iBlog Friday: Christmas gifts to avoid and strange Santa encounters

iBlog Friday is our weekly roundup of Aussie bloggers. These writers will take us through all the highlights and lowlights of their parenting adventure

Kathryn Boyde of Katzrambles shares her Christmas traditions in her post A Christmas Letter.

It is a tradition on my husband’s side of the family to send a ‘Christmas letter’ at the end of every year documenting the ups and downs and general goings-on of the year about to reach completion.

I have not scored highly in terms of participation of this tradition in previous years, so just by typing this I have outdone myself. However, being the ‘modern mama’ that I am, tradition will be slightly broken as I am not going to send my Christmas letter by ‘snail mail’ but instead publish it online ‘blogin style.’

Read the rest of Kathryn's post here.

Sam Stone of A Life on Venus shares her struggle with a daughter who had decided she doesn't to attend preschool anymore in her post My heart breaks.

Nearly five years of tears, three days a week. I try to be strong and tell her there is nothing to be sad about. But who am I kidding, my psychiatrist diagnosed me with social anxiety. I am a complete home body. How can I expect any different from my daughter?

I always put on a brave face though. I would never let her know my own anxieties about social situations or tell her I was the same when my mum dropped me at preschool.

Read the rest of Sam's post here.

Keri Arkelll of Awesomely Unprepared writes about trying to figure out if her son is ready for a big bed in her post Big Bed (Preparation).

Parenting can be a little bit scary at times. Just when you get the hang of one way of doing things with your child, they move onto another stage in life and you live on a never ending learning curve! Oh gosh, sometimes I live for those little plateaus in between! But lately I have had to put on my big girl panties and accept that there is no time like the present to do the next scary thing:

Moving the Little Mister into a ‘big kid’ style bed. YIKES ON SO MANY LEVELS.

Read the rest of Keri's post here.

Caylie Jeffery of Distractions of a Busy Mother talks about how she can't believe how quickly time flies when you're raising kids in her post Reflections.

Before I had kids, parents always told me how fast time flies “when you have kids”. I could never understand that, because I’ve always lived a busy life where time pretty much sped by anyway.

Well, they were right. I have never seen a year go by so fast nor have I seen anyone actually grow up whilst looking at them.

Read the rest of Caylie's post here.

Eva Lewis of The Multitasking Mummy bursts with excitement over Christmas in her post Becoming a Child Again at Christmas Time.

Read the rest of Eva's post here.

Susan Taylor of One Woman Circus gives us invaluable pointers when it comes to what NOT to buy parents for Christmas in her post What Not To Buy Parents This Christmas.

The Christmas countdown has arrived. Hooray hooray! Jingle all the way! Or maybe I could tell you where to shove those bells...? I normally love Christmas but now I'm three years into parenthood I'm finding it's a lot more stressful than it used to be.

The tree only went up yesterday and already almost every decoration has been either smashed, ripped or eaten. The advent calendar was jumped on before the first window could be opened and the Christmas lights have been licked within an inch of power failure and human electrocution.

Read the rest of Susan's post here.

Are you are mummy blogger? We want to meet you. Send us your favourite post each week by midday on Thursday at info@ivillage.com. We’ll showcase your work and you could even win publication and a fab prize. This week you'll win our fabulous Tina Arena pack which includes her latest album Reset and her new book Now I Can Dance.

Honest and intimate, funny and frank, Now I Can Dance is the long-awaited memoir from the very special, much-loved singer, songwriter and pop diva, Tina Arena. Now I Can Dance is an uplifting story of love, family, laughter, determination and - of course - song.

Find more details about Australia's favourite female artist at her website.

Watch her latest video clip here.