Long Time No Blog

Phew!

I really do like having visitors but it does mean less time to play, doesn't it?

We had a house full to the brim over New Year, with all bedrooms occupied - we even had to convert the study to a bedroom, and more than once I was grateful that here the rooms are so much bigger and that even with a full house there was plenty of space for us all. The last of the visitors went off home yesterday and all there's left now is a pile of washing and ironing, plus a big stack of lovely presents to find homes for!

Here's our tree on Christmas Eve, once all the presents were arranged underneath.

Hubby and I were here on our own for Christmas Day and it was lovely to have a super-lazy day with no worries about getting people fed on time. We had breakfast in bed then went downstairs and opened our stocking presents first - lots of crafty goodies in mine thanks to that little spree I had when we were marooned on the IOM the other week, he'd added a few extras to the basket which was sweet. Plenty of bathtime stuff, notebooks, puzzle books, etc in there too.

We did a bit of prep for lunch then started opening a few of our gifts for each other and ones from people we weren't going to be seeing - we'd decided to have another present-giving session at New Year when MIL, my aunt, uncle and cousin would be here with us.

If you saw the Daring Cardmakers' Little Extra Dare the other week to make a special tag for a special present you might spot mine in the photo above - and realise why I decided to make it soooo big!

I got some fab presents - I think I'll take a pic tomorrow of all the crafty stuff, but apart from that there was smellies, choccies, things to wear, books, games and some brilliant gadgets - obviously the Craft Robo comes into that category but Hubby also treated me to some fab extras for my iPod Nano - I got the tiniest, cutest little speakers you've ever seen, the Nano just clips onto the top of them - so blinkin' neat! Then some new earphones - which are soooo cool because they don't hurt my ears like other ones do, they are JVC Marshmallow ones and so soft and tiny - I was happy to demonstrate how I can shake my head about now without them just falling out like the other ones do...... AND how about this for a gadget - I got an iTrip too, so now I can play my Nano in the car, or through the radio speakers in the house NO WIRES, wow, sooooo Mrs Gadget am I?

My bro and family came for an hour or so before lunch - they only live about 20 minutes drive from here - we often spend Christmas Day together but this time we decided to see each other early in the day then spend the rest of the time chilling in our respective homes! It was a great idea, we got together for a celebratory Bucks Fizz and some present sharing, then they went off to cook their dinner and we sat down to ours. Among other things they bought us some Theatre Tokens - what a great present. Not a clue what we'll go to see yet, but part of the fun will be going through the listings to choose something good - if you've seen something good lately to recommend, feel free to let me know.

Between Christmas and New Year, apart from getting ready for our families to arrive I actually managed to get some crafting done - and get this, I managed to do another THREE pages for my aunt and uncle's scrapbook - ok so one was actually finished the morning they arrived, but it did help swell the pages in there so it was worth the effort. I'll add those on another posting so you'll just have to wait to see what I came up with - must admit though that I was quite chuffed.

On the Friday before New year MIL arrived, the plane was late and the bags took ages to come through and as Luton only allows a measly 10 minutes drop off/pick up time in the car park before they slap a fine on you we had to go out and hover on a side street till she rang to let us know she was ready. it was so late by then tha we went for pizza rather than come home and cook - then we went over to Tesco to do the New Year shop! This was the 2nd Friday in a row - though the week before we'd been out to the archery club's Christmas meal, and as we were passing on the way home we decided we might as well do our first midnight supermarket shop! I was amazed at how busy it was, but it felt really good to know we didn't need to go when it got really busy for Christmas!

The others arrived on Saturday and we all went out for a Chinese on Saturday evening - very nice - we had loads of stuff on our table and it all tasted fab. It was blowing a gale so instead of walking we took the cars into town - sounds lazy, but my cousin had walked from the station to our house and said we'd be mad not to drive. Sunday was New Year's Eve and by late afternoon we couldn't wait any longer to open the rest of the presents so instead of waiting for another day we did them before dinner - lots more lovely things, more food, more clothes and more crafty stuff, oh, and a renewal for my sub to that great US magazine "Papercrafts" - so I'm a happy bunny.

New Year's Eve meal was a steak fondue - we just love doing leisurely fondue meals like this, take no time to prepare and all night to graze through! I think everyone enjoyed the food anyway.

New Year's Day - I made a late lunch - a proper roast dinner, something I'm not sure I've ever done on my own before (Kathy blushes) as Hubby usually looks after the meat and I do the rest so it's a joint 9pardon the pun) effort.

Anyway, we'd ordered a big piece of boned lamb from M&S along with our Christmas Turkey crown, I did my usual roasted veg, roast potatoes, brussels, and thank heaven my Yorkshire Puddings rose wonderfully high. I'd started making my Very Special Gateau during the week and just needed to put it together and decorate it on the day - Hubby took photos but I don't think they're downloaded yet - so I'll show you my masterpiece later!

Anyway, everything went well, the dinner tasted great and the pudding was a tour de force, even though I say it myself! Then we rested up for the rest of the day. Cuz went off home in the evening, MIL went off to her sister's place on Tuesday and my aunt and uncle went back to Northumberland yesterday.

Seemed VERY quiet last night with just the two of us though, seemed that the house had been full for much longer than a few days. Today I've taken the tree down and untangled the 480 lights.....everything is all over the floorstill though as the boxes are in the loft - and I don't go there!

Bored yet? Don't panic, that's the end of this epic - will show crafty kit and crafty makes next time....