Monday, January 31, 2011

Friend Makin Monday

It's been a while since I participated in this and have noticed that it has changed hands and is now run by Kenz @ All The Weigh!


A Short Survey

1) What is your favorite household chore? And what is your least favorite?
My favourite chore is hoovering... I don'd mind hoovering at all.  I hate cleaning the bathroom (or changing the beds)... those are my least favourites.

2)What is your favorite city?
My favourite city.... I don't really have a favourite city, but I guess I'd say Dublin.... where we are living at the moment.  It's so pretty here and there are tons of nice places to go and eat.... or just sit and watch the world go by.

3) Have you found real love yet?
Definitely.  I'll have been with my husband 7 years in May (married for 4 of those years).  He is awesome.

4) What's one thing you eat almost everyday?
Crisps.  

5) What was your last thought before falling asleep last night?
I was hoping that Ollie wouldn't wake at 5am!!


6) What's the worst injury you had as a child?
I broke my leg when I was 3.  I fell off the 2nd last stair after walking down the stairs so carefully.


7) Will you/have you worked out today?
Not really workout.... but will probably go for a walk with the pram.


8) Do you tweet? If so, what's your name?
I have a username but I never use it... I never got into it!


9) List three things you wouldn't want to live without:
My family, My iPhone and my friends.


10) Hold old were you when you had your first kiss?
I was 12 and a boy called Neil kissed me on the cheek on the last day of school!  I'd had a crush on him for the whole year so was happy but embarrassed.

To join in Friend Makin Monday stop by All The Weigh

Photographer in the making...

My dad bought a Fisher Price kid's camera for Ollie for Christmas.  He really likes it!!  The resolution isn't the best, but for a kid's camera, it's fab!  It's also drop proof and waterproof etc.  Here are some of Ollie's shots so far!  It took him a little while to discover that after he pressed the button, he had to hold the camera still until the click noise, so his first pictures are quite blurry.  He soon got the hang of it!

Grandpa!

Trains balancing on bus

Trains in a line
Firefighter Mickey

A tree in Herbert Park
A duck looking for bread
The duck pond
More ducks

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Who has taken my happy boy and left me with...

The grump of all GRUMPS!

I've asked him if his teeth are sore and he has told me no a few times.... but he is dribbling a lot (and he has never been dribbly!)... he pokes his finger in his mouth sometimes... has a small rash on his cheeks.

And he just isn't in good form at all!

James took him to the duck pond today and he didn't feed the ducks any bread and he didn't want to play on anything in the park.... he has been unsettled going to bed the last few nights and he is having a few potty accidents.

I know he has 16 teeth already.  Are his very very back ones coming up now?  If they are, I hope they come up soon!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday


I'M LOVING... 

Visiting the duck pond with Ollie and listening to him talking to the ducks... 'Here you go ducky' 'Have some dinner' (he means bread hehe)....
Not having to change nappys anymore as everything is being done in the potty.
Playing shop with Ollie.
My hardworking husband.
Getting busy again with blog design and trying a few new things!
Lush Snow Fairy shower gel.
My new haircut which I will post about later!
Snapple.
The weather in Dublin.... it's really nice!  Not too cold, no rain and lovely and bright.

Wordless Wednesday

Feeding the ducks in Herbert Park, Dublin

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The scoop on the poop!

Ollie poops on the potty!  Today was his 6th day of successfully pooping on the potty!  As I thought, he did it himself in his own time without me asking him.  One day he just plucked up the courage and told me he needed to poo in his potty so we ran and got it.  It took him a little while, but he kept telling me the poop was coming, so I left him to it.  He has pooped every morning since, apart from just one!

As far as accidents go.... he has been training for 2 weeks now and has only had one day with accidents in the last 10 days!  ONE day with accidents!  I don't think that's bad at all!  I'm very proud of him and there is something to be said for just waiting until they are ready.  It is as if something just clicks.

He is completely dry nap times and is ALMOST dry overnight.   That's the next thing to work on.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday!


I'M LOVING... 

