All secrets are out

“and that’s it for another year”, as Mummy would say as we went to bed on Christmas Day.  Well, in our case, a few secrets still remain, for just like HM The Queen, a heavy cold left m-i-l Bettine feeling low yesterday and she decided to take the sensible option of staying home rather than join us for our Christmas celebrations.  She’s feeling better today, so we’ll enjoy her company for Boxing Day lunch and will exchange a few more presents with her then.

I hope you had as lovely a day as we did, for in spite of one empty seat at the table, five of us enjoyed a jolly lunch, noting as we did that the birds had “cherry picked” all the red berries from our outdoor table.  Fine with me – we had plenty of our own good things to eat!

We had all been good this year, for Father Christmas filled our stockings with good things, though one small sugar mouse came a cropper somewhere on the journey :-0

Amongst other treasures I had a box of pencils: Specially chosen for me, do you think?

My family are the best present givers, extraordinarily generous and very clever at choosing the perfect surprise.  Of course, Mummy Christmas makes a similar effort and keeps an eye open for similarly well-chosen ideas, so from time to time, the inevitable happens*.

Two Amazon Echos were unwrapped yesterday morning!  We had identified it as a great idea for Edward and Amy and my Hero had liked the look of it so much, he bought one for me (us).

No sooner had we plugged it in than we said Hello to Alexa, the new member of our family!  She began by telling us a joke…and then another and another.  But soon we were finding out about her other tricks: “Alexa, play BBC Radio 4….louder….quieter….volume 6” 

Ooo!

We asked her questions, she told us another joke, we turned the radio on and off and then, before going to bed, we linked the Echo to our Spotify account and played some music.  Like small children, we were giggling at the magic!

“Alexa, play Fix You” (she did)

So this morning, we’ve said goodbye to the old Bose kitchen radio/CD player after many years sterling service and plugged Alexa in the same corner.  My Hero asked her to play our favourite internet radio station, Swiss Radio Classic and I interrupted the programme for a few seconds to ask her to remind me to put the ham on to cook at 10.10am.

“OK.  Reminder set”

Love it!

We hope you too had a happy day and some wonderful surprises, filled with love and and just a little magic.  Perhaps, like me, you cried a little at some point (watching We’re Going on a Bear Hunt when Grandma says “There’s nothing wrong with being sad.  It’s just a way of remembering the happy times.”)  I hope you also laughed, too.  I mean, when we are given at least one pair of White Company slippers, then we will have warm feet and cosy toes.

Excuse me, though, I have to go.  Alexa is calling me

Merry and Bright

We are at home.

We’ve been having fun with friends, enjoying the season.

Admiring the elegant bridesmaids arriving for a wedding in the church opposite the pub where we were having lunch last Saturday.

Preparing to welcome our neighbours for a little get together last Sunday.

Planning to steal this idea for a grand Advent calendar, spotted a Daylesford on Monday morning.

Actually, we were admiring most of the grand things at Daylesford.  It’s a grand sort of place.

£75 for a door wreath?  Beautiful but a little OTT.

The Welsh Rarebit brunch was grand in a different way, thank you!

We’ve made lots of Froebel stars.  Small fingers make light work of them.

when fuelled by Smarties, of course.

My WI entertained a group of 20 guests from the Macular Society to lunch, cooking them a full Christmas dinner and enjoying their company as much as (I hope) they enjoyed their visit.

We all agreed that the fun never stops when we are with friends.

Did I mention that Mary has been here this last week?

Update on Friday, December 23, 2016 at 12:00PM by Gill Thomas

now with links for you, Lesley!!   ;-) 

It’s the season

We’d become used to the chill.  I enjoyed wearing my new warm coat and wrapping up warm with my scarf and mittens, even if I hadn’t quite got my hat out yet.  So I was disappointed when the temperature rose to unseasonably high levels and found myself more in need of an umbrella than a pair of gloves.

I mean, is this the weather in which to go Christmas shopping?

Well, yes, if you are in a dry shopping mall and can get away with wearing a T shirt.  No, of course we didn’t – though I’d given it thought and left my coat at home, I was still uncomfortably warm and glad to be out in the fresh air again.

I rather liked the red, white and blue Christmas variation in John Lewis, by the way.

Clearly, I still had that colour palette in mind whilst passing the flowers in Marks and Spencer and chose this “Luxury Ilex” bunch.  It looked lovely when I put it in the vase but within hours the blue “thistly bits” had drooped and the following morning, I was emailing M&S for their comments.

(I had their reply today: “Thanks for getting in touch, Gillian. I'm so, so sorry to hear about the Autograph flowers you bought from us, especially as they never lasted as long as you, and we expect. I can certainly understand why you wanted to let us know, Gillian - I would too”  It was followed with notice that I will receive a gift voucher in the post for a full refund…

The main challenge of the weekend was to trim the tree, however.  By Sunday morning, the rain had passed through and the sun had put in an appearance.  Now, that made getting the lights arranged evenly a bit tricky!  By mid morning, we were both feeling a little over-heated though and for the first time I can remember, we spent the whole day with the garden room door wide open.

