Santa's Little Helper

Christmas Part 2

T spent Christmas day in various states of happiness.

This face says ' oh I have got a remote control dalek!'
(thank you to Sainsburys for the half price toy sale which made this much more affordable!)

This face says 'Yay I have the Wii game I really, really wanted!'

And this face is just pure happiness.

(Thank you to G's work colleague to decided to sell her Singstar game and microphones the week before Christmas for £5 as otherwise we wouldn't have had the many hilarious moments we have had over the past few days!)

In contrast this is one of the few smiles S managed Christmas morning as she was feeling so poorly.

This is how S spent most of Christmas morning, snuggled under the quilt Diane made her last year.

Thankfully S brightened up for a while in the afternoon (although she was sick at bedtime for the second night running) and wore her Christmas dress as she wanted to show it to Nanny and Auntie C.

On Boxing day we were due to go to Salisbury to spend the day with G's family but his mum and sister are both ill so those celebrations have been postponed to Saturday. My mum was ill Boxing day (nothing to do with my cooking I hope!) and I seem to have developed another cold. I've never known a Christmas where so many people have been ill!

Christmas Part 1

I wasn't planning on doing this in stages but Blogger is taking AGES to upload photos.
So the first offering is us all in our silly table present finery.

Scarf: present from the children
Drink: Sainsbury's Clementine bucks fizz
Purple hair clip: out of one of the crackers

G looking like Elton John's younger brother!

My mum wore her hat all through lunch.

Not the most flattering photo ever taken of my sister but certainly one of the funniest.

T wearing my hat and my sister wearing hers. How good of her to accessorise her scarf to match so well!

Christmas Eve

We are close to being ready.
Last night we had a good dollop of festive spirit when we went to the theatre to see A Christmas Carol.
Today there are some presents still to wrap, some mince pies to bake, an ice cream dessert for tomorrow's lunch to assemble and a bit of cleaning and tidying to be done too.

We've just had fun making these tea cake reindeer after finding inspiration at Mrs Thrifty's.
One will be left out for Father Christmas tonight along with a carrot for the reindeer.



One of S's classmates gave her a card wishing her a Mere CroosMoos which I think sounds fabulous, so I want to wish you all a Mere CroosMoos too. Have fun.

No Bake Mini Puds

I made these this afternoon.
There were 40 of them but I had to test a couple!
Melt 100g butter, 25g soft brown sugar, 4 tbsp golden syrup then stir in 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 225g crushed digestive biscuits and 100g raisins. Roll mixture into balls and pop into petit four cases. I have topped half of them with melted white chocolate.

Home Front Christmas

This afternoon I had booked T and S into a free activity at one of the City's museums and learning from past experience I didn't tell them about it until a couple of hours before hand. This is because T moans along the lines of 'mum why do you have to find things for us to do all the time?!' I hoping that when he's older he'll look back and remember these things more fondly! I do appreciate that at 10 he is getting a bit too old for crafty outings such as these but having said all that he did enjoy this afternoon.
Before making the reindeer and card decorations, which you can see G very glamourously modelling above, we had a short talk on WW2. There were original ration books, old magazines, a gas powered iron and even an deactiviated incendiary bomb to look at. I could have spent ages looking at these and wanted to photograph them but unfortunately they got packed away before I was able to have a good nose. We ran out of time and so the reindeer had to come home noseless but I'm sure they'll be something suitable in the button tin.

christmas crafts

Writing out home made Christmas cards for members of our family and adding extra festive drawings as inspiration hits.


Getting icky sticky hands from melted marshamllows as we shape Rice Krispie Christmas trees .

A Sprinkling of Snow

Compared to a lot of people this second lot of snow has been just a sprinkle. We spent the day indoors yesterday but today there was a very strong need for fresh air. After a quick trip to the supermarket we drove on down to the park which was practically deserted, although we did bump into neighbours we live 2 doors away from us who were out with their dogs. Snowballs were thrown and the frisbee made an appearance which got the children running around for a while. Mission accomplished it was home again to the warmth, tea and cake baking.

More Pressies

Here's the magpie haul of charity shop/car boot and jumble sale buys that will make up my sister's Christmas present.
They are sat on a crochet blanket which cost 25p. There are 2 bags at 50p each, a brand new pair of PJ's for 75p, a Christmas patterned mug for 50p. 4 various lotions and potions and soaps totalling £1.29. The clothing which includes a hat, a blouse, a skirt, pair of socks and a jumper total £1.65. There is a little cream bucket and a candle holder decorated with angels and 'Sister' which were 25p each. Another candle holder, this time a glass one and the cheapest buy was 10p A little silver fairy for her tree cost 20p. The most boring (in my opinion) gift is a red plastic shelf, which was 60p, which she'll use in one of her 3 sheds. That's not as bad as it sounds! A Cadbury's jigsaw for £1.00 will keep her busy in the evenings as she listens to her Bobby Darin CD which was 20p. The strangest, but still cute, gift is an unopened tin of plasters decorated with cupcakes for £1.00. The last 2 purchases were made a couple of weeks ago at a local church Christmas fayre and these are the pickled onion jar for 25p (she chose that) and the set of multi coloured mini storage jars which were 75p.

