finally, my own LEGO at Christmas

for many years the kids' letters to Santa were dominated by LEGO, but then they got older and wanted electronic stuff and guitars and clothes and money, so it's quite a while since any LEGO has come into our house at Christmas.
Until now.
D got me this fab LEGO head which is a storage tub, and now holds a lovely skein of yarn from my pal Erin in Texas. The head is about 26cm high (about 10ins), and 24cm wide and is part of a range of funky storage containers for kids bedrooms. Well, I'm still a big kid, so it's perfect for me! (and it goes perfectly with my lego head stitch markers)
The inlaws drove up on Christmas day when the roads weren't too bad and have headed back today as it's a bit milder (2C) but snow is expected tomorrow. We were so relieved that they made it!

I finally opened my ItsyBitsy swap gifts too and got lots of lovely fun stuff from my swappee BrooklynIrishGirl. The Christmas themed oven pads and towel were put to good use in the kitchen straightaway, the ornaments went on the tree and I'm using the stripey socks as bed socks to keep my feet toasty warm at night. Lots of lovely stuff, thank you!

Something always has to go wrong at Christmas though- either a toy doesn't work, or a sweater doesn't fit. This year we'd got Jack a copy of FIFA 11 for his xbox which he was delighted with until he opened the box and there was no disc.There's not much you can do about this on Christmas day though.
So, on Boxing Day I decided to brave the roads and head out to the sales. I wouldn't normally do this, I'm not a fan of frenzied shopping, but I felt bad that my boy hadn't got his present. So I found the receipt, got my coat, hat and boots on, picked up the plastic case, opened the case and saw the instruction manual in a sealed bag on the LHS of the case and the empty disc space on the RHS. I absentmindedly took out the manual in the sealed bag, turned it over and there was the game disc!!
 Oh. My. Goodness!!
If I'd driven 20 miles to HMV and had a hissy fit over the missing game only for the sales assistant to flip over the manual to reveal the game....oh the embarrassment. Thankfully I avoided that.
Still, it gave everyone a good laugh, and I didn't have to drive to the frenzied sales. Phew!

Jack is such a dingbat though.

Hope everyone else has had a funfilled Christmas too!

love, actually

Love came down at Christmas time, Love all lovely, Love divine

the older I get the more I appreciate Christmas: I love the carols, I love the church services, I love the presents, the feasts, being with my family, the Queen's speech and most of all knowing that the greatest gift all came to us in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. So much Love, for all of us, and actually that is truly amazing.

God blessed us, everyone.

christmas catch up

having a jaunt in the sun is good for my general health, but is not so good for my Christmas timetable- the cards were only posted yesterday (and those for Australia may get there by Easter!) and the decorations went up yesterday too.

Up until now the kids have only had the advent calendar on the wall and the knitted toys advent tree to enjoy. (poor lambs!!). I did say to D that if it all got too much for J2, she could put up the tree while I was away. But she didn't and I haven't had time this week.

So, she took matters into her own hands yesterday and set to tidying up the living room and putting up the tree and the deccies, and I have to say she did a good job!

We have an artificial tree as J1 is allergic to pine resin (which is not good for a violinist, we've had to get him so nonresin roisin for his bow) and J2 sorted out the lights and deccies herself and had a great time putting them up.

Maybe I'll get her to do the Christmas cards next year too! (then again she did make a lot of them, so maybe that would be pushing it a bit!).

Heavens only knows what it would be like if I'd had tons of Christmas knitting to do too, but I'm too disorganised/sensible/mean (delete as appropriate) to produce lots of lovely knitted stuff for friends and family. But I have offered to teach people to knit if they so wish!

So lots of tidying up to do this week before the inlaws arrive and maybe a little bit of knitting/crochet time for me.

so long, farewell,

auf weidersehen, goodnight...

it's time for the Christmas decorations to be packed away till next Christmas. Although of course, traditionally the deccies come down on January 5th for Epiphany, it's back to school/work tomorrow and it's so much better if everyone helps out!

The advent tree pattern by Alan Dart (in Simply Knitting magazine) came with a chart for the order of putting on the tree deccies and a label for the box file! so now they are all packed away in their box, alongside the fabric advent tree and carefully put in the cupboard under the stairs so that I have no excuse for forgetting about them!

At least next Christmas I wont be knitting like crazy to get the little decorations made on time, although I'm sure to be making something else at the last minute!

finally

the last tree deccie is done,(the bells) and is ready to go on the tree tomorrow.

The gingerbread house has been decorated by the kids and D has decorated the Christmas cake...we're having a white Christmas in spirit if not in fact!

The turkey has been collected, the in-laws are here, there's just some presents to wrap and the children's service to go to tonight.

Amidst all the gloom of the economic downturn and the war zones across the world, I hope that this is the season of peace and joy for everyone, whatever their colour or creed .

I hope that people seek out good things and turn from the bad and that the Light shines brightly in the darkness.

Merry Christmas, and peace and goodwill to all men.

Christmas Fair

yesterday we went to the Church Christmas fair, which is always a good place to stock up on home made baking, decorations and for J2 to get little presents for her grandparents.

I also bought a knitted tea cosy, aran gloves, a peacock blue scarf for J2, and some baubles on dogwood stems.

