Happy New Year's Eve! Love all of us xx Have a wonderful, fun, safe and happy time! Olivia has been making us laugh with her sayings lately:- She said "I love the onions they are funny but I like the lellow ones not purple" Aka, she loves minions but only the yellow ones. "Daddy can I have winter biscuits for breakfast please" pardon!! Aka, wheetabix "I like Ben and Holly's satsuma" This took a while to translate, submarine! Your funny Olivia thanks for the laughs at the breakfast table, it starts the day off lovely. We tidyed the house top to bottom, hoovered and dusted all ready for the new year when we return. It is traditional to spend new year at my parents, it is lovely, it is the only thing we do that is still exactly the same as from my childhood, as an adult Christmas changes and as a parent it changes again but new year at mum and dads is the same as when I was little so I love it, after the buffet the children played games on the wii, adults played pictionary and the grandparents were being as patient as possible with a house full, Rich was in constent demand with " can I play this game, can I change character" all in all was very fun evening. As the end of 2013 approaches we put the tv on to let the new year in and watch the countdown and fireworks, it has been a lovely evening and get together with family. Unfortunately Jenny is poorly, sending you lots of love and hope your feeling better soon. Goodbye 2013! Today is New Year Eves, Eve as Brendyn was saying. We decided that we would go to the cinema and watch Despicable Me 2! It was so funny! I recommend watching it if you have not already. When we came out of the cinema we could not believe how wet the ground was, they must have had a lot of rain, there was a lovely rainbow as well. After the cinema we got diesel and then popped to the garden centre to fetch more fish as the levels of water were ok. Brendyn and Olivia had an early night tonight, as tomorrow we let them stay up as long as they want to, to let in the new year. Welcome to our extended family, 4 goldfish. "Doc, Sharky, Sparky, Halli" 2 boys 2 girls Brendyns are Sharky, Sparky and Olivia's are Doc and Halli. I cut Richards and Olivia's hair, popped some more washing in the machine and dryer. We had a buffet lunch using up all the nibbles left over from Christmas, but we are all still too full for tea, we had our baths and sat and chilled, so picking on chocolates while watching tv tonight I think! I started knitting Richard a scarf for his birthday, it will take a while as it is in rib, it is heavy to hold while I am knitting. We finished watching Pemberley, so watched Midsommer Murders Christmas edition. They were excited to come down this morning to say good morning to Doc, she made it through the night so let's hope she does not get stressed and survives in her new environment. Cleaning the kitchen this morning and some horses rode past, one of my favourite horses is the dapple grey and it strode past elegantly. Not cleaning over Christmas I cleaned and tidyed the house ready for new year as we will not be at home, I want to come back in our home all clean and tidy ready to start the new year off with a good clean start. Brendyn and Richard played with the Lego they had off Rose and Dave, thank you. We had a Christmas dinner for the four of us instead of a Sunday lunch, we had Xmas pud and sticky toffee pudding again to. We watched some mothers do have em 2nd series, very funny, Olivia dressed up as brave, doc, ruby red dress, princess jasmine and Cinderella, evey time I looked her she has a different outfit on bless her. She washed baby as well and played with baby Annabel. We watched George Clark's amazing spaces "Christmas" it was lovely people really inspire me with their clever ideas and dreams. Followed by Death comes to Pemberley Christmas has flown by its quite sad to think how quick, but i am happy for new year and looking forward to it so much. We stayed overnight at Jenny's we had a lovely morning and noticed the shed roof had blown off with all the felt and tarpaulin. Jenny and Richard put a tarpaulin over it for now to keep it water tight. It is bitter cold outside today. Jenny cooked a lovely beef Wellington dinner for us and then we set off back home. This is our new addition to our family. We stopped off at the pet shop on the way back and got them 1 goldfish for the time being untill the water levels have settled Olivia choose a name "doc" as in "doc mcstuffins" as the lady in the shop had said it was a girl, they were so excited, all the way back in the car they were chatting and discussing names and what types they could have how many and what they had picked to put into the tank. We watched room on the broom and the gruffalos child with the children before bed, we love anything by Julia Donaldson. After they had watched their programme and it was time for bed they went