Date Night (part 2)......

As mentioned before, this is our Christmas present to each other.

I'd received another 50% discount at Beefeater which expired Thursday and as we were busy every day of the week before that, then Thursday was decided to be our cinema Christmas date.

It's quite a long film and as we had Daughter, R and O here for lunch and the dog for the afternoon too we decided to go and eat first film second. This time the Tesco Clubcard voucher worked and we learned that you register your car in the cinema and don't pay the parking meter.

I'll not paste the story outline here as those who love Star Wars know it already and those that don't, don't care and to me it is far too confusing.

Seems there are 18 Star Wars films which started in 1977 with Episode IV and this most recent is Episode IX.

So story and maths aside, it was the usual mix of clever film making, loud dramatic fighting scenes both in spaceships and hand-to-hand light sabre battles, familiar music and the occasional very witty line in amongst the dialogue packed script.

As expected there were some amazing "other planet" creatures and they brought back many of the original cast in cameos or hologram messages and they even included the late Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia even though she'd died before this film had been written.

I didn't hate it and Hubby loved it.........now what on earth do I get him for his February birthday?
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Date Night (part 1).......

Hubby and I are definitely finding present buying for each other almost impossible so this last Christmas I suggested we just didn't. It certainly took the pressure off me while I'm having to come up with good ideas for what to buy everyone else, however, I'm the only person Hubby has responsibility to buy for and he seemed a little unsure and did quietly mention occasionally "so would you like this/that/the other".

I made another suggestion "what about giving each other a cinema date night?"
We go to the cinema very very rarely as we don't actually have the same taste in entertainment at all. So I said I'll watch the new Star Wars with him, with a smile on my face, and he can watch Cats with me, with a smile on his face.

It should have been free as Hubby had claimed on our Tesco Clubcard vouchers, but armed with the email complete with QR code we still struggled at the cinema ticket machine and then carried on struggling with a real person and two of her superiors! We gave up and paid for our tickets.

It was an early evening showing which may account for the sparse audience or it may have been the very poor reviews!

I enjoyed it, the clever visual effects, the London's West End surroundings, brilliant computer generated fur coverings on all cats with active tails and twitching ears, and such talented dancers! It had the most amazing star studded cast, which distracted a bit from those that could actually sing and dance.

Some of the songs weren't songs at all, just dialogue in a sing song voice and the story was almost non existent. But overall it was a short time of complete escapism.

Hubby said "It was ok but not purrrrrrrr-fect!" hahaha

We rounded off our date night with a meal in our local Beefeater.....because we had a 50% off voucher. Then home for a cuppa as it was still only 9:30! A couple of old cheapskates but we did hold hands 😉
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The Fun Season Has Started......

Well December has started with a big party, sisterS celebrated her big birthday with a party. Hubby and I did the nearly three hour drive to Twickenham and got there early enough to help set up the hall, covering tables with gold banqueting roll and setting out the food etc. Her son is a party DJ so he took care of that. Her daughter had the cake made. Then with some family and lots of her friends we had a great night.

We slept over in our usual bed in their house and Sunday the four of us went out to dinner, then we drove home. 

Got home in time for Hubby to go out again with Rudolf and the Round Table sleigh, this year they are collecting for SERV Bloodrunners and SARS Emergency Medical Charity.  Hubby is out with them every evening we aren't booked to be elsewhere. 

Daughter is working all this week putting on an adaptation of The Tailor of Gloucester as part of the Layer Marney Tower Christmas Event. She had asked us to have O and the dog and maybe the girls too while she's working. I said yes to every day bar their first on Monday.......as I'd booked tickets for Hubby and me to be there without telling her. 

We arrived at 11:30am and started with coffee/tea then a warm greeting by the owner and divided into four groups for a very amusing/informative guided tour, then escorted into a full Christmas dinner. I think there were about 100 diners. As we were finishing coffee Daughter arrived in costume to gather us all outside and play us across to the church. She was very pleased to see us. Their play was magical and clever with audience participation and carol singing too. 

After the play we all went back to the tower for mulled wine and a mince pie and the performers followed us in and sang traditional carols. We came away smiling 😀

Our usual Wednesday gang had our Christmas meal, except we had to have it on Tuesday

Shame we never think about taking the group photo until we've all got our coats on over our party clothes and friendH had already left.

The children (and dog) have been here this week while Daughter has been working, and they've put the decorations up. Leaving plenty for me to finish. 

