December Diary #1

So a quick wrap up of December in the McGregor household before its all gone and we hit 2014!

 Henry with his toy he chose to buy from Target, and then leave it there to be donated to someone who doesn't have any money to buy their little boy a Xmas present.  This is the first year we have done this.  I wasn't sure how he would cope with the idea, but he was awesome.  No requests at all for us to keep the toy or buy another one for him.  Very proud of him indeed!

 In the clothes he chose to wear out to the OPSM Christmas dinner. Mum made the waistcoat and bow tie for Thomas when he was the narrator for his preprimary Christmas concert, 5 years ago.  I love that it is being worn again!

 Finally happy to have a shower.  He has yelled and screamed and protested about showers (and baths) for a LONG time now, but thankfully he thinks showers are pretty cool now - phew!

 This year the boys each have an advent calendar that has an activity to do each day (as well as their lolly and lego calendars too!).  Today's activity was to have dinner by candlelight.  I have amassed so many Christmas candles lately that it was quite a bright dinner actually.

 Graduating from kindy!  How fast this year went by.  He has learnt so much about school and himself and changed so much too.  He is much more confident now and has quite a smart little brain in there, if only his fine motor skills would catch up so he can write all those cool ideas down.

 Thomas at his 3-6 Presentation Night.  The Year 5 performance was singing Silent Night and another song too, in French.  It was so beautiful and rather haunting too.  Thomas achieved silver in the Round Square Ideals this year, so was presented with his certificate that night.

 Henry at the K-2 Presentation Afternoon - such a beautiful angel!!  And he did a great job with the couple of songs that the kindy kids joined in with.

 Jamie at Secondary Speech Night, looking super handsome and grown up.  He received the Year 7 Maths Prize, so was pretty impressed with himself.  Year 7 has been amazing for him.  He has matured a lot and is amazingly independent, but has also achieved huge things too, including 100% in his end of year Maths exam!  We are very proud.

 Then he went on to compete in his first (and probably last, according to him) kids triathlon. Thomas was supposed to compete too but had an awful chest infection.  Jamie struggled with the swim, but was all smiles on the bike and run (walk!) leg.  Here he is after, with his medal.

 Annual gingerbread house creation.  We had a problem with a very saggy roof this year, so had to prop it up with a glass inside. Not my best effort but it still tasted good!

 Visiting Santa at the local shops.  Glad I took this photo in the end, as I was in Albany for the tennis club Christmas party and missed getting a shot of them with Santa there.

 And this is why I went to Albany.  My Nan and Grandad celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  Here they are with Uncle Alan and their letter from the Queen.  Wouldn't it be cool to get one of those!

 Me, with Nan and Grandad ... and what's that on my knee, well we took the kids and Veronica to Adventure World when school finished.  Within an hour of being there I badly locked and twisted my knee coming off one of the water slides.  It has been extremely painful ever since.  It doesn't like bending, turning, squatting, kneeling, weight bearing .. basically everything that a knee should do!  I have since had X-rays and MRI, which seem to suggest that the injury at Adventure World didn't actually damage my knee, it merely worsened some kind of chronic degenerative condition in my knee joint!  So off to the orthopaedic surgeon I go!!!

 Henry being very brave at Adventure World.  This time around he was much happier playing in all the water jets and fountains.  Must be all those showers!

And more button ornaments for our Christmas tree.  I have plans to make a lot more of these next year, for Christmas gifts.  It should take a heap less time than the boxes I made this year, and the kids will be able to be involved with this too!
Enjoy.
Amanda