New Year's Eve...

I'm as stuffed as the turkey!...

...you know that scene in 'The Meaning of Life' when the waiter asks the guy in the restaurant 'one more 'waf-fur' monsieur'...well that's how I feel today. I'm sick of big dinners and chocolate and wine. Can't wait for a lean January when I will live on water and bread to cleanse my body of Christmas induced toxins! Having said that - it has been a really good week of family get togethers and delicious home cooked meals - as traditional as it gets but that's what it's all about eh...



On St Stephen's day we were on our way to yet another family turkey and ham dinner so we diverted to Dollymount to get some fresh air. It was bitter cold and yet the beach was packed with people walking off the excesses.




We came across a bunch of crazy wind surfers who were being blown around the wild sea. Caught this one just as the sun was going down at 3pm - my God the days are mighty short at this time of year. We didn't last long on the beach as the kids whined about the cold. Still it was nice to get to the beach in December!

Happy Christmas Everyone!



Well what a great day we had. I got to bed at 1.45am - had some pottering to do! - and just as I dropped off to sleep at 2am Eva arrived in to tell me that Santa had arrived! I kept telling her that she was so lucky she didn't bump into him on the landing. I finally persuaded her to go back asleep and we all slept in until 8am - yay!

Then it was downstairs to see what pressies we all got. I was so pleased to get this photo of the girls as it captures the excitement of the day. It also reminds me of how excited I was as a child - nervous sick with excitement waiting to get the key to get in.



We all noticed that Santa had enjoyed the refreshments we left for him and we think we spotted some of rudolph's whiskers too!


I was spoilt this year - new flippy up phone, Cricut Expression (winging its way next week or so), perfume, Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson CD's, Stender's gift box (smells to die for!), the Royale Family box set and loads more. However this was one of my fav pressies - ok it was hand chosen but he certainly has been a talking point all week - I call him Harry! :-)


Anyway we had a great and busy day - off to Church where the kids performed in a nativity play, then to mums for an hour just to be together for a short time. Then home to cook the turkey and ham, snooze on the sofa while Ed spent hours making up a lego house with the girls and then a quiet night watching the soaps and sipping wine - bliss! Traditional, predictable and just how I like it! The most important thing is the girls had a ball and that's really all that matters...



Hope you're having a good one!
XX

Christmas Eve...



Yay it's here and we're all packed and ready for it. I love that time around 10pm when they are asleep and the carols are blasting out of every channel and you feel really toasty because you have worked so hard to make the 25th special and all there is to do is sit back and wait for it to happen. That's where I'm at right now...




Wishing everyone in bloggerland a happy and peaceful Christmas '07 and hope all your dreams come true for 2008. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by or left a comment through the year.

XX

Not long to go now...

We are on serious countdown to Christmas now - just two more sleeps! If you have little people at home and want to try something fun look up Email Santa Really clever at personalising an email for the little people from the big man in Red.



Had a nice weekend - thankfully all the cards are made and posted, fridge stocked full, presents wrapped under the tree and now it's down to my favourite part - the social bit of catching up with people. My cousin Lynn is home for Christmas from Australia so we had a lovely afternoon in Blackrock introducing our kids to each other. They got along famously!

We were out for a few scoops last night with the usual crew and then a nice festive lunch in town at BLEU on Dawson St with the college crew. This is what it's all about really -catching up with the people that matter.

Lucy totally Rocked! (...the baby Jesus!)



Proud mammy moment coming up,,, :-)Lucy had the starring role of Mary in her nativity play today and she made me proud. For weeks we have been hearing her pottering around the house singing her songs and murmering her 'lines'

Joseph(Noah) 'Will you marry me?'
Mary (Lucy) 'Yes'

She crawled into my bed this morning at 7am and woke me up to tell me that today was her Christmas play - she was so excited. She managed to pull it all off today meeting all her cues to stand up, hold hands, rock the baby Jesus. Watch out Hollywood here she comes!







Incidentally she is now totally in love with Noah (Joseph) and plans to marry him 'in real life!' -her words!

Simple Abundance...

Ok it's been a bit of a week/fortnight from hell on the house front - you name it and it has broken this week..no joke! For starters the kettle and tumbledryer died - now replaced. Then there were the blown off tiles from the roof - thankfully now under TLC by Dave the builder (who incidentally is not the low-life builder who is responsible for fixing it - he seems to have a problem answering his phone whenever we put a call through to him). All I can say about him is 'all work 100% guaranteed.... my A&%E!!!! Then there was the car trouble - which started out as a big problem at the start of the week but after a bit of running around to Renault garages, has now been downgraded to a minor problem thanks to mum's neighbour who is a mechanic.

Then Sky broke down - gasp - no tele for Christmas!!! Horror of horrors! Thankfully he arrived today and took away the offending damaged part so we are back on track to see The Wizard of Oz, White Christmas and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Then throw in my unclearing laryngitis and icky throat (ongoing for 10 days now). Doc gave me a presscription today for antib's which can be heartily and liberally washed down with vino - his words! Happy Days!

