Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real

So, this is a bit late as the Christmas posts were to go with the last link up.  But, we spent the first hunk of Christmas break in London and Disney World and Paris.  That was pretty, funny, happy and real but not so much everyday life.  :-)  Since we got home, we've been potty training which is very real but not so much pretty. However, it so happens I also never managed to put up any of our December things which were pretty everyday life-ish.  So...

We started December with neverending rounds of conjunctivitis and a smattering of coughs with the odd tummy bug.  The children considerately spread out the infections by about 5 days each and all spent at least a couple of days home with me.  The loss of those precious hours where you will secretly shop for and wrap Christmas gifts is always welcome- especially when it involves lots of extra laundry!  Happily, my children are ridiculously adorable.

Noah decided to take Duck and Sheep on a boat ride.

The boat needed some repairs

A whisk was the obvious tool of choice

We got a rather sad tree but the children still found it quite satisfactory.  I hadn't really thought through the implications of buying a tree in the middle of an urban setting.  Freshly cut Christmas trees are readily available and not too dear in rural Virginia- not so much in the middle of Dublin.

We then set to making some cinnamon ornaments!

Waiting for them to harden was TORTURE!

Everything is better with glitter!

We only broke 1 while hanging.
(We won't talk about what happened over the next week)

All 3 children were shepards in the Church Christmas play.  The tea towels never looked so good!  All 3 children also were in Christmas pageants for school but we didn't get any pictures.  Noah had the tummy bug on the day of his and while St Matt's Church has a very lovely sanctuary it was not designed for picture taking!  Imagine cherubic faces and off key but heartfelt caroling and you'll have the gist.  :-)

Santa hangs out in grottoes here.  The children visited him at his zoo location.  I guess it's sort of connects with the manger?

The mall had this absolutely wild Santa's grotto with a motorized "Santa" going up and down a rope.  The children watched him for AGES.

The month o'festivity wrapped up with a Christmas fair at the kid's school where they had a magician who also made balloon objects.  Bucking convention, Charlie and Noah got hats while Megan got a sword.