My third Christmas dinner was at Acorn Village with the monthly crafting group. Think there were 17 of us and I'd taken a silly group game in case it went quiet at any time, but lively conversation and laughter never really stopped so we didn't need it. Forgot to take a photo. 

And all this before the 13th with two more Christmas dinners to go to and then cooking our own.  

So just in case I don't make it back to the blog before the 25th I'd like to wish you all a happy, healthy fun festive season 🎅🎁🎄  Ho Ho Ho

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Ends and beginnings......

Although there was the tricky (medical) start to December and I had to cancel some social events the rest of the month saw plenty of friends, family and celebrations.

Two lots of meeting friends for lunches. Our Wednesday group of friends celebrated twice, we had our posh hotel dinner as an annual usual but this year we ended the night back in the pub to see a friend who couldn't make it to the meal and of course so the men could play pool. Us ladies felt a little overdressed for the pub hahaha. The following Wednesday friendM cooked at home for us, we were told to dress in a suitable fashion hahaha, it was a delicious three course roast. Yummy!

I went with neighbours to our annual Eastern Angles Christmas performance, Fenland Screamers, and I've been with Daughter and O to see Alice in Wonderland. Both brilliant.

Hubby and I had a last minute trip into town as he had fundraising money to pay in, and the bank teller kept a cheery smile on her face as we held up the queue and she dealt with a mountain of coins. Then we had a mad dash throughout town looking for vegan jelly crystals and with so many shops telling us they sell it but we're sold out we eventually got what I believe were the last four packets in the whole of Ipswich!

Christmas day was at our house with Daughter, M, R, E and O. And if I say so myself dinner came out really well 😆 even the vegan trifle. It was of course a day of eating, unwrapping, board games, more eating, tv etc.

Boxing day was just as good with Daughter&co plus Son&fiancé here too! Yep lots more eating 😅

Sadly early in December one of our neighbours died. She was in her 80s and mostly stayed at home but she was always the first to arrive at coffee morning, sitting at the head of the table and enjoying all the conversations. I hadn't heard from her after I'd been in hospital and alerted another neighbour who holds a spare key and he went in and found her. 😔

New Year's Eve was also the morning when another good friend lost her battle. She had been in hospital for just a couple of weeks but had deteriorated quite rapidity. Sad times! 😔

The year ended on a very big high. Our house was open for....
Family day/NYE party/Daughter's 40th!
Starting about noon family arrived, think the total count was 25 including 3 teens, 3 children, 1 toddler, 1 baby and a dog! Have to say Daughter's dog Tilly was so well behaved considering how different it must have all been for her.
Most of the family had to leave early evening although Son&fiancé and sisterS&bilK stayed to soon be joined by 60+ of Daughter's friends to see in the new year and celebrate her big birthday. We were even joined by dinosaurs!

A fantastic party and lots of help with the clearing up which was fantastic. We played host to some sleeping over guests and Daughter did the same so breakfasts and brunch with extra company to start the year off.
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Christmas has started......

Yes I know it started about two months ago in shop windows and adverts etc but I try so hard to ignore it until I'm ready, well this weekend I bought all my Christmas cards and wrote them all (I send a lot) but of course I'll not do anything with them until it's December.

Saturday O and I went to our first Christmas Fair and end of term show at Red Rose Chain Theatre Company. We started with a look around the stalls, O had a hot chocolate and cake and he also paid a visit to Santa in his grotto.

If you follow that link you can read that Red Rose do amazing community work by making theatre inclusive for everyone and run groups for disabled and educationally challenged too. All the groups were represented in this show with 60 performers on stage. 

Daughter has been helping out with her Tudor music and teaching a group Tudor dances to add to their version of the Princess and the Pea story.

Another group did a very lively version of The Tinderbox story, but unfortunately I haven't got a photo of them. 

And the Youth Theatre did a great job of showing us what happened to the characters after we saw them in their Dread Zeppelin play, with a few of them doing all the research and writing the scripts. R was part of the script team and that's her playing the accordion, proud Grandma moment☺

There was a preview song by the cast of Alice which is the theatre's Christmas show and then all performers got us singing along to Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. 

Brilliant!

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A Real Mixed Bag.....

The week before Christmas our Son was unwell enough to be rushed into hospital and kept there for four days so we did a dash from Suffolk to Wiltshire then Bath and back to Wiltshire then home to Suffolk all in a day. We'd packed a bag to stay if need be but in the end it worked out best to come home. Happy to report Son is fine just needing lots of rest now to recover.

