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.

Back to cakes! My mum is a big Christmas food traditionalist and spends most of November preparing mince pies, Christmas puddings, and Christmas cakes. We were lucky enough to receive one this year, and all we needed to do is decorate it. I wasn't feeling too well today though (running nose, sneezing, sore throat, etc etc), but had promised to do this after work. The greedy vultures had been closing in, but I'd said categorically that no cake was being eaten until the decorating had been done (so extra pressure there).

I cheated a little by buying ready-made coloured icing that looks and behaves a lot like playdough. I also had some writing icing in the cupboard from previous bakings. Eilir had already had the idea that he wanted Father Christmas and a 'carw' (reindeer) to feature. I started with Santa, and then realised that I didn't have any pink 'playdough' icing - so plumped for a 'Simpsons' yellow face instead. Eilir made his carw and I suggested breaking up some bamboo barbecue skewers to reinforce the antlers. I started the snowman, again in yellow, as Eilir commented "Like someone wee'd on it" (boys and their toilet humour....). Eilir then took over, making a scarf, hat, eyes, etc. He again used bits of skewers for the arms, but was a bit concerned that someone might try to eat them. Last came the sleigh covered in presents, this started with each of us making individual presents, then Eilir suggested that he should make the squares and I should decorate them. As we were doing this he mused "We're like a factory, a house factory. We're elves, cake elves". The last parcel was made by Eilir and decorated with silver balls - this was to be HIS present.

We had a bit of help with this one - thanks to Roath Park rangers who organise this event as a fundraiser every year.  Eilir and I went along to Roath Park and had the choice of creating either our own wreath, yule log, or table decoration.  I wanted a log, Eilir wanted a table decoration (I think he fancied the look of the oasis), so we ended up with one of each.  Despite starting on separate projects, it very quickly turned into one shared project.  We collected bits of fern, fir, holly, pine cones etc and started to randomly arrange them around a candle by pushing the bits of plants into the flower arranging oasis.  Eilir was soon finished with this task and wanted me to finish it, as my yule log making (which required attaching the different foliage with metal staples and a hammer) looked much more fun.  I'd try to start it off, getting the staple in place, then Eilir would hammer it fully in.  He soon became expert, complaining if I hadn't set it up properly "You've hammered into the plant, not the wood - I can tell".  His enthusiastic hammering produced some squished holly berries and a lot of smiles.

On the seventh day I suggested to Eilir that I demonstrate the 'ancient art' of potato printing for the purpose of making our own homemade wrapping paper.  This age-old tradition (I explained) is what I used to do in school in the days before mass-produced, ready-shaped, painting sponges.  I think he thought I'd gone mad when I brought out the potatoes and started cutting them in half!  I kicked things off by cutting out a star shape, Eilir then had a go at scoring out a Christmas tree shape and a holly leaf shape.  After letting him loose on the knife for a short while, I then took over the fiddly bits in order to prevent bloodshed.  I made a little berry shape to go with the holly, which Eilir was unsatisfied with, so he produced a double berry design of his own that worked much better.  Eilir was in competitive spirits and wanted to better any design I created, so after I printed a bunched holly design, he printed a wreath shape using the holly spud print and announced "Definitely better - a whole circle".  He also played with different effects - dragging the star spud across the page saying "Look! It's a shooting star!"  Great fun and very messy.  We hung the sheets up to dry, and were able to use them for wrapping presents that we delivered on Sunday - Eilir was very proud.

Eilir is going through an intense drawing phase.  He is constantly scribbling something, but his favourite subject at the moment is 'Moshi Monster' characters.  A number of his best friends are similarly obsessed with these and other characters, so we thought we might make Christmas cards for them that featured their favourite characters in Christmas scenes.  My input in this was minimal, really.  I made the cards themselves - by papering over odd leftover cards from previous years (with Eilir doing the gluing) and prompting Eilir regarding spellings etc.  He started by drawing some 'Pokemon' balls for Joel, and put them in a snow scene.  He then suggested that Eve likes 'Odi' (a Moshi Monster), so again Odi was put in the snow (there's a theme developing....).  Eilir was particularly proud of his stylized snowflakes, which ended up appearing on each card.  For Iago he drew 'Iggy' and told me that he always bounces, so he drew snow being dislodged where he'd 'knocked it out of the way' jumping.  Eilir's greetings inside demonstrated his tendency to code-switch/code-mix at the moment, so some started 'To' but ended 'oddi wrth', others opened 'I' and concluded with 'from'.

We made Christmas stockings out of brown paper. Rohan did the first one, then Logaan and by the third I had to actually ask/beg Lo for help on getting it to look finished. They were quite time-consuming, but fun to fill with bits and bobs!