Dec 26, 2009

Abby by the fire pit....



Abigail kept pulling funny faces for the camera - this was the best of the bunch that I managed to get...she still looks cute though :)  My girl - almost 8.  EIGHT!!!  Wow.

A trifle sweet....

Lloyds trifle - I made this for him for dessert tonight - he loves them :)
All prettied up with sprinkles on top!!



So good to be outside....












It was good to have temperatures warm enough to enjoy the outside again without being too wrapped up!!!  Sam loved being outside without being miserably cold :)  He's such an outdoorsy boy and misses the Summer sooooo much!

So sad to think that normally on days as warm as this Charlie would have ventured outside for some sunshine :(

Coffee in the snow....



Having coffee sat by the firepit this afternoon....


Cat love.....





Lady Cottington's Pressed Faeries....



I have loved this book for so long...I showed it to Lloyd fleetingly on the internet MONTHS and MONTHS ago......I can't believe he remembered!!!  I was sooooo amazed when I opened one of my gifts and saw what it was!!!  A special edition of this beautiful book!  It's like a book of pressed flowers but instead of flowers, they are squashed faeries!!!  They were all caught by the lady who was the little girl who saw the faeries at the bottom of her garden all those years ago in England!

She grew up but still regularly saw faeries and caught them by squashing them in books and getting imprints of them!!  Some of the prints are 'naughty' and show boobs and bums ;)  so the back few pages are actually sealed to 'protect the innocent' ;)

The book is beautifully written and sooooo clever and 'realistic'......

You can find out more about this book and read excerpts HERE

Word of the Year 2009.....



Many Life Coaches / websites / books / articles suggest having a word to focus on throughout the year.  You can read about this on websites such as Christine Kane's blog  and One Little Word

My 'Word of the Year' this year was COURAGE!!  Focusing on this word helped me through quite a few events this year!!  It really was a GREAT word to have this year!!!  Whenever I was scared to do something I would focus on my word and tell myself to go with it!!

When I opened this gift from Val I was overwhelmed!!!  It's one of my beautiful Willow Tree ornaments, but this one is called:
 'COURAGE' - "Bringing a triumphant spirit, inspiration and courage."


Val - thank you sooooo much!!!  I can't believe you remembered!  She's beautiful!!! So very thoughtful of you!!
xxx

Sat here watching Oliver!




This is one of my favourite songs from this movie........I just LOVE this movie. It feels like only yesterday that Chris was in Oliver at Festival 
Place and performed on stage at the Mall too!!


Lloyd is reading his breadmaking book beside me and has been flicking through the guide to his Dragon Age: Origins game. Laurence has gone to a friends to sleep over. We were supposed to be at a party this evening but sadly it was cancelled late this afternoon. I hope everything is ok. 


Susannah is watching the movie with us. Sam and Abby are busy playing....Chris is downstairs probably online chatting....we spent the afternoon outside by the fire pit...had a nice buffet supper like we do every Boxing Day.....and I made Lloyd a trifle.  


A nice relaxing day recovering still from Christmas.  


I forgot to say that my neighbours dropped over on Christmas Eve, Lloyd had dropped over to 
them and they asked if they could drop over here in the evening to see everyone. It was lovely and gave me the chance to see how H was doing - she only has two weeks left now until the baby is due! They are coming over again before New Year which will be nice as they haven't lived here long and we don't know them too well yet but they seem soooo nice - H was telling us about her travels - she lived in Korea for 2 years and travelled to Australia, Japan, Hawaii etc etc....


Sorry Blogger is messing about with my typing again :( lines ending mid-word etc :(



Samsam...





Checking out his stocking.....







How was it today Laurie???



One of Laurie's gifts was a 'Poo log'  - a book where he gets to record his poop details hahahaha! There are spaces to write down details like colour, texture, shape, smell....suggestions on what to write....and a space to draw a picture - hahahaha as you can see Laurence found it funny :)

The legwarmers!!



