Ding dong merrily and all that

Yeah for the approaching holiday season.

Though I'm all for holidays - and my job's closed for a week at Christmas, so I do get time off - I'm not all for festivity mood too early. But I try.

So last week I went to a Christmas concert. Actually, I was given the ticket, and went there with a friend, and it wasn't too Christmassy anyway, so I must admit I quite enjoyed it. And although this photo shows practically nothing of the grand building the concert was held in, nor does it really do any of the artists a favour (nor my camera, for that matter) - it proves I was there... (Who else would have taken such a low quality photo?)

Then, come December 1st, the Advent Calendar comes down from the attic. I bought it once, to sew to my hubby, 'cause he really loves Christmas. Ι got as far as the two beams on the left, then I left it for a few years... Finally I more or less pushed it on my dad's wife, and she finished it in time for last Christmas. And now it's back up. With presents. For all the kids. But not for all days... We tried the one kid a day-trick, but the other 4 objected vehemently. So now it's the 5 kids every 3rd day or so-approach, which is a lot smoother... Still leaves us with around 80 parcels of "something small and inexpensive" that we have to think of, buy and wrap BEFORE Christmas (AND there is Jakob's birthday coming up), but hey, Christmas is only two months or so every year...

Today my dad & his wife came over for the traditional Christmas baking with the kids. Earlier, Jakob and I have been at their house to make Christmas cookies, but now the quads are old enough to join in, and their place is too small for all of us, so we moved the activities here. As you can see below, we made quite a few gingerbread men. And women. And lions, giraffes, hearts, moons, elephants, angels and whatnots... And way too many of them are decorated with way too much Smarties on them. Too many because we really prefer eating those without... But it's fun decorating, right?

And apart from the unavoidable conversation (eh, monologue) "you really should raise your kids like this, as opposed to the way you're doing it" followed by my traditional 15 minutes locked away in a room wiping my eyes, it all went rather well, I thought...

At least Filip, as he was pulling on his pyjamas, concluded: this was the most fun day ever!

As long as the kids are happy...