ready?

Father Christmas has already passed over head here once.
He dropped the new PJ's down the chimney earlier to let us know bedtime was due to get underway.
He has a drink of milk and a mince pie set out for him and there's also a carrot for Rudolph.



Excited?
Just a tad!

Many happy Christmas wishes to everyone who calls in here.

To those who leave comments and messages, those who just pop by and to all the truly wonderful friends I've made here in blogland, may your celebrations be full of love and laughter.

flexible

Original plan for yesterday.
Drop S with my sister.
Volunteer in charity shop but leave earlier than normal .
Go home and meet mum and S there.
Be dropped into town by sister and take train to Salisbury to collect T who has been staying with Grandma since Sunday.
Everyone to go to coffee shop for merry Christmas cuppa!
Then return train to town where we meet G after work and grab something to eat before briefly returning home before going to see the wind in the willows.

What actually happened.
Woke up S to find she had been sick in her bed during the night.

Erring on side on caution in case S had some bug/virus type thing....
Rang C to cancel looking after S.
Rang charity shop to explain unable to go in.
Rang mum who said she would sit with S whilst I collected T alone.
Rang Grandma to explain new situation. I would arrive in Salisbury at 2.24 and leave on 2.48. This would co-incide with D's arrival from London and so one trip to station for Grandma.
Rang G to cancel meeting for meal after work. Explained I would pop to supermarket and pick something up once back in town after collecting T.
Due to unexpected time at home got some wrapping done.
Mum arrived and I took bus to train station.
Train delayed and so arrived in Salisbury 5 minutes after I was due to leave again with T.
With just over half an hour to the next train we went to cafe at station and had a chat with Grandma, drank hot chocolate and saw D who arrived for Christmas in Salisbury on her delayed train from Waterloo.
Text G and asked him to go to supermarket as now I wouldn't have time.
Giggled with T until we cried as we thought a brown scarf on the parcel shelf of the train was a teddy bear. It was one of those 'you had to be there' moments!
Met G in town as he was still in town after having spent 20 minutes queueing in supermarket.
All arrived home to find S well and happy.
Ate very unhealthy but very quickly prepared meal and then all 5 of us went to theatre to watch the wind in the willows and a jolly good time was had by all!

It would seem we are all recovering from our reindeer antlers, I mean antics, but now it has affected Tilly.



Merry Christmas!

celebrations

I have been a very lax blogger so far this month. I am not very good at being organised and time wasting rather than time managment seems to be closer the mark for me. Like so many others I had oodles of ideas of all I wanted to accomplish this month but unlike those who are far more organised and more suitably skilled I have failed dismally!

This past week T and S have had their class parties and T took part in the school orchestra concert. School has now ended for the Christmas break and I've finished work too and if that wasn't enough the mini snowfall, despite it's quick disappearance, very quickly managed to send the excitement levels to new dizzying heights.

On Friday evening we went to the local shops where a festive Christmas evening of entertainment had been planned. The proceedings kicked off with a lantern procession over the bridge. This was my favourite one.


And this is my favourite girl!

We wandered around a craft fair, popped into one of the charity shops who were selling all items for £1 or less (!), bought a bag of chips for tea and we were hoping to listen to the advertised musical entertainment but because it was so very cold it was cancelled. Despite the incredibly cold temperature lots of people did attend the event and I hope they try and make it an annual event.

Yesterday was a lovely day catching up with family who came to visit. Lunch was eaten and presents were exchanged accompanied by lots of chatting and merry Christmas wishes.

Later in the afternoon S helped me to make mini gingerbread houses. She got a bit fed up with them as they were so fiddly to ice together being mini ones and so I after the first was completed I was left to finish off the rest. They tasted very nice though!

Hope everyone is having a happy and warm weekend.

news just in.....

Family reported to be morphing into reindeer.....

There's always one who refuses to follow the herd!

boxes

A couple of days ago I received a brown box of goodies. I signed up to take part in a Secret Santa swap and on Thursday morning a parcel arrived much to my (and T and S's) excitement.
My Secret Santa is Angel and this is a peek of my gorgeously wrapped goodies. I'm sure you can guess which item the children spied first, yep the candy canes! These are now hanging on the tree.


Each little parcel was wrapped up in green or red tissue paper or a fabulous white one decorated with little reindeer. The children were very keen to help me with the gift opening, so I let them take turns pulling the trailing ends on the little bows, there's something so exciting about that part I think.

