Wishing You and Yours A Very Merry and Peaceful Christmas

Christmas Hugs,

Susie, DH, Eldest, Youngest & Treacle

xxxxx

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The Boys with Santa.  We always took them to see Santa at Great Central Railway near Loughborough.  They loved the steam trains, you got to go on the train for the length of the line, which is double tracked and takes about an hour there and an hour back.  This picture was taken in 2005 and Eldest was ten and Youngest six.

As they got older we used to have lunch on the train and see Santa as well.  Theses two pictures were taken five years later in 2010.  I really miss taking them to see Santa, DH and I loved it as much as they did!!!!

Work is slowing down now as quite a few of the companies we work with have now broken up for the Christmas holidays but the traffic is still horrendous as the shoppers are out and about.  Once we have finished shopping tomorrow that will be it we won’t be going anywhere near any shops until well into next week and then only if I must!!!!  We have a few fun things planned for the holidays with the Boys and Treacle and of course Youngest will be out and about practicing driving with his Dad!

Christmas is coming together in our home and I should have everything ready by Christmas Eve but if if isn’t well it won’t matter.  I am trying for the laid back approach this year (am I convincing you yet?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Tonight I have a basket of ironing to get done and the final bits of wrapping. 

I hope all your plans are coming along well.

Christmas Hugs,

Susie x

Yep only five more sleeps to go and omg!!!  I have so much to do!!! 

I love, love, love this time of year especially driving around at night and seeing all the houses lit up with their trees and lights outside and some people go really to town.  of course there are some houses that you would never know its Christmas, Bah Humbug!!!

Anyway I have been putting up more lights at our home!!!!

Here is our Christmas Tree.  We got it from our local Garden Centre and Eldest’s Best Friend, who is a Horticulturist there, was working the day we went to get it.  He helped us pick this one out and it has been great.  DH says we have to have a huge tree to accommodate all the ornaments we have which we have collected since we were first together in 1986.  It also includes lots of things the Boys have made over the years at playschool and school.  The smell of the tree is wonderful and you can smell it right through the house.

We have put up lights on the kitchen cabinets this year and they look great and I just might leave them up!!!!

My Boys bought me this sign a few years ago and it is so true!! They love the kitchen at Christmas especially when I am baking!!!!!

This is one of my favourite pieces,  It is a made of pottery and I just love Santa’s face.

This was a gift from our friends, Ted and Helen, after a visit to Germany where their daughter and family live.  I had liked them for a while but the ones over here were all candles but I loved that this shows the nativity.  It sits in our dining room window.

Finally our stair lights.

Here is madame last Wednesday all lovely and fluffy and I do love her this long but of course it is not practical really, especially when she kept coming in the house with half the garden attached to her paws!

Here she is after her visit to the Spa and yes it is due to be cold again this week!  Of course!!!!

Friday was the swimming club Presentation Night for the main pool swimmers and it was due to start at 7.00pm as there was so much to get through.  I was in Nottingham during the day and was going to straight to the venue.  Well with one thing and another the whole of Nottingham and Derby became gridlocked!!!  I left at 5.00pm and sat in traffic in various places for well over an hour and had to go down several back roads that I know to try and get around the traffic.  All in all it took me two and a half hours to get there which should have taken no more than an hour!!!!  Fortunately I did not miss Youngest receiving his trophies!!!!

He handed over as Captain this year after two years and presented the Andrew Parr Trophy for Boys 8/9 Years 50m Breaststroke.  Here he is with it.  It was a good night but I did leave after the presentations were made as I was shattered!

Saturday evening we went to the Boy’s Godparents house for dinner and to see them before Christmas.  It was a lovely evening, especially after such a hectic week and also before another hectic week this week!!!!!! 

There is still lots to do but I am just taking each day as it comes, otherwise I think I will get too stressed.  Work is really busy as well but at least that all stops for the holidays on Friday, so it will be great to have a rest.

I am also determined to get some quilting done whilst it is the holidays and definitely get my sewing room tidied.  It has been used as a wrapping station over the last few weeks so as you can imagine the mess in there!!!!!! 

I hope all your plans are coming together for the Christmas period.

Christmasy Hugs

Susie xx

Another Christmas kitchen which I love.

I was sorting out the pictures in my folder and came across this of Eldest, Youngest and Treacle and the last time it really snowed here in 2010!  As you can see from how deep the snow is there was a lot and it has not been like this since.  Treacle and I are keeping our fingers and paws crossed that we get snow like this, this year!!!!

Today I thought it was Wednesday!  All Day!!!!  I was quite disappointed to find out it was only Tuesday but then I do have an extra day to play with this week then!!!  I think the Season is starting to get to me!!!!!!

The boiler men had to come back today to repair the repair they did before as it was still not working properly.  It is supposed to be now!!!!

This is Julian Norton on the left and his business partner Peter Wright at their veterinary practice Skeldale in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.  It has been a new programme in the UK called “The Yorkshire Vet” and is based in James Herriot Country and is in fact his old practice!  