and said goodnight to Doc! We watched the first part of this programme this evening, it was a really good introduction we got straight into it, I love period dramas. Thanks for letting us know Jenny I really enjoyed it. It has been lovely having nanny and grandad stay with us over Christmas, but they go back home today, so we thought we would go somewhere for a treat. We went to the local garden centre this afternoon and treated nanny and grandad to lunch, had a nose around and had a lovely coffee with Gingerbread syrup it was lovely. I brought some gardening gloves as they are a pretty Lillac colour and will come in useful for the spring. Nanny and grandad are back home now and we are at nanny Jenny's. We had a lovely meal chilli and chicken wrap with salad and a homemade crumble, delicious. We watched Quartet a funny film. Happy Boxing Day! What ever you are doing, where ever you are have a wonderful time! Xx Rich cooked us a full breakfast this morning as a breakfast/lunch. Brendyn had this off Father Christmas he wanted to fly it so we went over the nature reserve in front of our house, he had good fun flying it I was pleased he could do it as sometimes they are hard to control, I am greatfull it is still in one piece, I was dreading tears and it broken. I was surprised it went quite high for a children's one. I deffiently recommend buying one, it crashed several times or should I say landed rather roughly and is still in tact! It also went quite far. Our home in in the distance, we are hoping it is safe for them to play when they are older and we can watch them from the house. Brendyn came in and spent the afternoon playing spy's with these binoculars, thanks nanny jenny, we were all intrigued with them. Olivia played with her baby Annabel she is beautiful we have all gone broody now, she cues, crys, gurgles, laughs, suckles on water and her cheeks move in and out and burps she is so nice when she is on the settee we have all picked her up and felt the need to cuddle her. Thank you nanny and grandad she loves her. Thank you nanny jenny for her beautiful outfit. Yesterday we were laughing at Olivia and her many outfit changes through the day, Gary my brother even started counting it tickled him having two boys, 12 times yesterday it was, today she wore her red ruby dress, and then stayed in the dr outfit nanny Jenny cleverly made for her all day which is an achievement as she never stays dressed. So thank you again jenny she loves it. Sominstead of changing lots herself she changed baby Annabel instead. These are Brendyns Christmas presents. I played dominoes with Olivia. This her Merida outfit from brave. These are Olivia's presents and outfits. Remember the wine? Well we were supposed to be making it an handing it out at Christmas for presents, it was not ready, I got a bit too excited, I do that, a lot! So Rich filtered it again into more Demi johns with dads assistance, thanks dad for all your help. There were 3 demijohns to taste we had a sample of each one no. 1 was sharp, no. 2 was just right and no. 3 was a bit bitter, so dad advised us to mix 1 and 3 and it was lovely, we were impressed that we had made it and look forward to bottling it up, it should be ready for half term holiday and Richards birthday. This is what I brought Richard for Christmas. A fish tank, we had a large tank tropical fish, but it was hard work to look after and clean out, so as the fish gradually died we have got it in the garage. Brendyn and Olivia wanted to have a pet but with my asthma and allergies I can not have anything in the house, Rich liked the fish tank as it is relaxing and he loves fish, so I got the tank we just need some fish and bits and bobs to go in it. We had a buffet for tea. We watched this tonight it was very funny a classic, no matter how many times we have watched it, we still love it! Midnight mass last night/this morning, was lovely, by candlelight singing soft calm carols it was a beautiful end to a beautiful day. 2am we went to bed in the end, goodness me!!! Father Christmas enjoyed his treats. Thank you Father Christmas for all our lovely goodies. Thank you everyone for our Lovely gifts. Full of excitement both children bounded in the bedroom at 4.20am!!! After asking them to come back in at least 2 hours they fell asleep again and came in at 7. We opened some presents on the bed then they jumped in on nanny and grandad excitedly, we came downstairs and opened our presents. Had crumpets and cheese or little scotch pancakes for breakfast. We always name our turkeys this year it was "king Julian" named from the lemar from Madagascar, we sit down to the table and toast merry Christmas then raise a toast to "the said turkey" aka "King Julian" our guests always find it funny and it is a start of the conversations which then flow onto others untill an hour has gone by and everyone is having fun, I would much