Party Day: Annual Miles mayhem Christmas party for cousins and best mates...

Hat making


I cut out some card, gold and silver and the children decorated their own with Christmas and other colourful stickers...


I didn't get a photo of the best one unfortunately, and by the time I got around to taking photos, hats had been left here, there and everywhere.


A good party ice breaker for the start of the party, the kids could put all their shyness into stickers...

One of the most important dates in December: The day we get the Christmas tree out, it means the Christmas period has started in our household and the countdown until the big man arrives has started.


Great excitement in our house and anything goes. As I decorate the room, the boys attend to the tree at least three times we have to take the decors down because we have forgotten the tinsel or we need space for baubles. Deep breaths, it is only once a year!!!!!

Amongst the fine glittering decorations are the most highly treasured decorations, the handmade ones.

Of course the true highlight of the whole experience is the ceremonial turning on the lights, and deciding on the light sequence. Cheers and applause abound, no celebrities required, we have our own little stars.

Our first project of the season is one that we've been doing every year for some time.  My dad (Grandad Leigh) always comes over from France towards the end of November for his annual 'Christmas visit', and over the years a tradition has developed where we exchange a box of edible goodies (French treats for British ones - I think we get the better deal....).  Me and Eilir always decorate a shoebox that will contain the presents, and normally we will get it back again the following year refilled.

This year we decided to cut up all the junk mail Christmas catalogues that have been pouring through the door since October, choosing festive images we liked, and then higgldey-piggledy pasting them onto the box using PVA and water in a crazy decoupage patchwork.  We also shredded junk mail to make protective padding for the inside the box.

Here are some of Eilir's best quotes during the making (which took place over a couple of weeks - what with the drying and everything - we used a lot of glue!):

"I think Grandad Leigh will really like this one"

"...this one's really funny [a finger puppet snowman image]"

"This is my favourite sort of gluing.......Can I get my hands messy?" - silly question really!

"That's awesome isn't it!"

"I'm gooder at cutting circles than you"

"Oi! You glued me!"

"Just a bit more.... [box overflowing with paper shreds]"

"The Moshi Monsters are helping"

"Write 'Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas'"

We decided to make some ‘joulutonttuja’ (Father Christmas’ helpers) which are very important characters of the Finnish Christmas tradition. They are small. They usually wear red jackets and pointy hats. They have long white beards like Father Christmas and they sneak around to find out if children have been good or naughty. Noa drew green googly eyes for one of them and had a little chat with them.

Lola wanted to enter a book review competition at school so she decided to make a 3D model of the main character 'Cosmo' and write the review in a spell book at his feet. We discussed the best way to do this and decided to scrunch up tin foil to make the main shape. Lola did pretty much all of the modelling and I was just on hand for technical advice! The finished structure was covered in tissue then painted with acrylic. It took about 3 separate sessions to complete. Lola was very happy with the finished results, saying it turned out how she imagined it to be and liked doing the activity together.

First stage done, we painted the brown paper white. Both boys sniffling. Lo home from school today. With brushes washed and waiting for paint to dry, I washed bits of paint off of Lo’s locks, accidentally applied by Rohan due to his holding the very long paintbrush at the tippy end.

Okay, so I wanted us to do a Christmas angel, but Lo said he’d rather do an elf, 2 elves! Traced the boys’ body outline, Lo sorted the colour scheme and Rohan had a nap (he has fever today). Lo did very careful painting, drew the faces and in-between Deady 360 episodes, we managed to finish our first contribution.  Rohan didn’t seem too impressed with the final piece initially and admitted that it needed white dots in the background. He had just woken up.

wow it does seem a bit early, but Christingle gatherings would be all about making these decorations, pomanders I think they are called, basically enough cloves stuck in an orange to preserve it through the season. Can it really be true, well we will hang it up and call it an experiment.  We thought those pumpkins would last forever and then one morning a light touch and the whole smiling face just implodes into mush, to our delight actually.  It smells good at the moment, pipe cleaners were easy to wrap round for G , but some of the cloves were pronounced sharp, the ones that had their little bobble off and look like a spiky star, they were all for me to put in, also a fine paintbrush can make you a hole ready so your thumb doesn't have to take so much punishment. G wants to hang it above a doorway, I imagine we may forget about it and then one morning an unsuspecting person will get it on the top of their head. Have faith in the cloves, must discover what they really are......