Baby Powder scented Yankee Candles,
Ollie copying EVERYTHING I say... only it sounds WAY cute when he says it,
How well my boy is doing with potty training... 5 days in a row with no accidents!
My tidy house!
My wonderful hubby,
My new blog design, 
Cherry Coke flavour Lip Smackers (which by the way you cannot buy here in Ireland!),
Electric blankets,
Being excited about my spa day tomorrow (Christmas present from my mum),
Jumper dresses and boots,
The way Ollie says "Hey duuuudes".

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Some not so good news...

I mentioned in my post on 2nd January that I had a surprise to share with you all.  Unfortunately I never got the chance to.

James and I found out we were pregnant on Tuesday 28th December with an estimated due date of 7th September 2011.  The test I took had a very definite positive result and James and I were very excited.  It took us 14 months to get pregnant.  I felt so positive about the pregnancy... I thought I would be so scared!  I swore to myself that I wouldn't say "if it all goes ok" at the end of any sentence to do with the pregnancy or the baby.

I was having strong symptoms.  My boobs were so sore... I had stretching pains... was peeing all the time...so tired... nausea at different times of the day.

On 3rd January I woke up and noticed my boobs weren't quite so sore and while out doing the groceries, I noticed my nausea was not making itself known.  I bought some more tests.

I made sure to get a strong sample of urine to test but after the 3 minutes there was no line on the test.  7 days after finding out I was pregnant, the line should have been SO much darker than my first test.  But there was no line there at all.

I tried to figure it all out.... why was this happening?  Why would a line disappear and why would it disappear that fast?

That night I started cramping and after some research online I found out I was having a chemical pregnancy.  Basically this means that I could get a positive test and a few days later a negative one.  This is because I could have become pregnant but the pregnancy only lasted a couple of days before it failed and hormone started to dwindle... I got a faint positive because the hormone was still there and I thought it was a BFP, but a week later it had dwindled enough to be a negative.

I started bleeding on 4th January.  I thought with it being so early it would not be as bad as last time.... but the pain was the same and the bleeding was worse.  The miscarriage itself happened on 6th January.

I'm feeling ok.  I'm upset, but ok.  I keep telling myself that I'm lucky it happened when it did and not further down the line.  I'm also lucky the miscarriage happened itself, almost instantly..... whereas last time it was a whole week and a half before I lost the baby.

This time was different.  This time I am telling myself that I wasn't REALLY pregnant.  There was a bunch of hormones in my body but it never got further than that.  There was nothing in there.  Nothing would have shown on a scan.  Not like last time.  I think it's easier this way... because there was no little bean this time.  I was not far enough along.

It's crap that I now refer to the first miscarriage and the second miscarriage and it makes me wonder.... will I have anymore?

I've carried a healthy baby to term so I know my body can do it.  I hope there is nothing wrong with me and I hope I can carry another healthy baby some day.

I'm glad I've been potty training Ollie this week.  It has really taken my mind off everything and helped keep me upbeat.  He is my little ray of sunshine and I know this week would have been a lot darker without him there being silly, funny and cute.  We were supposed to be in Belfast this week, just Ollie and I, while James worked away here in Dublin, but I didn't want to be without him and I'm glad I wasn't.  We had an amazing family day today and it made me really appreciate what I have here right now.

Potty Training 1st Week Over!

Not a SINGLE accident today!  Woohooooooo!  He spent the whole day dry including his nap!

He went to the potty/ toilet about 10 times today.  He is definitely going longer in between and having a much larger wee when he does go.  We went out for lunch and then to do groceries and later on we took him to get his hair cut and do a bit of shopping.  It was a lot of trips in the car and out in public and Im so proud of him that he didn't get distracted and have an accident.

The poop is another matter though.  As I mentioned before he really doesn't want to go in the potty/ toilet.... so I have ignored it.... if he wants to go in his nappy/ pants I let him.  He is obviously not ready to poop on the potty yet and it's up to him when he feels ready to do it..... today there was an improvement.  He told me he needed to poop and could he sit on the toilet.... nothing came of it in the end.... he later got his pull-ups on again and pooped in them, but I thought it was a step in the right direction with trying out the toilet for a little bit.  I praised him on the effort.  I don't count the poop in the pull-up as an accident.... he just isn't ready to poop on the toilet yet... but I know it will come soon.  He is maybe trying to concentrate on one thing at a time and on the wee side of things he is doing amazingly!