I've made some more progress with my knitted decs, this is the second batch a Santa, a holly bauble, a satsuma and some toadstools.
Apparently fungi are traditional European deccies. (they grow in the pine forests, reindeer eat them and become intoxicated and dance around! who knew?).
My kids are enjoying putting a deccie each day on the little tree, and I have now got a lever arch file to put the deccies in. The Alan Dart pattern pack from Simply Knitting was really well put together, with a label for the box included as well as a calendar for the deccies. One day I will finish the knitted tree!!

I was delighted to get my Secret Santa parcel in the post today, its like being a kid again, I've squeezed the parcel, but I haven't opened it (nerves of steel, that's me!) .

Advent..

more than a calendar*, for me.

The countdown to Christmas has begun, the tree calendar is on the wall with chocolate in each pocket for my two kids. One year I spent ages in Jenners' toy department getting tiny toys (power balls, toy soldiers, crayons, magnetic bugs all kinds of things) to go in each pocket for J1. He was not impressed. So, for once I caved in to pester power and now they can have a small sweetie everyday.

This must be the 10th year that we've used this calendar and the kids love to see it go up. The full-on decorations won't go up till the 14th-ish. (I'm so mean!)

The knitted advent tree wont get finished this year (no, really?), so I'm using a small artificial tree to put the deccies on. The kids are taking turns, J1 gets odd numbered days and J2 gets even. Even the main tree is artificial, as we found out when J1 was small that he has an allergy to pine resin, which is not good for a violinist, so, I had to get him some special non-pine resin roisin for his bow. Thankfully this type of allergy is easily dealt with.

I love the build up to Christmas, I love hearing the kids practise their carols, I love seeing the Church nativity play, I love the feeling of hope and generosity in the air. Most people do seem to be kinder to others at this time of year, which is wonderful. It isn't the most important occasion, Easter is more serious and meaningful. Christmas is more about hope and promises, amazing acts of generosity and kindness.

*the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams has said that people have largely forgotten what Advent means and think of chocolate calendars instead of the coming of the Christ-child. He has a point.

deccie swap 1 #

these lovely Christmas tree decorations came in the post today from Eadaoin. Thank you so much Eadaoin!
I really must get on with getting my Christmas swap stuff finished as the posting dates loom!

While I've been knitting away for the last couple of days, I've been listening to an Ian Rankin story, Watchman, (from 15 years ago) which is not a Rebus novel and focuses on an MI5 watcher, a surveillance officer. I enjoyed it although I got a bit irritated by the constant analogies to beetle types.

It's a good story, focusing on an IRA bombing campaign in London and the double dealing within the security agencies. Now that the Rebus stories are finished ( or are they?) it will be interesting to see what Ian Rankin comes up with next. More MI5/6 stuff? Or stories about Rebus sidekick Shiv?

and the winner is...

...me!
I was lucky enough to win a skein of wollmeise from a draw on LixieKnitsIt and it turned up in the post today.

I was thinking of making myself some socks with it, but D suggested some fingerless gloves, which does sound very appealing. I'll have to wait until January though, I've got to get through my Christmas knitting first.

I spent a good hour sweeping up a million leaves today (only 30 million to go!), planting 2 new fruit trees and planting bulbs while listening to stories from Escape pod. I loved the kids' story Squonk the Dragon. I must let J2 listen to it too.

...and the winners tonight are Newcastle, beating Aston Villa 2-0, and moving from 20th place to 14th. The bottom half of the table is very tight: Man city at 10th with 13 points and Spurs at the foot of the table with 9, only 4 points separating them. There is going to be a lot of turmoil in the table before it is clear who is for the top and who is for the drop!

and we all want some figgy pudding..

and we've all been tantalised by the delicious smells of Christmas baking wafting through every room in our house this weekend. We even had to organise our jaunt to the flicks to match up to the baking schedule yesterday (the cake takes about 4 hours, and today the pudding took about 7 hours), so I had to careful select the start of the film to suit the cake!

D is a bit behind schedule, he usually tries to get the cake and the pudding done at the beginning of October, but at least they are done now.

He has used the same Delia Smith recipes for years and they are always fabulous. The pudding is rich but not heavy and the citrus lifts the fruit beautifully.

He hasn't decided on the decoration for the cake yet, but it is bound to be spectacular. When friends have seen his cakes they ask if he will make aome for them, but he always politely declines; it would take all the fun out of making them if he was working to order

I've been getting on with my Xmas swap knitting while enjoying the wondrous aromas, and very inspiring it has been too!

I was having a mooch around some of the local charity shops this week and I came across this Christmas cookie jar for £5. The kids think it is wonderful. I hope J2 bakes some biscuits to put into it.

put the kettle on..

...my new Eco kettle which can boil as little as 1 cup of water in seconds.

Our old kettle was shaped like a black rocket and whistled too but had started to leak, and electricity and water is not a good mix, no matter how nice the sound of the whistle. D bought us a new one which has a central well of water and by pressing as button the lid you can release a cup of water into the heating area to be boiled.

It is very, very quick too! I will miss the whistle of the old one, but this one works so fast that I don't have time to wander out of the kitchen anyway!

I'm now working on my swap knitting so I can't say much until its done, obviously it involves Christmas swaps, one of which is an ornament swap, organised by Lixie. These trees are some of her ornaments.

When I was raking around in my small stash for suitable yarns I found some of my Gran's old needles, small 3.75mm, and I was delighted to be able to put them to good use. Most of the needles that I have inherited from her are very fine (old size 13) and my knitting isn't quite up to that standard yet.

She used to make so many toys (knitted and sewn) that I'm sure that she would be pleased to know that I was tentatively following in her footsteps.