We were determined to catch more of those moments this time around. Many of you asked how we got the photos, my husband Simon took some and also my girlfriend Alicia who has attended both of the births of the boys took some, my mum also took a few so it was an entire group effort which I love. Everyone got to be in the moment but also snapped a few photos- a great balance.

Now onto today’s post.

As much as I love Christmas and I love decorating I also love packing it all away and doing a spring clean to get ready for the new year. This year was no exception and last weekend we spent our Sunday doing just that- I big pack up and clean.

Mid pack away this is what the chaos in our living room looked like. But happy chaos.

These are the containers we have been using for all of our Christmas decorations for the last few years. They are made by Sterilite and you can get them from Target over the Christmas period this year they had a canvas variation. The bauble ones are great for keeping everything safe and protected for years and years.

Along with the bauble containers we also have the 4 smaller containers with handles for all of our decorations. One container holds the tree decorations – the non ball ones. The other three are all of the rest of our Christmas stuff.

This is what the inside of the large tub looks like-

This stores our stockings, Santa sacks, and the decorations from the dining table display. The display balls and bells etc are stored in these large plastic glad bags from Ikea for easy access next year.

And all of these containers are all stored in our garage wall unit.

And voila all back to “normal” again.

And I freshened up our coffee table while I was there too : ) I changed over the birthday calendar all ready for this year and replaced the Christmas book with mini albums in the basket. So proud to have Oliver’s first 2 scrapbook taking pride of place as well, it has been a long haul to get anything done for him but I am slowly making progress on his albums which I love.

And everything feels right back where it should be now : )

And we were ready, very very early I might add. We were all ready for Santa and the reindeer at oh just after lunch. The fact that Flynn just started to “get” Christmas and santa and Jesus and all that this wonderful time of year entails this year.

And so to our special day.

Baking-

Happy boy, helping mummy is the best : ) We were making chocolate balls here  and yes ok I will admit we ate them ALL, ahem moving right along.

And the end bit, licking the spatula.

Just as a side note we use all of the Tupperware kids kitchen range that you can see here in the photos. We bake a LOT and I have tried lots and lots of other brands and honestly none were up to scratch for regular use. They might work for a small time as a novelty but we all know Tupperware stands the test of time and rough children.

This set is not expensive- the mat and 4 cutters runs at about $20 and it makes a great present as well. Just my two cents.

And the cute shirt is Seed and it wasn’t me who just told you they are currently having a sale which brings these great tees down to $20.

Moving along : )

Carrots in the bag for the reindeer (cute bag- Target not in the Christmas section but at the isle as you leave to pay $6)

And setting up their food and water outside.

I would love to tell you that I am super organised and that I plan these little displays out way in advance. But I don’t. I buy bits and pieces throughout the season and then sort of pull it altogether at the time.

Red metal bucket- Red Dot ($2), Santa key- Big W, Small green jars- Discount store- $2.

And no we didn’t forget about Santa. We are traditionalists and we put out milk and cookies it was great to hear on Facebook how this varies and how different these Santa treats are from home to home.

Then our traditions extend to pyjamas as presents for everyone, ornaments for the boys and a new Christmas story which they all read together : )

Bliss.

This is what Christmas is all about, happiness, family, health and much love.

I urge you to find an organisational system that works for you with your cards and implement this in your home so that you can look over and cherish your friends and families lovely photos in the years to come.

If your loved oves take the time to get photos taken, cards printed and sent them to you the least you can do is find a storage solution to cherish those memories. They are especially great to look back each and every Christmas as the families grow in size.

I saw these little clear A5 size zip through sleeves at my local discount store and knew they would be the perfect size for storing Christmas cards.

I added a sheet of A5 card and a little Merry Christmas tag with the year on and voila- my Christmas card storage.

I pick and choose which cards I keep. The grandparents for example give the children their own individual cards so these are kept, other special people, hand made cards, photo cards and letters.

We have found that all of our cards easily fit in this A5 size sleeve.

And the A5 sleeve, it fits into a medium size white IKEA box- even better. You could fits years and years worth of cards in here and pull them out each Christmas and pop them in a cute basket to look through which is what we plan to do starting next year : )

So there we go Christmas card storage sorted : )

I made mine on Christmas Eve and we enjoyed it for the last week of December : )

I used a white recipe card tin from Spotlight which I decorated with scrapbooking paper and a little Merry Christmas card from the memory card download sheet.

This is a Christmas card memory match game. Great for the little ones and Flynn at 3 really enjoyed it- although I didn’t put out all of the cards when we played.

You need to mount all of the different cards on cardstock using double sided tape or glue and then cut out. I chose to corner round my edges as I thought it looked cute. I only required one sheet of 12×12 white paper for the project which was great.

This is what the back the cards then looks like when you adhere all of the Merry Christmas cards.

I also added out Christmas snap into the box. We can accumulate any other Christmas games in here as the years go on. For longer term storage these are kept in a zip lock bag inside the tin.

Then on the floor of the playroom we played.

Not to underestimate the intelligence of my child but I was quite surprised how well Flynn played this game. He really picked it up straight away and started remembering where all of the cards were – he even followed the rules and let me have my turns LOL (rare).

Fun had by all and I am happy that it is not an idea or project I just set aside for next year. It literally only took me an hour so I urge you to do the same and complete it straight away : ) It feels great- your organised an entire year in advance !!

Would you like the download? Well head on over to the Simple as that blog HERE to get another one of Rebecca’s great free downloads : ) Enjoy. You could also laminate for extra durability which is what I did afterwards.

Before everyone got here I set up all of my food and goodies as a lovely party table to have it all together to photograph.

This was the result, it was very quick and easy to pull together-

Here we have some little muffins cases filled with tiny gingerbread men, chocolate muffins, yummy red drinks for the adults and some Christmas rum balls.

