The Family Patch

First Family Christmas!

Are you ready for a ton of gorgeous photos from our first Christmas as a family?

Here goes...

We started the day in our pyjamas, and stayed in them the whole day! 

We were all festive in our new red pyjamas. I had scotty dogs and spots on mine, Tim had Homer Simpson on his, and Oscar had a great fleecy number that he received from a very special friend.

Sarah, from BioGirl, sent us some of Henry's clothes from his very first Christmas and so Oscar spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the sweetest outfits from his new friend Henry! Sarah has become a very close friend to me and knowing that she chose to send some of Henry's precious clothes for Oscar when letting go of said clothes is hard means more than I can say. To understand just why it meant so much, have a read of her post here. 

I do so hope that Oscar and Henry will grow to be internet buddies, just like their mamas! So, Henry, here is Oscar in the beautiful sleepsuit you sent for him to wear when Santa came.

It was so exciting that Oscar had to have a nap half way through opening his presents. But we soon got back on track and although slightly bemused by the whole affair (he is only 3 months old after all), he seemed to like this new toys...

a new rattle...

a musical mobile phone...

and several new books!

Oscar actually bought this book for his daddy for Christmas and poor daddy was so overwhelmed that it took him two days to get to the end of it! 

Mummy received some books from daddy too and daddy got one from mummy, so as usual books were a big part of our gift giving. I get the feeling we're going to need to rearrange the bookcases again!

Tim then decided to put the hat I had made for my sister on Oscar...

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. But then he got used to it and decided he looked mighty handsome and he ought to make mummy take as many photos as possible before it was wrapped up and given to Aunty Debbie!

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas Day, our first as a family of three, and it wasn't long before we were heading to bed with dreams of starting again the next day with my parents. I'll post more photos of Boxing Day soon, but here is a sneak preview of how gorgeous my boy looked...

Incidentally, since I am showing you the clothes Henry sent for Oscar I thought I might show you the awesomeness of the sweet boy wearing a dino hat I made for him. I completely forgot to share the photos when Sarah first posted them, but doesn't Henry look so cool? If you're interested in making a similar hat, I used the pattern found here, simplifying it to fit in with my time scale by leaving off the tail and spots, but I think it still looked great!

Ein frohes Weihnachtsfest!

A warm and hearty welcome to you, this lovely Christmas Eve eve! 

That's such a funny saying, isn't it? It reminds me of being a little girl, excited about the fact that tomorrow would be Christmas Eve and Santa would be coming my way. 

This Advent has been a rather strange one and I'm not sure quite why it doesn't feel more like Christmas, after all I have Oscar to keep me busy. But then again I think that is why it doesn't feel more like Christmas as I have never had a Christmas as a parent before!

Tim and I were talking about this just the other day. He didn't enjoy Halloween as much as he usually does and I certainly am not enjoying this Advent as much as I normally do. And we realised it is because all the traditions we have just don't feel right now we are a family of three because they are part of who we used to be and not part of who we want to be for our son.

So it's time to start thinking about new traditions, maybe adapting the ones we already have and bringing in totally new ones too. Things like having new Christmas pyjamas to open on Christmas Eve, making mince pies together as a family, reading 'A Christmas Carol' each year, and buying Oscar a new Christmas decoration each year so he builds up a collection of his very own!

But one of the traditions I am really looking forward to starting is bringing in some more German-inspired joy to the season.

As you may know, I studied German at university and although my German is nowhere near perfect I plan on teaching Oscar as much as I can while he is young. I would rather him learn to speak slightly flawed German than no German at all. I do believe that having knowledge of a second language is a real bonus, not just because it enables you to communicate with people whose language isn't the same as your own but also because it often gives you a greater insight into the way your own language works by giving you something to compare it with.

But more than teaching him the language, I want to teach him about the culture too. And what better time of year is there to celebrate this than Christmas? Starting on 6th December with St. Nicholas' Day by putting his shoes outside the door and hoping to receive some chocolate from St. Nicholas right through to singing German songs and baking German treats, I want December to be full of all the wonderful goodies that the German culture provides.

We are lucky to have connections to people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, providing us with great ideas and gifts such as the three books pictured here.

The first, Weihnachtszeit, is a gloriously fun book filled with stories and info from the North Pole and lots of little pop-out sections to enjoy. There is even a section explaining how Santa finds GPS a fantastic help in finding all the children of the world on Christmas Night!

This is the page on Santa's reindeer. Isn't it just lovely?

Then, of course, there is the little cookbook, Leckere Plätzchen für Weihnachten with tasty treats to make for Christmas. If you have never tasted German baking then you really having no idea what you are missing. I am so glad I spent time in Germany before developing an intolerance to wheat because I would have surely missed the wonderful breads and cakes I ate far too many of while over there. That being said, I plan on trying the recipes within the book with wheat-free flour because how can I resist such recipes as Lebkuchen and Honey Hearts?

