Sausage

At 1am, I came downstairs to get some water and checked the heating because it seemed quite warm. It was at 20.5* and was set to go up to 32*. Bloody hell, we'd melt in our beds!!!! I couldn't make it come down and had to get Huffle out of bed. It seems the 'up' switch was stuck. OMG! What if I hadn't come down!

My morning view from the landing window

Our tree

This morning the boys rushed through their breakfast and showers in order to watch the silly Stoke game. (Win). They were very happy. Moo and I watched several episodes of GavinandStacey whilst finishing off some wrapping.

For lunch we went to our local burger place. They do the best veggie burgers there. Then we hit several shops trying to help the boys get their presents for us. This proved quite difficult. We kept swapping kids so we didn't see our own presents. Three shops later and we were done. We picked up a few decorations in the sales and came home.

The boys went in their rooms to wrap and Moo heard them saying to each other "Are you okay? Don't forget to take the price off. Have you got the cellotape?" Funny lovely boys. Well until they spilt a water all over the floor and used the nice clean dry towels to mop it up! They made their beds with freshly laundered bedding and played on FIFA.

I wrapped stocking fillers (I mean Santa did) and Moo wrapped Huffle's presents to me. At least I know they will be nicely done.

We have another weather warning saying we are due snow Christmas Eve, possibly 10-15cm and snowing through until Christmas morning. Magical, glad we are staying in.

This evening we watched part of TheGrandTour until Smallest went to bed and then Moo and I watched LoveActually until Moo went to bed.

Happy 16th Birthday CousinE

 

 

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Every little doesn't help

Well it snowed big and proper in the night. Too much snow and no buses running. Under my bedclothes I checked on my IPAd to see if any buses were cancelled and then text Small (downstairs) to see if Smallest wanted to go today. Technology, how brilliant.

Small couldn't get to school because our road wasn't ploughed early enough, the drive was full (15cm or 6" for you old 'uns), and Huffle was worried it would get worse when it was time to collect him. He was disappointed not to go because he was looking forward to his free breakfast, shorter lessons and a more fun day with the very few that do go in. Instead, he played on FIFA for far too long first thing this morning.

Smallest decided he wanted to go to school which meant someone had to walk him in. Small offered but Moo and I went and Small walked him home later. It was really hard walking as the snow was so soft and deep. No paths had been cleared and the road was tough going because silly cars kept going by! We got him to school, dropped off some teachers gifts and walked home. It wasn't too cold, apart from on our faces but we were worn out!

Small cleared half of the drive and the main path while Moo and I had breakfast. Later we played Disney Monopoly with Small. Huffle had to work but came down every now and then to see what we were doing. I won Monopoly in the end though we had to have a break for lunch and Moo was bankrupt. During our lunch, we watched a bit of TheGrinch because we knew Smallest was watching it at school. We finished it this evening.

This afternoon Small, Moo and I cleared the part of the drive that Small did (it got covered again) plus our house path and all around our cars. We also made a snow lady called Gorgeous Gloria. The snow wasn't very moldable and she turned out quite fat. The snow clearing was very hard work and earned Small more FIFA time. Moo and I made the Gingerbread for our Gingerbread house. Small and Huffle walked to collect Smallest and they all walked home.

Smallest had eaten too many nice things at school but had a good day. He came home with cards and treats. The boys and I worked on a Christmas present for Huffle and then they did a chore each and played on FIFA together. Moo and Huffle played table tennis.

 

 

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Mama Jambobs

We have a weather warning in effect for lots of snow due this evening and into tomorrow. It's the last day of school for the boys and the day when they hand out their goodies to the teachers. At Small's school, they have a Skip Day tomorrow. This means the students don't have to go in (and lots don't) but it will be on their records that they are absent if they don't. Two of Small's teachers have said they expect students in and the other two said they didn't care (unofficially). Small wants to go in because he thinks it will be fun.

Moo and I decided to go for a lakeside walk today (her choice). We got to the car park around 11am armed with a flask each of hot water (so rock n roll), some birdseed and some shortbread. We started on the trail and stopped to feed the chickadees before moving on.

We saw deer, a big fat Cardinal and lots of chickadees and sparrows. The chickadees wanted all the nuts we had and they held it in their feet and pecked at it on the branches of the trees. So cute. We walked all the way to the lake (about an hour with bird stoppages) and met a bird watcher who was watching a Shrike.

