Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all! 

From all of us in the Owl Nest!


Laughing Owl x

Owlfit of the Week

It's Christmas!!!  I've been a bit slow on sharing the old Christmas jumpers and now I realise I have lots to share and little time to do it!  I have a December birthday, so growing up, Christmas didn't start until the day after my birthday, which meant no decorations, Christmas song or clothing for the first two weeks of December... then WHAM straight into the Christmas spirit!

So here's how Little Owl has been going about for the last few days!  The hat was knitted by LittleOwl's Fairy God Mother for her first Christmas, so chuffed that it still fits!

I'm in love with the Snuggle Fleece from Frugi.  All Frugi snuggle fleeces are reversible, with printed cotton on one side, and this lovely snuggly fleece on the other!  Until this week, Little Owl has been wearing this the other way round, but the fluffy white fleece feels very festive!  They are quite expensive at £30 but hard wearing and a generous fit so I'm sure we'll get a lot of wear out of it.  I was lucky to pick this one up in a flash sale that Frugi had about a month ago, I think I got 20% off.

The trousers are from the Little Bird range at Mothercare.  You might have noticed by now that I have a soft patch for cord trousers so couldn't resist these flares from Little Bird for £12.

Finally, Little Owl's beautiful boots from Livie and Luca!  You may remember me debating over whether to get the pink or blue pair a few weeks ago, well I went for the blue.  These will feature loads over the coming weeks, so expect a more detailed review soon, for now, just know that I love them!

Oh - there is one more thing - you might just spot a red bell on Little Owl's boot, it was one of the gifts in her advent calender, and its bit of a tradition of having festive bells on your boots in the Owl household!

Advent

Advent is a time of preparation, and whether you are waiting for the arrival of Jesus Christ or waiting for Father Christmas to pop down the chimney, there's an awful lot of stuff to learn when you are two!

I want Little Owl to grow up understanding why we do what we do at Christmas.  I want her to know the story of the nativity, of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.  But I also want her to know about Father Christmas and the magic of the season!

That's an awful lot for a two year old!

So I am using the season of advent to help!  Little Owl hasn't had an advent calender before, I couldn't see the point in a daily dose of chocolate for her last year as she was too small to know what was going on.  But this year...

Little Owl is going to find out about the nativity through books and her own nativity set that will grow day by day.  As we edge closer to the big day itself, Father Christmas will begin to make an appearance, as well as some more modern Christmas traditions.

With the help of little advent sacks from Lidl, a wooden nativity set from BigJigs Toys, a few books and the Polar Express on DVD, Little Owl is feeling the magic of Christmas already!

The gifts that don't fit in the sacks, are wrapped up below.  On those days, Little Owl finds a letter in her sack, and has to match it to the letter on the parcel.  She likes those days the best!

If you want to join in the fun with LittleOwl, make sure you follow me on Instagram to find out what is in her advent sack each day!

My Sunday Photo

Christmas Cake

Papa Owl has decided that this year he is going to make us a Christmas Cake.  His mum makes one every year, and usually he persuades her to cut him a healthy chunk which we enjoy over the festive period.  This year we are going to have a whole cake!

Now you might have noticed by now that I am no baker.  So I had two jobs to do, the first was to take photos!  Little Owl and Papa Owl weighed all the fruit and mixed it together.  Papa Owl then gave it some brandy to drink.

 My second job was to take Little Owl out for the day so Papa Owl could work his magic.  I have no idea what was involved but like the good "blogger's hubby" he took some photos.

So that's our Christmas Cake all wrapped up!  Literally but not figuratively, as it needs "watering" with brandy once or twice a week until about a week until school breaks up and then its time to ice it ready for the big day!

I am joining in with Little Chefs linky.  If you click on the picture above you will find a blog where the amazing Baked Potato Mummy bakes amazing food all of the time and with her toddler! 