....And finally the piece de resistance - the sewers! For two weeks now we have had intermittant plumbing - no flushy flushy (well paper etc - NiiiCCCCCEEE!!!EEEEUUUGH!) Mr Dyno-Poo (to quote a pal who is having similar woes!) have been no less than fantastic at sorting out our problem at very short notice i.e. CHRISTMAS WEEK where nothing usually get's done. Anyway nothing comes without a price and our super fast typed up estimate comes in at a snip at €4k which luckily has been downwardly revised from €6K - (see getting better already).

Mr Insurance Assessor called this morning to see our problem up close and personal (so to speak!) and he still can't confirm if it's covered as accidental damage from my husband's heavy handed attempt to be Jim'll fix it. Will know more after Christmas when they are inspired to open our file and look at it -as the Christmas work parties are now in full swing and no loss adjuster is prepared to open my file when everyone around them is on a boozy Christmas lunch....

However despte all this C%£P on my doorstep this week (literally I kid you not!!!) - enough to send a woman over the edge with a bottle of gin... for some strange reason nice things kept happening to me today- like the postie deliveries of lovely crafty goods from a friend as a Xmas pressie, phonecalls from people just ringing cos they were thinking of me, and a visit from a dear friend who gave me the most beautiful Christmas candle and a wonderful book called 'Simple Abundance' which celebrates the little ordinary things that enrich your life. It couldn't have come at a better time - thanks girls!

Oh it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...



In the words of the famous Perry Como song (did I mention that I sang with Perry Como in the Point in 1993????) 'Oh it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today we had a treat day in town - a little sneaky day off school and work (shhhh...) to soak up the atmosphere of Christmas and it was just great fun. We started the day by having our breakfast in Debenhams (it was empty!)or 'sausie town' as it is know coloquially in our house because of the nature of breakfast! Then we popped over to Arnotts to visit Santa and he was sitting waiting on us to arrive! He was fab - such an old gentleman and we must have stayed for 30 minutes as there was no one waiting behind. The girls sang a song each and they were enthralled by him.





Then it was down to the Jervis centre to see the Christmas decorations. We spotted snowmen and Santa climbing a rope which again kept the girls entertained for ages.





From there we scooted out to Walkinstown to the Chocolate warehouse to see Santa and visit the factory - yummy smells!! It was a good trip and again we had the place to ourselves. The girls made a cracker from start to finish and we met Santa and the elves.




So we headed home for lunch and then decided to take a quick walk around the Zoo - again it was completely empty - we met about 6 people in the entire time we were there. Met a few interesting characters along the way...










Finally we finished the day with a trip to Liffey Valley to see 'Enchanted' and it was magical. Absolutely loved the Central park scene 'how will she know?'. I wish that happened in real life!

What a great great day - nice to have one of those every now and again!

Christmas Class & Crop




Today was a bit of an experiment as we changed venue for our monthly class and crop to Donnycarney Youth and Community Centre. It worked out great - lots of extra space and the place was buzzing with scrapping and shopping and happy women getting into the Christmas spirit. It was a great day so thanks to everyone who came along. We had a busy day - a festive double layout, make and take, challenge, raffle, secret santa and our lunch handed to us -so not a bad time at all :-)

Last night Auds and Linda called over for a spot of cropping and I fell around the place laughing when naughty Auds showed me what mischief she had been up to. Haven't laughed so much in ages!

Look at this..recognise anyone???

Ok I enjoyed this so much I made another for my crew. Here ya go...

Stop the world I wanna get off!

...And it's only the first week of December! God it's been so busy these past 2 weeks. Mammy taxi, Christmas shopping, roof tiles falling off and the impossible task of tracking down a roofer to even quote, let alone do the job, tumble dryer given up the ghost and the resulting laundry mountain, not to mention parent teachers meetings, crops and classes to prepare for this weekend (throw in a change of venue for good measure), emails and phonecalls, Christmas dinners and drinks to arrange - lists, lists, list getting longer and longer. I'm dreaming of a ...sleepy Christmas -tra la la la lah la lah lah la!

This is how I feel today :-)




So to business - this weekend Annamarie and I are holding a joint crop and scrapbooking class ina new venue to accomodate the growing number of paper addicts who seem to like turning up each month :-) The venue is Donnycarney community and youth centre. Class spaces are filled but there are crop spaces available if anyone would like to attend.

I will be teaching a double layout class (sneaky peak coming up) and Annamarie will teach a make and take. There will also be a raffle, a challenge, secret santa, atc swap and lots of festive fun...






Next Tuesday 11th Dec I'm teaching a fundraising class in Castleknock National School from 7pm-8.30pm. The theme is 'when I grow up' and parents are invited to bring a child along so they can work in a team to make this framed layout. Nice to keep or give away as a Christmas pressie. Contact me if you would like to attend...



So what nice things happened to me today in the chaos? Well a parcel arrived for my two little pixies and they were thrilled when they opened up and found these door hangers from JeanJeany. In their eyes Jeanjeany is a legend-they actually think she is a genie of sorts who grants wishes. In some ways they are right as she is the most generous person - always sending bits and pieces. She sent a lovely card to the two of them all about the big man in the red suit who is calling in 20 days... Thanks JJ - will return the favour!



Another nice thing that happened is I got an email from Cheryl of Scrapbook Inspirations to say she has picked two of my LO's this month for publication in the Spring - yay! It's the little things...

Well as it is December and the season has begun (or is about to anyday!)let's have some Christmas cheer then...this made me giggle...