Tinkles the elf admires my babies…
Well I think my babies were very cute so I can see why Tinkles would sit and stare at their photos this morning!
Christmas calendars, day six
Day six – it may be quite (very!) warm in many parts of Australia today, but all our advent calendars are focussing on cold weather for day six!
Ornament calendar
I think this is a very pretty ornament – the subtle purples on the blue and white gives it a sense of depth and cold that adds to the realism of our snowflake.
Lego City
Yesterday was the Lego Friends snowman, and today is Lego City‘s turn, complete with a hot chocolate.
Lego Friends
And today’s Lego ornament is a stocking, complete with mistletoe.
Christmas book
Tonight we will be reading a bit of applause for Mrs Clause, although I’m not sure I need any reminders about how many jobs are still on my to do list! Of course, I’m pleased to say we will happily help Mrs Claus with the pile of Santa letters she needs to write!
The Nutcracker (book & puzzle) – review
The Nutcracker%22%20transform%3D%22translate(1.2%201.2)%20scale(2.33984)%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23ceb4a6%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22rotate(-43.9%20301.4%20-68.1)%20scale(51.78378%2088.2008)%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23160009%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(116.2603%2040.26497%20-10.42291%2030.09492%20158.6%2085.4)%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23002a2a%22%20cx%3D%2222%22%20cy%3D%22196%22%20rx%3D%2232%22%20ry%3D%22130%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23d5e885%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22matrix(-66.39317%20-14.99184%207.23427%20-32.03784%20148.4%200)%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "| love santa")
by E T A Hoffman, retold by Rachel Elliot
illustrated by Valeria Docampo
Paragon, Bath, 2017
Age group: around 4 or 5 and older
Format: 24 page book ad 36 piece puzzle
A classic Christmas story (one even done in the Myer windows!), this version of The Nutcracker includes a jigsaw puzzle for young children with the book.
The story
A girl, Marie Stahlbaum, is given a wooden nutcracker on Christmas Eve. The nutcracker comes to life and fights an army of mice then takes Marie to the Land of Sweets where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and other dolls.
Some history of the Nutcracker
Hoffman originally released The Nutcracker and the Mouse King in 1816, and the full story takes longer than one night.
The story has been retold and presented in many ways in the last 202 years. Alexandre Dumas retold it as The Nutcracker which became the basis of Tchaikovsky’s ballet by the same name in 1892. It has been made into a few movies and telemovies, including Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry and Care Bare versions.
Parts of the music from the ballet are also well known and used in movies such as Disney’s Fantasia, the 1950’s marionette TV film The Spirit of Christmas, and the 1954 Little Match Girl movie. There have also been recordings, video games and TV shows made with parts of the story and/or music of The Nutcracker
Some versions are only loosely connected to the original story, and there are variations in the character names – Marie Stahlbaum has had different surnames and also been called Clara (the name of Marie’s doll in the original book).
A 1996 musical, The Nutcracker Musical, goes further into why Franz became a nutcracker and how Clara could help change him back – note that Franz was her brother in the original story. A light opera, this musical includes the full 12 days of Christmas as well!
My review
So, onto this book version of The Nutcracker!
I love the illustrations – they are beautiful and a combination of real and whimsical. The colours are muted to give atmosphere rather than standing out as a child’s counting or colour book.
The story is about Clara, starting when she received the nutcracker on Christmas Eve from her godfather, the best toy maker in town. Her brother fights her over the nutcracker, and the nutcracker’s leg is broken. The toy maker repairs him and she promises to always keep him safe. After the Christmas Eve ball she remembers she left him under the tree.
Clara goes downstairs to get him and when she approaches the tree the magic occurs and she shrinks. She sees the mouse king, then the nutcracker and toy soldiers come to life to battle the mouse king. When the nutcracker is surrounded she throws her shoe at the mouse king to save the nutcracker. The nutcracker wins and then takes Clara to his kingdom which is the land of sweets. As she watches the sugar plum fairy dance, she gets sleepy and wakes up back home under the tree on Christmas morning.
While it is a long story and a reasonable bit of text, our three year old friend was enchanted by it – and now is desperate to see the ballet!
The puzzle was challenging for a three year old, but he achieved it… The pieces were a good size for his little hands and easily fit together. Overall it was a good activity for a pre-schooler, especially as the book gave context to the image on the jigsaw.
Would we recommend it? I would recommend it – the illustrations were beautiful and captivating just as The Nutcracker should be, blending dreams into reality.