December weather?  Very strange.

By the time darkness fell, it was finished and the house is in holiday mode.  I really love finding all the old favourites and sat down for five minutes to read Lucy and Tom’s Christmas, one of the books we have around for small visitors to read.  The little bit about Tom being “excited and a little bit cross” in the afternoon, and going out for a walk with his Grandad is so touching.

Speaking of old favourites, there they all were with the tree looking pretty.  The bear in the velvet Christmas stocking,

the polar bear with the fish he caught

the little bear which used to hang on Grandma’s tree

and because our tree is not completely covered in bears, the little ice-skates we spotted and couldn’t resist in Boston Anthropologie some years ago.

It might not be cold outside, but those icy-white lights make me feel very chilly inside!  I still prefer the warm white lights we had a couple of years ago, but perhaps these lights are in keeping with our white and silver decorations.

At least, the polar bears are happy!

Party time

No matter how unseasonal I might be feeling, going out to lunch with my WI friends is bound to lift the spirits and in no time at all, the laughter and silliness makes for a fun afternoon.  The Snooty Fox in Tetbury did us proud yet again and provided a table full of party poppers, very smart but rather silly hats, streamers, crackers and loud rocket balloons.  There were also “those things you blow which make a funny noise as the rolled-up paper thing extends out” – I have no idea what they are called, so just googled “Party blowers” and came across that description, as it seems I’m not the only one to be lost for a name.

Our annual Christmas Lunch is always a smart affair and an occasion to give the fine jewellery an airing.  But if the Snooty Fox thought that the elegant ladies of Avening WI were above creating mayhem when provided with a table full of toys, they were wrong.  The rocket balloons were soon screaming about above our heads, cascades of streamers were popping out and only the arrival of the turkey (and all the trimmings) brought everyone to order.

By that time some found their “clear liquid refreshment” had been unintentionally spiked.

A great time was had by all, then, especially because someone else was going to take care of all the clearing away and washing up.  Notice there’s not a party hat left in sight…

We’ve had a little excitement at home, because our lane is being resurfaced.  Never sure if we will be able to drive out or whether we will need to leave our cars up on the main road and walk down, we’ve kept a beady eye on the proceedings.  This was the scene last Tuesday, when I returned from lunch and a week later, they have finally laid the finished surface adjoining our drive.  We are reliably informed the work will be complete tomorrow – phew.

I decided I should take a home made contribution to the WI Christmas party on Thursday so baked some Pecan Tassies, making an alternative to mince pies (which I knew would feature in some form or another).  They were quick and easy to make and we liked them very much!

 

My team won the chocolate tasting, identifying all but one of the fourteen chocolate bars.  We’d identified Picnic, Double Decker, Topic and Mars Bars, we’d been able to taste the difference between Galaxy and Dairy Milk, but one single milk chocolate defeated us.  No wonder we were unfamiliar with it,  because it was a Yorkie -  “Not for Girls” !

Our prize: a bar of chocolate, of course!

Actually, my table won the “tray zoo” competition as well, as the eight of us created a curious set of playdough creatures including a pig, a penguin, a turtle and the cutest dinosaur you’ve ever seen.  Not a single “worm” in sight (though such things were seen in great number on other trays, disguised as snakes, eels and slowworms!)

Collecting a present from our secret Santa, the jollity was over for another year.  With calls of “Happy Christmas!” we all went our separate ways, though we’ll see one another again before the big day, making and serving Christmas lunch to a group of old friends from the Macular Society on the 21st. 

We have our party hats at the ready

Now, where were we?

Half way through a blog post about being a parent, actually, but life (and maintaining personal privacy) got the better of me and though I haven’t consigned it to the recycle bin, I’ve given up for now.  Suffice to say that it was an absolute delight to be asked to do an 11pm pick up again after all these years, especially amusing since it wasn’t after some school event but dinner with a Cabinet Minister

Being a parent never stops being wonderful, does it?

Appreciation was expressed in the form of kitchen duties over the weekend, including a little bottling.  Needless to say, we did need to maintain quality control, so sampling was mandatory.  The 2016 vintage sits in the storeroom thanks to our sweet sloe-collecting friends, quietly steeping for a year or two until it reaches similar perfection.

We’ve been enjoying the most amazing weather in the last few days.  I never mind the low temperatures if we can have these clear blue skies and sunshine.

A day in London with friends started in such bright sunshine at the V&A, to see the Opus Anglicanum exhibition and ended in the darkness of Bond Street, where I enjoyed a walk around to do a little window shopping.

No angels here, but lovely arches of peacock feathers, elegant and very effective.

I thought the tiny vignettes in the Tiffany windows were really lovely.

Way more classy than the Selfridges offering this year, showing Santa on his holidays.

I liked the Fenwicks style too, traditional but effective, don’t you think?

So yes, with the arrival of December and our first Crafternoon at the village pub, making Christmas wreaths, I guess we’re into the season of Advent around here.  I’m doing my best to savour the days, to enjoy time at home and to make the most of the odd hour here and there in my studio, making and doing what we do at this time of the year.

Thankfully, that includes going out and having fun with friends as well!