That's it, I'm hibernating

The forecast for today said it was going to be -12.  Huffle went off to work with his snow boots on.  Moo and I decided to take the kids to the local town.  We put our thermals and boots on.  Small wore his new scarf that I finished knitting last night but forgot his hat - silly boy - his ears nearly fell off!!

When we went out to the car it was -15.  Now that is cold.  Moo forgot her thermal bottoms - silly Moo, her legs nearly fell off!!  As we were driving along it went to -16 and then -17.  We marched around the town trying to get warm.  It was sooooo cold our faces stung and Moo thought her nostrils had frozen solid!!

After walking along the Main Street and half way back, we got warm in the Thrifty shop where we bought Small a Balaclava.  The boys bought themselves a HotWheels Truck and I bought a teapot - this time one that pours - Moo said we needed to get it checked before we bought it this time.  Very clever.  I also picked up some napkins which I will adorn with buttons or embroidery or suchlike when I am bored!  

We got nice and warm and then went outside again.  It seemed even colder.  The boys had their scarves tied around their faces.

Keep warm little bear

So we went to the local cafe and had toasted bagels with cream cheese and coffee.  The boys wrote some notes to their friends back home and then when we were nice and warm again, we went back outside to the Post Office.  I'm sure it was colder still!  We bought some stamps and the boys posted their letters (and mine).

Ooh lovely warm bagels

Concentrating in their letter writing

Posting their letters

We couldn't stand the cold any longer so we got in the car, warmed up, drove to the supermarket, got out, got cold, bought some stuff for dinner.  While I was in the supermarket, I stopped a lady who worked there and said "excuse me, could you tell me where the Golden Syrup is please". She smiled a huge wide smile and said in a voice not dissimilar to Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins "of course I can show you where the golden syrup is". I looked at her and wondered if she was all there and then laughed and said "are you trying to do my accent?". She laughed, put her arm around me and said "yes sorry, I'm not very good at it though".

Then we got back in the car, got warm, got out of the car, got cold, put the shopping away and the boys played on the wii.

Moo and I then set about making Small's curtains for his bedroom.  We cheated a bit by using iron on Stitchery Witchery but we still had to measure, pin, iron, fold, pin, measure.  Actually Moo did most of it while I made the dinner.  When she had finished we went up and put them on the curtain poles.  The first one looked great.  The second one we put on upside down but then the right way looked much better.

We asked Small to go into his bedroom to fetch something (he didn't know we'd done them) and he didn't notice, so we asked him to fetch something from his desk (which is right in front of his window - he didn't notice.  So I said "careful of the window" at which point he looked at the window and went oh yeah, look, brilliant, thanks.  They look really cool.

Small's room (only problem now is that nothing else goes with the curtains!)

If you look really closely you can see Huffle's face and mine.  Oh alright then I'll show you.......

Huffle

Me

Now Smallest wants his done too.  We have the material, we just need to find an afternoon to do them.

Huffle came home and told us that the windchill made it feel -10 colder.  But that's -27.  No-one said it would be this cold did they?  When we came to look at the house in October we wore shorts!

The sump pump wasn't working today - or it was working but it was on constantly.  The pipe outside had frozen and there was a leak and it was just pumping and pumping so Mr Fix-it sorted it with a Mop Bucket!  Don't ask!

Moo and I also broke the wardrobe that sits in the basement.  To be fair the back was falling off anyway, but Moo pushed something in too far and the back fell off and then I tried to get some tins out and I pushed them through the back, buts it okay, Mr Fix-it can sort it I'm sure.

We sat watching Doc Martin on the TV (TV is rubbish here if I've not mentioned it before) when I suddenly heard a kind of ringing.  We all jumped up.  Moo went to pick up the phone.  I went to run down to the basement thinking it was the water alarm and Huffle stood there and said "isn't it just the dishwasher rattling?". 

Oh we are silly.  Must be the cold, it's got in our heads.

Snicky Sneeze Chandwich

Whilst emptying boxes yesterday we came across these.........

this was bought for me by my friend Laura, just before we came out here.

 (if you are reading this I have lost your email address, 

please email me or comment on here so I can get in touch)

And this was given to Small by one of his school friends as a leaving present.

So we have put them on the tree (for a few days) and will definitely put them on again next year.

No snow overnight.  Smallest woke up twice with nightmares.  In the first one Lightning McQueen was telling him off and in the second one Mickey Mouse was punching and kicking him.  It was a windy night too and something was clanging and a banging outside, Huffle got up several times to find out the source.  We're still not sure what it was!

We spent a lazy morning, breakfasting.  The boys watched the TV in the basement.  Huffle watched the football in the lounge and Moo and I watched Downton Abbey Christmas on the computer.  The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

We decided to go to the cinema this afternoon so started to get ready.  The sun went in and the snow came down.  Not flurries but blizzarding snow.  We still went out.  While we were getting ready we spotted a black squirrel sitting in the tree outside my bedroom window.  He was trying to get the seeds off the ends of the branches and was very adept at jumping from branch to branch, with snow covering his head and his tail helping him to balance.  It was really entertaining to watch.

Scaling high branches just to get that last seed!

Can't really see him in this one but at least you can see how high he is!

Found a pub and had Sticky Cheese Sandwiches with fries (Smallest called it Snicky Sneeze hence the title today).  The food took forever to come out.  Luckily we were next door to the cinema so we got it put in take out boxes and smuggled it into the cinema.

This isn't my photo, it was on the Internet.

It was a lovely old fashioned Art Deco place.  We watched Arthur Christmas (Smallest thought his best friend from the UK was in it. Ahhhhhhh).

oh hello Stan, fancy seeing you here

Now he's a handsome fellow - where did you meet him Huffle?

..... And Wall-E

It was a good family film about Christmas.

This was the carpet.  Popcorn and film reels.

Moo in the foyer taking photos of us?

The foyer

Smallest sitting waiting in The foyer

When we were coming out it was snowing even harder and was -6. brrrrrrrrrrrr.

We came home, played a game.  Huffle ironed his shirts for tomorrow (back at work), I wrote to my friend back home and Moo did a crossword.