Christmas Catch Up

Today's blog update is a little Christmas catch up of various events from the last week or so. We are now two sleeps away from our journey to the Arctic Circle to see Santa, so I thought it best to get the blog all up to date as I am sure I will get loads of new stories and material to post from Lapland.

 

Last Friday was the "Light up Wickford" event down the High Street. We took the boys down to watch the Xmas lights being switched on and ended up spending about 3 hours down there. There was loads of fairground rides, stalls, messy play craft events, free Domino's pizza, live bands and choirs etc.etc.

 

We saw this rather pretty reindeer who was pulling Santa's sleigh, We did get to see Santa and as usual Brandon shied away and would not talk to him. Joshua was a bit more open and had pleasure in telling Santa that we was going to see him in his home next week. Santa responded by saying, "Oh good, I will make sure I look out for you".

 

Rudolph at the "Light up Wickford" event.

Santa doing the rounds and seeing all the children.

The High Street Christmas Tree lights were switched on.

Probably one of the coolest things was the messy play which had been organised on the Library. The kids got to make something like a bauble, or a Christmas spoon character, or a door hanger etc. Both boys decided to make a bauble to put on a Christmas tree and unfortunately for me they smothered them in glitter! As the evening was soooo cold the Library was also offering a nice warming hot chocolate with biscuits and mince pies, all for a small donation towards St Lukes. Perfect.

 

One other thing they had in the Library was a container of this white replica snow with some toy dinosaurs for the kids to play in. This fake snow was amazing stuff. Its didn't melt, it felt cold to touch, and it was so soft a delicate to handle. God knows what it was called but I enjoyed have a play as much as the kiddies.

Joshua smothering his sleeping dinosaur with fake snow.

Brandon absolutely loved playing in the fake snow whilst Joshua made his bauble.

Today Joshua finished his final performance of his school Christmas play and did very well. The show lasted about an hour and involved 135 kids!!!! During one of his performances earlier in the week I stayed at home to look after Brandon and we decided to crack on with his letter to Santa. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this and his letter is all ready to hand carry to Santa's real post office in Lapland this weekend. Top of his Christmas list this year was an IPAD!!!! For a 3 year old!!! Thank goodness for VTECH and kiddie versions is all I can say. 

Brandon concerntrating hard on his letter to Santa.

Preparing the envelope with some festive stickers.

Almost finished. He saved one penguin sticker for his Auntie Nicky as hew knows she likes penguins.

To keep the boys entertained tonight we dusted off the over sized Christmas train set which I bought a few years back. This is always good fun as I get the boys to make various different tunnels for the train to go under using their body. 

We started with basic tunnels arching your body over the track using both hands and both feet.

Joshua having fun. We always turn off the lights in the lounge so that the train lights glow brightly.

Choo, choo............

Joshua getting very imaginative and making a plank bridge with his feet up on the sofa.

The weather this week has been perfect pre-conditioning ready for Lapland. I think Wed morning bottomed out at -6 degrees which isn't bad for the UK. Still about 3-4 times warmer than what we can expect in Lapland next week. I am a little worried about Brandon as he does not do cold!! He was even crying going to school this morning saying his hands and feet were cold. So god knows what he will be like when we are doing 20 miles an hour on a snow mobile in -25 degree weather!

 

One final picture for today is not of a Christmas tree, but instead my pride and joy monkey puzzle tree, Just check out this stunning picture of my tree all iced over with the cob webs crystallised with ice. I think my tree is begging for a set of outdoor lights to decorate it for the festive season.