At the waters edge it was much colder than the trail. The water wasn't iced this time though. We tried to drink our hot water (thermos keeps it too hot) and ate our shortbread and looked at the water, it was really weird in the distance on the horizon. We couldn't work out if it was shimmering in the heat (unlikely at -6*) or it was really rough and wavy. I realised I had only paid for an hour in the car park, so we walked back along the road this time, briefly bumping into MrShrike again who was feeding the chickadees and watching through his binoculars at the Shrike too. A mummy deer and her baby walked across the road in front of us and then watched us from the safety of the trees until we passed.

At the car, we decided to drive to another beach as we had seen photos of weird ice on it yesterday. It was indeed strange. It looked like a huge bits of glass sculpture were broken all over the beach, lining the whole lakeside. Very strange but quite beautiful. It was too cold there to stay and walk much so we came home for lunch.

This afternoon we made mince pies with the pastry Huffle made earlier for us. Moo also made jam tarts and lemon curd tarts.

We boxed up all the treats for tomorrow and cellophaned the goodie plates and finished off the Christmas Cakes. All done now. All bagged ready for the boys to take, if the bus is going!

Smallest and I made Lentil Dahl and Butter Chicken. Yum yum.

 

P.s. Free Molly Storer LBB

 

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The GreatCanadianBakeOff

It's that time of year when lots of baking has to be done in this house. For us, for the teachers and as Christmas presents. After the boys went to school and Huffle disappeared into the loft, Moo and I watched an episode of Bancroft and ate our breakfast.

The first baking we did was Flapjack. This is for the School Secretary and the Librarian at Smallest's school (they love it) and for Small's French teacher who has an allergy to Flour.

While that was in the oven we made Chocolate Crackle Cookies which is for the six other teachers. Flapjack came out and three tins of crackles went in. Unfortunately the bottom tin burnt, only slightly but enough to taste, so that tray was ours.

Next we made shortbread, also for the six other teachers, using a recipe that someone gave me (wish I knew who to credit it with as they turned out to be delicious). Once they were dusted with sugar they were perfect. We even managed to watch the last episode of Bancroft whilst waiting for deliciousness to bake.

We stopped for lunch with Huffle and watched a Gino'sItalianEscape and then tidied, washed up (well Moo did mainly) and worked out who was getting what and if we had enough. We think we do!

We had time for a little bit of jigsaw puzzling before the kids came home. Smallest needed to take Gingerbread men to school on Friday for his class party so once he had his snack and got everything out we made some tiny men.

After dinner Smallest decorated most of his Gingerbread men and Moo and I finished them off. There were 33 for his class of 31. He did a wonderful job and his class should be very pleased.

Mine are the ones with the stripes and two with faces and hats and gloves and Moo copied mine and put hats and gloves and One with a skirt

This evening I had a visit from ExerciseNic and MissFlamingo with a gift from MissHorse for giving her knitting lessons. So cute and thoughtful. A homemade thank you card, a chicken mug with hot choclate and a bottle of baileys. All mine!

Small played on FIFA and Moo and I played Skip-Bo. When Smallest and Huffle went off to football practice, Moo and I walked for an hour around the Hamlet.

 

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Wallpaper Burritos

In the middle of the night I woke up to the smell of toast. It was very pungent but no one admits to having any. A dream perhaps? Though I did wake Huffle to tell him and he remembers so I dint dream it all.

Huffle was due at work today but he forgot to get up. Luckily Moo remembered and we got him up in time to go and have an Office Breakfast which he said was the worst thing he had ever eaten. Wallpaper burrito, roasted non potatoes, weird bacon and fatty sausages that had no meat in. He did have a lovely dinner though with his workBBF.

The boys went to school and Moo and I went off to Costco. I spent a fortune buying bread and milk and who knows what else, plus a couple of Christmas presents. We packed up the car and went off to Homesense to take back a pack of socks that I have no idea why I bought. They are men's but the shoe size fits no-one in this house plus they are not the kind of socks any of them wear here. It was a complete mystery as to how they got in my bag and I paid for them! Anyway Homesense wouldn't take them back despite them being the same company as Winners (in fact it said Winners Homesense on the receipt) so we went to winners and they took them back.

We perused in Michaels and purchased a few things and then went for a bagel, shared cake and drink in Starbucks. We wandered around Indigo for a while and eventually came home. There was lots of sorting to do of breads and meat, freezer filling, a cup of tea and 20 minutes of Bancroft (ITV) before Small came home.

When Smallest came back he suggested we had a Christmas Crumble which is weird because we bought apples especially for a Crumble today. Moo made us a lovely one and we had it after our sausages, mash and beans. Some more wrapping was done and a game of SkipBo and then we got a Christmas puzzle out and did that until the kids went to bed.

Had a lovely parcel today from Jill. Chocloate coins and a card. Lovely.

