Well we have managed to get to Christmas Eve fairly unscathed!! Although Coco has a cystitis infection so we were at the vets yesterday!!! Hey Ho!
Anyway I wanted to wish all my lovely Followers from all over the World a very Merry and peaceful Christmas. Thank you for all the lovely comments and taking time to read my witterings through the year!
I have also got to do our last Book for Book Club Friday, it has been quite frantic with business and things here, but I promise I will get it done between Christmas and New Year.
It starts off with a small meander! Christmas things start to appear in the shops, you get a few emails and a few Christmas adverts. Then as each day/week goes by it gets a little more until now, the week before Christmas, and everything and everyone is in full Gallop to Christmas Day next Monday!!!!!
I popped into the supermarket yesterday for a few bits and some fresh veg and fruit and it was like it was Christmas Eve! I wanted to shout “people there is almost another week to go before the day! Get a grip!” but no they were banging trolleys and pushing people out of the way to get to things. I escaped quickly with my bag of fruit and veg!
I forgot the other day to show you our outside lights. They do brighten the place up when it is dark and grey, which it has been most of the days.
The Daily Telegraph did an article about one of their Reporters helping The Savoy Hotel in London do their Christmas decorating which is done over the course of one night! As you can imagine it is big and over the top. They then asked for readers to submit pictures of their decorations. I submitted quite a few and they picked these two to show in their article. The above one is a decoration from my Grandmother’s tree and is over 100 years old and quite fragile. If you follow my blog you will have seen him before. Below is an ornament that Eldest made at Playschool, which comes out every year, and is now twenty five years old.
I am ready for Christmas. Just need to marzipan and ice the Christmas cake and do the Chocolate Log and then it is all done, bar cooking Christmas Dinner of course! Will got quite a bit prepared on Christmas Eve so I can spend time with everyone on Christmas Day.
I do hope you lovely lot are ready for Christmas. Tomorrow I have a few errands to run and then get home jobs done and Friday we are picking up the Christmas bird, we have chicken as none of my lot are fond of turkey, and the other bits of food shopping. Saturday and Sunday would you believe we have nothing on! Although, of course, there are always jobs that can be done!
Last week sped by, I was so busy I think i met myself coming back at one point! A lot of it was to do with work but I did get to go out for a Christmas lunch with Jayne to The Cavendish Hotel at BaslowWe ate in the new Garden Room and it was a lovely afternoon, really enjoyed spending a few hours away from work with Jayne. We drove back through Chatsworth grounds and it was quite misty and looked a little spooky.
I did manage to fit in a hair cut and spa day for me as well as everything else I managed to get done!
All the presents are wrapped and waiting to go to Santa.
Parcels ready to go to the Post Office and parcels ready for hand delivery.
I made another batch of 35 Christmas Cookies, which have now all gone so need to make more this week.
Here are a few of our Christmas decorations in the kitchen.
My Nigella Christmas cookbook which I use a lot of receipes from.
Coco helping in the kitchen and keeping an eye on the garden, and cat patrol!
Eldest bought me some Snoopy oven gloves!
I managed to get the cleaning, washing and ironing done on Friday and then Friday evening it was the Swimming Club Presentation Night. It was very busy with over three hundred parents and swimmers there and DH compere for the night. I left after the actual presentations as I was shattered.
Saturday we were up bright and early as we went over to Nottingham to see family and went out for lunch with DH’s cousin who we have not seen for a while. After the hectic week it was lovely to be relaxed and have a lunch. Then we got back about 3.00pm for me to get dinner ready for five, as we had friends round for dinner for Christmas. It is the best bit about Christmas for me, seeing family and friends. They left around midnight and then we were back at the swimming pool on Sunday afternoon for the Swimming Club Fun Gala!
The Coaches, including Youngest, also swam in the Gala. The swimmers all loved it!
This week I am planning on not doing too much work but getting things ready for Christmas Day. Today I have been working but tomorrow I am out and about running errands and getting food which has been ordered. I still have a couple of presents to deliver as well and then I have a spa appointment for Thursday, DH is out for two Christmas meals, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday and then he will finish for Christmas. Our Roofer also came today to fix a problem on the roof at the back and also clear all the gutters out before the weather gets bad.
Do you love them or do you hate them? Generally I love them except there seems to have been a Netflix “effect” on quite a few now. You know how Netflix is accused of just putting films and TV series out there to satisfy the amount whether they are good or not!
