Christmas

As in most houses things have been very hectic here, too busy to blog even. I did manage to take a few photos over the festive season and here are a few.

The week before Christmas we had a lot of snow and I was worried the family wouldn’t get here. Thankfully the snow cleared enough for us all to get together.

Christmas Eve was spent round Jenny and Ed’s and Jamie made some delicious sausage rolls.

We must have been quite good as Father Christmas came!

David and Zen turned up Boxing Day to complete our Christmas get together.

We all went for a walk by the sea and a much needed hot coffee. Zen managed an ice cream!

It was very cold but we had to get mum her sea air!

David and Zen have now gone home to get ready for another holiday and I’m itching to take down the decorations, will I last till the New Year?

garland

I saw this Christmas tag garland project on Shimelle’s blog and had to give it a go. I really enjoyed making it but will have to rethink where I want it when I put the fire on!

“don’t panic”

Sometimes things go wrong. Presents don’t arrive on time, some are duplicated. New recipes don’t work and all my dreams of a wonderful family Christmas turn to nightmares. That’s when I’m grateful for my husband. He calms me down, makes me laugh and helps me sort out any problems. Love you lots! x

visitors

The prompt today was about visitors. We have quite a small bungalow but we still manage to squeeze all the family in. This year mum will be coming to us again so that means Peter will have to sleep on a mattress but he will put up with that for his nan! I will try and ignore the mess and just enjoy the company.

Today is Ian’s birthday so I have tried to spoil him a little before he goes off to work. He got House series 6 and we have already watched the first episode with our lunch, it’s good to know we have plenty more to watch, I love House.

Presents

A quick page today as I’ve been food shopping and wrapped up all the presents.

MUSIC

Christmas music, you either love it or hate it. I love to get in the mood and will play it endlessly while I’m cooking or wrapping presents.

remembering

I love this photo of Ian with his mum, he looks so smart, dressed up to see Father Christmas. We didn’t have as much as the children of today but we were happy. We had our imaginations and space to run around and play with our friends, the world seemed a safer place somehow.

cooking

Another quick page showing the sausage rolls I made today and put in the freezer, I only ate two to make sure they were ok!!

food

Busy today so used a quick page from Shimelle, resizing it to the 6in by 6in that I’m using for my journal. This weekend I plan to do my Christmas menu and all my recipe books and magazines have come out as usual. I like my lists so won’t be happy until I’ve got it all written down and the shopping sorted!

traditions

Traditions – can be good but can cause a lot of problems. “we always do it that way” is often offered up as an excuse. I think it is important to make your own traditions, times change and new families are made and we should never force our ideas on to others. Having said that we seem to have made lots of new traditions over the years which I love, I just hope I will understand if my children decide to change them!

signs

It’s far too early to put up the decorations for me, I always feel they will start looking shabby by Christmas Day, so I didn’t have much to photograph for today’s prompt. Still I wanted to put my snowmen on a page so this was the perfect prompt for that!

lists

last year I copied Jenny and made a gift book. Inside I keep all my ideas, receipts, card list etc. There is an envelope to put in my ideas and I tick off when bought. I also have the master copy for everyone as I constantly get phone calls asking me what everyone wants / has got. it has made life a lot easier.

no excuses

This year I was going to be different, I would tell the story of the bike and the frozen lock. I got out some old photos to find said bike and then I came upon these and I had to put them in my journal especially as I’ve lost all last years pages on my old computer, I really must make the effort and print these ones!

Anyway, there he is, my little boy with the present that caused so much panic and so many people a lot of effort as they searched the land in despair as Christmas came nearer and nearer.

I should have had more faith and trusted Andrew for as he said

“ I knew Father Christmas would bring it”

ADVENT CALENDER

I made our advent calender/box a couple of years ago and fill it with twilight chocolates. It has become a race between Andrew and Ian to open the little drawer each day, so far Andrew is winning!!

Feeling sorry for me, they let me have it today.

day 4

For me the perfect Christmas is having the family around, especially my children.

Fancied some brighter papers for this page so used echo park digi kit called sleighride.

cyber crop

 

I haven’t been on UKS for a while but I saw they had a Christmas themed CC on this weekend and had to give this digi class by Karen a go. It’s all done using free kits from 2peas and was very easy to follow. Give it a go if you have the time.

Christmas Cards

Todays prompt was about the sending of the Christmas cards. I love receiving cards, it is nice to know people are thinking about you. I like to make some cards too although I find them harder than layouts. This year I’ve made a few which I will send to those who I know will appreciate them and the rest will have a pretty bought one.

snow!

You wake up early and there is that quiet, still feeling. Getting up quickly, you peep out the window and there it has magically appeared – SNOW!

You then get your poor husband to make a cuppa and jump quickly back under the covers!

Christmas Journal

December means journal time and I am going to try and do Shimelle’s class again.

I want to keep it simple and use some Dawn Inskip kits, this one is wishes.

The first page is always an introduction showing why I am doing this class, a nice easy start to the the album.

Ian and I started the month with a trip to the garden centre to buy some bird food and we couldn’t resist a mince pie and tea while we were there.