A Pause In Advent Part 4

This is my last Sunday in Advent post. OK it's Monday for us, but for many of you it is still Sunday. As I've travelled through blogland this week I've noticed how many of you are now living in a different world - it's snowing. Goodness doesn't it change the look of the place! Suddenly it's so perfect and pretty looking.

The girls are horribly jealous of this white stuff as only the two bigger girls have ever been in snow before. And that was just on the side of the road on a long trip down to Wellington. We have some snowy mountains several hours from here and apparently they actually had a sprinkling of snow on them last week! I thought it was summer?!!

Today I want to talk about my favourite part of Christmas. And that is the time it gives all of us. There is no rushing out doors, no lunches to prepare, no timetables, nothing is expected of us, we can finally rest and rejuvenate. It's so good to be able to do this.

We are lucky because hubby also loves holidays and takes about five weeks off work to spend time at home with his family. Of course he doesn't get paid to be at home and February is a pretty lean month, but it's so worth it.

The girls get to spend time with both of us doing fun things. Sometimes separately, sometimes all together. Board games make a come back as do messy crafts. The girls enjoy each other's company more when they spend more time together and keep themselves busy whilst we big people read, do puzzles, or just generally relax.

Occasionally we go out of the house for an outing, but it's rare. This time we will be going away for a week, which is something we haven't done for over three years. We will drive for about eight hours and stop maybe two times. Our girls are brilliant travellers and don't seem to go to the toilet very often! Makes for good driving.

We will visit family and friends while we are away and spend special time with them. The girls will love it and we are desperately hoping we will too. It's always really hard going away with children who have food intolerance's and allergies. And of course I am now gluten free on top of dairy free so going out for a meal is really hard. It really is the biggest reason we don't holiday more often. We do take a big box of food with us, but it's not as easy as staying in our comfort zone - home.

We do love home, and three of our four girls prefer to stay at home than go out. And that's the three who had no idea what they wanted for Christmas! Brilliant!!! Actually No.2 just wanted to spend special time with her parents, on her own, this Christmas. That's a bit hard with three sisters but it seems to be really important for her. We will try very hard to give her that one on one time.

Time these holidays will give me time to teach the girls new things. Maybe they would like to learn how to cook something special (like jam she's hoping!), do some sewing, perhaps learn embroidery. Or maybe they can teach me something.

There will be lots of aunts, uncles and a sweet little cousin here for a few days too, which will be fabulous. Nothing like extra excitement at Christmas!

We don't often get to see our extended family, so it's pretty fun for the girls when there are lots of trips to the airport planned. My parents are doing most of these trips but the girls are all having turns going too. And for the first time in years, my parents are coming to stay with us. And the funny thing is, they just live seven minutes away! It's all about fitting everyone in at different houses and this just seemed to work best. The girls will love it!

I have shown you photos of what I've been up to lately. I made the nighties yesterday. This morning I looked at No.4's one, and it suddenly reminded me of a Pictureka board! She doesn't like it even though she picked the fabric, it's just too new. Not too keen on change. Being mean I made her wear it anyway. Ah... she'll get over it!

I hope you have also finished your Christmas shopping like me (she gloats!!) and are able to spend some precious time with your family. I'm off to do that now, in my pj's, to have breakfast with the girls. I love it!