Advent.

Little Possum waited patiently for the first Monday in December when we have our special FHE (family night) putting up Christmas decorations. This week the wait was finally over and LP went to work on the tree. 

There are some things I will never get used to about having an Aussie/southern hemisphere Christmas like the obvious lack of snow.... but, at the top of the list I will put the lack of a "proper" pine or spruce Christmas tree. We have a fake tree, but on a positive note at least it doesn't drop needles! I do miss the smell of pine though. Incidentally, for my first ever Christmas spent in a tropical climate (decades ago during my exchange student year in Thailand) my very thoughtful friend Andrea sent me a few sprigs of spruce wrapped in aluminium foil. I closed my eyes and sniffed deeply, drawing in the wonderful fresh scent that transported me thousands of miles home to Norway in my mind. These days I have to go to IKEA for my fix of pine smell... and then eat meatballs in the restaurant. It's not all bad.

What I love most about our Christmas tree is the random collection of ornaments. We add to the collection every year, the children get one ornament each that they will one day take away with them when they leave home. Then there are the ornaments that are made along with the ones we have inherited. 

Each ornament holds a memory like 'Edward' here. He and his friends Thomas, Percy, James and Gordon are all on the tree. They were bought when Doodlebug and Turtle were little and firm Thomas The Tank Engine fans. The train ornaments would disappear off the tree regularly to be played with.

One of my mother's ornaments (the 'nisse' girl) hangs next to my Scrabble ornament... made in The Year of Scrabble Ornaments a few years back (Gotta love Pinterest!). Every member of the extended family received an ornament with their name which doubled as a gift tag on their respective presents.... I loved how it looked.

There are several 'nisser' from Norway sent to me from dear friends who wanted to send me a little bit of Norwegian Christmas knowing how homesick I get every year. This one hangs next to the heart I made a couple of years ago from a microwavable kind of clay. (The Year of Clay Gift Tags/Ornaments)

The production was going really well until I forgot to put the required cup of water in the microwave with a clay decoration, and it overheated resulting in stinky smoke/toxic fumes. Hydrochloric acid I seem to remember.... 

Stank out the kitchen and made my lungs burn.

I laugh about it now. 

And, I really like my stamped heart.