Thank you Secret Santa & Christmas Part 1

Afternoon

How is everyone? How was Christmas?

Can't believe I've not blogged for over a week - not like me at all.

Thanks for all the comments on the little knitted bears in the last post. Their new owners loved them. I managed to finish a couple for my boys too - even big son was impressed with his - it now sits on his computer.

Its been ok here - different because the family dynamic has changed this year. I missed my Grandad wanting to take apart stuff to see how it worked. Was also strange not seeing FIL wearing his party hat all day - though we are told he did this in the nursing home and there's a photo somewhere to prove it :) Good news on that front he really is coming home on Tuesday so that will be an excellent start to 2011.

I must say a big thank you to my secret santa and to Rebecca & Lynda for organising it. Its been great to take part again this year. Want to see what I got??

I think I showed you this one before but its in the photo folder so is coming out again!!

Inside the parcels were;

4 big sheets of soft and colourful felt, a santa for my tree and a gorgeous little pot with a cross stitch top.

A tealight holder printed with snowflakes - very pretty and its been used loads over the past few days.

Two pretty and very festive teddies that have been adorning my tree.

An address book - perfect as the one I've been using is falling apart and has more crossings out in it that actual usable addresses!!

I do know who my Santa was as she put her name inside my card - so a big thank you to Wendy :)

Now I can't remember if we were having a big reveal at some point? I know my ''victim'' got her parcel and she's written a lovely post about. So the big question shall I leave her to guess a while longer or put her out of her misery?? Was it you I wonder????

Christmas day passed in a whirl of cooking, eating, pressie un-wrapping and a tad more eating - there are photos but they are on my camera still so I'll share those next time.

Boxing Day saw us going to my parents - their house is quite small so they divided the family into 2 - those without children went Christmas evening and those with went for tea on Boxing Day. It did mean Boxing Day their house was full to bursting and it was survival of the fittest to get a chair!!

We've also been to visit my FIL and as we guessed all the old ladies in the home wanted to adopt little son - apparently he's cute!! This comes as a surprise as he's busy practising for being a teenager is few weeks and has had a good dose of hormones!!

The boys both had loads of Christmas money burning holes in their wallets so we made a trip to the big electrical stores so an enormous tv and ipod touch could be bought - both gadgets are happily up and running and their new owners are thrilled with them.

We headed back into Ipswich again another day so we could hit the high street - there were sales aplenty and MrVV & I now have some smarter new clothes and new boots each too. Mine are utterly gorgeous and his are practical!! Here are mine - very comfy;

In between all of this I've managed to be ill - had a stinking cold for 24 hours and the only cure was to take to my bed. Think yesterday I slept 20 out of 24 hours!! Much better today thank goodness.

Right I best go - I've managed to confuse my ipod and MrVV is trying hard to make it work again for me - so the least I can do is make him a cuppa!!

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx



The bit in the middle!

Good morning/afternoon/evening blogland friends

How was it for you?? Did all your hard work - shopping, cooking, planning and making pay off?

It did here :)

Christmas Day started about 7am when 2 very excited children came into our room armed with their stockings and mugs of tea for all.  Stockings were opened in our bed and both very happy with what Santa had brought them.  The boys also gave MrVV & I our pressies from them - I am the proud owner of a gorgeous scarf and fluffy socks from Joules :) MrVv got a hipflask and a guide to being a grumpy old man (not that sometimes he needs much help ;) ).

We came downstairs and as is tradition, the pressies under the tree are given out and the boys get their pressie from us.  Little son did know he was getting a new phone from us - the first time he's not had a hand-me-down but Big son had no idea what he was getting.  He unwrapped his pressie and opened the box - even the pedal in there gave him no clue immediately nor did the note saying 'for something that goes with me head to the garage'. It was only as he opened the garage down and looked inside that the penny dropped and a huge smile appeared on his face - a gorgeous, new, huge moutain bike was waiting for him.  At this point I realised I'd not got my camera so missed this wonderful photo opportunity. 

In fact I missed lots of photo chances on Christmas Day as I never did managed to go and get my camera!!

Boxing Day was much quieter just the 4 of us and a chance to play,ride, read or use our new pressies.  The boys were given Airfix kits by an Aunt & Uncle and were keen to get started on these (I must thank James May for getting them re-interested in traditional stuff - our meccano has been dusted down and is now being used again).

If you look carefully on the right hand side, you can see part of MrVV christmas pressie - a homebrewing kit.  At the moment its just doing whatever it does in the huge bucket - later in the week its got to be bottled and then left for a a few weeks before it can be sampled - now its going to be wonderful rather like our local Adnams or awful like the peapod burgundy (I know thats wine) that Tom & Barbara made in the Good Life - would be happy for somewhere inbetween!!

What did I get for Christmas??? Lots - coming from a large family it tends to be one huge pressie fest this time of year even though amongst my sisters we have a Secret Santa and only buy for one person.  This pic is a brief summary;

Now yesterday was a bank holiday here in the UK and so like sheep we joined the 1,000's of others and headed to the sales;

To be very honest it was not a great day - firstly MrVV has decided he needs a new armchair so we visited every furniture store we could find and came home empty handed. The boys wanted to go into the main town to spend christmas vouchers so we found the last remaining parking space and headed in the high street.  Yuck it was heaving - mainly with sale shoppers but also with football fans - we hadn't realised Ipswich were playing at home :(  We battled through the crowds and the boys were able to add to their book collections and MrVV & I got a couple of bargains before we decided enough was enough and we headed back home.

Today is another stay at home day - the menfolk have been out on their bikes and I've attempted to do some tidying and blog catching up.  We've visitors this afternoon - my little brother is coming to see us - am quite excited as we've not seen him since June.

I hope you all are enjoying your break and are having fun with your pressies.

See you soon

xxxxx Vicki xxxxx