Day 363 - December 29th

Today we went to the cinema. The boys and I went to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (3D) and Wayne took Lara to see Disney's Frozen (3D). Both films are thoroughly recommended.

Day 362 - December 28th

This afternoon Wayne & I popped into town to restock the food cupboards and also for a mooch around the sales. We were disappointed by what the shops had to offer and weren't persuaded to buy much - apart from some half price Christmas wrapping paper ready for next year!

Day 361 - December 27th

Not the best photo today mainly due to the fast moving subject! Santa bought Tux a Christmas dangler toy and Christopher spent some time this afternoon playing with him. Tux was so determined to catch the little Christmas stockings hanging from the toy and balanced quite well on his hind legs whilst he batted them about.

Day 360 - December 26th (Boxing Day)

Today we went for a long Boxing Day walk over the fields. A lot of the country has been badly hit by storming weather this week but we seem to have escaped the worst of the weather although it has been very windy. This morning was bright and sunny but still blustery and evidence of the windy weather was found on one of the footpaths where a tree had fallen down.

Day 359 - December 25th (Christmas Day)

Happy Christmas Everyone!

This year for the first time I cooked Christmas Dinner for the family. There were seven of us round the table this year.

Santa was very generous and lots of presents were under the tree.

We didn't open our presents until after dinner and it was 4 o'clock before we sat down to open them. 

Later we played Bingo. We always used to play Bingo at family Christmases when I was a child so this year we continued the tradition.

One young lady also managed to polish off a whole chocolate log during the day all bar 1 remaining slice!

A good time was had by all.

Day 358 - December 24th (Christmas Eve)

Christmas Eve afternoon Lara and I did some festive baking. It's become a tradition that Lara bakes the mince pies on Christmas Eve and this year was no exception.

Our friend Kay kindly made us some ginger cookies for Christmas and with the cookies she gave us some tubes of icing to decorate them ourselves which Lara enjoyed doing.

I made a non-traditional Christmas cake - Christmas tree shaped sponge with butter cream and M&M decorations.

When it got dark we sprinkled Reindeer Food on the lawn to make sure Santa found our house......

..... and just before bedtime a tray with a drink and snack for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer was left by the fireplace.

Day 357 - December 23rd

Christopher bought Lara a Gingerbread House Kit for her birthday last week and so this evening I helped her put it together and decorate it.

It was a really good kit and the house went together really easily (and stayed together) and looked very good when it was completed.

Day 356 - December 22nd

Today we all gathered at my Mum & Dad's house for an early Christmas with Mum & Dad, my Brother & Sister-in-Law and Niece and her husband. We had an early Christmas dinner, exchanged presents and played silly games. It was lovely to all get together and catch up with each other and has become a tradition that we really look forward to.

Day 355 - December 21st

Today's walk was very cold and windy and the blue skies were now a very murky grey colour. It was also very muddy. But, there no better way of warming up that going for a bracing walk in the cold and then coming home to a warm house.

Day 354 - December 20th

Today's photo is of my favourite and oldest Christmas tree decoration. I've shown this decoration on my blog before. It is affectionately known as 'Mr Blue Fluffy Legs' (despite quite obviously being a female!) and was bought by my Mum when I was a little girl so it around about 40+ years old. It came from Selfridges in Oxford Street, London and used to hang on our Christmas tree when I was growing up but now hangs on our tree.

Day 353 - December 19th

Today I had two 'Proud Mummy Moments'. Steven bought home a certificate for the two GCSEs he sat earlier in the year and passed with good grades. Lara was awarded an end of term COE Certificate at her school for Excellence in Geography and Wayne & I went to a special school assembly to see her receive this.

Day 352 - December 18th

Our Advent Candle is getting very short now as we are only a few days away from Christmas Day. This year our candle came from Norfolk - bought at Wroxham when we were there in October. We have tried to remember to light it each evening when we have sat down to eat, but have to admit there have been more than one day that we have forgotten to light it and a couple of days when we have forgotten the lighted candle only to find that too many numbers have burnt.

Day 351 - December 17th

Today I posted a few handmade Christmas Cards that I made for my crafty friends.

Day 350 - December 16th

Today was Lara's birthday. She decided to open her cards and presents early before she left for school.

Lara asked me if I could make her a Minecraft Birthday Cake! Unfortunately constructing a 3D Minecraft Cake was beyond my capabilities so instead I made a round cake and bought a personalised icing sheet cake topper for the top of it. A bit of a cheat but Lara loved it.

Day 349 - December 15th

Today to celebrate Lara's birthday some of her friends joined her for ten pin bowling and lunch. Disappointingly the photographs I took were all very dark and to protect her friends identity I've had to obscure their faces.

Day 348 - December 14th

Today Christopher came home for Christmas. As well as collecting and bringing Christopher home we also picked up some Festive Krispy Kreme doughnuts and bought those home too.

Day 347 - December 13th

This evening I finished a Scrapbook layout that I've been working on. I can't show the whole layout until 1 January because it's for a design team assignment but here's a sneak peek.

Day 346 - December 12th

Another sure sign that Christmas is nearly here ... The Christmas edition of the Radio Times. I only ever buy the Radio Times at Christmas and do so even though most of the newspapers publish special Christmas TV pages.

Day 345 - December 11th

Whilst in a card shop last week, I spotted this card. It made me chuckle and I just had to buy it!

Day 344 - December 10th

15 Days 'til Christmas.

Day 343 - December 9th

Today was Lara's Christmas Gym Club Display so we went along to see her performing. Unfortunately a large hall, fast moving people and fluorescent lighting doesn't help when taking photos and this was the best photo I managed to take of her doing a handstand on the box.

Day 342 - December 8th

Whilst in town last week I bought two Poinsettia plants - a touch of Christmas.

Day 341 - December 7th

Another Saturday morning walk over the fields with Millie.