prefer that then we all sit there and no one speaks and has nothing to say. It was really nice my brother came with his family their 2 children and our 2 sat in the lounge at a table and watched a Xmas film chatting away and eating their meal and the adults were in the dining room listening to Xmas music and chatting it was such a lovely atmosphere. I aimed for 2pm and by 1.30pm we were eating our starter, homemade tomato soup and others had prawn cocktail. The Christmas dinner was served carvery style so I had a que of people on the left of the kitchen walking to the right in a u shape, where once dished up they could go to their table, no one struggled for space everything worked out lovely I was so pleased, I was worried we might all be bumping into each other. My first Christmas dinner was in 1999 when I had my new kitchen and our first house, had my family up, previously we had gone to my parents, I was only 23. This is my lovely table all ready and waiting for Christmas dinner. Brendyn and Olivia made name cards so that everyone knew where they were sitting, not to be formal but my dad being disabled is better with the closest seat, so as not to walk round the other side of the dining room, my brother was the other end of the table so they were head of table, Stacey next to Gary and opposite mum and Richard and I were opposite each other. Thanks so much Richard, Brendyn and Olivia for my lovely presents. We all played pictionary and had lots of fun, the pictures we were guessing and the things coming out were funny my brother and his family left at 9 when the game ended, thank you Gary and Stacey for such a lovely fun day!! After having a quick tidy up we sat down with a cup of tea and watched Downton Abbey!! Happy Christmas Eve everybody have a wonderful time xxx We are all very, very excited. We have been up very early and Brendyn was taken to school to catch a coach to Birmingham symphony hall at 8.45am they are so excited and nervous all at the same time. As I wave him good bye from the coach, I am feeling apprehensive of him travelling, anxious for him, excited, happy and tearful all at the same time, I have butterfly's for him, but mainly I am so, so proud for him and still can not believe he is only 7!!!! We took Olivia to nanny and grandads and set off for Birmingham, parked and had a lovely mocha coffee and cream in Starbucks with our friends Claire, Nick and Kierran. We went to our seats and met Jenny the children were already on stage looking around the vast amount of audience trying to find their parents, we were so lucky we were on the front row and only about 10 feet away from the choir, they looked so tiny against the London orchestra, male voice choir and a ladies choir, all adults, they were the only children there, I wanted to run up and hug him, we had missed him so much as we had not seen him untill now, which was 2.30pm. Exhilarating, outstanding, everyone on the stage was fantastic, words can not explain how fantastic it was, filled with tears of happiness and the Christmas spirit, we are all asked to join in with the carols and to take part in the 12 days of Christmas where the conductor sectioned the Auditorium into 12 sections asking each section to stand up and sing their part, it was a very sophisticated yet funny and enjoyable evening. Finally seeing Olivia at nannys 6pm they thankfully said she had been golden, I hope so, it was a very long day for all of them. She missed her brother so much oh and then mummy and daddy. We loaded dads car up and all drove to ours, making a stop off at the chip shop in the village. The children excitedly sprinkled their reindeer food outside and put their goodies out for Father Christmas, we always leave him carrots for the reindeers, a mince pie, homemade Christmas cookies and a glass of sherry. With anticipation they run upstairs to bed and I read them my favourite story from My childhood, I have read this story every year of my life, before that mum used to sit on my bed when I was little and read it to me, so I have carried on the tradition. Thanks mum and dad for a fantastic childhood, memories and traditions that I still have today with my children, love you both so much xxxx 11pm and dad is looking after the children, they are in bed so Richard, mum and I are going to church to midnight mass, really looking forward to that, we have not been since we have had the children, but now they are a little bit older, they will be fine waiting for Father Christmas, hope he waits for us to get home before he flys over our area. Hurray!! It is so exciting not long to go!! Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for us as it will be for many people. So we have got a lot of little things done today that we might not have time to do tomorrow. One of them being magic reindeer food! The children added the extra formula to the food popped it in a pot and shuck it up for luck, tomorrow night they will sprinkle it on the lawn for the reindeers. "Sprinkle on the lawn at night The moon will make it sparkle bright Santas reindeer fly and roam This will help them find your home!" Richard had a nice surprise in the post, a £100. Gift certificate from work. "Happy days!" Richard won the raffle at school for the stationery prise, it was a lovely gift pack shown below, donated from the stationery shop in the village to the school, brilliant win for us being craft lovers. It had been put into Brendyns room and we forgot we had it last day of school being hectic, so in the craft cupboard it goes. Normally Christmas Eve we like to make sure the house is spring cleaned top to bottom end the year of well and start a new year off with a good clean start. But as tomorrow we are out all day we have done this today. Downstairs was ok their bedrooms were done yesterday, so this afternoon while Brendyn was on the game and Olivia sat on our bed and played Dr's with her teddies we hoovered, dusted and cleared out old paperwork and all the little toys and teddies that make their way up to our floor from the children's floor. We took all the toys from the lounge up to their rooms and put them away, we said Father Christmas might not leave toys if there are already a load downstairs, we do this so as there is more room for opening presents, also we can see what they have had and off who. We also like the house cleaned and tidy so as we are on holiday, other then the kitchen and normal routine daily jobs I will not be doing housework while mum and dad are staying and it is Christmas, so I am looking forward to the rest, I will just change beds and give it a quick Hoover and dust before new year. So now the house is done top to bottom we all relaxed watching Santa paws. We are all very excited for Christmas in this house!! They both have Jessica's party "pizza and movie night" this evening and are excited for that as well. Rich did some Lego with Brendyn and Olivia and they made our house but ran out of windows. We tidyed and cleaned their bedrooms ready for Father Christmas to come. Had lunch ham and chutney sandwiches and watched Christmas Mr. Bean it was very funny. Unfortunately the fudge did not work, it was too soft, the recipe said a cup of everything so I guess our cups must be bigger then they should be, will have to have another go over the holidays. So we had another idea. I usually make my cakes from scratch but this looked so yummy we had to try it, so we made the toffee cake and put the failed fudge mixture on top of it. So we now have toffee cake with white chocolate and fudge topping, slightly sloppy but hoping it will be delicious all the same. The decorations we made the other day we put on top, it was a family effort. While the oven was on we made some Christmas shortbread cookies, only they are being eaten before decorated so hopefully if any are left tomorrow, they might get to be pretty Christmas cookies. During Autumn I brought some lovely wool 4 types from the wool shop in the village with the intention of making a crazy scarf, only I only brought one ball of each colour costing £5.50 in total, I thought it would make a lovely gift, only when I made this I did not have enough wool for an adult or a child's, I can not get the wool again as it was special and they have the odd balls left from projects so there was no more in the shop, so I had the idea of sewing it together and turning it into circle that sat lovely on Olivia's shoulders, it will keep her warm, she is very pleased with it but I have no idea what you would call it, not a scarf but more like a neck warmer. We popped to Dunelms and brought a table protector, we have struggled to get one in this size but thought with Christmas being about the meal hopefully stocks are filled up and so they were, so here it is, only we had to iron it and flatten it down, the table cloth sits on top of it, protecting the table for any spillages or hot plates I put on not thinking over Christmas. Brendyn and Rich went on the Xbox for a while and then we went to Jessica's party at 4.30 they watched Nativity 2, very funny, had pizza for tea which they all made themselves. We left at 6.30 came home and we watched the muppets Christmas carol, Rich cooked he loves cooking when he is not at work we had spicy tomato and chilli pasta with chicken for tea it was lovely. Children went to bed and we watched Disney Christmas Carol but it is too scary for Brendyn and Olivia, I think it is because the graphics are so good and the people look so real. We finished off with Kirstie's handmade Christmas. |
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AuthorHi! Welcome to Brenoli's thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy reading and come back for more. Archives
July 2015
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