Ambersattic: It was the night before, the night before Christmas....

This pregnancy and birth have made me feel so creative this time. The only trouble being of course I just don't have the time (or energy sometimes) to do anything! Five weeks in on a good night I can get two and a half hours sleep in between feeds and of course nappy changes! Still not one to moan, it's not forever and at least I'm managing to write a blog which helps keep me sane! Even if it's taking me at least a week to load photos and finish writing this! And I'm not the only one, as a mum today in Waterstones cafe said she had the same thing with her daughter. She happened to be on the next table to the four of us, I had got Tallulah out for a sleepy feed and Sebas was doing his usual - wanting to go and play up and down the stairs so Mark could barely get sips of his coffee poor thing. We normally go when he's at nursery, it's just so much easier!
It's interesting how when you have a new born complete strangers stop and coo and chat in all circumstances from Tesco's to Doctor's Surgeries, Cafes, Art Galleries and just about anywhere! People's reactions to a baby girl are different too, people are a lot softer when it comes to girls, men almost go to jelly when they see her! It must bring out a protective paternal gene in people. Different to a boy, although I remember when Sebs was really really tiny, like 2 weeks old tiny, and we stopped off at John Lewis for a coffee, feed change etc, on our way back from Gobowen, and in the cafe queue, a woman really sweetly congratulated me, saying "you clever thing", which was so lovely coming from a complete stranger. You don't realise how amazing and clever as a mother you are to have grown this perfect little being inside you for 9 months or so, but it is to be celebrated. With everyone who I know who has a baby I always make a point of congratulating the mother and make her feel just as special, solidarity I guess to the sisterhood, as without womankind where would we be?!
We have had near life stories from one lady on her way into Tesco's just before Christmas who stopped to admire Talu and told us all about her daughter. She was really interesting though and spoke words of wisdom in that her daughter was grown up and married but had chosen not to have children so sadly this lady would not be a grandparent. However she was saying how being active and into sports and activities had given her daughter such a full and enriched upbringing, there had been absolutely no interest of drugs or alcohol due to the friends and activities she did. What she was trying to say was it's all about getting in with the right crowd I suppose and that's all you want for your childen. Anyway we have years before we have to worry about things like that. Now we have a daughter I wonder how 'girly' she will be ( I was quite a tomboy as a child) and when I first went to secondary school some of my class mates were scarily boy mad the age of 12,13, I had barely finished playing with my Sindy dolls! I was big into music, when I was 12 it was Howard Jones, 13 - Aha, luckily the older I got the cooler (I think) it got - The The, The Smiths, The Cure etc! We will have to put up with One Direction I guess now we have a girl, or the equivalent, in a few years when she starts getting into all that, I've warned Mark he may have to accompany her to concerts when they're older, or sooner in Emma (his daughter's) case as she is 6, but I have a feeling her mum would probably take her anyway...

Back to the festive period though, we were so excited of course to be in our new house and now with 2 children (or babies as they both are really) we decided to host Christmas at home. Yes, we are mad. But when it came down to it it wasn't too bad.. Mark did a big food shop the day before Christmas eve and then at 7.30am Christmas eve morning, he popped out to get our turkey from Edwards the butchers in Conwy and one of the best butchers in the area.

Christmas cards on the other hand have fallen by the wayside, but under the circumstances it's the one year I hope we can be forgiven for not sending them. The power of social media can be a very handy tool in situations like this, I plan to put up a notice and a festive photo and wish one and all a Merry christmas as a sort of virtual Christmas card from us instead...

One of the lovely stained glass baubles.

So Christmas is looming large now, the big day is just 2 sleeps away! We have a real Christmas tree in our entrance hall by the stairs which I am really excited about it and it looks just lovely in the space. I love the smell of real Christmas trees. We had one every year in the drawing room at Carreg y Groes and I can remember being really young gazing at the fairy lights on the tree the colours reflecting on the baubles and the tinsel thinking how magical it looked.

We treated ourselves to some new decorations and lights for the tree. Wooden and fabric reindeers, glass baubles bought from "The Christmas Shop" in Conwy which is exactly what the shop is, the main body of the shop specialising in Chocolate and the side annex and upstairs dedicated to Christmas decorations open only in the festive period. Also on Conwy high street is the best toy shop "Yesteryears", https://www.yesteryearstoyshop.co.uk the owners are a really warm, friendly, helpful couple who started their business due to their passion for bespoke, quality, handcrafted, traditional toys rather than the plastic fantastic mass produced options. We bought some lovely wooden skittles painted as soldiers for Sebas as part of his Christmas present. Tallulah has got a beautifully crafted and painted wooden Russian Doll, that opens into five different dolls. They both have something they can keep which is also collectable.

Tallulah's five piece Russian doll.

Two of Sebas' painted wooden soldier skittles.

Christmas family portrait 2013!

Our beautiful tree!

Georgina from the toy shop also gave us a useful tip regarding the tree, to water it daily but to use lemonade which will help it to last longer. Like bought cut flowers with their sachets (which are just sugar and water apparantly) they love their sugary carbs to keep them fresh.

Last weekend the run up to Christmas, we had Emma, Mark's daughter over for the day on Sunday. Emma loves making things and drawing and colouring in. Great for me as I have someone to do creative things with and I like thinking up simple activities to keep her and Sebastian as he gets a bit better at concentrating on things, busy. So this time I drew round, very quickly, one of the wooden reindeer decorations so they could become a garland when cut out, so the noses and mouths overlapped and the tails and back legs overlapped too. I showed Emma how to do some snowflake marks in bright crayons that should show up on the black card we used and away she went. They looked lovely, we cut them out and she took them home to her mum. Sebs and I had a go a couple of days before, he had a scribble and a little go with some glitter which got everywhere! But I did manage to cut them out and stick them above the fireplace.

Wooden reindeer with reindeer stencils.

The reindeer garland with snowflakes that Emma did.

Making the garlands reminded me of something I tried with Emma a few weeks ago. When we were little my mum got us into 'dressing dolls'. Using paper, scissors, card and felt tips and colouring pencils I used to spend hours creating wardrobes for my doll. I stumbled across these really brilliant and fun paper doll books by "I love Mel" which are exactly the same thing but all ready to cut out and they are famous characters, namely Kate Moss, Debbie Harry, as well as Lady Gaga and Beyonce. There is also Adele and Kate Middleton! But I really liked the David Bowie one with the stage costumes too! Great as a fun Christmas present. There are also Colouring in books of Cara Delevinge, model of the moment, and Lily Allen's album cover 'Alright Still' certainly for big kids just like me who like to draw/colour in!