The cake!

One hour to go and Pixen and I have just done the Christmas cake! The tree still hasn't got lights on and I've still got an hours wrapping to do but hey . . . The children are all come home and it feels BRILLIANT

YIPPEE! They have arrived!

Rudolf the citroen

On way to the station to pick up Twin 2 and his lady whoop whoop

Slowboat 2009

I think we are finally going to make it. We are going to be ready for Christmas! I still have to colour a picture, but that's do-able...



My amazing twin 1 daughter has arrived home from the snowy, blizzardy North East, she did the 100+ mile journey all by herself YIPPEE...(Drakey was SOOOO pleased to see her.....)



Dessie has been wearing his festive antlers...



We had a brilliant party night at the Slowboat last night, it all went without a hitch (I think!) 120 people seemed to be enjoying themselves...

The tree is half way up (The angel has already fallen off the top and we need to go back in the attic to find the lights)...


... and Chris and Susan arrive home tomorrow morning... its so exciting!

The Slowboat did us proud once again, it's the 5th time we have been there and Farrah was wonderful, she provided us all with crackers, moved a load of tables so we could dance and the food was lovely...

Various starters:- ribs, satay chicken, prawn toasts, samosas.
Then crispy duck, totally scrumptious.
Sweet sour chicken
Curry chicken
Salt pepper fish fillet
Fruity beef
Pork in Black Bean sauce...

Here are a few selected photos of our aerobics party...

We had a full floor dancing to Soft Toy Emergency
♪♫ ♪♫ "CRITICAL" ♪♫ ♪♫
so the DJ played it again later on in the evening, this time the dance version...
GO JENNY DAVIES!(A local girl from Chester, at the same school as Nic, Chris and Mike)

Click here for their website













Even the waitresses joined in with "YMCA"




and Ceri, my airhostess friend flew in from Barbados 4 hours earlier that day..

♪♫ ♪♫ A cold and frosty morning.... ♪♫ ♪♫

"hey ho" I really should be Christmas shopping, or finishing colouring my pictures, or at least putting up the Christmas tree (it's only a tree...) but instead Sammie and I have had a lovely walk. A bit hard on the feet but it was perfect weather for a pooch, it wasn't muddy and the cold and frosty ground made Sammie excited, she had a good run.

...Although it doesn't look like she's running here!







This is probably the one and only time Sammie actually SAT at the Cricket Club (and that was only because I told her to...)(brrrr cold bottom)



Yes, I walked my dog like this... I realised I'd left my Sky Blues bobble hat at home and this was the only hat I had in the car. (Poor preparation, aliholli, and to think you were a Girl Guide...)

Anyway it was festive and warmer than it looks!



The pond was pretty frozen and the ducks were sliding all over the surface when they landed. So cute though.

Baked Potato Day

I should be writing Christmas cards but I haven't blogged for a while and I need to get up to date. It has been a busy month.

I've been sewing...



colouring...



and burning wood...



...Our beautiful black labrador was 11. (For 11 years she has followed me around the house, or lay at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me to come down.)




When I looked back at my blog post a year ago,
when Sammie was 10,
I realised just how grey she has gone in a year, grey specks have now appeared around her eyes...she is doing alright for 11 though and can still chase a ball so long as we just toss it, and don't hurl it.

Today was "Baked Potato Day" with my lovely aqua ladies. It has now become tradition to celebrate the last aqua class of the year with appropriate Christmas head gear ie antlers, deely boppers and Santa hats, in the pool, followed by a jacket potato and a cup of tea. Once again this amazing group of ladies did not disappoint and everyone had something festive on their heads. Naturally we splished and sploshed to a medley of Christmas carols (they come out every year!)including Oh Come All Ye Faithful and the rock version of Away In A Manger.They are such good fun.







My festive hat. I managed to keep it on for the whole hour. It is now drying out ready for aerobics.

Aah. . . My dear ol' dad

Toenails, kitchen floor, bathroom all sorted. Been out for tea and NOT TO "THE MOUNT"!! The "Pippin" (now some sort of "Oak") was just as good but no SKY BLUES corner or Lady Godiva pics!!

However I did have a good catch up with sis and John and the old "Pippin" is nice inside. It is situated by some traffic lights on the main road into town and every time we pass it it reminds me of when we were going on holiday one year, as very young kids, mum and dad had just bought a roof rack and as we pulled up to a stop outside the Pippin as the traffic lights turned red, the roof rack slid forwards off the roof, down the windscreen and onto the bonnet. Classic.