a bit more fun before the big day…!

we went to a party that ian’s firm threw for all employees with children. it was a blast! mo got his face painted as father christmas! (they wouldn’t do the whole beard onto his chin because he had a little scratch there…)
 
these photos are great illustrations of the difficulty of taking a photo with both of the boys, haha!
 
beautiful homes in our area…
 
on the saturday before christmas we went to trafalgar square before nap time. this is the first year they’ve had a christmas market in trafalgar square and i hope they do it every year now; it’s lovely!

gabriel loved seeing the lions (roaring like a lion is pretty much gabey’s signature thing…)
 
and both boys loved just running around the square in the middle of our big, beautiful city.
 
we practiced some “smiling for the camera” on the tube ride home. this is really a struggle for our super-happy and super-wiggly gabriel! practice makes perfect, right?! 😉
  
even after that practice, it was a challenge to get a picture of gabriel on christmas sunday (i just thought he looked sooo darling in his christmassy church clothes!)…
 
 
  
and at last…success!! moses helped by making his brother laugh 🙂

on monday morning mo and gabe went to feed the birds with daddy – the three boys’ favourite activity to do together – while i got some last minute christmas preparations done! i spent a lot of time in the kitchen in the days leading up to christmas, and i loved that peaceful, happy alone time! 😉

we worked on our gingerbread house (each year we make one entirely from scratch, including stained-glass windows! in recent years the decorations have taken on a new made-by-small-children look!)…
 
and rode the carousel at the natural history museum…
 
the completed house! with a nice zoo of animals in the front yard 🙂

and a little boy sneaking stray sprinkles into his mouth….

and also very proud of his work!

then we were ready for christmas eve!