Nine Wednesday-friends had a lovely Christmas meal out, with friendsT&F producing funny photo props out of her bag lol.

Then back to BfriendM for drinks and a late night.

I left a few bags of gifts with people that night and came home with lots more bags for us to put under our tree. 

Daughter had been in and out of our house with various children for days, glazing and firing clay gifts and wrapping here out of sight of recipients etc. Bringing bags in and taking bags out. 

Christmas Eve our favorite neighbour-friendsP&A came in for drinks and nibbles (P is also unwell so taking it easy, not that we do anything strenuous here lol).

Christmas day was lovely. Daughter came with children, M came later on his motorbike so he could leave when he needed to. Son and fiancé came too, so nine of us at the table. Dinner all cooked really well (surprised me too), including options for vegetarians and a vegan. Only realised two days later that I'd forgotten to put the cranberry sauce on the table oops.

27th is our extended family day (has been ever since my siblings and I set up homes of  our own). Hosted here as usual. This year we totalled 30 people, six of those invited couldn't come, two were too ill to come, for one boyfriend and one fiancé it was their first time (hope we didn't scare them), we met a guest friend who was sharing Christmas with one of our families and we all had lots of cuddles with our two newest 2016 babies. So another big bag of secret Santa gifts very theatrically handed out by O with help from great-nieceE.

Thought I'd be finished with my knitting bag, but couldn't get it finished so the bag has been shoved behind the sofa. Actually just remembered I've two books unfinished on my kindle that I need to get back to.
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Christmas 2015......

The day before (known as Christmas Eve to most people but this one didn't involve E) and Daughter invited us to join them at Suffolk Food Hall for hot drinks and cake. When we got there O was already bouncing on the outdoor bouncy pillow thing

But it was too chilly for us all to stay outside for long so inside and a mix of teas, latte, hot chocolate and a milkshake plus cakes and although it was really busy there we got seats yaay. Afterwards O very quickly got bored of looking round the gifty/crafty/household stuff and dragged Granddad outside for more bouncing while Daughter, R and I did the farm food shop and I got some focaccia and another gift Hubby chose for himself. All back to our house and eventually we got tomorrow's veg prepped

Christmas Day and my one and only Christmas LP has to play as it has done every Christmas morning for as long as we've been married, even though we now have long gone past records, cassettes and even CDs and Hubby likes using his digital download on a memory stick. ...but he willingly rearranges all the entertainment equipment wiring so our record deck can come through the speakers this one morning every year!

I'm sure the rest of our Christmas day is much the same as almost everyone else's so I won't need to repeat all that just be pleased to know that Daughter&co all came, dinner was delicious (everyone said so) and everyone loved all their gifts. Daughter hand stitched this one for Hubby and I and it made me cry a little

We played a game and I won even though I didn't understand (and still don't) how to play! Quite a while after they went home Hubby and I had our Christmas pudding as we were all too full to have dessert after starter and main course.

Boxing Day and I spent all morning rearranging food so the huge amount of leftovers were frozen in suitable ways. The afternoon I managed to do some crafting.

Sunday Daughter came over so O could have a bath, then she "nipped" out with Hubby to buy a microwave, O and I played games. About an hour later Daughter text to say now heading back but they didn't actually arrive here for another hour as her girls had messaged to say could they have a lift into town so she'd done lots of driving and collecting and dropping off. While she was here she got a message from some second cousins saying they were now hoping to come to our family day here tomorrow....so when Daughter and O went home I shot out to buy three more gifts as they hadn't been included in the secret Santa list. I'd just finished wrapping the extra gifts when I get another message to say that actually they can't come!!! So some housework, furniture rearranging for tomorrow and a lovely long phone call from our Son and I never got back to my crafting at all.

Bank Holiday Monday (as Boxing Day was a Saturday) and this is my whole family day. If you follow my ramblings you'll know we do this every year and more recent years it's been held here. There were 28 of us this time (2 who never come, 2 too unwell to come and 4 children who couldn't come for various reasons) so a lovely noisy full house.

This isn't everyone as some are just never in the right place when I snap! Everyone contributes to the buffet table and as usual the table was heaving! My children, a sibling, an in-law, nieces, nephews,  great nephew, great nieces and lots of their partners......My lovely lovely family :)
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No time for jetlag! .......

As you know we landed early hours Wednesday and straight to bed, up about 11am-ish I think. I managed to unpack everything and get a wash on. That evening I ate out in Felixstowe as usual, actually not totally as usual because they have refurbished our pub, no longer have a large round table and put the prices up but we'll still go there! Hubby was out bowling as he usually does on a Wednesday too.

