Today is the last day of Hanukah. Tonight we lit nine candles and danced around the kitchen, my boys giggling. Now the house smells like ginger bread and the boys are both asleep, life is good.

We have now moved in to Christmas mode. Our extended family celebration is this Sunday and we have been busily making these cute pasta angle ornaments for gifts. I purchased a hot glue gun this week and it is so much fun.

The angles are made from four different pasta; body is rigatoni, the wings farafelle, arms elbow macaroni and the hair is occhi. The head is a hazel nut. I glue guned it all together and then sprayed then white. I then drew on the face in permanent marker. I also added some raffia around their necks as a scarf but I was so excited that I photographed then before that. All in all I think that they are super cute.

Lots of rain today. Yesterday we were inside because it was 40 degrees and today it is due to the rain. we made some prints using the foam trays the snap peas and eggplant came.

Simply draw a pattern on the tray in grey led pencil; paint on some paint and press the paper down. easy

I had the idea of making Christmas and Hanukah cards. First I asked Zar to draw a menorah. I showed him what it looked like and he made his attempt. It did not look like a menorah, i asked him to try again, still the image looked more like a floaty flower. I was a bit frustrated but we moved onto a christmas with trees, stars and presents. When we printed them Zar's floaty menorah actually looked the best. It is beautiful and nondenominational, and a lesson for me to let go.

An other say and an other Hanukkah craft. Zar had some friends over today and we made some cards for Hanukkah. It is amazing the crafts that can come out of the pantry.

Just take a handful of lentils,

nine macaroni

some red tissue paper

a bit of pva craft glue

and some coloured paper

I drew the outline of a menorah and the kids painted over in pva.

Then they the placed lentils on, and toped each with a macaroni candle.

The flames were made by twisting red tissue and then dipping one end in glue and poking it into the pasta.

Each year we have a tradition to make our own menorah for hanukah. In the past construction has comprised artificial flower stems, bottle caps and balsa wood, even egg cartons (although we had to blow out the candles before they reached to carton....probably not kosher). This year we have embraced the Australian flora and used gum nuts to make the menorah.

Very simply;

- take nine gum nuts

- one piece of red gum

- some trusty super glue

arrange the gum nuts on the red gum and attach with super glue and tadahh...an Australian menorah. We used a little blue tac in the gum nuts to secure the candle. And just a note of warning, beware the gum nut can catch in fire as the candle burns down, this creates a lovely aroma but you may want to watch the fire hazard.

Today was officially the first day of holidays because 'the weekend doesn't count' as Zar tells me. Today the weather was a celebration of the summer to come. The sun kissed our shoulders just a little pink as we played in the garden planting basil seedlings and making bamboo shapes for the beans to grow over.

We also made invites for our gingerbread party planed for next week. We cut out paper ginger bread men and stamped the guest's names. Zar then posted them up and down our street. More party preparation and more sunshine tomorrow.....

endings bring new beginnings...

Fragrant flowers picked from our garden for Zar's teacher. The first year of school draws to an end...seven weeks of summer holidays have begun. We are not going away, at home we will play.