Grand total £10.04. As our allowed spend is £10.00 I have come in just over, not bad!

Thank you for all the kind words on my last post. I'm feeling a bit healthier now. It really cheered me to get all those messages. xx

Feeling sorry for myself

I have a nasty cold.
I've been in bed for the best part of 2 days.
I missed the local traders Christmas festivites yesterday which included a lantern parade and carol singing. Tonight I am missing an all expenses paid meal out with my fellow charity shop workers.
I am fed up and feeling a bit wallowy. Boo Hoo.

Thrifty Thursday

I think we should gloss over the fact I've been awake since 5.30am because that cute cat from yesterday's post managed to knock over a folded up clothes airer which clattered with an almighty noise as it landed and just concentrate on this weeks thrifty finds.

I'm not sure howold this set of unopened paper plates are but the label does say made in W. Germany. Can I bring myself to use them this Christmas?


Now if there's one thing we aren't short of here it's mugs so Question: why did I buy 2 more? Answer: they are completely dotty, ginghamy and heart decoratedly gorgeous that's why.

All Decked Out

Christmas has well and truly arrived at our house.
We look forward to the advent calendars each morning.
I would like to move into the house illustrated on mine.

The pudding teapot and other Christmas china is out in the kitchen

as is my Christmas apron which was a gift last year from a far-away friend.

The tree is up decorated with a few new decorations

and a few 'new' vintage baubles.

Had to include this one of Melvyn as he looked so cute.

Another new decoration is this miniature glass tree a present from my sister T, after her recent trip to Venice to celebrate her 40th birthday.

Tonight G has gone to London to watch a metal/rock gig. The children are sat at the table writing out Christmas cards for school friends and once that's done we've got a tube of artifical snow to play with.

Later on when they are nicely tucked up in bed I'm going to sit quietly with a cuppa and read through this. Christmas is offiically on it's way once I buy the Radio Times. I'm getting even more excited!

Milk and Honey

A couple of months back I put together a Christmas present of these goodies for a chilli loving friend. The next challenge was what to give R's wife S.
S loves reading and watching movies, she and G can talk for hours about films they have both seen and then recommend to each other.
As with the Capsicum shower gel this cache of goodies started off with the milk shower gel and was quickly followed by the honey shampoo and then the milk and honey body butter. A jar of honey and mustard marinade and a Crunchie completed the food side of things. To satisfy the reader in her I choose The Secret of Bees (a book I had read earlier this year with my library book group) and on the film front a DVD of Milk which G suggested. To round it all off I found a pair of bee patterned undies! I'm really chuffed with it all. We tend to get together with these friends and their 2 children on Christmas eve and open our gifts to each other then, I can't wait to see their faces, I hope they like it all!

snow scenes

It's melting slowly but surely. With rain forecast over night I expect that by tomorrow it'll look very different out there.

All these photos were all taken yesterday as today we haven't been outside, we've just had a very lazy day indoors.

One choice

There really was only one suitable choice of board game for us to play this afternoon.
A real family favourite.
Played whilst singing the number of spaces moved, direction of travel and anything else that takes our fancy, all to the tune of 'We're Walking In the Air'.
It makes us laugh anyway!

No School Today

G has trudged into work today togged up in many layers of clothing and with his welly boots on. It's not a work day for me so I'm nice and warm indoors with T and S and that's where we'll be staying apart from venturing out for the obligatory snowball fight later.

Trees

Yesterday was on eof those lovely little family days I would like to package up and keep.
Which is why blogging is so great because it means I can record it all.
G and T stayed home in the morning whilst S and I went to a little Christmas fayre. She made a Father Christmas tree decoration, we bought a Father Christmas figure to stand by our front door and S got to have a little chat with Father Christmas too! He was such a lovely Santa and S was very keen to tell him that she also had a brother called T and he was 10 as she didn't want him forgotten!

Then in the afteroon we all went to another local church to visit their annual Christmas tree festival.
Local groups each choose a Christmas carol and decorate the theme along that theme.
These were a few of our favourite decorations.

The church was also decked out with lots of winter greenery, such a welcoming atmosphere inside and we lit 3 candles, shed a tear or two and left full of a variety of emotions.

Our destination was just along the road to Telegraph Woods. We've never been to these before and will definitely return. As well as the remains of an Iron Age fort, which we didn't discover this time, just past the entrance to the Woods is the remains of an Armada beacon in the form of a perfectly circular bank.

As we walked in S took in the open space and shouted 'I love it here, cpme on T let's run!' Those words gave my heart have a little leap of happiness. S approaches things with such vigour and excitement, it makes me so very happy that we made our family the way we did. Such a different life for them and for us too.

The floor was a carpet of leaves, perfect for running and scrunching through.

'Strike a pose' I said and that's what I got!

No idea if this little pine cone had been placed inside this tree truk or whether it has fallen there, but it caught my eye just the same.

Very obligingly this tree trunk has grown in such a way to frame this view so nicely. Our walk was nearly complete when we reached this gate, which was just as well as by then we were all thinking about cakes and hot chocolate back home.

We emerged from the woods at Hampshire Cricket Club and vowed we would be there at least once next season and hoped the weather would be much warmer!