Christmas

The last few days have been a hectic beautiful wonderful blur. On Thursday i went a little crazy in preparation for my Christmas Party Friday. ( I baked like 100 Cookies) The week anyway was exciting as i was late... Thursday came and went and on Fri my excitement about parties was heavily shadowed by the fact that i discovered that it was yet another chemical pregnancy. The party was lovely but i had terrible headache for the first 4 hrs and at one point i would have liked to curl under the tree with a hot water bottle...still it was lovely to be surrounded by friends and by the end of the day i started to feel better. Here is a picture. 

I was also reminded how getting several 2 years in a room together can result in the type mayhem that is not compatible with hiding under the tree. Ceyda had her first time out in her Bedroom.Here we all are in my living room.

 I was really proud of my decorations this year. The house felt/feels very Christmassy. Christmas day was lovely.... the night before Ceyda and i came downstairs to prepare milk cookies  and carrots for Santa and Rudolph and...we heard a ho ho ho from the living room. We peeked thgrough a crack in the door and there was Santa (lovely Dh in a Santa suit) putting presents under the tree. Ceyda was shocked i wish i could have taken a photo of the wide eyes as we sneaked up stairs.  The conversation afterwards about Santa lenghthend our bedtime routine alot but it was worth it. 

On Christmas day after Ceyda has opened all her presents i sobbed for two hours..went for a family walk and then finally got started on my Jamie Oliver Christmas Turkey. The day ended with my favourite Christmas movie Love Actually. Perfect. Here are some pics.

Yay Presents 

More Presents !!

Seriously Yummy !!

Mummy do i have to smile 

mmmm

Daddy play !!

Markets, final stages of the clearout and Crafting...

Yesterday we went to Alsancak to the Christmas Market. We either arrived too late or it was basically a bust. I wont mention the name only that it was in a church and that i had to silently tell my husband (whom i had convinced to come along with the lure of food ) to hush afer he announnced " Isla this is crap" ahhem my dear we are in the house of god !!! oops. I bought one jar of  very very overpriced Jam. My husband said "why are you buying that" oops. When you go to a Charity event ( even if only a % of profit goes to charity) especially when it is in a Church its a tad rude to wander in announce its crap and leave. I got no response. 

We then walked to the Gift Fair that was at the Fuar in Alsancak. He was much happier there as there were lots of stalls with food..model cars..model planes.. lamps..wooden products and shiny things to keep all of us occupied. We saw a few things we liked and agreed to return the day before the Fair closes to secure the best price. The main reason beautiful glass lamps that are a little over our budget and if they are gone ? well then it just wasnt meant to be...

We then walked in the rain, Ceyda and Baba puddle jumped and i took a lovely pic.

My Bee and Baba walking in the Rain

We had chinese, then stopped off at Stabucks followed by a long rainy walk.I had to pass my favourite Christmas Store window and take a picture.

So Pretty !!

I have gradually been continuing with my clearout, my material cleanse...I am nearly there. I now have an entire room full of the things that i need to go through and refile. Hmmm. So the house is pretty much clear except for this one room.I have a deadline though Friday as i am hosting a small Christmas Party for friends. Although the door does have a lock.Lets see how that goes. 

Tomorrow is Christmas shopping day followed by crafts. Ceyda and i will make a new Angel for the "other tree" as the  weight of the Star is not helping its leaning status. A nice light Angel should do the trick. I am taking the design from toddlercraft pics to follow.after this we will attempt Toilet Roll Santas.  : )

Sweet Dreams xx

Christmas Crafts

Today Ceyda and i made sparkly Christmas Tree Reindeer. I should add however that when i asked Ceyda if they were for the tree she said they were for the grass..so we may need to make sparkly reindeer family a pasture....

Ceyda chose the glitter colours.. she did not want to mix the colours. We also coloured a large IKEA box at the same time and this kept most of the glitter where it was supposed to be. : )

Materials 

* Ikea cookie cutter for the reindeer

* Card sparkles, glitter crayons anything  infact i thought a collage would be fun next year !!

Here are the pics

Ceyda proudly showing off her Card

Materials : ) : )

When Ceyda pasted the reindeer card with glue she over ran the edges the end result was a lovely Reindeer outline 

The finished products well done Ceyda Bee !!

I just finished a star so we can make some Stars for tomorrow, i am sure Ceyda will come up with another creative place for them to stay. 

Tomorrow we have a Family Christmas Market trip, we live in Izmir Turkey so Christmas Markets are few and far between.I think we are all excited.. the mention of home baked goodies for sale was enough to lure my Darling...and i am sure Ceyda will have fun too !!

Behind..

I am really behind with blogging, i have all these things that i have been thinking about, that i really wanted to blog about since Istanbul but it feels as though time is chasing me. So instead here are some of the highlights of the last 2 weeks.


*I realised that any romantic ideas i had about tree decorating with a toddler were..well romantic notions..  the end result was a broken tree. My attempt to pop the Star on the top was thwarted by Ceyda grabbing leg while i balanced on the sofa and me rather elegantly snapping the Ikea tree in half... : ( : ( to stop me crashing into the (unlit) fireplace. 
The tree has since been repaired with what appears to be piping, playdough and tape. It now leans softly to the right.Very Pretty though.
* Who thought 2 trees were a good idea !!!
*This year feels so chrismassy and i am so happy. I forgot how much i loved this time of year. I put Christmas trees up early and have turned into a Christmas crafting monster. Cards, decorations toilet roll santas...we have calenders and daily chats about Santa and his reindeer.It even snowed a little here last week. This is not common at all and the day it happened the temp dropped 20 degrees from one day to the next brrrr. Next week i am planning a Christmas Baking week. 
Here are a few pics some of Ceyda at her Christmas Party for playgroup and one of her standing proudly in her party dress beside our non broken tree. 

Party Time

Playgroup 

Ceyda and Mrs. Santa

Fun Santa Games