festive festivities

december has continued to be filled with christmas cheer and lots of festivity.  i love this time of year so much, and it's more special this year for me than it ever has been before. and now christmas day is only three days away ... what?! i am soooo excited to watch moses experience christmas for the first time. 

here's some photos from lots of festive stuff that has been happening around here lately! 

^^ like i mentioned in an earlier post, my brother and his daughter came for a little visit while ian was away on business. it was so so fun to have them here in london with moses and i. they had some neat daddy-daughter adventures together (like riding the london eye! ^^) and also the four of us partied together at home and out and about. love these two so much! ^^

^^ and especially love the cousin bonding that went throughout those few days. someone definitely has secured her place as moses's favourite cousin! it's always fun to have visitors - our living room floor is nearly completely covered in air mattress :) ^^

^^ we facetimed with our brand new niece/cousin baby faith! she was born right after thanksgiving. ^^

^^ we went to kensington palace. this little girl loooooves all things fancy and sparkly so it was pretty exciting for her to see where the princess lives! look at that smile! ^^

^^ just after ian, moses and i got back from our quick, festive weekend in copenhagen, i went to a wreath making workshop/dinner with my friend amy. it was such a cool event in the basement of a super cute cafe in marleybone. this was my first outing with a friend and without a baby since moses was born, and it was a really fun night. ^^

^^ we sipped hot apple cider as we created our wreaths, and also enjoyed a super yummy dinner before putting the finishing touches on our masterpieces! ^^

^^ such a fun friend and a fun night. ^^

^^ we rode the tube home, wreaths in hand, and then i immediately put mine up on our door. i think it looks really lovely, if i do say so myself! ^^

^^ i was really glad to have a very pretty wreath on the door because we had a bit of a christmas tree fail this year. we bought our tree attached to a wood stump, and we were so excited about carrying it home that it wasn't until the next morning that we realized it would die really quickly unless we figured out a way to get it in water! we put it in a bucket of water and then decorated it, but realized that it still wasn't getting hydrated, so we ended up buying a saw and chopping it off the wood stump and then putting it in a christmas tree stand (mind you, it was fully lit and decorated that whole time!) - ha! it was a pretty funny fiasco. aaaaand, it still died pretty quickly ... brittle and droopy by about about a week after we got it all sorted in the stand. and then, one morning i found it totally dark on the top. (can someone pretty please invent christmas tree lights that don't randomly go out? it really can't be that hard, right?!) so i undecorated the top, bought new lights, and redecorated the top...of a pretty much totally dead tree. haha! oh well. we still love it. ^^

^^ we invited the {primary} children from our church congregation over to our little flat for a cookie decorating party one saturday morning. it was chaotic and awesome to have lots of little hands making (and promptly eating, in many cases) colourful frosted treats. here was the set up looking calm and pretty before the storm :)! ^^

^^ and some of their masterpieces. i love these kids so so much! ^^

^^ some really grainy selfies from a family walk around our super christmassy neighborhood! - this is at somerset house which looks so so festive with the ice rink and big tree! ^^

^^ our traditional gingerbread house making (all from scratch!) was a two-week long process this year ... there were just so many things going on in our life with visitors and work and events and baby care! after a bit of a disaster with the sugar glue (ian got a really nasty burn on his finger!), we finally got the house put together one night but were too tired to decorate so left that for another night! ^^

^^ ^^ some photos i snapped of moses one morning because i had to capture that perfect little hair curl on his forehead. he's growing so fast and i feel like before i know it he'll be different in this way or that way and i'll wish i had a picture! but seriously, isn't his face just the most precious thing you've ever seen?! ^^

^^ i had to stop on my way to a doctor's appointment one morning to snap this photo of a very festive house in soho. london at christmastime is just the best, for so many reasons! ^^

^^ moses and his closest-in-age cousin, new baby faith, just getting to know each other via facetime. // morning snuggles in bed sometimes result in spit up explosions all over dad - haha! ^^

^^ and the house is decorated! ... and ready for the (final) snow draping phase ... which we had to do on yet another night! i miiiiight have eaten a bunch of that candy intended to decorate the yard before it made into the yard... ^^

^^ riding the tube with baby mo - he is loving getting to face outwards in his new carrier! // on 13 december, we had our traditional st. lucia breakfast-for-dinner celebration. i made (as usual) aebelskivers (and some eggs to balance things out), and wore a white dress and pine bough crown. ^^

^^ we took these photos with a self-timer that took several photos in a row. it's pretty funny to see the progression of moses noticing something interesting on that plate and then going for the grab! ^^

 ^^ ^^ ^^ we got to participate in the live nativity outside the mormon church building on exhibition road. we did this last year when moses was teeny tiny in my belly and it was so fun to do it again with him on the outside :) he made a pretty good baby jesus (even though he's a bit big to pass for a newborn - haha!)! because i have now given birth and have a son, christmas means soooo much more to me this year than it ever has before. ^^ ^^ ^^
^^ and there it is, in all its glory - the completed gingerbread house!!! i am determined next year to dedicate a blog post to all the steps we take to make a house like this every year from scratch (including sugar windows and that awesome draped snow!) it is such a fun tradition that ian had growing up and i am so glad to continue in our little family! ^^

^^ our friend greg, who was staying with us the night we decorated, was in charge of the back wall of the house. he did a pretty awesome job, huh?! that is one awesome candy mosaic. ^^

three more sleeps until christmas! i hope that everyone reading this is having a really wonderful christmastime! xo