It is the second to last Saturday before The Big Day and life is getting busier!!  The Presentation Night went well last night with a few little issues!

The room before everyone arrived.  DH and I were there from 4.30pm setting up.

The Trophies, medals etc waiting for the swimmers, all arranged and sorted out by Rachel who did a great job.

Head Coach Glenn presenting a medal and Rachel helping.

We had changed caterers from last year and the ladies at the venue were doing the food which saved the Committee another job and they had laid out a good spread.  Unfortunately despite telling everyone that they needed a ticket for the evening, for which a nominal charge of £2 is made for the adults (!) ten people and their families turned up on the night, as apparently they were told by someone that they could just turn up on the night!  So although we had added extra numbers on for the catering we ran out of food again!!  Of course the ones who did not eat were The Committee! It finished around 11.30pm and DH and I then packed up our sound/light/disco equipment so it was 12.30am before we left and ended up at the 24 hour McDonalds for dinner!  We are going to come up with a different plan for next year!

I got half of my baking done so far and as fast as I am making it, they are eating it!!!  I have frozen some of the mince pies, cookies and sausage rolls so that I have some for over Christmas.   Otherwise it would be like the washing and ironing (or otherwise know as the Chinese Laudry I run) I would be running a 24 hour baking company!

I am a messy cook!  You know the old saying “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”  well I go on the basis that you cannot bake without making a mess!!!  I always clear up afterwards unless DH is around and then he helps!

The mince pies and Christmas cookies waiting to be baked

Here they are done and the mince pies dusted with icing sugar.

Of course I had a little helper in the kitchen all day.  This is when she gets no sleep and is then tired at night!!  She was very attentive in case I spilt anything on the floor.

As she had been so good and there were no two legged people at home to lick the spoon Treacle helped!  It was an old wooden spoon that was thrown away afterwards!  Of course she was trying to eat the spoon instead of just licking it.

As you can see there are only 4 left out of the 12 I made!

I still need to make the cheesy stars which they all love and are great for snacks, which I will be leaving a few out and freezing the rest.  Finally I have come up with another idea for some biscuits which I am going to try and make tomorrow and see how they come out, so DH and Youngest will be my guinea pigs!

This afternoon we are visiting family and tonight going out for dinner which will be lovely to have a relaxing few hours.  Tomorrow I have some final jobs to do around our home before the festive Season begin, the final bits of baking and marzipan and ice the Christmas cake and some final bits of sewing so it will be a busy day all round.  

Next week will be a bit haphazard with some of our clients working full tilt and others winding down for Christmas and there is always one who need their parts just before Christmas, not that they will do anything with them.  We are lucky that most of our clients close for two weeks over Christmas and New Year, including the companies we work with, so we get a nice break.  Youngest finished yesterday for three weeks and I have a few jobs for him to do whilst he is off, tee hee.  DH has two Christmas lunches to go to this week so I will be cooking dinner for just Youngest and I those days but again it will give me time to get some more things done.

I have completed the three quilted Christmas presents but cannot show you them until after the 25th as they read my blog.  I am still working on Evalyn’s quilt and they are coming to see after Christmas so I am hoping to get it done by then.

I hope everyone has a lovely Weekend.

Hugs, Susie xx