I am also linking up with Thinly Spread for her Festive Friday Linky, all things Christmassy until Boxing Day.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree oh Christmas tree

We went to Westfield to buy thee

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

We went together, just us three

There were lots of trees when we got there

We couldn't find you, not hide nor hair

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

You just appeared out of thin air

O Christmas Tree oh Christmas tree

Papa Owl bought you for a fee

O Christmas Tree oh Christmas tree

There were some reindeer just for me

We took you home in the car

The journey really wasn't far

O Christmas Tree o Christmas tree

Five more minutes and here we are

 

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

Little Owl loved to see thee

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

She couldn't stop touching thee

 

Your boughs began to show the weight

we tried to keep you on the straight

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

Little Owl she couldn't wait

 O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

Little Owl wouldn't let you be

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

but she could only reach your knee!

 That's Christmas over for this year

We'd like to thank you for being here

O Christmas tree o Christmas tree

Its time for you to go from here

My little angel

Twas' the night before Christmas, well, not quite, it was actually the Sunday before Christmas and I was doing some last shopping of presents before the next day of wrapping, when I received a text from Papa Owl telling me that Little Owl needed an Angel costume for Christmas Eve!

Arrrrgggggghhhhhh!

I'd love to say that by the 22nd December everything was ready for Christmas, that by Christmas Eve I could spend the day watching Christmas movies, but I had suspicions I would be up to the wee hours finishing off the last little bits.  I'd love to say I was the type of mum that could just whip up a costume in the beat of a heart, but I fear I more like my own mother where this sort of crisis is best solved by spending money on a costume someone else has made!

But it just so happened that I was in a shop that sold, well, everything, or nearly everything.  I had a hunt about and found their Christmas costumes - a snowman and a Christmas tree... wasn't sure how well that would go down in a church nativity... so what I bought instead was a metre of white satin and a ball of wool that looked like tinsel but was much softer.  I also happened to bump into a friend who when I explained my crisis, sketched a little diagram on a bit of paper for me.

A year ago, when Papa Owl gave me a sewing machine, I had never ever used one.  I've had a few lessons at The Owl and Sewing Cat this year, and have made a few cushions single handed too.  But clothing... this is way beyond me!

Now I'm sure anyone with any experience can look at this and tell me where I went wrong, and I can see now that it was just too tight across the chest, so I ended up undoing it under the arms.  The wool needed finger knitting it to make it thick enough but with wings borrowed from another friend, in the end I was delighted with the result!

Little Owl loved her first nativity!

Christmas Wreath

Christmas is slowly beginning to make an appearance in the Owl household... The decorations have come down from the loft, the tree has been bought, and a holly wreath has appeared on the front door thanks to Papa Owl!  He took some photos and has put together this guide to making your own wreath.

Stage 1  Cut yourself some leylandii and some holly from your garden.  It's good to get a mixture of ordinary and variegated holly to give some contrast in your wreath.  You will also need a wire florists ring, a ball of garden string, some florists red berries, florists wire, ribbon and a pair of secateurs.

Stage 2 Attach one end of your string to your wire ring.  Take a good handful of leylandii and tie it onto the ring.

Stage 3 Continue wrapping your first handful of leylandii until you there is about 4cm left.  Take another handful of leylandii, tuck the twiggy ends under your first bunch and carry on wrapping, keeping the string really nice and tight. 

Stage 4 Carry on doing this until you have completed your ring.  Tie the string off to the wire ring and cut.  Now take your secateurs and trim your wreath to get rid of any loose bits of leylandii sticking out.  Be careful not to cut your string.

Stage 5  Cut your holly into lengths of about 10cms at an angle.  You can now start to stick them into your wreath. 

Stage 6 Continue placing the various types of holly into your wreath, until you can no longer see the leylandii.  It is useful to look at your wreath from a distance to see how balanced it is.

Stage 7 It is best not to use natural holly berries as they can attract birds who will subsequently eat them and make a mess on your door!  The florists berries are easy to get hold of and don't lead to the same side effects!  Take a couple of berries and twist them together, wrap a piece of florists wire around them and use that to stick into the leylandii. 

Stage 8  Make yourself a bow with the ribbon.  There are many ways of doing this, let your imagination run free.  Again use the florists wire to attach to your wreath.

Stage 9  Make a loop out of the florists wire and attached to the back of your ring which can be used to hang your wreath from your door.

Many thanks to Papa Owl for kick starting our Christmas decorations off... really must get around to buying some presents soon!