Our Christmas 2012...

Christmas in Canmore was cosy. Outside it was a cold one. In fact it was the coldest day of the season so far. The temperature topped out at -30 on Christmas morning, about 14 degrees colder than the coldest it's been here this year, brrrrrr! Needless to say our plans of skating on frozen lakes were abandoned and we stayed cozy and warm in the house all day long. The kids didn't change out of their pj's and Bel's hair was left in it's natural wild and bed-heady state till boxing day.
Our day began at 3.46am, you heard me 3.46AM!! Despite a late night for all of us on Christmas eve celebrating with the neighbours the kids came charging into our room in the wee hours to announce that Santa had been and gone. In our confusion (mostly down to the lack of a bedroom clock) we all arose and tiredly staggered downstairs to begin the present opening chaos. We'd worked our way through two or three presents and half a cup of tea before we realized that it was STILL THE MDDLE OF THE FLIPPIN NIGHT! We had no idea how to proceed considering the kids were totally buzzed with Christmas euphoria. We decided to finish opening presents then told them to pick one toy each to take back to bed with strict instructions not to make another peep of noise until the sun shone through their windows. To my astonishment it worked! We all went back to sleep for three more hours and then woke up for round two of Christmas morning! 

It turns out Santa shops at Ikea too! He bought Bel this lovely play kitchen which means that after two years of collecting play food and kitchen gadgets she finally has a place to keep them all.

We've been debating about buying a play kitchen for so long and had really considered trying to make one but with everything else going on at the moment that never quite happened. I'm actually quite glad we waited until now because Both Bel and Seb are at an age where they will really play make believe games together and they've both been cooking us meals and serving us drinks ever since Christmas morning. On Christmas eve I did manage to whip up a couple of play tea bags from fabric scraps as a little hand made addition to her kitchen. I think they're pretty cute and now I'm planning to sew a couple of aprons and tea towels whenever I get a chance. 

Along the food theme we also received a really cool playdoh candy making machine from my bro and sister in law that seems to be a massive hit with the kids (thank you Uncle Dan and Auntie Monkey!)

Anyway, moving on from the pressies.....
Neil and I put our Sodastream to good use by fizzing up some ok wine to create our own delicious Champagne alternative! We stole the idea from Jamie Oliver who did the same thing on The Jonathan Ross Christmas Special we'd watched the day before. If you're cheap and not at all classy like us ( heck, we don't even own a pair of Champagne flutes!) why not give it a whirl....I promise it really works! :)



Dinner was fantabulous! Definitely not super complicated, just a nice roast chicken with fresh veg, roasted sweet and blue potatoes, yorkshire pud and Neils homemade cranberry sauce. I think it's simplicity was what made it so good :)

We spent the rest of our day skyping family and snuggling under blankies by the fire, oh and scoffing the Christmas Puds sent over from England. Yum!

I hope all your Christmases were just as merry and bright!
xo