And here are all my lovely gifts. I have been a truly lucky girl. There was an apron which I quickly slipped on and S declared I looked fantastic in, quite a compliment! Notelets decorated with cupcakes, a travel bag of L'Occtaine smellies, a CK handbag mirror, a dotty notebook and pen set, an angel decoration, 2 Christmas themed cross stitch kits, some lovely bead bracelets, a glass candle holder and 2 fabulously scented cinnamon and sugar yankee candles.

Thank you so much Angel I really do love them all.

Whilst out shopping the other evening I picked up the Christmas edition of the Radio Times. I never buy this any other time of the year but it is a must have each Christmas. We always had one when I was younger. It's part of the things that make Christmas, although I hardly watch TV the rest of the year and there is generally too much happening this time of year to make viewing any easier. But there will be a couple of must sees for us on the box this year. Dr Who, I don't want DT to leave!, and the new Cranford should be an absolute treat as well.

How cute is this? It's a little holiday souvenir of a Swiss chalet. I saw it sat in the window of a charity shop on Wednesday as I was passing to go to the one I volunteer in and it stopped me in my tracks as it reminded me so much of my dad. I miss him every single day and it's so much harder at this time of year as he loved Christmas and all the fun and laughter it brings. And I miss his fun and laughter.

The reason it reminds me of dad is he loved yodelling and the serene scenery of this part of the world. If you look through the window at the back of the house and press down the chimney it shows different slides of Switzerland.

On the way home from work I had to nip into town to pick up a present for S and saw this biscuit tin in BHS. I love the styling of the advertisement but won't be keeping it as it's destined as a gift for G's cousin and his wife.

festive fun

It's been a busy week. After 2 weeks away from volunteering at the charity shop I returned last Wednesday and the morning there sped by. The shop was constantly full with customers and it seemed that just about everyone who came in bought something.
On Thursday S's school held what they were calling the Christmas Extravaganza. They were trying something new this year, the whole thing was outside in the playground. Thankfully it was dary but my goodness it was so cold. S's class contribution was Jingle Bells which was sung very well by one and all, though of course I may be a little biased there!
Thursday evening I went out for a meal with a group of friends I haven't seen for nearly a year. We all used to work together, those days are long gone but thankfully the friendships remain, although we all agreed we shouldn't have left it a year since our last get together.
There were some crackers left over at the end of the evening and it was suggested to me that I take them home for T and S. The next morning I put them on the table ready for when they came down for breakfast along with some Christmas foil confetti that had been inside one of my cards.

This wasn't the only hat S wore on Friday. The children had to make an Eco themed hat to wear at their special Christmas lunch that day and S was lucky enough to win a prize for hers!

On Saturday S and I joined my mum and sisters for a trip to Lymington. We had a lovely day out there just over a year ago, it's a lovely place to visit for a spot of Christmas mooching.

Even the stained glass on this building was looking festive.

I managed to buy a couple more gifts so the gift shopping is nearly, nearly done. I also bought this lovely festive jug

and from a junk shop this little fairy for the bargainous price of 50p. She's going to sit on my chest of drawers keeping an eye on my trinkets.

Yesterday we went to a local country park to visit a craft fair they hold annually and also to get out in the fresh air whilst we had some sun. The children had great fun running up and down the artificial cricket strip and always played a game of who can through the stick the furthest.

Great look of concentration from S.

And a look of celebration from T.

Once bath time was complete and they were both in PJ's it was time to sit down, with mince pies, and write to Father Christmas. T asked for a Dr Who fob watch, a remote control R2D2 and a remote control K9. S asked for a pink scooter, a rubber (eraser) and a motorbike.

Today being Monday means it's housework day, although there have been a few stops for cups of tea from my pudding teapot. The little pudding next to it is a purchase from the craft fair yesterday. It's a dinky little cover for a Ferreo Rocher chocolate, isn't that sweet!

We have taken the tree down from out of the loft today and so over this coming week we hope to get the house looking more festive. It's getting exciting!

calendars

There was an air of anticipation here this morning due to wondering what would be found behind the first door on our advent calendars. Pulling back the curtains and finding the frost certainly added to that tingly feeling!

This year Grandma has bought T and S's from the gift shop at Salisbury cathedral and they are really stunning, so much detail in both of them.

T's is a snowy Christmas market scene



and S has a 7 storey house which looks like a wintery wedding cake.

S was so excited last night about the impending calendar countdown and the fact there are so many festive things happening at school this week that when bedtime came around she just didn't want to part with the hat she had been wearing for most of the evening.