Susannah had hinted LOUDLY that she would LOVE legwarmers for Christmas!!!  So everybody ignored (LOUDLY lol) this fact.....and suggested she buy her own ;)   Abigail surprised Susie with some though and let them be one of the very last gifts Susie opened :)

Happy girls :)

Best Brother Award :)



A gift to Chris from Abigail...

The pleasure of giving.....









Sam just adores his 'Soooo-say'  he wants to marry her and he loves her so much.  When it was time to choose gifts for siblings, he told me he had seen a ring on the television that had a red diamond in it.  He wanted to give that to Susie for Christmas!

I told him that we couldn't get quite the same one, but we could look for a ring with a red stone!!  WE set off for Claires and Ardenes for a ring within his budget!!  He found the perfect ring - a pretty silver ring with a little red rose in the centre.  We bought that and I found a ring box that he could put it in to give to her!

Yesterday as soon as it was gift giving time, Sam found his gift under the tree and raced over to give it to Susie - he couldn't WAIT to give it to her - we were soooo surprised that he had found that gift under the tree to give to her, instead of wanting one for HIM to open himself!  He was so excited to see her open it!  Susannah opened the ring and was so pleased with it and Sam even showed her how it was supposed to go on!!

It was just the sweetest thing!  He got a big hug from his Sister :)












Christmas dinner yesterday....pulling crackers before we ate...and Chris saying to me "If you DARE take a picture of me in this hat and blog it i'll....."

:)

And yes, my flash didn't work in a couple of pictures so they're a tad dark.....sigh....but you get the idea ;)  Oh and there was actually a lit candle in the middle of the bowl of baubles - you just can't tell from the pictures.....another sigh......lol ;)

Christmas Pickle Champion 2009



Susannah found the Christmas Pickle this year and won the prize!!  Yay - she finally beat Chris's winning streak!!

We passed on the tradition of the Christmas pickle to Vals family this year and gave them their very own pickle to hid - and a prize for the winner!  Vals oldest Son, Jason, was the Pickle Champion in their house!!!!  Well done Jason!!!  ;)

You can read more about the fun tradition of Christmas pickles here:

http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth11.htm

Myth or not, we think it's a really fun Christmas tradition!!

Happy Birthday...





Happy Birthday to Stacey's little girl Kylie, who turns FOUR today :)

Happy Birthday Beautiful!!!  I hope you are having a lovely day :)


Christmas Eve fun....





















On Christmas Eve we sat and watched the Christmas episode of 'The Vicar of Dibley' (sooooo funny) and then we all played Quelf!!  This game is hilarious!!  BIZARRE!!  Lloyd had to make a mask out of household items (hence the strange bag on his head which is part of the game and not some weird sexual thing lol - and kids NEVER put plastic bags on your head!!!) I had to be a mime who could talk (???) and I had to act out how I broke out of prison and ran off with a dance company!!!  Laurence was a cowboy riding an ostrich around a whale!!  Susannah had to do a ballet and Abigail had to do a slow dance with Lloyd!!  Chris had to make his belly button talk...I wasn't allowed to photograph that!

Val - tell Travis that Chris also got the lipstick card but was not as willing to participate as Travis :(

We STILL have not managed to find the invisible harpoon that comes with the game...we think we might have left it at Vals last week.....

Golden Wedding wishes.....













Today is my Mom and Dads Golden Wedding Anniversary.  Yes, they have been married for 50 years.  The bottom picture above shows them celebrating their Ruby Wedding 10 years ago.  Time certainly flies!!!!  My Dads Mom and Dad were also married on Boxing Day!!!

Happy Anniversary.  I hope you have had a lovely day!!!  We tried to call a few times but don't seem to be having any luck getting through.  I hope the card arrived safely and that you like the gift we sent for Christmas/ your Anniversary.  We are heading out now.  Have a lovely evening celebrating!

Gingerbread houses.....the movie ;)




This is a movie my Son made of the gingerbread house making last Monday :) All speeded up!! ;)


Enjoy!!!
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