It's all a learning process for us - especially Chlo's - so we let her touch and discover the tree {under supervision of course}. She hasn't really shown a lot of interest in it, surprisingly - instead she prefers to sit back and just stare up into the Christmas lights. At this stage she's still immensely interested by our staircase. In fact who needs toys when you have a couple of stairs and a landing to play on?

The last few days we've been able to take in a complete, relaxed evening at home following Jon's knee surgery on Thursday. As a result all the pressies are wrapped and our house is in the prep stages for Christmas celebrations. This year my lil kitchen features a hot cocoa bar! I have a huge weakness for hot cocoa {all things warm really}. This year we are having guests over for 2 Christmas celebrations- Christmas Eve and Christmas Evening. Each occasion will call for different items to be featured on the hot cocoa bar. Thanks to Pinterest for the great idea . . . here's peek at what's sitting on my kitchen counter right now. . .