Another year of Christmas has been had. Another lot of catch ups, present giving and receiving , card making, baking and relishing in the fun and joy that Christmas brings! Christmas this year came round so quickly and what feels within a blink of an eye, it’s all over for another year!

It took a while for me to really get into the spirit of Christmas this year! It’s taken so long to pick ourselves up after nana passing away, knowing that this would be the first year to celebrate Christmas without her was a very hard pill to swallow. But thankfully my 3 beautiful children’s infectious excitement over Christmas was enough to lift my spirit. Once we turned our house into Christmas and the calendar turned over to December 1st, this is how we celebrated Christmas….

The kid’s school Christmas concert kicked started the festive season off this year. It was Sienna’s first one, she was so adorable and sang her little heart out and with it being only a couple of days after Bay broke his arm, I was so proud of his efforts during his performance!

Each year we take a trip into the city to see the big Christmas tree and Santaland at Myer. Because we went so early in December, we missed out on the street parade and the light show at city hall…apparently it was amazing, so a bit of a bummer we missed out, but we had the best time with what we did!

Like most kids, our kids love looking at Christmas lights. Now that we so our own house, we don’t drive around as much as we did, but we still managed a few trips around the place, including the south side 4KQ winner, which was spectacular!!!!

Each Christmas we try and catch up with as many of our close friends as we can! Between Christmas parties for work and family and friends catch ups, we have to start back in November just to fit everyone in! We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and an amazing family to celebrate Christmas with!

A family tradition has started with our annual Santa photo…we have all been getting in the photo as Mia hasn’t wanted to sit on Santa’s lap! I’m so proud of her this year though…she gave him plenty of high 5s, a cuddle and told him “Merry Christmas Santa!”

Each Christmas I do a lot of baking and making….

I made my mum, grandad and sisters a canvas with photos of nana on her last Christmas Day last year. These canvases can be brought out each Christmas now to remember our beautiful lady!

It was done later than normal, but this was my Christmas card photo I sent out to 40 of our closest family and friends this year!

When you are a prep student at Runcorn Heights State School, you get to be involved in an end of year play called ‘The Christmas Story’. Sienna is the fourth member of the family to perform this play and she played a camel and did such a fantastic job! It’s always such a lovely way to celebrate the wonderful year prep has been and how far my baby girl has come:)!

Every year my sister comes home from melbounre for Christmas, we always get a photo done with all the grandchildren with Santa! It proves to be a little challenging than it use to be as the eldest grandchild is 13 now and he’s told us 15 is his cut off lol!

One thing my children love more than ever at Christmas time, is wearing all of their Christmas clothes nanny either made or bought for them! From December 1st, they don’t wear anything else:) I really love how my children embrace the spirit of Christmas and I hope this continues for a very long time!

As I’m almost finished typing up 2013’s Christmas blog, I’m still in amazement at how fast it’s come and gone and to be honest, it doesn’t even feel like we’ve had Christmas Day! As I sit on the balcony of my holiday unit, I feel like I should be dashing to the shops or baking another batch of cupcakes, but nope it’s all done and dusted for another year!

Christmas Day was bitter sweet this year. Sweet to see the absolute joy and happiness on the faces of our children, but bitter celebrating Christmas without nana;( We were woken extremely early this year by Bay who was busting to go to the toilet at 4am!!! Consequently he was too over excited to go back to sleep but had to wait until the last child woke just before 6! It was all steam ahead from there!

Like we’ve done for many years now, we had breakfast with Kane’s family at our house and lunch with my family at mum and dad’s house…so much food…so many presents…so much fun!!

Christmas Day at mum and dad’s is always great…food, swim, lots of laughter!

This year, facing Christmas without nana for the first time was hard. It was a sad feeling which left a void in the air. I felt so much for my mum and grandad. I miss nana so much it hurts, but on those ‘first’ special occasions, I miss her even more. I was so blessed to spend over 30 Christmas days with one of the greatest women I’ve ever known. Nana taught us so much about Christmas…especially how to put on a great one! Forever she will be remembered for her fruit salad, lattice biscuits, roasts and other desserts…forever she will be remembered for spoiling us on Christmas Day!! This year, we all gathered out to the cemetery to lay flowers and wish nana a merry Christmas. An added bonus was seeing her new headstone for the first time, which thank you to my wonderful mother looks amazing!

There were still plenty of smiles on Christmas Day though. Nana would have wanted that. She always had a smile on her face right to the end. If nana could smile through her ordeal then we will always be able to!

Of course the day had to end in drama!!!! Bay’s waterproof cast protector came loose and got his cast saturated!!!! A trip to the Mater Children’s was needed for it to be recasted!!!! This arm!!!!

Poor bugger!!! Fingers crossed it comes off permanently tomorrow!!!

My favourite day of the year though…(apart from my birthday and Christmas) is Boxing Day!!! We always back up and go to mum and dad’s for breakfast and enjoy the whole day eating leftovers and swimming! No rush, no where to be, no present sorting, just fun and laughter without any stress!

So there you have it! This is how we’ve embraced the spirit of Christmas this year! I hope all my followers both family, friends and regulars, had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a safe and happy new year!!