She thought maybe Moo hadn't brought enough chocolate

 

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What's an Abacus

Smallest woke up too early but did get his daily reading done. Small got up too late and almost missed the bus. Thank goodness his bus driver is nice as he stopped before Small even got to the stop today. Smallest played outside in the snow (oh yes it did snow and it carried on ALL day) and I stayed with him until I was too cold in my dressing gown and newly knit slippers from MrsChristmas.

Moo, Huffle and I had breakfast and then we cleared the table and started wrapping Christmas presents. It took us all morning and two pots of coffee to get the majority of it done, plus numerous boxes to hide things in. I still have Moo's to do plus a few more that I found after we put everything away.

The tree is nicely full of presents now. We stopped for lunch and Moo and I watched a Bancroft episode whilst eating. We had a visit from MrsChristmas who brought back my gloves and container and had a look at our tree. She liked it.

This afternoon Moo and I made pasta dough (with a wee bit of trouble) and rolled it out to make Lasagne sheets. We made beef Lasagne for the boys and veggie Lasagne for us. The boys came home and did homework. Smallest had some Maths homework which I have to have a go at once he's done his part. It was worded ridiculously and I really struggled to understand it. I had to talk it through with Huffle. I think I've done it right but who knows!!! I put a PS on it for the teacher to say 'this hurt my my brain :)

After dinner, Huffle took Smallest to football practice. Both boys decided not to go to Cubs tonight as they were sharing the evening with the little beavers. Smallest got to his practice and realised he had the wrong shoes (it was an indoor gym session and he had football boots/cleats) so they came home. Poor Smallest was so upset but I blame myself for keeping him out so late last night.

Moo and I played Skip-Bo and Small played FIFA until the others came home. Moo, Smallest and I went for a snowy evenings walk and Huffle played with Small.

 

 

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The day we walked into Christmas

We have had a sugar fuelled day today, starting with waffles for breakfast with a weird assortment of fruit. We hadn't been shopping for a while so we had no fresh fruit in the house.

It was a fairly easy morning for the boys who played FIFA and table tennis. Small did some homework and Smallest read in his room. I made (with assistance from Moo and Huffle) a Lemon Drizzle cake for this evenings visit to MrsChristmas (our next door-but-one neighbour). I had baked it and drizzled it and I was just starting to feel smug until I turned it out of the tin and it fell apart. It wasn't rescuable and we had nearly ran out of time so I quickly made some Gingerbread which Small cut out and Smallest, Moo and I decorated. I also decorated one of our smaller Christmas cakes to take round later.

We all had a quick lunch whilst watching some of TheGrandTour and then we drove off to MrsPianos house for the Piano recital. There were eight kids playing, some had two tunes and some just one. We spent two hours there and ended with hot chocolate and cookies. Everyone played well, though the boys said they didn't play as well as at home but it was a different piano and there were many people looking at them. Huffle and I were very proud of them and think they did excellently.

Waiting for recital to begin

Santa Claus is coming to town

The Grinch & Pachelbel's Canon

Back home we relaxed and watched more of TheGrandTour, had a a bit of dinner and then went to MrsChristmas' for a dessert evening. I think really she wanted to show us her highly decorated house. I have never EVER seen anywhere as decorated for Christmas as this house. Every single room and every single space and surface had something Christmassy on it. There was a tree with remote control lights. On each stair, both sides, was a stuffed Christmas toy, going upstairs and down to the basement. There were several mini villages, swirling lights projected from the lamps, bedspreads, cushions, wall hangings, cutlery, napkins, just everything, everywhere you looked. Even the bathroom and the bathroom upstairs that wasn't used. It was amazing. Our poor little MrGrinch (Smallest) was in shock for most of the evening. MrBaseball and MrsChristmas are lovely and very entertaining. They have a great sense of humour and were really good hosts. We had drinks in the swirly light room and nibbles of peppermint patties, jam tarts and cookies while we chatted. Then we sat at a perfectly Christmassy set table for Pumpkin Cake, Mince pies (which they made after watching MaryBerry and PaulHollywood baking) and cups of tea. It was a very nice evening and MrsChristmas asked Moo and I to go up to her sewing room and then let us choose two towels each she had made. We also got a pair of knitted slippers and Moo got a handmade neck support for the plane.

It was very late when we left and poor Smallest was shattered. Moo and the boys went straight to bed. The boys have behaved impeccably today whilst all around them, other kids have been acting up. Once again, Huffle and I are very proud of them and their behaviour. They played beautifully, conversed with other kids and adults, sat still when needed to and were just lovely this afternoon and evening. A pleasure to have them out with us.

When we got home our house looked bare. Ha! I love it.

 

 

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