Thursday was also a usual night out for me but not our usual art night as we had a demonstration of water colour techniques of how to paint water by the very clever Claudia Myatt. FriendDJ hasn't been too well recently but he wanted to make it to art so I picked him up and he loved the demo but needed to go home straight afterwards. FriendM and I then went on to Olive's Bar and met the others there for drinks and live music. We don't get there till after 10pm so another very late night.

I know during the days there has been lots of laundry processing and coffee breaks with neighbours, having to rescue my nails that hadn't been done for a month and disguise the growth gap which I could thankfully do with glitter varnish as it's party season (think it worked quite well)

and other stuff I can't really remember now, oh we did some gardening too and during the day Friday we had O while Daughter did the four hour round trip to collect R who had been with her dad for the week having an early Christmas, E and O had been with Daughter at their HE Christmas camp till Thursday night so that's why we hadn't seen them till Friday. When she got back it was a quick cup of tea catchup then wave them off so we could get ready for another night out. This was my x-work team Christmas dinner

I love it that we all still meet up even though we stopped working together more than six years ago.

Saturday morning Daughter was picking me up to take R to drama and so together with O we could be in the audience for the end of term performance. Unfortunately R was feeling quite unwell and tearful, so in the end we gave her paracetamol, left O with Hubby and the three of us drove to drama, she didn't feel any better when we got there so Daughter went in to explain and leave her costume there for the understudy. We actually came home and left R on the sofa under a blanket and took O out to see the local church Crib Festival (we all loved it, hope it becomes an annual event)

See we haven't stopped, so busy in fact that we are struggling to find any time to catchup with recorded tv programmes and we are running out of sky-planner space hahaha. 

It didn't stop there, as Sunday was a very big wedding day in London but that will get a post of its own. 

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Part of my Advent.....

Christmas, crafting and eating.......

Another Christmas craft I've started but sort of abandoned is this...

 

No proper tutorial to link to for this as it was shown to me by a friend. Start with card cut to any size with a ratio of 3:1 then score in thirds and zig-zag diagonal (as you can just about see from this photo). Secure beads onto the corners to stop the threads slipping off and fold into the hexahedron shape and secure with tape then wind with embroidery thread securing with pva glue. And what you see above is as far as I've got, but they will hopefully hang on the tree next year ;o)

 

Art/Craft wise I've also been painting t-shirts. These are very old plain tops that have long been splashed with cooking grease etc so with some very old (35+ years) fabric paints that I was amazed still worked I'm giving them a makeover. Pink one is done (needs ironing) and the yellow one in progress!

 

 

 

 

The Christmas cards are all done and the presents are half way, as I needed to get a bit ahead of myself due to a day in hospital yesterday for a minor op and a slow day today which was recommended but actually apart from an uncomfortable throat I'm feeling fine :o)

Glad it's over with and I wouldn't have changed the date, however, my biggest disappointment was that I had to miss E's end of term concert yesterday and R's Christmas drama performance this morning.

 

And the Christmas dinners of course.....been booking and organising one for my old work mates on 22nd, pre-ordering and paying for another with the usual gang on 17th, lunch on the 9th with old college friends, had the first one last Thursday with friends and one other lunch in the diary too for 12th, but unfortunately should have had one tonight which we've cancelled as that friend is unwell.

 

Hubby has also now booked his Sainsbury's delivery slot for 22nd so I'd better get on with sorting out the shopping list. Ho ho ho!

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Christmas craft upcycle......

Had to confess to some procrastination today when I should have been doing some ironing!

Found this on Pinterest and couldn't resist having a go.

Plastic icicles links to the original tutorial I followed.

I did make a batch of chutney at the same time so quite a fun productive day with minimal ironing. 

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Don't bother reading.....

So much done and so much still to do,
shopping and struggling with what to get for the last few,
wrapping what I've already got,
printing lists and ticking them off,
menu planning and adding to the online supermarket basket,
swearing that the online supermarket keeps timing out for no apparent reason,
the 'alternative' panto,
the granddaughter's drama group performance,
buying and altering clothing for Christmas dinners,
organising and enjoying a Christmas dinner with x-work mates,
looking forward to another Christmas dinner with a crowd of friends, and
babysitting so Daughter could go to M's Christmas dinner.

However as EVERYONE is doing the same just now I won't bother blogging about it.
Cheers

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