The London International Horse Show - Olympia

On Thursday my sister and I took Hannah to London for her first ever visit to Olympia. I have never seen Hannah so excited!

Just arrived

How excited are you Hannah?

 First up was the Santa Stakes show jumping, which was fantastic ( and my favourite rider, John Whitaker won)

Then we had the Kennel Club medium dog jumping grand prix which was lots of fun.

Still pretty excited and loving every minute!

 Next was the Ukrainian Cossacks with their brilliant but nerve racking stunt riding,

and then my favourite part from when I used to go as a child - The Shetland Grand National.

All the jockeys are aged between 9 and 14 and under 5 feet tall.

 The Metropolitan Police Activity Ride was next. They were great and their horses were beautiful!

They took their saddles off while riding jumps!

 The last class was the extreme driving,

followed by the Grand Finale - pantomime characters, Christmas carols, snow and a horse drawn sleigh for Santa.

 After the performance we walked around the shopping village (250 horsey themed shops) and found the Pony Magazine stall. Hannah loves this magazine so she was really happy to find it.

It was a fantastic day. Hannah, my sister and I have decided it is going to be our annual Christmas tradition from now on :-)

Home Education Group Christmas

This week we have had our Home Education Group Christmas party and a natural Christmas decoration making session.

The party on Monday was fun, Hannah loved hanging out with her friends and had a really good time.

Our last session of the term on Tuesday was lovely. The children had the chance to make natural decorations to take home and Hannah made a lovely Christmas wreath from willow, ivy, pine cones, cinnamon sticks, dried orange slices and raffia, and an orange pomander.

It's all feeling pretty Christmassy now!

St Lucia's Day December 13th.

Yesterday we had a little celebration for the Swedish 'St Lucia's Day' as Hannah has been enjoying learning about all winter festivals and saints days recently.

I needle felted her a little St Lucia girl (she loved her!) and we lit candles and read the story of St Lucia. We also ordered  'Kirsten's Surprise' - the American Girl book which has St Lucia's Day in the story.

 Hannah's St Lucia girl that I needle felted.

Saint Nicholas Day, Christingle and Craft

December 6th was Saint Nicholas Day. We read the story of Saint Nicholas in our Festivals, Family and Food book, and Hannah painted a picture of the children finding gifts of food outside their door from Saint Nicholas.

Yesterday we went to the Christingle service at our church. As part of the service, there was a talk about the childrens society and helping those in need. Hannah and I brought home a collection box which we are going to try to fill with all our spare change to help provide hot meals and clothes for children who need them.

And today we made salt dough. Hannah has made some decorations for our tree and some as gifts.

They are going to look lovely once they are painted.

Needle Felted Tomten And Seasonal Books

Yesterday, inspired by the beautiful Tomten over at One Sweet World , I needle felted a little Tomten for Hannah. I'm so pleased with him, he is the first one I have tried to make!

We have also been reading our favourite seasonal books, The Tomten and The Tomten and the Fox - both by Astrid Lindgren, and Findus At Christmas by Sven Nordqvist.

Our bedtime chapter book is currently a re-read of The Six Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren. This book has recently been renamed The Children Of Noisy Village - but this is my copy from when I was a child, so we are reading the original!

It is a lovely, gentle story of six children living on three farms in a tiny village in Sweden and is perfect for bedtime reading.

Frosty Fairy Garden

This morning dawned bright and sparkly with thick frost covering everything - the first real frost so far this winter. Hannah was keen to get outside and spent a happy couple of hours building a fairy garden, exploring the ice on the pond and feeding the birds. We have robins, blue-tits, goldfinches, sparrows, blackbirds, great-tits, wagtails, and yesterday we even had a sparrow hawk!

A fairy stone circle

Fairy house with tea light fire

Fairy campsite

The pond was frozen, and the ice on the bird bath by the pond made a perfect lego friends skating rink -

and the bright berries on the hedge made the garden seem very festive.

Hannah is already very excited!