This page shows Bear Paws and Pretzels!

Finally, there is the book called "Es Weihnachtet Sehr" which I guess I would loosely translate to something like "It feels like Christmas" because I have no idea how to convey the meaning in any other way (anyone have any suggestions?)

This book is filled with short one-page stories, craft ideas, recipes and Christmas songs. It even comes with a CD of music to sing along to. I think my favourite page has to be, of course, the one which provides a German version of "Jingle Bells"...

I have been showing these books to Oscar and singing the songs to him, but he is rather too small this year to take much of it in. However, he has been enjoying our "Was sagt die Kuh?" (What does the cow say?) game we've been playing, possibly thanks to the animal noises I'm making rather than anything else. I hope that I can continue to make it fun for him to learn a few bits of German through the year and it will be interesting to see how he reacts to figuring out that he hears two different words for each object.

I plan on sharing our journey towards learning a second language, and hope to even create some videos so that you too can join us. Perhaps by next year we'll all be singing these Christmas songs to and with our children, what do you think?

Oscar in 2011 - The First Three Months

I am, like many new mums, a bit obsessed with taking photos and videos of my precious boy. In fact I think Tim was a bit mad to buy me a smart phone for our anniversary because that means it is even easier now for me to snap a shot or grab a video when Oscar is in a good mood or looking particularly gorgeous.

So I had planned on making DVD compilations of the best photos and videos for the grandparents for Christmas and started uploading them to my computer a few days ago. The upload was fine, but formatting them so that my computer recognised them and then getting them onto a DVD that will play in a DVD player has been a bit of a nightmare. I've literally spent hours (when Tim was home to entertain Oscar) trying to get it to work and it still isn't working how it should, you know skipping bits and freezing in other parts.

I'll keep trying, but I thought I'd share the photo slideshow with you all on here because a) you might like to see it too and b) if I don't get the DVDs made in time for Christmas at least the grandparents can watch a part of it on here.

So, without further ado, here are the best bits of Oscar's first three months. Enjoy!

 

Advents Calendars, Then and Now

I had wanted to have anothr Advent series on the blog this year, but realised a couple of days ago that I have far too many other things I want to blog about in the lead up the Christmas. So I shall share some of my favourite Christmas finds with you during December, but I have chosen not to have a proper calendar with posts every single day. 

But as my first post was to be about Advent Calendars I thought I would publish it anyway, so that you can follow one of the many other calendars that have been set up for this year. This is because I absolutely adore the excitement of opening a new window each day and seeing what treat lays inside. This love of Advent Calendars goes right back to my childhood.

I hope that, like me, you grew up with an Advent Calendar or two that was so memorable it makes thinking back so wonderful. For me that included trying to recreate the chimney shaped Advent Calendar we had as children, which contained 24 little blue boxes in which my mum would place a selection of sweets as an alternative to the shop bought chocolate ones. Each morning my sister and I would take it in turns to pull that day's box out of the slot at the bottom of the chimney, eagerly trying to guess what would be inside each one, and counting down the days until Christmas. The chimney I made for Tim a couple of years back is nowhere near as beautiful, but it serves it's purpose and I do love choosing sweets to put in it for him.

My mum has come up trumps with a gorgeous Advent Calendar for Oscar, with a tiny baby sock for each day of the period. I cannot tell you how excited I am that he will use this year after year and enjoy that same excitement of wondering what each day will bring.

But it isn't just those calendars that contain treats which can capture our imaginations. One of my favourite calendars (which I used to hang on the side of my wardrobe each year) was a long, tall one with a castle scene on it. It was a cutesy design with tiny little painted mice dressed in renaissance style clothings dotted throughout the castle. I used to imagine what their little lives were like and try and decide which little mouse's costume I preferred. It wasn't particularly Christmassy, unlike the ones with Santa and his Elves we had in the living room, but it was magical!

Advent Calendars have come on a long way since the first few were produced in Germany, but they are still a joy no matter how the evolve. And so I thought that it might be nice to share some of my favourite online Advent Calendars with you, so that you can click on them throughout the month and enjoy a bit of fun each day until Christmas. 

Enjoy!

Calendars For Kids

The Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives Calendar

Activity Village's Advent Calendar

Cultural Calendars

AboutGerman.Net's Advent Calendar

French Carols Advent Calendar

Religious Calendars

The JAM (Jesus and Me) Trust's Advent Calendar

Beliefnet's Advent Calendar

Unique Calendars

Electric December's Advent Calendar