Nia's 12 Days of Christmas

Nia of Caixinha de Pirlimpimpin has been posting each day with her 12 Days of Christmas.  She asked everyone to comment on each day and make a post of their own.  I have managed to comment on each post but that's it so far!  So here's recap with the Lazy Blogger's Way of simply copying the comments I made on each day.  Hey it's my blog I can do it if I want to hahaha.

Day 1 - Stockings:
Our little stocking tradition is that Santa puts a comic in the top. The children cannot come and wake the parents until they have read their comic.
My parents started this tradition with me and my siblings and I have continued it with my boys.

The boys' stockings.  I did not stitch these, in case you were wondering.  My Mum ordered them from a company in Cornwall.  The small boy's was a special request as they put a limit of 10 letters for a name! 

Day 2 - Wrapping
I wish I did do fancier wrapping but with children it's not really worth it!
I do make sure I use different wrapping paper for each person who is sending the present. My family give me money to buy my boys' presents so I use different paper for each different Auntie. I also make sure Santa's presents come in a totally different paper too!

This was my pile last year:

The fence is an anti-small boy fence to keep him away from the TV, audio system, wood burner, my stitching and the presents!!

Day 3 - Wreaths
I love all the different wreaths, the balls of wool are great.
I have an artificial one which comes out every year. I decorated it myself with red baubles and ribbons many years ago.
MIL comes and cuts our leylandii to use to make a wreath for her late husband and her parents' graves.

This is a wreath:

This is a garland:

Just in case you wondered!!

Day 4 - Calories
Calories! I love them, I'm very slim and need to keep warm in the winter.
We have a traditional English Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day. We pour a tablespoon of brandy over the top of it and set light to it, it burns a beautiful blue flame. Mum usually does the pouring so she gets to lick the spoon! She also chooses the portion of pudding with the most brandy spilled on it!
MIL's speciality is Sherry Trifle and the whole family love it.
We also HAVE to have the following sweets at Christmas - After Eight Mints, Orange and Lemon Jelly Slices, Matchmakers, Turkish Delight (in sugar not chocolate), Chocolate coins and hubby has a giant Tobelerone too.

Just one of the Large Boy's presents.  Is it a biscuit or is it a cake?  He's got 60 chances to decide!

Random Angel to show scale.  I don't usually keep her on the radiator!

Christmas Pudding, Plum Pudding, Figgy Pudding, call it what you will, it's delicious with brandy and custard!

Please excuse the elegant sippy cup in the picture!  The small boy is not allowed the posh crystal yet.

Day 5 - X-Stitch
I don't have many cross-stitched ornaments as I don't enjoy the finishing process. I do have a lovely stitched snowman Shannon sent me this year and some red/gold framed in small hoops from several years ago.
I suppose my Angel Collection is my Christmas ornamenting. I have stitched several of the Mirabilia and L&L freebies over the years and get them all out for Christmas.

Angels, my snowman ornie, our book Advent Calendar, Russian Doll Santa and Madame Muriel:

More Angels:

And some more Angels, plus the top of Frosty Morning:

Day 6 - Tree
We've had a real once since we've had a room big enough. It sits next to the wood burner and gets fed straight into it after Christmas is over!
I love decorating the tree with all the things I've collected over the years, all in red, silver, gold and crystal - very classy!

Day 7 - Snow

I have snowflakes on my blog!  As chosen by my son AKA the large boy.

We have snowstickers on our patio doors.  This time last year we had real snow but so far only a little sleet and some frost.

This is our front garden on 16th December 2010 about 11pm:

Day 8 - Felt

Felt, hmmmm tricky one!

I actually have the free felt baubles in Nia's picture but only stitched half of one.  They provided cheap aida and imitation threads then expected you to do alot of fractional stitches!
There was barely enough thread to stitch one let alone all three as they claimed!
This magazine is on it's Last Chance.  I negotiated them down on the subs DD and will give it to the end of the Emily Peacock alphabet to improve!

Day 9 - Gingerbread
We made a gingerbread house once from a kit.  There must have been some fierce additives in the sweets as my son got totally hyper and was bouncing off the walls!
In answer to Joysze, legs first, then arms, body and head finally!  Her question was - how do you eat your's!!

Day 10 - Cards
We call it "kiss-eltoe" because that's what you do under it!
We haven't actually got any in the house, every time hubby and I try to have a quick kiss there will be a small boy (or two) pushing between us.
And Joysze, there is no chance of a snog at all!!
No pictures of mistletoe, so here are some cards instead.

Some of the cards I sent out this year, all from WOCS:

This is Hannah (Stitching in the City) 's card:

(Isn't the little stocking cute?)  The design is one of my own.

And this is from WOCS too, we changed the colours so it looks more like my son's "pet" guinea-pig.

Day 11 - Snapshots

I love taking photos.  My best Christmas present was a digital camera.  The luxury of being able to check the photo after taking it and retaking it if it's not good enough!

I wait until I have 200 on the camera then print them off because it is cheaper for more than 200!
I love my photo albums too, all labelled with the person's name and the date too.

This is the Small Boy modelling the bootees he got for Christmas when he was minus 6 weeks old! 

Yes, that is a very large baby bump, he was 10lbs at birth so probably weighed 7lbs in this picture!

Day 12 - Santa

Do you say Santa or Father Christmas? Or St. Nicholas? I used to always say Father Christmas but Santa is much easier to type!
We leave him a mince pie and something to drink on the hearth on a special plate you can write a message on. Rudolph gets a carrot too.

A little blurry as it's a close up from a bigger picture, but here is Madame Muriel surrounded by men!  She is looking forward to spending Christmas with us and will update her adventures after a nice sweet sherry.

Thank you to Nia for thinking of all the fun themes for each day, hope you enjoy mine.

Sorry I couldn't find pictures for each day.  Frankly I did well to keep up with the posting.  I have 250 blogs to read now before hubby closes the computer for tomorrow.  eeek!

I promise to update my advent calendar before then.