Will see how it goes tomorrow and see if we can keep up the no accident streak and see how pooping goes!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Potty Training Update!

When I last posted we were only on day 2 so here are the stats the last few days:

Day 3 went quite well:

Accidents - 4
Wees in potty/ toilet - 14
Poos in potty/ toilet - 0

It seems to me that when he has an accident, he seems to lose all concentration and has a few in a short space of time.  3 out of the 4 on day 3 were within 30 minutes.  The 4th was not until the evening time.  I am not sure why this is!

Day 4 was a bit useless:

Accidents - Unsure as was in a nappy at some points
Wees in potty/ toilet - 6
Poos in potty/ toilet - 0 (he pooped in his pants again)

On Friday morning Ollie had to go to the Dr. about his arm (Ollie and James were playing and whatever way James lifted him up, he got pulled elbow!), the Dr. suggested we go to hospital as he couldn't be sure if it was fractured or not... I knew the wait at the hospital would be long and he would need to sleep, so I put a nappy on him.  He didn't have a single accident the whole time he was at the Dr. surgery though which is fab!

After he got his pulled elbow (shifted back into place by a paediatrician! youch) sorted, we had to pack up and drive the 2 1/2 hour drive down here to Dublin.

Today - Day 5 has gone really well!

Accidents - 4
Wees in potty/ toilet - 9
Poos in potty/ toilet - 0 (pooped his pants AGAIN)

He is starting to have longer periods between wees and leaves about an hour and a half between them which is good.  Today we went out to lunch successfully.  I asked him as soon as he was finished would he like a wee and he said yes and so off we went.  He was dry the whole time and dry still when we got home.  I also took him out later to the park for an hour.  Again, no accidents.... even though he was playing and distracted!

I'm hoping for even better things tomorrow.  See if we can bring the number of accidents down a little.

I'm unsure what to do about his pooping.  He just doesn't want to poop in the potty or the toilet and I am not sure why.  I am also unsure of what to do about it, but I can't leave the house in the morning if he hasn't pooped, because I know he will need to go and will go in his pants.  I have to wait until he has gone before we can go out!  I have tried bribery.... I have tried giving him toys and books while he is in there.... I have read to him while he is there.... I even tried giving him juice to drink.... and the last thing I tried was videos of kids pooping on youtube (yep people really do put them up there!).  The pooping videos got his interest up a little more and he sat on the potty for a while at least.... but he still pooped about 15 minutes after he got up.

Yuck!

Oh! And the proudest thing.... when he woke from his nap today (he sleeps in a pair of pullups) he was COMPLETELY dry.  That was a whole 2 hour and 15 minutes nap!

All seems to be going in the right direction apart from the pooping.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Potty Training Day 2!

At the end of day 2 the results stand as follows:

Accidents: 4
Wees in potty/ toilet: 15
Poops in potty/ toilet: 0 (he pooped in his pants this morning which was yucky!)

The 4 accidents he had today were all before 9.30am!  He was either tired or distracted as I admit to not paying enough attention this morning.  After the few accidents this morning though, there wasn't a single other one the whole rest of the day!  He even had 2 trips out in the car in his underwear (and trousers obviously....).  When he woke up from his nap today his nappy was almost totally dry... so I'm taking that as a good sign too.

He is doing so well.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be an even bigger improvement on today.  I got him a little reward chart today with little silver stars, which he seems to like so far!  He is proud of himself when someone sees how many stars he has and congratulates him!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Ollie is crazy fun these days!

Since Christmas ended.... it is as if his terrible twos ended also!  He has turned into an excited, upbeat and absolutely adorable 2 1/2 year old. Incredibly cute.

He says things like "hey dudes"... and tries to make shapes with his hands... including heart and rhombus!  He is so funny and so cuddly... it's as if the terrible twos never existed.

