Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas

From Us All!

Susie, DH, Eldest, Youngest & Treacle

1 Day To Go!

Yes just one day to go before the Christmas festivities begin and I have just about caught up!!!!  Sixty mince pies are now made, fifty sausage rolls made and I have collected the meat and fresh fruit and vegetables from the Farm Shop so that is all now done.  I just have to finish icing the Christmas cake and I am ready!!!!!

The weekend was busy again, Friday night was our Presentation Evening for the swimming club and we had changed venues from previous years.  This combined with an extra medal being presented for each race, we had lots of parents and swimmers there (more than previous years!) which was great.  The Boys had done well in the Championships and Youngest got his first Second place plaque which he was thrilled with.

Youngest’s second place block and receiving it from our President

Youngest also received The Captains Shield this year for Great Sportsmanship for the year which was presented by Eldest, as he is the Boys Captain, but no one got a picture and I was helping get the buffet unwrapped!

Eldest was helping the President with the trophies and he then presented Eldest with his trophy!

Eldest and Girlfriend

The Disco afterwards and one of those dances!

DH doing the disco!

It was a great evening and we got home about midnight!  Saturday was the first Saturday in six weeks that DH and I had been in and it was so nice not to be going anywhere.  We got quite a few jobs done before Christmas which needed doing and then Sunday we went to see our friends over in Stafford with Christmas gifts.

Tonight DH and Youngest are doing a disco for another swimming club in Derby for their presentation evening!  So I am getting some ironing finished and those odd little jobs finished for Christmas Day! 

With one day to go my Holiday Tip for today is

DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE SMALL THINGS, JUST RELAX AND ENJOY THE FESTIVE SEASON!

Have a Marvelous Monday

Susie x

4 Days To Go!

Four days left and how much can you fit in to four days?!  Well lets see I need to finish our Christmas cake, at least the Christmas pudding is done and waiting for the day!  I need to brave the supermarket (no I didn’t get to go today!), we still need to deliver gifts, still some business work to do and oh yes have some relaxing family time too!!!!!

Tall order I think!!!  The Boys are busy getting ready for tonight (I thought it was us girls that take hours to get ready?) no Boys are as bad.  Having cleaned the house from top to bottom yesterday ready for the holidays the Boys have been at home all day!!!!!!  Yes it now looks like I did nothing yesterday! 

Treacle is wandering between the Boys rooms trying to get someone to play with her, they both keep patting her on the head and that’s it so she is not being successful.  She has got in her basket beside me in disgust!  Don’t worry Treacle we will give you an extra long walk over the weekend to make up!

I need to plan some of my quilting things I need to do as well as there is another Baby due after Christmas and if I don’t get on with the quilt the baby will be here before the quilt is made!  This is Girlfriend’s Uncle and his partner who are expecting and they know they are having a little girl so I have bought some girly fabric.  I also need to finish my Autumn wall hanging (ready for next year now!) and I have Eldest’s quilt still to finish!  I changed my mind on the border for it and bought some different fabric.  I also have the Mystery quilt from our quilt club to finish and I need to also get on with another quilt I have promised!!!!!  Oh my!!!!!

My Holiday Tip for today is

EVEN THOUGH IT IS A BUSY TIME OF YEAR MAKE THE MOST OF FAMILY TIME

Anyway it is a quick post today as I have to dash and finish some ironing before I go out tonight.  Will load some pictures tomorrow of Presentation Night.

Have a Fantastic Friday and Weekend

Susie x

5 Days To Go!

Yes only five days left!!!  I managed to get all my day work done, just now need to do my home work!!!  I managed to get the Christmas cakes finished and the puddings re-wrapped and DH has delivered two hampers already!

Youngest finished today for the Christmas break and he is so happy!  DH also helped today at the village playschool with giving out the presents (dressed in red of course!)  Fortunately there were no tears this year.

Today has also been house jobs day which I dashed through this morning and tomorrow I need to brave the queues at the supermarket to get those final little bits.  Hopefully I will be able to get some more baking done tomorrow.

Tomorrow evening is the Presentation Night for the swimming club where all the trophies are presented from the Club Championships held in November, there is also food and entertainment.  Tonight is the last swim session before Christmas so the children (and parents!) don’t have to get up early on Saturday morning!!

As there are only five days left before the festivities my Holiday Tip for today is 

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH PLATES AND SERVINGS DISHES FOR THE CHRISTMAS LUNCH AND YOUR GUESTS (YOU COULD ALWAYS USE THE DOG’S BOWL IF YOU ARE SHORT!  SEE MY CONFESSION ON THE “ABOUT ME PAGE”)

Have a Thrilling Thursday (I will get round to doing some quilting soon, honest)

Susie x

I don’t normally get to post on Wednesday Wag day but Treacle’s asleep so schh don’t wake her!  Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt (http://www.sewwequilt.com/)  came up with this!  So what is your Elf Name?

Susie x (aka Sparkie Sweet Stocking!) 🙂

7 Days To Go!

Yes just seven days left before all the hard work and running around in the last few weeks the day is here and before Santa visits all!

We had the busiest weekend ever and great fun but we were all tired by the end of it!

Friday evening we all went to see Baby Evalyn, Mom and Dad and had dinner with them too.  Evalyn has grown a little bit and is definitely getting a little personality!