James Herriot, whose real name was Alf Wight, wrote about his life as a young vet in North Yorkshire from when he first arrived newly qualified to settling in and raising his own family, along with all the animals and their owners he treated.  If you have never read the books then they are a must if you love animals.  They made it into a television programme in 1973 called “All Creatures Great and Small” and it was a hit.  Well the TV are now following the real vets in their current practice and it is a great programme.  The added bonus is it is narrated by the actor who played James Herriot in the original TV programme, Christopher Timothy. 

With all the TV programmes that are on today with stress this is a very gentle show and I love it.  If you get chance to see it do.  There have been three series so far.

I hope your Tuesday is going well and yes it is Tuesday!!!!  and your plans for Christmas are coming together

Winter Hugs, Susie x

Well there are only thirteen days to go and oh boy do I have a lot to get done!!!! 

We saw the family on Saturday and it was so nice to see them and have a relaxing day visiting and to forget all the jobs for the day.  Everyone is well and happy and looking forward to the celebrations.

We went here on Saturday night for dinner with the company we work with in Chesterfield.  The food and the company were lovely and a great way to end the day.

Sunday we were getting all those jobs completed and DH and Youngest helped along with swimming and driving and eating and washing and ironing and on and on!!!!!!!

Today has been busy with work which is not getting any slower even though there are only thirteen days left before Christmas!!!!!! 

Here is fluffy Treacle and her clean Santa Hat.  She is going for her spa day on Thursday and although she looks very nice when she is cut, I do love her this fluffy.  She is so cuddly!!!!

This evening Santa paid a visit to our Hill (the local Rotary Club were collecting for their charity) and Treacle was there to see him!

I am going to get some pictures of our decorations over the next few days.

I hope your Monday is going well.

Hugs, Susie x

I am still here, just!  I have just about recovered from my cold, but been left with a hacking cough which I am trying to get rid of!!!!  Work has been just manic!  DH has seemed to be driving from one end of the country to the other and this week has to go down to Poole (on the south coast) and then Norfolk (on the east coast) he only has to go to Wales and Scotland and he has covered the whole of the UK.

December opened and it started to snowing on my blog which I always love, but where did November go?

Our wonderful Youngest son turned 17 (!) (where did 17 years go?!!!!!) and he had a lovely day with his Dad and his present? His car!!!!  OMG he is driving!!!!  He had his first lesson yesterday morning and we are off down that road!!!!!  It has been a crazy week as DH had to go to the garage where we bought his car from on Wednesday to sort the paperwork out and I had to go to Nottingham to his college for parents evening!!!  I mean really why does everything have to be on one evening!!!!!

He had a great assessment from his tutor at college and at the moment he is on course to get all Distinctions in his course.  We are so proud of him.

Swimming has been crazy busy with events.  Last Saturday DH was out all day as President and then Youngest was competing for the Club in the evening at a gala (they came third!).  Tomorrow they are out all day in Sheffield at the Derbyshire Sprint Session!

Treacle is ready for Christmas, even if I am not yet!!!!!  She is going for a haircut next week because you can see how fluffy she is.  This picture was taken just after she had been brushed (she stays like this for about two minutes!) We managed to snap this picture as she was waiting for her lunchtime biscuit!!!!

We have had the usual issues with our home!  The boiler started to play up which we got fixed and we have a booster pump for the water pressure as we are on a hill, now that has decided to go slow!!!  So the plumber has been to see it and is coming on Monday to hopefully repair it!!!! 

Christmas cake is made (a little later this year (!)) and I now need to make the pudding, mince pies and Christmas cookies which are tomorrow’s jobs!  I also have to get the presents wrapped and the cards mailed out!

This week is shaping up to be as hectic.  Monday evening I am getting my hair cut, I look as fluffy as Treacle because I have not had time to go.  Wednesday is Girlfriend’s sister’s Birthday so I will be seeing them.  Friday DH and Youngest are out doing a disco for our friends and I am out at a Christmas meal.  Then Saturday we are visiting family in Nottingham delivering presents and seeing them before Christmas and then in the evening we are going to one of the companies we work with their Christmas dinner, which we are really looking forward to.

Sunday I will be trying to get a few more jobs done and things sorted before Christmas.  Then Youngest will be finishing college for Christmas, it will be swimming club Presentation Evening, DH is going to two more Christmas meals with the other companies we work with in Birmingham and Nottingham and I have to pick up some of the extra bits of food that we have for Christmas before the big day!!!!

Christmas Day will be hectic with my lot and others popping in and out and then on Boxing Day I will have eight for lunch so on the 27th I am not going to be doing anything!!!! In fact I think I will stay in bed alllllllllllllllllllllllllll dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I am also going to catch up with all the blogs I visit and comment on and can only apologise that I haven’t been by for a while but well you know!!!

Today we are decorating the house for Christmas and I really do love it!!!  It is my most favourite job to do.  Well I love all things about Christmas.  You can keep New Year but I love Christmas!!  I will post some pictures when everything is up and done (it won’t look much different to last year but well you know!)

I hope all your Christmas plans are going well and normal service will be resumed on my blog from now on.  Quilting you say?  Yes I am trying to fit some of that in too but with everything else it has been put aside at the moment.  Again over Christmas I am hoping to get lots done!!!!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Hugs, Susie xx

22 Days to Go Before Christmas! Oh My!