His speech has come along amazingly!  He can hold a full conversation... and he repeats a lot of what James and I say.  We have to watch our swearing!  It is so funny hearing him come off with some of James and my phrases.

This morning we attempted potty training again.  Round 2!  We had briefly tried it in the summer soon after Ollie turned 2 but he wasn't ready then.  This morning I convinced him to poop on the potty instead of in his nappy and he did!  It took a while for him to have the confidence to.... erm... relax and let it happen.... but I read him Once Upon A Potty and showed him the picture of the boy doing a poop on his potty.... and then Ollie did it :)  He was so proud of himself.  He watched as I poured it into the toilet and he waved bye bye as we flushed it away!

I reminded him every so often that the potty was sitting to the side of the room.  Occasionally he would go because I reminded him and sometimes he went of his own accord, which I am so impressed by as it's only day 1!

As we needed to go out and get some potty training supplies (wanted a new potty and a travel potty)... I put him in his Pull-Ups.  When we got to the food court of the shopping centre, I took him to the loo.... his nappy was completely dry and he said he didnt need a wee.  So we ate lunch.  After lunch I took him again and he did a wee on the toilet this time.... nappy still totally dry.  He stayed dry right the way around the shops and until we got home.  He held it in the entire time.

The score at the end of day one stood as follows:
Accidents - 2 1/2
Wees in the potty/ toilet - 15
Poops in the potty/ toilet - 1

Here's hoping tomorrow goes just as well!

Not bad at all!  I reckon that's a true sign he is ready this time!

Christmas Day 2010!

We had an awesome Christmas day!  Each year gets more and more exciting the older that Ollie gets!  He is so much more aware of everything!  When he awoke in the morning he was a little upset as his cough was giving him a bit of trouble, but when I reminded him that Santa had been and would he like to bring his sack into mummy and daddy’s bed to look and see what was inside, he soon perked up!  My mum got him this super cute personalised sack :)

Santa got him this car mat for only £2.50 in Tesco and it came with 2 cars.  It turned out to be one of his favourite presents hehe!

He was so excited when he found that Santa brought him Spencer, one of the trains in the Thomas Take Along range.  He had been asking for it for months…. and was told Santa would bring it if he was a good boy.  He pulled it out of the sack and shouted “It’s SPENCER!”.

He loved everything in his stocking…. in particular he loved his new JCB digger toothbrush!  The toothbrush sits in a little mini digger with wheels that move!  He plays with the digger bit everytime I brush his teeth now!

He came downstairs to find a Playmobil farm set all set up and ready to play, from mummy and daddy.  The farm set came with LOADS of stuff, but as I was setting it up I put some of the tiny things away in storage…. there was far too many things for his age so I’ve hidden them and will give them back when he is a little older (things like cutlery… tiny doormice etc).  He was very taken with the harvester and the cows drinking in their trough… and he also put the farmers wife straight to work filling the dishwasher inside the farmhouse!

He also got some Thomas Take Along train track, some books, a jigsaw and some clothes.

James got me a gorgeous new bag, lush stuff and a David and Goliath tshirt that has 2 cupcakes holding hands with the slogan ‘Sweet lovin’.

Here he is in his Christmas outfit.

It is tradition to visit James parents on Christmas morning and all his family come over.  Ollie charmed everyone until he got overwhelmed with the busyness and started whining.  He got a gorgeous new outfit from Gap and another new outfit consisting of jeans, a top and a hooded sweater-vest!  He enjoyed the bombay mix that was set out!

When we were finished at James’ parents, we went home to cook our Christmas lunch!  It was supposed to be James’ turn this year but he wasn’t feeling too well, so I cooked in the end.  We had ham (Nigella Lawson recipe Coca-Cola ham!!), turkey (Jamie Oliver recipe hehe), roast potatoes,  sprouts fried with bacon and some stuffing (and gravy!).  James said it was one of the best Christmas dinners he had ever had!

Ollie even ate it all too…. and he is pretty fussy at the moment!

