The month of merriment

Well Christmas has been and gone. It was a mad rush leading up to it, as always, with dance recitals, end of year gatherings and presents to be made and purchased. I felt slightly more in control of things this year, but there was still the last minute crazy frenzy of finding gifts and organising meal menus.

We had a wonderful time with friends and family and are now looking forward to a few weeks of fun and relaxation to recover!

Here are a few highlights of our Christmas Day:

 

Some of the carnage while two of them are engrossed in a favourite gift

Dancing Queen

Some crochet samples I've done from my new crochet book, Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman

 

Eddie taking advantage of a basket I just cleared out to use for my crochet!

A birdcage 'skirt' I made today to try and decrease the amount of seed mess that gets tossed around the place by the naughty little budgies.

My kitchen windowsill

The sunset last night (from my living room window)

Edited to add: I completely forgot to add pictures of all the gorgeous handmade Christmas ornaments we now have. Many of these are from swaps from this year and last year, and all the rest I made.

Early Christmas (in pictures)

We had an early Christmas this last weekend as my mother was visiting from Christchurch to see my daughters' dance recital. She couldn't stay until the 25th so we decided to have an 'early' Christmas dinner!

Mojito - yummmmmy!!

My first ever Christmas cake!

 

Dancing through the year

This will be a very short but sweet post. I am so proud of my clever girls and the work they have both put in this year with their dancing.


The first few photos are of Izzy's ballet dance. She was just amazing and we're so proud of how far she has come and how lovely her dancing is. I didn't get any pictures of her jazz dance, but she did just as well in that too. There were tears in her father's, her grandmothers' (both were there) and her mother's eyes watching her performance.

                

Tessa has completed her first year of ballet (3 year old ballet) and performed in her first ever dance recital. She was so very cute and earnest and managed to complete the 'dance' without any hitches (unlike her big sister when she was 3 and had to be carried off the stage by the big girl helper as she refused to do anything but cross her arms and look grumpy!!).

The first photo is from the actual recital, but as I was backstage in the wings to be there for when she came off stage, Kim only got a couple of pictures. The other photos are of earlier in the year and show different parts of her recital dance.

Watching their recital was definitely a very proud and happy mummy moment ♥

Tally Time!

I have been very slack at updating on Tuesdays, but I have finally got my act together and have made a little progress on my blanket. I am panicking slightly that I won't get it finished in time, but I will do what I can and reassess closer to the big day. I haven't finished many more squares, but have been concentrating on joining the squares together. These are shown partially joined and they will spread considerably with blocking also. It's sitting on a king single bed, so hopefully once it's finished, blocked and had a border added, it'll fit Tessa's single bed perfectly.

I've also been busy finishing other things too, as well as racing around carting children to and from a zillion activities and end of year events.

Here's a wee shrug I finished last night that will be part of Tessa's Christmas presents. The photo shows it unblocked and unmodelled - I'll get better pics of her wearing it after Christmas. The pattern is gorgeous and so easy - it's a new pattern by Kelly Brooker, called the Cornwall Park Shrug. I can't wait to see this on Tess!

This coming weekend is my daughters' dance recital. I'm a tad worried about how my 4 year old will cope being on stage for the first time, although she's very excited about it. I'm so looking forward to my mother coming up on Friday as she'll be able to see the recital in real life for the first time, rather than on dvd. My 9 year old is doing so well with her dancing and if the rehearsal the other day was anything to go by, she's going to do fantastically!  I helped out with costumes on the weekend, by sewing on some lace to the tutus that Izzy's ballet group will be wearing - I can't wait to see them worn and danced in.

And finally, I thought I'd add some photos of the lovely place where I live. These were all taken while I was out on a walk around the street above my house a few days ago. The views encompass both sides of the hill on which I live. While walking and taking pictures I realised how lucky I am to be living in such a beautiful environment. And while I get annoyed at times living so far up a hill and having to drive to get to anywhere (easily), there are advantages too.

The photo below shows the little school (with the red roofs) that Tess will be going to next year. It's such a lovely little school, with lots of greenery and play areas, some chickens and a children's garden. And across the water is the airport.

This photo is from the street above looking down on my street.

And here was the view from my living room window last night. The hills in the distance are the Kaikoura Ranges in the South Island.

Despite my continual complaints about our weather here in Wellington, I do love this little city.

Oh, and I keep forgetting to add that you can check out Gingerbread Girl's blog for regular updates on the other people participating in Tuesday's Tallys.