Erste Advent

Getting in the festive spirit

Spent the day at the Manchester Christmas with GO.  We got there earlyish and started with a slap up lunch at Nandos.  I do love a bit of chicken.  Then we had a wander around, eating and drinking our way around the stalls.  It definitely gets me in the festive spirit as well as the alcoholic spirit.  GO was his usual humbug self, but even he started to warm up by the time he'd consumed fresh out of the oven Gebrannte mandeln.

Clever Kiddies

We made £60 at the school Christmas Fayre, it was a lot but we were still third in the class who makes the most money win contest.  Still they are blooming cute and so easy to make.  Just a sock and rice.

We're in stage one

We filled in the registration of interest form on out ninth meetaversary, we thought it was symbolic.  We received noticed that we have been accepted onto stage one (there are two stages that you wait) on GO's birthday.  We have the same SW (social worker) as we had in July.  She is a lovely lady, very experienced, intease GO that she has a little crush on him.  Why not he is just getting yummier as the years go on.

We have a lot of work to do, the local authority want all of the checks to be completed by January 8th 2017.  We'll see....

Tis the season to be Murray

This is my Christmas 2014 Bucket list

1.      Decorate the House

2.     Bake and decorate Christmas biscuits 

3.     Watch Christmas movies with popcorn, snuggled under a blanket

4.     Kiss under the mistletoe

5.     Have dinner by candle light

6.     Have French toast for breakfast

7.     Go for a walk around the village and look at everybody's Christmas lights

8.     Have a decadent hot chocolate

9.     Go and watch a carol service

10.   Decorate the tree

11.    Donate food to the local food bank

12.   Make a gingerbread house

13.   Go to the Ballet/Pantomime

14.   Send Christmas cards

15.   Go ice skating

16.   Write a letter to Father Christmas

17.   Read the night before Christmas

18.   Eat a candy cane

19.   Make reindeer food

20.  Take a family photo with everyone in Christmas jumpers

21.   Visit the Manchester Christmas market

22.  Drink Gluhwein

23.  Visit the Piece Hall Christmas Market

24.  Sit by a real fire and toast marshmallows

A work in progress

I got myself a free set of dining room chairs, they were battered and needed a bit of TLC.  I will strip and varnish at some point but have recovered them in some fabulous fabric.  Looking good if I say so myself. 

Upside Down Rainbow

"Can you see it?  There it is!"  As my class oohed and ashed at the upside down rainbow I couldn't for the life of me see it.  All I could see was the sun, I was getting quite frustrated then I notice that everyone was looking above my head.  Then I saw it, an upside down rainbow, apparantly it's to down with light passing through ice crystals and is quite a commonish sight up north.  It even featured on the evening news (not my photo as people assumed but one from a parent who had also seen it).  My favourite moment was the whole class running to see it and one little girl took out the IPad, to capture a moment I thought.  "Oh, did you take a photo?"  "No, I'm doing a quiz!"

Lamplighters

I bobbed into town to pick up some groceries for breakfast.  I knew that something was happening in town, but as GO was at work I wasn't too bothered about it.  As I got closer though I noticed a few huge multicoloured cones peeking over the tips of the houses.  I might as well have a quick look, I thought to myself.  It was awesome, lots of paper hand made lanterns towering over seven foot tall.  

GO to the rescue, sort of....

My knight in shining armour came to pick me up from the station because, "it's not safe you walking around Manchester on your own" (he knows me well). Nobody told knighty or me that the station had two pigging exits! We spent an hour trying to find one another.  As my phone battery had died we couldn't communicate either.  I ended up walking around Manchester, talking to random strangers asking for directions, looking for a pay phone, borrowing their mobiles.  Finally after I accosted a passionate couple about whether there was a second exit he pulled up in front of me.  At least we know for next time....

Happy Birthday Papichen

So good to see papichen able to enjoy retirement after last years accident.  After years of working for others it's now time for him and Mamilein to have some fun together.

Hope you have a wonderful day full of fun and laughter and a chocolate or two.

Happy Birthday Papichen xxx