My friend Bex, her hubby George and daughter Ivy came over after we had eaten our dinner, to exchange gifts and share festive cheer!  I only got the above picture of Ivy and Ollie together unfortunately…. but nonetheless it is a happy picture of them dancing together.

My mum, stepdad and brother Jason came up in the evening time to bring presents for all of us.  Ollie was so excited to see them and to discover he was getting MORE presents.  How about a new dressing gown, singing and dancing Mickey and a lights and sounds, moving JCB digger!


Ollie settled to bed ok Christmas night… better than I thought he would!  James and I didn’t last long after my mum and everyone left.  I think we ended up in bed at 10.30pm or something lame like that!  Christmas is more exhausting when you have a kid but a million more times as fun!

Happy Christmas Part 3

A couple of miscellaneous bits… before we get onto Christmas day!


Yay! We got snow!  It was so exciting until it started messing up things like the mail (some of James’ presents didn’t arrive until Christmas Eve!) and travel and making us all ill!  Ollie got a throat and ear infection which led to a bad cough which lasted a couple of weeks.  James had a bad chest infection which he took antibiotics for and I just had a bad cold.  One of the good things about the snow was that we got to go sledging for the first time ever.  We tried to buy a sledge but because we rarely get snow here and when we do (especially on this sort of scale!) it causes so much excitement, EVERY shop that sold sledges was sold out.

I got it on ebay in the end…. but until then we made do with a normal dinner tray and a padded changing mat!  Ollie loved it!  I wasn’t sure if he would or not… but he asked to go again and again.  I even had a go, though I was wearing leggings and used the dinner tray which scooped the snow up and made my bum freezing cold/ wet!

After our sledging adventure we came home to hot chocolate and marshmallows with cinnamon on top, courtesy of James (who made it) and my dad (who wrapped it all up beforehand as a family present, but we opened it early hehe).

The new sledge arrived a few days later, but unfortunately Ollie was not well enough to go out again in the snow and by the time he was the snow had melted!!!!

We always spend Christmas Eve with my side of the family, so we normally go for dinner with my brothers, stepdad and my mum.  This year we went to a place called Carlitos and it was amazing.  Ollie, who is the pickiest eater at the moment, even enjoyed his bolognese!  I had an amazing seafood platter… new potatoes, salmon fillet, seabass fillet, calamari rings, mussels and prawns!  Delightful!


When we got home we got a tray ready for Santa.  We asked Ollie if he would like to give Santa a beer or milk or juice and he replied ‘water!’.  He chose everything on the tray himself!  Lucky Santa!


After he was all tucked up in bed I got his Santa stocking and presents all ready.  Here is what Santa brought for him!  There was some Thomas the Tank shower gel, a JCB digger toothbrush….a car mat with some cars, chocolate coins, Smarties, crayons, glitter glue, 2 Thomas the Tank Take Along trains, A Thomas watch with interchangeable faces and Charlie and Lola dominoes!


Next up: Christmas day!

Happy Christmas Part 2

 

The Christmas Elf who came to stay!

I had forgotten about this tradition having read about it more than a year ago…. but as soon as I remembered, I ordered the cutest little bush baby elf and waited very patiently for it to arrive.  Our mail was messed up here because of the very unexpected snow, so it tooks ages to arrive!

SAY HELLO TO TUMBLEFLUMP GLITTERPANTS!

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I wrapped an old Amazon box in brown paper…. put in some fluff (snow!), a little pillow I made out of red felt, a little green blanket I made out of felt also, a reindeer chocolate lolly, baubles, a few more chocolate bars, chocolate and marshmallow top hats and a card from each Tumbleflump and Santa!  Ollie was napping as I prepared this so I set it on the front doorstep when it was wake up time, and I knocked the door very loudly.  I then ran upstairs, burst into Ollie’s room and shouted ‘someone’s at the door!!!’.  I had prepared him in advance that someone very special would be visiting us!  He came down the stairs excitedly…I opened the door… and he was speechless!