And our three year old friend still wants to dance with a Nutcracker so it obviously impressed him!
Tinkles’ eggcellent artwork
No one was sure where Tinkles had got to this morning (she certainly wasn’t on the footy any more) until I opened the fridge to get things out to make school lunches. And there was Tinkles, sitting on the eggs, texta in hand, with her drawings staring up at me!
What’s the cheekiest thing your elf has done this Christmas?
Christmas countdown – day five
Following on from finding Tinkles on the footy, today’s calendars aren’t really every Christmassy – at least not for those of us living in Australia without penguins and snow in December!
Ornament calendar
The picture today is a cute penguin giving her baby penguin a Christmas gift, and the ornament itself is a penguin!
Lego City
My son built the sled easily enough, but we’re not sure of the white pieces alongside it – I think it is meant to be a snow covered ramp but it is too small for the sled to run down so an not sure of the ramp’s purpose! Maybe someone better used to snow and sleds will know…
Lego Friends
My daughter put together the snowman ornament tonight. The nose is cute and a bit soft and bendy! But overall this is not the best looking Lego snowman – we saw better ones in the 2017 City calendar, the 2015 Friends calendar, the 2016 Friends calendar and my favourite is probably the 2015 City snowman or maybe the 2017 Friends snowman from Christmas Eve.
By the way, like the press out advent calendar, these ornaments do not come with the means to actually hang them so, if using this calendar, you will need to get some string or ribbon to hang the ornaments – we’re still working on where we’ll will hang them…
Christmas book
Peppa’s Christmas Post is our Christmas book for tonight so we can talk about letters and helping our families when they need it.
Edible Christmas treats and gifts
Today, we have a guest post from Kerrie of Print, decorate & eat, maker of delicious and beautiful cakes (I know, I have tasted a few of them!)
Making edible Christmas treats
Kerrie King, Print, decorate & eat
The weeks leading into Christmas can be stressful with so many parties to plan for, food to prepare and gifts to purchase.
I like to give Christmas edible gifts wherever I can, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be time consuming or involve weeks of preparation or be expensive either.
If your child likes cupcakes, and let’s face it what child doesn’t like cake, and would like nothing more than to take Christmas cupcakes to the class party, there are a number of ways you can “cheat”. It is perfectly OK to buy cupcakes from your local shop, but you could also have some fun with your kids baking your own cupcakes (from a packet is fine if you prefer or are really tight for time) and buy some Christmas toppers from the supermarket or cake decorating store (including online ones), to take them to the next level. You’ll have fun, spend quality time with your kids, and have some lovely personalised cupcakes for the class party, Christmas picnic or family get together.
Another way to give beautifully wrapped edible Christmas gifts is to buy a few packets of fancy biscuits, fudge or even chocolates from your local supermarket, Aldi or Reject Shop and repackage them into Christmas boxes you can buy at the $2 shop along with some matching tissues paper, and you’ll have beautiful Christmas gifts with a personal touch.
If you are a baker, like me as I enjoy whipping up a large batch of gingerbread men, trees or stars, you can bake then package them up in Christmas boxes from the $2 shop along with a personalised card. This is also a lovely way to say thank you to Teachers , volunteers, friends, the cleaner and perhaps even your neighbours.
So get baking, have fun, eat cake, say thanks and have a lovely Christmas!
Tinkles the Tiger fan…
Hiding in plain sight, Tinkles was in the corner of the family room this morning, checking out her balancing skills by sitting on a Richmond footy – the children were very proud of her! This resulted in a lot of “Carn the Tiges” and “Yellow and Black” as we ate breakfast…
Advent calendar day four…
Day four, so we’re getting into the routine of opening our advent calendars, making things and then reading our Christmas book. It is a lot of fun and I love the family time it is creating for us.
Is your family enjoying the Christmas traditions in your home?
Ornament calendar
In today’s calendar, we had to form the sleigh – this was more complex than the other ornaments we’ve made as it has four pieces. I also liked having two strings to hang it with so I could balance it between two branches.
Lego City
Behind the forth flap, my son found a dog (one of the beautiful Lego huskies), a plate and a chicken leg. It is a little strange and had nothing to stick together at all (the chicken doesn’t even attach to the plate as we expected!)
Lego Friends
My daughter is very pleased to have a fireplace with a stocking and a nutcracker! To be honest, while building it we weren’t sure what was sitting beside the fire but looking at it from a little distance it became more obvious we had made a nutcracker!
