A bit better late than never, but at long last the advent calendar has gone up (Jessica loves moving the mouse along to the next pocket as part of her bedroom routine), and the Christmas tree too stands tall (…ish – it’s a pretty tiny tree).

getting ready for christmas 2014 - 03 - advent calendar

This year I let Jessica decorate the tree which she was immensely excited about, though she had to do it from the safety of the tub chair because of course Emily was more than just a little curious as to what was going on. (Needless to say, once Jessica was down for the night, some quick rearranging meant that the tree could now stand straight, the balls and tinsel a little more uniformly spread!)

getting ready for christmas 2014 - 01 - jessica lotter

Jessica is now of the age where she enjoys receiving and tearing open presents, meaning that I’m quite looking forward to the evening of the 24th, when the Lötter family traditionally opens the presents. As it is, my folks will be joining us and it should be a fun evening, especially with the whole feed Santa, look for him out back, return to find presents under the tree routine I have worked out for Jess! (Plus, the loads of My Little Pony toys that Chantelle and I got her should help as well)

(For the record, last year the presents reveal plan backfired a little when Jess broke down in tears after discovering that Santa Claus had drunk all the cooldrink and eaten the biscuits off her plate that she had put down at the back of the house for him. The concept of sharing/giving hadn’t quite taken hold with her yet!)

Anyway, as for Christmas lunch, this year we’ll unfortunately skip Christmas lunch with my sister and the rest of my family in favour of spending lunch with the Montgomery clan, which will include Gail and Peter Holmes on the guest list – in other words it should be a blast! I’m already licking my lips at the thought of all the foods that will be on the table, not to mention the dessert that Chantelle will be whipping up!

So yeah, Christmas 2014 is now almost in full swing! :)

getting ready for christmas 2014 - 02 - jessica decorating the tree