Another Christmas tradition: Angel Chimes

The other day I saw in A Cup o Jo, another Christmas tradition that we used to have in my house when I was a child and that I had completely forgotten about: Angel Chimes. How could I? It is the cutest thing to see.

The heat from the candles make the little angels turn around and ring the bells. The sound is lovely. The kids were mesmerized. 

This is our newest Christmas tradition.

Book of the week - The Nutcracker

I was looking for a nice children adaptation of the famous story "The Nutcracker" to introduce it to my boys. And the other day I found this one. In each page there's like a mini-theater in which the characters appear as if they were dancing. 

I found this adaptation a little complicated for F who's 5 years old (P, of course, was just interested in the pictures). He enjoyed a lot the book, but when I finished reading, he looked a little bit puzzled and hadn't really understood what had happened to the Nutcracker. So we went back page by page and I just retold the story with my own words. But I still think the book was worth it, because of the rich illustrations and the way it was nicely written.

Maybe next year I can take F and P to see the ballet, now that they have been introduced to "The Nutcracker". 

Advent Calendar 2012

Last year, I got a little bit frustrated about all the great ideas of Advent calendars that I was finding on the web. It's not that we were out of them (we had 4), is just that I wanted something more special and not as commercial as the ones we had.

So, this year, I decided to create my very own Advent calendar. And, I must say, I'm really really proud of myself. For someone, that didn't even know how to switch on a sewing machine last year, I modestly think that I did a good job.

Hope you like it!