much to do before then. We're swapping bedrooms around as the kids will share once No. 2 is sleeping through and it currently looks like a dumping ground. It will be vastly improved when all our university stuff (!) and a lots of the books that we don't use all that often get boxed up in the loft. Their room is going to be grey and rainbow - it looks SO much better than it sounds I promise - and my attention has turned to thinking about what blanket design I'm going to crochet. 
          
In other news, all of E's Christmas presents, along with presents for most of the significant children in our lives, God son and daughters and the like, are purchased. I'm thinking about toddler Christmas crafts (potato printing wrapping paper anyone?) and scratching my head about what to get D... 

I like to claim I'm organised. This post has made me realise that I'm probably not quite as organised as I thought. Time to make another list.