The Diptych Project: This Week

The Diptych Project: two friends (once neighbors & now an ocean apart), one theme

'This week' was our theme this week:).  My photo was taken at an advent ornament exchange I hosted for eleven other friends.  We each made 12 sets of 2 ornaments that went along with readings from the Jesus Storybook Bible.  The plan is that each day we read a Bible story and then hung up an ornament that depicts it.  It was amazing to see all the beautiful ideas my friends had in creating their ornaments.  These ornaments will be treasured and used for years to come!  If you are interested in doing something similar, please let me know as I can send you the document we used!

To see Evie's photo, please visit the Diptych Project blog. 

The Diptych Project: The Nativity

The Diptych Project: two friends (once neighbors & now an ocean apart), one theme

(Top photo: Evie, Bottom photo: Ann)

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1

And Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem... and Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2

Please visit Evie's blog to learn more about what inspired her photo.

You can see our first diptych here.

Our second diptych here.

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish you a very blessed holiday!  We are thankful to be with family (though missing those that are far away!) and look forward to celebrating Jesus' birthday, eating lots of food, and giving gifts (can't wait to see what my brothers give as they are such creative gift givers!).  We are holding tightly to the hope that this holiday represents.  A very merry Christmas to all of you!

Advent is upon us

This is our second year in a row of making our own advent calendar.  Last year we bought a box of cards, stamped the numbers of each day on the envelopes, and inside wrote out a Bible verse and something special to do each day (such as make popcorn, have a cup of cocoa, watch a Christmas film, or go ice skating).  Adrian and I alternated writing out the fun activity so it was a surprise to us as well on the alternate days.  As you can see below, we hung them with clothes pegs on a string and voila we had a pretty advent calendar.

This year, we are doing something equally easy:  I have made a paper chain out of a paper bag and written the days of Advent on them (Day 1, 2, etc.).  We are going to read a portion of the story of Jesus each day using the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones as well as do something fun like read a new Christmas story book, have a little treasure hunt for chocolate, drive to see some Christmas lights, or color a nativity scene.  I am still working on this, so any ideas are welcomed!  We are hoping that advent becomes a time the children really look forward to - a time of anticipating and celebrating Jesus' birth.  There are some great ideas and suggestions on "from the nato's" blog.  It doesn't have to be anything complicated, but I definitely encourage you to try this out this year.  Please let me know if you do!

Christmas phone photos

1) Samuel riding a fire engine, 2) Samuel with his beloved clementines, 3) Sammy & I love, 4) My sis Rachel at a German Christmas market

Lego tree!

This year there was a lego Christmas tree at St Pancras station. It was so cool!

Christmas dinner

To say I was excited about Christmas this year would be an understatement:) We watched Elf on Thanksgiving and soon after I discovered a tv channel that had suddenly appeared called Christmas 24. Christmas movie marathon month began! Let's just say I watched a few too many super cheesy films during December most of which had a plot line that went something like this: single mom takes her son to see his gradfather who now lives somewhere called Santaville. She isn't really in to Christmas but her son and dad are and then she meets a handsome carpenter who she ends up falling in love with and her Christmas spirit is restored... . Yes, they were pretty bad!

I also got into watching some of the Christmas cooking shows. As we are major Jamie Oliver fans in this house I of course watched his Christmas cooking special. On it he talked about making a Turkey Wellington. It looked so delicious and could be made the day before. So I offered to make it for Christmas dinner. And the offer was accepted:)! I was really happy with how it turned out especially as it was my first time making any type of wellington. It was delicious in my unbiased opinion! Here is it...

A very happy Christmas to all!

Love, Adrian, Ann, Samuel & bump

Some Christmassy links:

My Christmas song on repeat is Holy, Holy, Holy

A favorite song this year is Hallelujah

Such an adorable version of the Christmas story

Merry Christmas! xx

Chrismtas details

I thought I would share some Christmas decorations from around our flat...

handmade Christmas decorations from Samuel (proud mommy!)

stockings made by my lovely mom

and an Advent calendar gifted to us this year from a friend.

Do I really have to take them down in January?!

Advent Calendar

This year I had fun making my own DIY Advent calendar.

I found a box of cards, stamped on the numbers, wrote a verse on each card that we found here, and then Adrian and I alternated writing something Christmasy and fun for each day. Easy peasy!

It has been so fun to open each day! Some of my favorite advent to do's have been to go ice skating, take a bubble bath, and to drink hot chocolate under the Christmas tree lights. Sigh... I love Christmas!

Ice skating!

There are so many fantastic ice skating rinks in London and it has become a tradition for Adrian and I to go skating each year. This year I surprised him by booking tickets to the rink at the Tower of London!

We had such a good time and the atmosphere was fantastic. The only downside was that they let on SO many people during our time slot. It ended up being okay, though and we had just the right amount of room to skate and show off our moves:).

There were so many people who were falling all around us and whenever someone fell the crowd reacted with an oooh or awww. There was one particular guy who had never skated before and was literally trying to run on the ice. It was hard not to laugh as he fell in the most spectacular ways always with a big smile on his face. Adrian tried to teach him to skate but to no avail. I probably sound like an awful person but I laughed so hard at some of his skating moves and falls - it was just so funny to watch!

Decorating the tree

We weren't sure whether to go for a big tree this year as we worried Samuel would try to pull it over. In the end we threw caution to the wind and went for it and so far so good! I think the only thing to be concerned about at the moment is what may get lost in the tree because as I am writing this he has deposited the tv remote in the tree. Hopefully none of our phones becomes a tree decoration a la Samuel!

It is so fun that he can start to enjoy this time of year and that we can start to make family traditions together. Already there has been tree decorating, cocoa and popcorn consuming, book reading, cuddling under the lights, and movie watching. One of my favorite new traditons is opening the advent calendar each morning. I made our advent calendar this year and am loving it! I'll post a picture of it soon!

Getting the tree!

As we don't have a car, getting the Christmas tree is always an adventure. This year we decided to take the overground train one stop to Homebase and then bring the tree back on the train:)

Off to get the tree

Tree by train!

p.s. Oh and as it is the holidays the red lipstick is back out (and the red nail polish too)!

Twinkling lights

Playing catch up.... a look back...

We decided it was time to buy our Christmas tree the first weekend in December. We put Samuel in the baby carrier and headed out to our local high street to find our tree. We found the perfect one for our flat - it was short and chubby and I loved it.

As it gets dark so early here we were able to enjoy the glow of the sparkly lights on the tree around 4 pm each day. This is right around when Samuel naps. We spent a lot of days at dusk snuggling together under the tree on the sheepskin while he napped. I couldn't have been happier. I am missing the tree now.... alas... til next year....