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I read the letter than Santa sent and the letter from Tumbleflump.  Santa told Ollie that he had to look after Tumbleflump as they were too busy at the North Pole with Christmas Preparations, that they couldn’t look after the little ones and would we mind if he stayed with us.  Santa also told us that Tumbleflump liked to sleep underneath the Christmas Tree!

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The first mischievous thing that Tumbleflump got up to was trying to make breakfast for Ollie.  Oh what a mess!  Spilled cereal everywhere! 

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Tumbleflump didn’t just get up to naughty things though.  Sometimes he did really nice things!  One day Ollie work up to find that Tumbleflump had built up his train track for him.  Tumbleflump was already playing with Thomas!

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One night Ollie was not feeling very well, so in the candle bowl on our dining table, Ollie found Tumbleflump sitting with a get well soon card, a toy fire engine, some chocolate coins and a party blower!

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We came down the next morning to find that Tumbleflump had started a paper chain for us.  This was our first activity of the morning!  We finished the paper chain and hung it above the window in the dining room.

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When we woke one morning, we found that Tumbleflump was reading one of Daddy’s best books (Calvin and Hobbs collection).  Normally Ollie is not allowed to touch these, but Tumbleflump thought it would be nice for Daddy and Ollie to read it together.

Other presents that were left, were a blue train and silver party blower… these were found in the Christmas tree when we came back from sledging!  A jigsaw and bubbles were found one morning while Mummy was having a shower!

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After his streak of niceness and generosity, we found Tumbleflump the morning of Christmas Eve Eve, hanging off the tree with all of Mummy and Daddy’s underwear strewn over it.

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On Christmas Eve, we went for dinner with my mum, stepdad Harry and my brother Jason.  When we returned, we knew that Tumbleflump was ready to say goodbye.  We walked in to find Ollie’s sack all folded up, a little bag of reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn, 3 packages (a new pair of pyjamas each), a letter from Tumbleflump and a couple of Christmas books that he left out for us to read.

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Ollie got changed into his new Christmas pyjamas, had a cuddle with Tumbleflump and then said goodbye.  He put him to bed in his little box under the Christmas tree, ready for Santa to collect him when he came to leave presents!

Ollie seemed to love having the Elf come to stay, but I reckon next year, when he is a bit older, it will be more fun for him.  I will have more time next year to think up fun things and mischief!  I’m not sure when I will have him arrive next year.  Maybe on the 13th and do the 12 days until Christmas?

Happy Christmas Part 1

 

(And the bad blogger award goes to me!  It’s been more than a fortnight since I wrote! I have been so busy with Christmas, New Years and a SURPRISE!).

I am dividing my Christmas posts up, as they are quite photo heavy!

OUR DECORATIONS!

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My mum got this cute advent calendar for Ollie last year and I love it!  You move the Santa from pocket to pocket.  Next year, with more forward planning, I will put a note into each pocket… maybe a chocolate sometimes… but the notes will be from the Christmas Elf that comes to stay!

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I love the Christmas Card holder banner type thing… it reads Merry Christmas and each letter has a clip on the back!  In the end we got 29 Christmas cards this year!  The Merry Christmas blocks are new this year.  Excuse the mostly opened Thomas chocolate calendar behind them, making them look messy!  On this shelf we also have the Christmas Cookie Yankee Candle! Yum!

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Here is our Christmas tree, of which I am very very proud.  My mum helped me decorate it this year as it is something I am not normally very good at.  The joint effort worked and I am so chuffed with how it turned out.  Ollie chose the Santa Claus that sits on the top!

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These are the decorations Ollie and I made together.  I ADORE the one above.  It is his fingerprint in the middle of it and I think we might make one of these every year.  We also made Christmas trees with each of our initials on.

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I love the tree’s skirt.  It makes the floor under the presents look super cute.  Of course, when the floor is FILLED with presents you can’t see it… but it looks festive until then anyway. 

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In the dining room we have a paper chain that Ollie and I made together and the hanging cd snowflakes that he made too.

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On our front door we have this wreath.  I love it.  The ‘Let It Snow’ phrase worked this year as we had a wonderful white Christmas!

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