December Diary

Dear Diary,

Hold on to your hats because its December 16th and there is a whole lot of birthday cake and tinsel to fit in before 2012. Let the chaos of the holidays begin!! A grand total of 15 days to fill with festivities, chased down with a goodbye to 2011 with a glass of champagne and 12:30am bedtime.

First full day home with Geoff was overflowing of birthday fun for our now three year old daughter Hannah. Time has run away from us, with her growing every minute of every day. Three years old today, twenty years old tomorrow.

 Started the day with cake batter pancakes with sprinkles..

And capped the day with gifts..

And a birthday cake made by Dad..

The next few days was all about the spirit of Christmas. I met Geoff halfway in terms of the decorating..but wanted to save the best parts for his homecoming. Plus, me attempting to put up the tree and stringing lights on the house with only the help of a three year old??! I think I would still be at those in a week! At least this is only blogging about it, so late doesn't exist.

We set up our fake (but loved) Christmas tree and made it sparkle and shine. Decorated the branches down memory lane with ornaments we have collected through the years.

 

And introduced a new box of shatter resistant ornaments to the tree - to make it a bit more Hannah and dog tail friendly.

Geoff got to work a few days later, stringing lights in the warmer than usual temperatures with no snow or ice to challenge his task.

Snuck in some time to sit by the fire on the colder days..

And we did take some time out of our busy schedule to do some last minute Christmas shopping and do our yearly photo opt with Mr. Clause himself. Hannah was still not sure about the man in red, but this year was an improvement from last years fears of the jolly fat guy!

But that didn't stop her from decorating some cookies for him.

Christmas Eve tradition displayed proudly on our kitchen table at bedtime.

Christmas morning included a sleep in and skype dates...and a living room that looked like this!

And a little girl who looked like this..

and this...

To finish off December, I kissed my 20s into the wind and brought on the 30s with wonderment and spent new years at home with family and glass of champagne.