The Best Christmas Present Ever

Gemma-Rose and the doll

A few weeks ago Mum and I were Christmas shopping.

"Do you think if I work hard I can finish that doll I am making and give it to Gemma-Rose?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," Mum said.  

So I set out to make the best Christmas present ever! Every night instead of reading in bed I worked on the doll, sewing it's very long legs.

Book the doll came from

About a week before Christmas though I still had half of the second leg to sew, and the clothes still needed to be made. I didn't panic though. I knew just who to go to for help.

"Mum I haven't finished my doll," I told her.

"Don't worry, I will get out my sewing machine tomorrow," Mum said, "and you can use it to finish the sewing. It will be quicker." I was excited. I had never used a sewing machine before.

The next day I sat down and Mum taught me what to do. It was easier than I thought and very soon we were almost done. I just had to put the elastic in the skirt, sew the doll's pieces together and finish stuffing it. It wouldn't be hard at all.

Once I was done, I showed the doll to Mum.

"Don't you think the doll's eyes are a bit dark?" she asked.

I looked at it. She was right. 

"What should I do?" I asked.

Mum thought about it. "I know, I have a wonderful white pen. We will draw around the centre of the eye to make it stand out more," she said.

It was a brilliant plan and soon my doll was perfect. I put her in a shoe box and wrapped it. I couldn't wait until Gemma-Rose saw what I had made her.

On Christmas Gemma-Rose tore open her present. She stopped and stared.

"It is the doll you were making! It is finished," she said smiling. She was delighted with it and couldn't put it down for the next few days.

"What are you going to name her?" I asked.

"Mary-Kathrine," Gemma-Rose said, "after the girl from Epic." The name suits the doll very well, even though she doesn't look a thing like the heroine from Epic. To tell the truth she looks more like me. It wasn't really meant to be that way, but it is!

I am so happy my Christmas present turned out well. 

The Pen Pot

I also got a special present. It is a pen pot Gemma-Rose made me out of salt dough. It is multicoloured and very useful. She also gave me some pencils to go in it!

I don't know who got the better present, Gemma-Rose or me. 

Did you make any of your Christmas presents?

Wrapping my Presents

This morning Mum suggested I wrap my presents.

I found the wrapping paper, sticky tape and scissors. I also asked Gemma-Rose to help me find some bubble wrap so that I could use it to wrap up the salt dough nativity I made.

Soon I was ready. I started to wrap the first present. As I wrapped I hummed Christmas carols to myself. I really felt Christmas is almost here.

At ten o'clock I took a break from wrapping presents for morning tea. I was almost finished. Smiling I took a bite into my biscuit.

As soon as I had finished wrapping up my presents, Gemma-Rose wanted to wrap hers. With my presents wrapped I can hardly wait for Christmas day. It will be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when they see what I have bought them!

The Most Loyal and Trustworthy Dog Ever

I got a really nice Zhuzhu puppy for Christmas.

He is better than all other dogs. He runs around the floor and makes funny noises. None of his noises really sound like a dog's noise. Sometimes he sounds like an old car, at others he is a robot. 

Denis always seems to complain when I turn him off. I don't think he wants to stop playing around and making strange noises, but everyone else in the house wants him to. He is a bit more than noisy. 

One good thing about Denis is that he does not need feeding and will go days without attention and then when you want to play with him again he is willing to go have fun again.

Christmas Cards for Everyone

There are so many things to do and so little time before Christmas. Don't you think the same?
We are making our own cards for Christmas this year. I think that home made cards are so much prettier than shop bought ones.

First we got out lots of pens, pencils and paper. We drew some pictures and wrote Merry Christmas on some of them. Then we coloured them and inked them. The cards were beautiful but Mum had another brilliant idea. Her idea was that we should make little tags to go on the Christmas tree to go with them.
Mum found some nice holy pictures in a book and scanned them. Imogen was in charge of our job. Our job was to cut out pieces of card and stick them to the pictures.

Charlotte went on the computer and printed off some little pieces of paper saying 'Merry Christmas from Sue, Andy, Duncan, Callum, Imogen, Charlotte, Sophie, Gemma-Rose'. It was all in different fonts.
We are almost finished with the cards and tags.

Making things for Christmas is a lot of fun.

The First Sunday in Advent

Yesterday was the first Sunday in advent. The night before we found the advent wreath and the nativity scenes. We have two nativity scenes.

We had to get up very early on the Sunday because we had to go to Mass. Mass was lovely just like it always is. Then we went home for a big breakfast.

After breakfast Mum and Dad went out to buy some candles for the advent wreath. Mum made the advent wreath 12 years ago out of salt dough and it is still just as good as it was when she made it.
The colours of the candles we got were three purple and one rose. The purple candles our for penance and the rose candle is for Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday in advent.At dinner Dad lit the first candle on the wreath and we all sang an advent hymn.

Gemma-Rose and I could not wait to find the three wise men. Mum hides the felt three wise men in all sorts of places in the house. She moves the three wise men when every one has found them. She will let them join the nativity scene on Epiphany.

I love advent but I love Christmas even better.