The Tiger Who Came to Tea

We have been looking forward to this for many weeks...totally worth the wait. 

Martha was enthralled. 

It was "as magic as magic can be" and utterly enchanting. 

A perfect New Year's Eve outing. 

Christmas 2011

We have had a lovely couple of days...gifts, food, family, slightly more sleep, movies, walks. Tomorrow we have friends arriving for a meal - we haven't seen them since last Christmas, far too long. 

Martha has had a ball...lots of books :) puzzles, crafty things, a Hello Kitty scooter, a beautiful dress, hats, gloves a new baby with nappies!! - she has enjoyed everything and said thank you for everything too, bless!

We had these photos taken at a craft fair recently, completely unplanned and un-lipsticked but fun to remember this time, this year, the stage we are at and be thankful for it all.

Christmas Club

On Monday 27 children turned up for Christmas Club at church - manic but fun (I think??!!) I did the story on Follow the Star and the children played games, decorated biscuits and baubles, learned to sign a song and had some snacks. 

A cold

 We have had a couple of duvet days as Martha caught Mike's cold and has been quite unwell especially at night. Mostly she has been in with me but has been awake :/  

We have watched lots of DVDs and eaten fruit and stayed warm in front of the woodburner. Today she was better so we ventured out and dashed about catching up a bit.

Dancing and Games

Dancing

My cheese tree! People had started eating it before I got a photo!

Our 2011 tree.

Family Christmas

Our annual family Christmas happened this last weekend with Mike's family. It was really lovel, the only downer being that his brother and family who were travelling down got stuck and had to head back and set off later so they miseed our lunch out and the first evening which was a real shame. We had a lovley meal though and then it was back to our house for dancing, games and supper. 

Crackers at the pub.

 Yummy food!

Santa & His Reindeer

We visited on Friday as Santa had come to town. It was very exciting.

Martha still doesn't realise that presents are a part of Christmas which is nice. I explained to her that Santa might ask what she would like for Christmas and when he did ask she replied "A reindeer" Santa was a bit taken aback for a few moments then explained that the reindeer needed to stay with him to help him but could she leave a carrot out for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. She thought carefully about this option then said "Alright"

The 2 year old reindeer baby was called Shanna.

 Fortunately Martha's gift was a little reindeer. Santa always knows!!

Scrapping

We had a lovely Sunday at the start of December and met a horse at Gate Farm!

The Advent calendar returns!

Martha loved the pop-up nativity book.

Our nieces/cousins in their school play.

Having started well with JYC I am now VERY behind. This week I have to sort our own family Christmas and finish off wrapping and shopping and so I am not sure that any more scrapbooking will be done until after Christmas now. 

This season has been overwhelmingly busy and I ended up taking on more than planned. 

Nature Nativity

We had a lovely time at our last Nature Tots of the year...making crowns, listening to Amy tell the story, making stained glass cards with tissue paper and colouring a stable picture anf finding stars in the trees that we then decorated and "glittered."

Mince pies and lots of chat

                    Lovely times with friends from our music class and lots of conversation and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and we were all running late!

Playfarm

Three mummies and three littlies had a lovely morning at the Playfarm.

Frankie & Benny's

We had our annual lunch out with friends at F&B's on Monday which was lovely - lots of chat, lovely pasta and bruschetta and cherry crumble, exchange of presents and a few photos. Martha got a singing mouse from Jan and a balloon from F&B's so she had a marvellous time.

Mad times...

It's Monday and already I feel I am running late and overwhelmed! After our meal out on Friday which was hectic what with the canapes and the usual nothing-to-wear problems, we tidied the house on Saturday morning, went to view a new car (still undecided) grabbed some lunch out and then went to a Praise Day at church followed by home and more tidying. Next day was church and Sunday Club then a Sunday Club meeting then we had friends over for lunch with 3 lovely kids so it was a  mad but fun afternoon. In the evening I did wrapping as we were meeting friends for lunch in Banbury today and somewhere this morning I did a very tiny bit of work, starting at 6am :)
Tonight it's dinner, a Waitrose shopping evening then some accounts work.
My scrapbooking and tax are running behind and I don't know where to find more hours except to give up sleep !!!

Bunches!

Martha is not too keen on bunches but was persuaded by silver Rudolf bobbles this weekend !

Christmas Meal

I spent Friday afternoon making around 250 canapes for the Christmas meal at church - I have done this for a few years now and do quite enjoy making them but Martha was keen to know what was going on this year and wasn't having a nap so it was a little tricky!! - still fun though and we had a great night out just Mike and I. Beautiful meal, bubbly, singing, quizzes and fab company. I am always sad when it is over for another year as it is a special night.

We met a Gruffalo....

.....in Sainsbury's of all places!! 

Martha had a quick cuddle with him :)

School Play

Martha and I went to see our nieces/cousins in their play. Fun! and a lovely performance. Afterwards Martha and I went to the cafe for Orangina and coffee. 

The Tree

Martha made an angel decoration at St Nicks and she hung it by herself on the tree :)

Sunday fun

After church and Sunday club we headed to Gate Farm craft fair which was lovely. Martha really liked seeing the horses and donkeys..we did shopping, had tea and cakes and then had some impromptu family photos done!!

Late afternoon we went to the Children's Christmas Service at St Nicks which was just lovely. We bumped into a few people we knew including Lily and Jack.

Walking back after the service. 

Christmas Tree Festival

The fair that I did on Saturday was quite quirky and included a tree festival which was pretty and fun. 

There were lots of handmade stalls including a Brownie stall where you could  "Adopt a Jelly Baby" I was very amused!

The winning tree made of cut out kids' hands.

Pretty wooden decorations & pink fairy tree decorations

Advent

Lovely to be doing this keepsake calendar again although Martha struggles with "just one a day"!

Finished at Coughton

Had a great week Phoenixxing here and finished on Friday (although they called Saturday morning to see if I could go back that day too - I couldn't, I was already booked elsewhere) I was well and truly exhausted but it has been a brilliant week, thoroughly enjoyed it and made 2 new friends there too - what a bonus!

As the week progresses the temperature was definitely dropping despite the sunshine and on Friday I just couldn't get warm despite flasks and hot chocolate and layers of clothes so it was good to finish my outdoor selling for the year!

Goodbye Coughton - hope to be back again sometime!

Shimelle's JYC

Day One of Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" included this lovely manifesto. I especially love the reference to The Nutcracker as I have bought a book about The Nutcracker by Alison Jay which is lovely. 

I have put it away to read on Christmas Eve along with some treats...starting a new tradition in this house :)

December??!!!

How did that happen?! 

Can't believe it is 1st December. Been working full on this week...decided to do 2 extra days at Coughton so that has thrown the week a bit. Loving it though. 

Starting Shimelle's "JYC - Journal Your Christmas" today and am already behind on Day 1 - oops!

Started the keepsake nativity advent calendar with Martha this evening so that was lovely - she didn't understand why she couldn't have all the people and animals today though :)