I have watched quite a few whilst I have been baking and wrapping presents and some of them have been dreadful!
I do have a few favourites though:
DH and I actually saw this at the cinema before the Boys were born and we were both in stitches. Still love watching it. Not a fan of Home Alone 2 or the other Home Alone films but can watch the original again and again.
Love this one and it has the wonderful Lauren Bacall in. If you have never seen it do.
Another one I liked not too much of a story but it is okay.
Probably the best version of A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim as Scrooge, I watch this every year.
Who does not love this movie, a real Hollywood movie with the famous Bing Crosby song at the end with snow!!!
A modern remake of the original Miracle on 34th Street with the wonderful Richard Attenborough.
This is a Netflix offering and does well on the Christmas scale. Worth a watch.
As I say there are a lot out there that when you have watched them you think well that is an hour and a half I cannot get back, especially at this time of year. I may be unpopular with the next two films and a lot of people absolutely love them but for me, no, not really!
The Holiday is too contrived and Love Actually well a typical British film!!!
Do you have a favourite Christmas Movie? I also find as well that if an actor is in it that I don’t like that then affects whether I like the film/programme or not! I was watching a series the other day on our BBC channel and this actress was in about Episode 3, out of 6, and I really cannot stand her and it just made the rest of the season a torture to watch!! I ended up skipping the bits she was in!!!!
I hope you have had a good Wednesday, almost the weekend.
When we were little we used to have Advent Calendars which were lovely pictures with little doors on and you opened them to find another picture in the countdown to Christmas day. I loved my Advent Calendar. When the Boys were little I always used to buy them the same, despite the fashion to have chocolate Advent Calendars which I hated! I was a mean Mummy!!! Now that they are grown they have, for a few years now, had a grown up Advent Calendar from a company called Wera and you may have guessed they have tools in!
Anyway this year DH and the Boys bought be an Advent Calendar from Fortnum & Mason, one of their beauty ones, below, which is sat on my desk. It has some lovely products in it and I am being very good and opening the doors on the day it should be and not peeking at the other days!!
As you know it has been very cold here over the last week and this is what the trees looked like on Friday morning! It is just frost not snow.
However when I got up at 4.00am on Sunday morning I opened the curtains to find this! They had said it may snow a little bit, but this was quite a lot!!!
Our garden covered!
Madam enjoyed it and would not come in when I called her!! She was very wet and cold when I did finally get her in!
Her Paw Prints!
It was Youngest’s Birthday so we went out to dinner on the steam train again. It was a lovely evening and meal.
The Christmas Tree on the Station.
The Steam Engine waiting to go.
The Platform.
This is the real fire in the Ladies Waiting Room, It is very cosy and I could quite happily while away a few hours reading in there!
The dining table on the train.
On Saturday, before it snowed, we had a visit from a Robin.
Last night it was the Christmas Light Switch on in our village. It did look rather festive with the snow, although by the time we got there it was raining and very cold! It went very well but those who attended did not stay long despite the hot drinks and mince pies availabe!!
We got our Christmas Tree on Saturday morning and did start decorating it yesterday here it is with just the lights on.
Now with all the ornaments on.
We still need to decorate the rest of our home but we did not get back from the light switch on until 8.00pm and we had not had dinner, so we will be doing the rest tonight.
It has been raining all day today and still cold but all the snow has gone for now but it is due to be frosty again this week but a little warmer next weekend, which is a good thing as we need to do a few bits in the garden!
I hope you wonderful weekend and a good week to come.
Right the first thing you need to know is that there are :
24 Days To Go To Christmas!
So if you have not done so already, time to get your scates on!
I have now finished all the wrapping, the baking (I still have some baking to do as gifts!) and just now have a couple of other things to do today and we are ready!
Look who is Home! Even woolier than before, but she has her Spa Day booked next Wednesday. I braved the traffic, which actually wasn’t too bad as it is Friday and I think a lot of people “work from home” today, and got to the Kennels at 10.30am. She was very pleased to see me. They said she had been very good and had a lovely time.
After a wash and much needed cut on Wednesday Coco will be all ready for Santa Paws. Speaking of haircuts Youngest is also going on Monday, he looks about as bad as Coco!!!!
