Scenes from Christmas - a late post.

Oh look. I've just found some pictures taken over the Christmas holidays. I know we are half way through January but I thought I'd share 'em anyway. I don't know if you have noticed, but it seems that public swimming pools tend to be quiet at this time, so we had a very pleasant time at this one in Deal, which had some flumes and a wave machine and a good toddler pool for Hope. I'm going to try and take her swimming more often.
These pics are from Boxing Day. Here's Auntie Vicky playing carols on the piano while we sing along.
I love this picture: do Jingle Bells again!
... blowing bubbles.
And opening pressies on Christmas day.

Hope loves her fairy wings and magic 'blond'!

The Great Escape.

I've just been out for the first time in seven days. There's still loads of snow everywhere. I just got Hubby to drive me to Tesco's as I'm not brave enough to make the journey myself. It was nice and quiet in there. I bumped into someone I know who told me all about her Christmas, cooking dinner for the 5000, setting the alarm for 5am but struggling to get up to get on with all the work with a hangover. She said she enjoyed doing it because otherwise I just don't get why I often hear women lamenting about how much they have to do at Christmas. What would happen if they didn't get up at 5am and start peeling potatoes and sprouts. Would it be like in LOST where poor Desmond has to reset a button every 108 minutes or the world will blow up? Would Christmas come to an end if we put our feet up with chicken nuggets (like Bianca's family in Eastenders... and they seemed to be having the better day) or fish n chips instead of turkey?
Well. I suppose we have a choice. Personally, I prefer less of a hoo-haa but then I did really appreciate the beautiful dinner Hubby made for us. And he did it cheerfully. I can't bear to watch anyone making a martyr of themselves. Especially me... hee, hee!

Anyway. I think a little trip out was just what the doc ordered. One is starting to go a little stir crazy!

Even more from Dorset!!!

These two photos were taken at the Eileen Soper exhibition in Poole. Eileen Soper did the illustrations for the Enid Blyton books. This was a great day out but I want to do a separate post on that later. For now, just a couple of pics of us being silly with some silly specs out of an old 1940's toy box!

These next two pics are in a cafe. The thing I like about this cold weather is I haven't done anything with my hair for weeks (apart from wash it!). I can just stick a hat on every time I go out!

Full of excitement, waiting for Father Christmas to arrive. The kids have pillow cases laid out by the tree, and that is all they had. And they didn't seem to mind that SC brought a few books some other bits 'n pieces and....a cuddly toy.

And she is simply.... beautiful!

More from Dorset

These pictures are from the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester. We had just been to the Tutankhamun exhibition which cost £22.50, lasted for 10 minutes, made Honor-May cry and the lady on reception was really rude! So a very pained hubby, then agreed to shell out another £22 for this one down the road. It was much better, still expensive though.

Here is Honor-May (drinking cherry juice!) in our log cabin, waiting for the turkey.

And here are Honor-May and Henry (drinking coke! - well, it is Christmas!) in a pub on Lyme Regis sea front, just before we go back to the log cabin for Christmas dinner.

Scenes of Yule and snow!

This morning I have been having a good tidy up while Hubby cleans the car out (boy, does that need doing!) and the kids keep me entertained with songs from The Wriggly Nativity. So I've just posted some pics of the Christmassy and snowy bits and pieces from around the home today. I'm not sure if the snow will last much longer but even if it's gone by Christmas Day, it's been lovely to have it around during the advent season to go with the decs and make the lead up to Christmas extra special.

Last night Hubby and I went to the Italian for our anniversary meal. We had a really lovely time. We don't get out much so we really appreciate it when we do. Well, I do, anyway and got quite giggly on the white wine which seemed to be served in fish bowls rather than glasses. It was very cold in the restaurant. We had a very nice table by the window and next to the radiator. There was a large table beside us of people celebrating a birthday (I know that 'cos they had helium balloons on the table wot said 'Happy Birthday'!) and some of those people were still sitting in their coats. They were looking at us as we got seated and I could hear them muttering "look at them, they're next to the radiator!" It was still bloomin' cold though. We stopped off at the local village pub on the way home and I had an even bigger glass of wine! I'm surprised not to have a hangover this morning. Then Grandma went home and Hubby and I opened our Christmas presents (yes, already!) while we watched Moonlighting. One of my pressies was a trug decoupaged with Cath Kidston paper (see pic). Lovely.

Finally, 'Happy Birthday' to my brother, Down Under. Bet you're nice 'n warm. xxxx

Finished.

I've finished clearing Henry's bedroom and Hubby managed to put together the bed-in-the-box

from Homebase even though on one of the poles the holes were drilled on the wrong side! I've put little xmas trees in both their rooms as we're not having a big tree this year.

Christmas pretty.

It is the first day of Advent today (ok, it was Sunday) and Hope is almost 8 months old (tomorrow). So today I put up the advent display, changed the nature table to a winter theme and decorated the fire place. I'm not sure if there'll be anymore decorating for Christmas as I was thinking of keeping it fairly simple this year (no tree!!!). But the kids want me to turn the study into a fun grotto like I did last year, so I'll probably do that again nearer the weekend.

Hope's progress, for the record is... she has 4-5 breastfeeds per day, plus 3 meals of mashed food and doesn't seem to mind at all what goes into her mouth! (She can feed herself with rice cakes).She is not quite sitting up yet (maybe for a few seconds but can't hold herself for long) and is crawling about. In fact today was the first day she made it into another room! She waves when you wave to her and seems to understand the verbal command for wave too. She is completely fascinated with her brother and sister (well, who isn't?) and responds particularly well to Honor. She sleeps very well, 2 long naps (2-3hrs) per day and sleeps through the night most nights. She does not have any teeth but loves to blow raspberries ans makes babababa and dadadada sounds (but not mamamama!). I don't know how much she weighs as I've not been to the clinic since August. She like TV (sorry) and her favourite programmes are Waybuloo and Loose Women!

I'm nearly done with my Christmas Shopping. I went out and did some today, hoping to get it finished, but it's so time consuming and bloomin' busy. So I've still a few more bits to get.