Nudging it to get a move on at 45 mins of age. And we worry about pushing our children too early! 

As soon as the situation is fixed we'll let you know and you can use the new one we sent out at Christmas.

Remember that we have been given the most special and precious gift in Christ – the Christ that makes Christmas "Christmas"! Celebrate His birth above all else today.

Have an awesome day!

Now back to the desert or in this case dessert.

We had a lovely relaxing day today. I was able to chat with my Aunt via IM for a while after setting up to do so earlier in the week. Then the children and I played monopoly. After purchasing way too many plots of land, getting down to no cash in hand, then managing to purchase some houses after passing go, I actually ended up winning. They had their eyes opened as I played with a totally different game plan to what they are used to.

After Wayne got home from work – along with two birthday cards in the post, we had afternoon tea and he surprised me with a birthday gift. I had admired a German hand made glass water jug some time back and he had remembered. Given that, I was very impressed! The children got me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure which I am looking forward to redeeming.

For afternoon tea I had made some flour less sugar free chocolate cupcakes. These have the consistency of mudcake and are delicious. I use stevia and unsweetened chocolate so they tend to be a little on the strong bitter style chocolate side. My favourite!

It was also our 23rd wedding anniversary. So for those who want to see how old we are looking these days…

Some friends whom we had only seen twice since last Christmas rang and asked us to come have dinner with them. They spoiled me silly which was lovely and the evening was very enjoyable.

Had a cake too – this one is soo soo soo delicious. While not sugar free it is flour less. It is made with those Lindt Chocolate bars, the ones that have the orange flavour. Crunchy on the outside, melt in your mouth inside. Yum! Not to mention the scrummy chocolates around it.

Thanks Shirley!

The after dinner we had an ice-cream cake. I made it in her favourite 'funky' colours of pink and orange. It had malteasers and coloured M&M's mixed into vanilla and mango icecreams. There were also some mini white marshmallows in it. The pink is Italian meringue buttercream and there is also fresh whipped cream just to balance all the sweetness out.

Yum!

Then she had the pleasure of opening a few gifts. We usually wait till after dinner in the evening or at least late afternoon. I was amazed that she didn't ask once all day if she was getting anything. There was no mention of it by anyone which was quite funny. We have done it this way since they were young so that the focus is more about them and their day than about 'getting something'.

She got a new hat!

Just kidding!

However Max did have to get in on the action.

So did Cody!

Then it was time to pull funny faces at the camera.

Lots of fun was had by everyone.

Shania got a few things for her Life of Faith Doll and a skirt. We had bought the fabric on our last vacation and I was planning on teaching the girls how to make these pretty gypsy style skirts in the new year. However a conversation about wearing skirts made me realise that she needed it now. So I started it last night – yep, nothing like leaving things till the last minute hey. It got finished this morning while they watched the DVD.

It was certainly worth the late night effort as she 'had to' put in on right there and then, and dance around the lounge as soon as she opened it. The verdict was "Oh thank you Mummy, I love it!". Followed by "When did you make this?".

Don't you just love surprises!

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