I forgot to show you all the other day, but we had a sprinkling of snow the other morning, on top of the heavy frost, so it was fun de-icing all the vehicles. It also snowed a little bit again last night so it took me half an hour to de-frost my car which had not been out for two weeks! It was FREEZING!
Getting Coco from Kennels I have to drive past where I used to live with my Parents and where my Grand Parents lived so a trip down memory lane! I had the Christmas music playing in the car and I felt very Christmasy and nostalgic! Especially remembering all those family Christmases from the past.
DH is out tonight at another light switch on and the final one is on Sunday for our Village. Tomorrow we have lots to do including getting our tree and are out in the evening and then Sunday we have everyone round to us for breakfast whilst we decorate the tree and the house.
I hope you lovely lot have a wonderful first weekend of December and the start of Advent.
The one benefit of having to be in all day and up very early is that I am getting a lot done for Christmas.
Here is the Christmas cake after baking for four hours. It will be wrapped in grease proof paper and tin foil and “fed” some brandy over the next week or so and then it will have marzipan and Royal icing put on it ready for the big day.
I also got all our Christmas cards written today, all 100 of them!
I am in the process of making another sixty mince pies and tomorrow after home jobs I will be making the Christmas cookies.
The plumbers have fitted the bath today and toilet and the sink will be tomorrow and they just have to finish all the waste and water pipes and then make sure there are no leaks of course. Then they will give it a good clean. Cannot wait to have a bath!
Coco is coming home on Friday morning and then I will be getting on with some other jobs I need to do.
We woke up this morning to a hard frost on the garden and all the cars were frosted over. It has been bright and sunny all day so once again it will be frosty tonight! So if we don’t get any snow it will be white with frost!
Winter!
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire; it is the time for home”
Edith Sitwell
I think the above quote embodies Winter and particularly Christmas. When I am baking it reminds me so much of being with my Grandma and helping her with all the Christmas preparations during the School Winter holidays. My Grandmother taught me to bake and I used to help her making the Christmas cake and pudding, the mince pies and she would pluck the goose, which we always had for Christmas dinner and I would pick up the feathers to stuff cushions with. She also used to make marzipan fruits (below) but they are quite tricky to make and only Eldest likes them!!!
Fortnum & Mason
She always used to make her own wreath for the front door and I would help my Grandfather collect the greenery and holly to make it and decorate the home. We also used to make Christmas ornaments for the tree and to give as presents, as well as baked goods and the chutneys and jams that Grandma had made during the summer. My Grandparents were of the era where you grew and made everything your self and only bought necessities.
This is my Grandmother in 1926 aged 22.
I am so glad that she taught me how to do all this and that I am able in a small way to do it now.
As a lot of you who follow my Blog know I have been working from home now for thirty one years. Which was a laugh during Covid because lots of people were working from home for the first time ever and it was a novelty, but for me it was business as usual!
We still have the Plumbers with us but they are cracking on and each night we get to see what they have finished. So far we have a new floor and wall, new tiles on the floor and walls and the bath came in yesterday although it is not fixed yet. The Plasterer was here yesterday so we do not now have a hole in the ceiling! Although DH and I had to clean everything down because plaster dust goes everywhere!
The Christmas Cake all wrapped up and ready for its four hour cooking!
The Christmas Pudding in its basin. It will be covered and “rest” overnight before being steamed tomorrow.
The reason I mentioned working from home is that you do have the luxury of taking a few hours off here or there or the whole morning or afternoon or the whole day to do other jobs! Because I have been so far behind with things I have spent the day working and baking! I have been getting up at 5.00am so have been able to get quite a few jobs done before the Plumbers arrive at 8.00am. Tonight I have the presents to finish wrapping (I ran out of paper!) and tomorrow it is card writing and more baking (!). Thursday morning will be home jobs and in the afternoon more baking if I don’t get it finished tomorrow!
The Plumbers will be finished by Thursday, so Coco is coming home Friday morning, yeah. I have missed her lovely furry face! Friday afternoon I have one or two other jobs to get done and DH is out at another Christmas Light switch on, so I have quite a few hours to spare then. Saturday morning we are getting our Christmas tree and when we have sorted and paid for it, we get to go for breakfast out. Saturday is also Youngest’s Birthday so we are out in the evening for dinner. Sunday we will get to decorate the tree and our home and Eldest and Girlfriend are coming round in the morning. Sunday evening is our Village Light Switch on and DH is compering that too.