Mars bar cookies, a yummy caramel slice and some green lolly pops for the kids : ) I added our framed Christmas card and the teddy from the front hall table to help complete the child friendly look.

And the party bags-

Once the mums and kids arrived I made it a bit more chid friendly and got rid of all the candy jars and lolly bags etc and just had the food running through the centre of the table so that we could all sit around it.

And the best part of hosting 5 mums and 7 children…. the clean up ; )

It was such a great little party and it was fabulous for the littles to catch up before they start big school next year.

So after a little googling etc for you I found it online (YAY for that). It is cheap, like $10 and I am sure will be much loved. The worst part is that I have seen SO many more little Siku cars and trailers on this site now… oh dear !!

Anyway enough babbling you can find the much sought after cute yellow car and caravan HERE at My  Toyworld.

Happy playing : )

Under our Christmas tree we have some of the presents- at this stage I still had about 20 more to wrap and some cute little Christmas toys from Mamas and Papas- aren’t they sweet : )

And now for a free wrapping idea, a lot of stores at this time of year are giving away great bags and boxes etc when you buy from their store. Gumboots is ones of those and they are giving away these fantastic buckets with every purchase in store- for free : ) I fell in love when I saw them and knew they would be perfect for all those little, weird hard to wrap presents.

I added a cute circle tag- these were in the Christmas food section at Big W and then filled them with some presents for the boys, you also get these great calico bags every time you buy something at Gumboots and Flynn adores them !! He fills them with all sorts of “treasures”.

These were a last minute addition to the Christmas gifts, Flynn is in love with anything with a trailer these will be a huge hit : )

I love how it all turned out. I added bits and pieces over few days and even took photos but then added more so I had to do a re shoot. Now it is complete I am going to share it today with you and hope you might get your own ideas : )

A closer look -

Some stocklists for your shopping trips; )

Long white shelf- IKEA (where else)

Tea light candelabra – I was given this at a girlfriends wedding, it was their centrepiece. Isn’t it pretty : )

Beautiful Pearly frame- Bead, bath and table (yes I live in that store) and that photo? It is Flynn as a baby, you can certainly see the similarity between brothers in this one !!

Santa- Myer

Framed Artwork- FREE!! Yay I love free especially around Christmas time and so I was thrilled when I saw this great download on the Simple as that blog HERE. This is one of my current favourite to read blogs, Rebecca is a scrapbooker and she has SO many great, free and best of all simple and effective Christmas ideas. She is my kind of girl. My philosophy has always been that it doesn’t have to take hours and hours to look great.

Anyway Rebecca posted this great Christmas tree artwork in her post HERE, gorgeous hey !! And three colours to choose from… even better. This should be able to cover a lot of your colour themes this year.

So I downloaded and printed mine in green (just on our inkjet at home) and them slipped it into a frame I bought for a bargain $12 from Big W. This was only a recent purchase just last week so you should still be able to get them. I love how it finishes off the shelf display.

Joy blocks- Bed bath and table

Red candle in jar- Spotlight

Star and angel- Bed bath and table

White candle holder- Ikea (I would have loved a large bauble this but I keep forgetting to pick one up)

The gorgeous wooden string with little santas hanging underneath is also from Bed bath and table : )

Cute or what?

The idea first started when I was thinking up small gift ideas for our party that we could personalize. Play dough is always a great practical one so I was thrilled to find these little tubs at the $2 shop over the weekend.

You could use these labels for lots of things, tags for gifts, water bottles holder etc. To get your own free copy of the download you need to visit Bianca at A little Delightful and request the download via email using “Christmas Cheer” in the title. Visit her lovely blog and see her email address below. I am so excited that Bianca will be soon opening her very own Etsy store- YAY  for that.

One more thing to add re Christmas ideas and printables etc. I encourage you if you see decorations on sale, craft ideas on blogs etc to do them NOW. Even though Christmas is only a week away they will be a great surprise for next year as you will have forgotten about them  by then. I find if I do this it also means less work for next year- love that ; ) It is not unusual for me to still be printing subway art etc a few days before Christmas as it will be ready there for next year.

Bianca’s email- a.little.delightful.blog@gmail.com

Please make sure to leave a lovely thank you comment on Bianca’s blog in the comments- she was so sweet to create this for us : )

Some yummy chocolate chip muffins with a sweet Christmas twist -

And the recipe-

Ingredients-

• 60g butter
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (200g)  Dark Choc Bits

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a medium muffin tray (12 sections) with paper cases. Melt butter in a small saucepan or heat-proof bowl in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
3. Using a whisk, lightly beat milk, eggs and butter in a jug. Add to dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix ingredients until just combined. Stir in choc bits. Don’t beat the mixture or the muffins will be tough.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top when lightly touched (get an adult to help with this). Leave in the tray for 3 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

   And this cheeky monkey ate plenty of muffins : )

Now here comes the part when we decided to hand deliver some muffins and our Christmas cards to our close friends here in our lovely suburb. Oliver wouldn’t sleep- cheeky one and was SUPER cranky. I decided a nice long drive with some baby Mozart might just do the trick.

With a drive through coffee in hand and lots of snacks for Flynn we set about running as many errands as we possibly could whilst staying in the car and feeling thankful that Oliver slept for some of the trip.

I kept the packaging of these ones super simple using a glassine bag and a cute angel tag from Big W easy.

We put them all together in our new little bucket tote from Pottery Barn (more on parcel forwarding soon) and went about knocking on doors. Flynn LOVED doing this and I am going to make the effort to do this every year now as he thought it was fab !! I wanted to last year but my sick pregnant self was having none of it.

So glad we made the effort this year, it was a fun activity as unplanned as it was. The funniest thing was Flynn wanted to stay at every friends house we stopped at.