Christmas book
Tonight’s book is Aussie Jingle Bells which goes nicely with our new sleigh ornament, and could be pulled along by our new huskie!
Is Tinkles flying or swimming?
This morning we woke to find Tinkles hanging from the Octopod!
So a few years ago, when my younger kids were in love with The Octonauts, I made them a light fitting in the form of the Octopod (the main base submarine that the Octonauts live and travel in). Tinkles apparently thinks hanging from the Octopod is a good vantage spot (she can certainly see everything in my son’s room and the front door from there!)
From Lego dragon yesterday to Octopod today – maybe Tinkles likes high places, or maybe she is just getting an overview to start things off…
And here is a clearer view of the Octopod – essentially a large orange ball with a window at the top and four balls connected to the sides as living quarters – although it doesn’t show the maze of tinsel underneath her (my son’s idea of decorating his room!).
Day three in our countdown
It may be Monday, but the excitement of opening another flap in an advent calendar is strong!
Ornament calendar
We pressed out a Christmas tree ornament tonight, to see Santa and the elves decorating their Christmas tree!
Lego City
A little red racing car popped out of the advent calendar today, explaining the racing track on the scene layout!
Lego Friends
Today we found a set of golden bells in the advent calendar – and made a discovery. Everything in this year’s Friends advent calendar is an ornament to hang on a tree or around a room – it looks like there will be no characters, no Santa and no theme.
In past years, the advent calendar has produced characters and props that fill in a scene and that the children enjoy playing with. True, this year’s box didn’t have a scene which was a bit of a clue that we missed, but we truly did not expect 24 ornaments. Even the first couple of days, with the larger than expected scale of the heart and guitar didn’t make us expect something different, but today it clicked. The box says ‘Build your happy holidays’and ’24 gifts’ so we assumed it would be like previous year calendars. Looking online, the official description does state ‘build a new decoration for your house or Christmas tree’ so that is up front but we didn’t get ours online. It also confirms there will be no Lego people included but there are ‘decorations to represent each of the 5 friends from Heartlake City’.
Ornaments are nice and we will find a way to make this special for my daughter, but I am very disappointed with the Friends advent calendar changing like this. It doesn’t help that we couldn’t quite complete the bells – the holly leaves can’t attach to the top of the bells without a connector piece (which luckily we have enough Lego in the house we could rectify it but we shouldn’t have needed to.)
I do like the bottom of the bells though as the dangling donger does add a realism to the bells. And it does hang nicely:
Christmas book
The magic little Christmas tree is the next book we will read in our book countdown to Christmas – it is a cute little book and goes nicely with our Christmas tree ornament obviously!
Crown Christmas eggs
Each year, Crown in Melbourne puts on a Christmas display based on large egg-shaped ornaments alongside a wide staircase. On the hour, every hour, Christmas music plays, the eggs open in turn (to matching music) and people move around to see each egg. The eggs don’t open in the same order they are placed along the staircase so it is part of the excitement to wonder which egg is next and then turn to face it as a spotlight reaches the egg and music gives a clue to what may be inside.
During the day, Santa arrives for photos and other entertainment may be present. And at the base of the stairs, is a magnificent Christmas tree which changes colour as spotlights facing it change.
A large Christmas tree, walking Candy canes, music playing gifts and stars, and Santa all add to Crown’s Christmas celebration!
The white snow egg
At the top of the stairs, is a brilliant white egg that opens to the sounds of Let it Snow.
The green tree egg
Moving down the left side of the staircase is a green egg that opens to Rocking around the Christmas tree.
A frosty silver egg
Next in line is a silver egg opening to Frosty the Snowman.
A merry gold egg
The lowest egg on the left hand side is a golden egg that opens to the music of We wish you a Merry Christmas.
A shiny red egg
Up near the top of the stairs on the right hand side is a shiny red egg which opens to reveal Rudolph as you hear Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
A joyful green egg
A second green egg opens to Joy to the World.
A jolly golden egg
Opening to Holly Jolly Christmas (the only song at Crown I don’t actually know!), this golden egg …
A special red egg
Always last to open, the lowest egg of them all is red and contains Santa so not surprisingly, it opens to the sounds of Santa Claus is coming to town!
And at this point, Santa arrives and is seated to greet children to have a photo taken (note there are usually significant queues to sit with Santa).
Tinkles riding a Lego Dragon!
My son was the first to spot Tinkles the elf today – not surprisingly as he loves to get down with his Lego every chance he gets! But he didn’t expect to find Tinkles riding his Ninjago dragon!
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