(Edgar Degas)
I have told all our lot that they can have showers but I am the first to have a bath!!! Can’t wait. I always read in the bath so I may be a few hours!!!!! It won’t be entirely finished as we have decided to put new lighting in which DH needs to do (when he gets a sec!!!!) and I am waiting for a new mirror to be delivered and some other bits for it but we will be able to use it which is the main thing.
I am aiming to get pictures of everything Christmas this year and will show you here on the Blog!
Our weather has turned really quite cold, apparently we have Scandinavia to thank for this cold front! It is going below freezing every night this week and not much above it during the day, although it has been sunny today, which I love. Cold frosty days with the sun shining. I think we can say that Winter has arrived rather than coming (for all you Game of Thrones Fans!).
Yesterday DH, Eldest, Girlfriend, The Girls and I went to Great Central Railway in Loughborough to see Santa on the steam train. Fortunately the day was clear and sunny when we arrived although it got misty as evening came on.
This is the Ticket Office and entrance to the Rails.
The Signal and Porters Lodge
We went and looked at the Museum
The four of them stood by The Station Master’s Office.
On the Train waiting to leave.
Eldest & Girlfriend.
Parcels waiting on the Station.
Eldest & Girlfriend’s Youngest.
Santa arrived and brought a gift for both Girls.
The Cafe at Rothley Station.
The decorations in the garage which had twinkling lights.
Santa and The Girls.
Picture Time.
On our way back to Loughborough and it was getting dark so the lights were all very bright.
Here are Eldest & Youngest with Santa from 2007. Eldest was 12 and Youngest Eight, on the very same steam train!
We all had a lovely day and came home and had Lasagna & Salad for dinner.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and great week to come. December at the end of this week and then the next few weeks to Christmas will fly by!!!!
You now how you are on New Year’s Eve and it his Midnight, it’s like being stood at the top of a very long and winding road down a mountain. You know it is going to be a long way and there will be many twists and turns and some may be more difficult than others? Well January started off with a lot of bumpy bits for us!
Eldest was rushed into hospital in the early hours of January 6th not being able to swallow and shallow breathing. Last year he had two bouts, one in September and one end of October of toncilitis, which neither of our boys ever had when they were little. He had antibiotics and it managed to clear it but it started again just before Christmas. After a couple of doctors saying he was fine and wanting to send him home (!) the A&E Doctor said he was too poorly to go home and admitted him at 4.00am. They started him on much stronger intravenous antibiotics and then did lots of tests. They eventually found out that not only did he have tonsilitis again but also a chest infection too! He was in for a week.
He is now out and looking a lot better than he did but still has a cough and a bit of a sore throat but they sent him out with a lot of tablets too! DH and I spent the week running around visiting and taking things in he needed and of course not a lot of work on my part got done!
I managed to get the Christmas decorations taken down but the Christmas tree was still up in the sitting room until the Monday. We also had the swimming club’s big Open on the weekend of 7th/8th January. It all happens at once of course. It took me the whole of this week to get caught up with work jobs/home jobs/washing & Ironing!!!
Tom started a cold at the swimming Open and was “growling” at everyone on the microphone and spent the week after coughing and spluttering. I did, of course, tell him not to give it to me but he didn’t listen, so I have spent this week with a sore throat, cough and every joint in my body hurting! I do think we are now reaping the two years we spent wearing face masks during Covid! I am hoping that it will be gone soon.
Here is Madam’s Ten Month Old picture! This was taken on Eldest’s bed and she is looking over his TV out of the window!!! She looks quite big here but in fact she is just sitting up high, she still appears to be smaller than our dear Treacle was.
She was extremely interested in Christmas and in particular the presents and did start to help us open them just as Treacle used to. This is her sack and she is choosing a present to open from it.
We had some wonderful gifts from Molly and her wonderful Mom, Sue, but I have not taken any pictures yet due to all the chaos so that will be another post. We did, in fact, have a wonderful Christmas the four of us, doing not a lot which was very nice. The Boys and DH were busy playing cars of course and I got to stay home and read which was great!
This weekend and next weekend we are not doing anything but every weekend in February and March DH has a swimming event so I will be using the time to get things organised, reading and doing some quilting. The weather is not good, we had had a sprinkling of snow but nothing to talk about but it has also been very frosty, definitely hibernating time!
I hope you lovely lot had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