Oh no my Uncles are here!!!

I Finally got a cuddle!

We got home quite late so The Boys didn’t go swimming Saturday morning as we had the big swim meet in the evening.  We spent Saturday day trying to get things sorted out and all those little jobs done and got to the pool at 4.00pm to set up.  It started at 6.00pm with warmup for a 6.30pm start but they were already arriving when we got there at 4!  The whole evening was a success again, extremely noisy and the points were very close.

The top three would be going forward to the final between the other Division Three Clubs and the final would be on January 18th, which happens to be our Big Open Event!!!!!  We were all a little nervous as it would have meant us having to take the Team out of the Open which we didn’t really want to do and as the event is huge we need every hand to help out on the day.  Anyway half way through we were second (we were winning at the start!) then we dropped to third by half time but by the end we were fourth!  I don’t think I have ever seen our Club happy to be fourth!!!!!!  They were not disappointed as they all want to swim in the Open!!  Anyway we didn’t get home until 10.00pm and then had dinner!!!!

Sunday saw us driving over to Nottingham to see family and catch up with them and deliver Christmas Presents!  We also visited the village church where DH’s parents are.  We go and tidy up the grave and lay a wreath as Christmas was a favourite holiday with his parents.  Well we did the tidying, but left the wreath in the other vehicle!!  I blame it on being tired!

Sunday evening DH and I went to Donna & Matt’s wedding reception on the outskirts of Nottingham.  We had a lovely evening and the Bride looked beautiful!

Cutting the cake

I showed you the wreath they had received from their relatives in Australia last week, they also received these

Mr & Mrs Kangaroo!!!  Aren’t they cute?

They also asked everyone to provide a Christmas ornament for their tree so that every year they can remember the day when they dress the tree, which we thought was a great idea.  Here is the tree with the ornaments on.

By Monday morning none of us wanted to get up, including Treacle, but she was off to the groomers and I had a load of work to catch up on, including a huge basket of ironing!  After dinner we heard Christmas songs being played outside and found the local Rotary Club float outside the house with Santa paying an early call.

No matter how old the Boys are they still went out to see Santa!

Treacle normally goes out to see Santa too but her collar was being washed, as she had had a bath! so she watched from the window!!!

Today I am trying to finish off the holiday food preparations and then get on with my real work and get that up to date before the holidays begin.  Everyone we speak to this week is doing the same thing and now planning for when everyone is back in January.  Youngest finishes school on Thursday and is counting down the days.

I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday.  My Holiday Tip for today is

DON’T FORGET TO ASK EVERYONE WHO IS COMING FOR CHRISTMAS IF THERE IS ANYTHING SPECIAL THEY WANT, BEFORE CHRISTMAS EVE, SO YOU HAVE TIME TO BUY IT!

Susie x

11 Days to Go!

Just 11 days left and panic is now starting to set in!  I still have lots of things left to do as as my Holiday Tip yesterday said, enjoy the Season too!  Well I am trying but I have lists and lists floating around in my head and I am even dreaming about them now!!!!

Tonight we are off to see Baby Evalyn and dispense gifts and cheer (well I will be cheerful when I have managed to get over the all encompassing tiredness I feel!!!!!)

Tomorrow I will be up early to try and finish the jobs I need to do.  One of the jobs is to make Christmas cookies out of Nigella’s Christmas book.  Everyone loves them but I do change her recipe!!  So I suppose they could be my Christmas cookies!!!!

I will give you the recipe and show you some pictures when I have made them tomorrow! 

Here is my Holiday Tip for today :

HAVE PLENTY OF THINGS FOR THE CHILDREN TO DO TO KEEP THEM OUT OF MISCHIEF WHEN THEY HAVE FINISHED SCHOOL!

Have a Fantastic Friday

Susie x

12 Days to Go!

Today has been really dark and I have had the lights on all day, although it is a little milder than yesterday!  We were busy last night delivering the Christmas cards in the village and Treacle came with us.  She had her coat on as it was very cold and frosty!

I have been doing house chores today, including spending a couple of hours unblocking the upstairs bathroom toilet!!!! Why do these things always happen when you have plenty to do already?

I still have lots of jobs to do for Christmas which I am planning on doing tomorrow and Saturday.  After Christmas we are having The Boys Godparents round for dinner and I have been trying to plan the menu for that and just after New Year we are having some other friends round for dinner who we have known for twenty seven years!  It will be great to catch up on their news.

DH bought me this book a few years ago and the recipes are great, they just take time to do, so I will be looking for inspiration from it for the two meals.

DH and I are also hoping to go into Nottingham one evening next week to have a look at the lights and have a meal.  We used to do this every year with the Boys but as they are getting older they are not so keen!!!!! 

The Nottingham Council House with the skating rink in the square (I don’t go skating as I am useless!  I spend more time on the floor than upright!)

This Light Tree stands at the top of Derby Road going out of the city at Caning Circus and I love it.

The Holiday Tip for today is

DON’T FORGET TO ENJOY THE SEASON, AMIDST ALL THE PLANNING AND HARD WORK!

Will have lots of pictures to show you next week of all the activities over the weekend.  Have a Thrilling Thursday

Susie x