Advent Window- December 25th

Happy Christmas to all of you, my dear readers! May your days be merry and bright, and your holiday full of magic. Enjoy the time with your families and friends, every lovely moment! I can't wait to hear all about it...

We wish you a merry Christmas, all four of us!

Erin, Alan, Dylan and Sawyer xo

Nothing like leaving it until the last minute

We went to the mall last night {yep, on December 23rd at 8 p.m... I'm just not at all organized this year!} to see Santa. We had a great chat with him, and got this fabulous photo! Look at those happy faces {and see how much they've grown from last year?} We are full of the Christmas spirit here, and bursting with excitement. It's Christmas Eve! It's 7:27 a.m. on Christmas Eve... but we are already so excited for tonight. It's going to be magical! But first, I need a giant cup of tea. I've got a feeling it's going to be a really long day.

Merry Christmas Eve, my friends!

PS: Want to see something hilarious? Check out the singing, dancing Pugh Family Elves here. You'll laugh, I promise!

Advent Window- December 24th

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Santa Claus comes tonight!

J'adore

... this sparkly wreath made of vintage glass ornaments, spotted on Etsy. Lovely, isn't it?

Oh, and this Christmas cake {from Such Pretty Things} is pretty fantastic, too!

Catching up with Christmas

We love Christmas around here! But with our crazy renos and our nasty bout of the flu, our celebrations were put on hold for a while. As soon as we were all feeling better, and once all the paintbrushes and building supplies had been put away in the crawl space, we decided to make up for lost time!

First up, the lighted fire truck parade... just down the street from our house! We picked up some hot chocolate and donuts from Tim Horton's. Then we found a spot on the side of the road, sat down and watched as the trucks rolled by. So much fun! Trucks and Christmas lights- a little boy's dream!

We loved the old-fashioned fire engine

Yay! The Langford Trolley bus, pulled by a reindeer!

More reindeer, this time on top of a fire engine

This one was moving pretty fast, but don't the lights look fun all blurred like that?

I think this one won for most lights!

The next night, we headed downtown to see the lights around the harbour...

Aren't the Parliament Buildings pretty?

I love the Empress. We went here on our honeymoon... It's a gorgeous old hotel, and it gets all decked out for Christmas!

Every year they hold the Festival of Trees, a fundraiser for BC Children's Hospital. We took in every single sparkly tree.

And nibbled Rogers' Chocolates Santa lollies.

Mmmm...

Magical

Upcoming Christmas catching-up? Wrapping gifts, visiting Santa at the mall, an evening at the oh-so-sparkly Butchart Gardens, the outdoor nativity pageant, and some more baking!

Guess I'd better get a move on...

Advent Window- December 23rd

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I love decorations that look like they've been sprinkled in sugary snow, don't you?

Kids in the kitchen

Today's agenda includes: baking and decorating a hundred or so gingerbread men, whipping up a batch of kiss cookies and some shortbread, and perhaps attempting some mincemeat tarts {ooh, and butter tarts! soooo good...}

We mixed up all the dough yesterday, Dylan and I.

And we smothered our gingerbread train in candy and sticky icing. Not enough though, huh? We've decided that we're going to add some more this morning.

It smells fantastic in here!

A sneak peek

So over the past 8 weeks or so we have gone from a living room with a horrid wood-panelled wall, to a freshly drywalled {and insulated} one.

From a dark brick fireplace...

... to a freshly painted white one {which I love}.

What a transformation! Our room is lighter and brighter and airier and I can't wait for the chair rail to go up and the new curtains to be made! {we have officially decided to cease and desist all reno-related projects until the new year... it's time to enjoy the holidays!}

There's no mantel yet {no time!}, but that didn't stop me from decorating the top of the bricks for Christmas! Doesn't it look pretty? And just wait till you see the rest of the room!

Now if I can just convince Alan to let me put a nail in that lovely new wall, so I can hang our Christmas wreath...

Advent Window- December 22nd

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I love pretty paper. And ribbon. And bows. And tags. All of it! It's a good thing, too. Because I have got a lot of wrapping to do between now and Christmas Eve! I'm planning on putting on a holiday movie {A Christmas Carol, maybe... I love the Alistair Sim version! Or possibly White Christmas... Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby always get me smiling}, making a pot of Christmas tea {Em brought me a lovely box from Paris last year} and sitting down by the tree to wrap the night away. I am so looking forward to it!

How about you? Have you finished wrapping all your presents, or are you just getting started like me?

Dylan's first Christmas concert!

So, as you may have guessed, we all got sick last Thursday night and it took us days to recover. It was awful, I missed the last day of school with my class, didn't get to attend the fancy supper with Santa that I planned for the masses, and it slowed us right down on finishing our living/dining room project, too. Grrr. I was running extremely low on the Christmas spirit, let me tell you! As soon as we were feeling the teensiest bit better, we got back to painting {difficult to say the least... have you ever sat in a room full of paint fumes while fighting off a nasty case of nausea?} I've hardly posted on here at all {thank goodness for the daily advent windows, at least!}, and I haven't been visiting any of your blogs as much as I'd like to either. I'm so sorry, because I know all sorts of exciting things are going on in all your various parts of the world and I always love to catch up with all of you. Anyway, I'm on holidays now, we've done as much work on the house as we're willing to before Christmas, and it's time now to get festive! I've got a billion photos to share with you, but first... how about a kindergarten Christmas sing-along? {thank goodness the flu bug didn't attack until after the school concert}

Love, love, love!

That's Dylan on the top left, in case you weren't sure. He's the cutest one. And the best singer, of course!

Advent Window- December 21st

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Happy First Day of Winter! Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?

Advent Window- December 20th

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5 days to go! Have you hung your stockings yet?

Advent Window- December 19th

j'adore

If I had an advent wreath, I'd be lighting the last candle in it today. I think I'll start that tradition in our house next year. It's a lovely tradition, isn't it? For now though, we'll enjoy all the advent calendars we do have. Here's to the last week before Christmas... may it be full of good health {good-bye and good riddance, Mr Flu Bug! thanks a lot for setting us back several days in our renovations...} and happy times, holiday baking and decorating, and time spent with family and friends {maybe even in our brand new living room... stay tuned!}