Little people make me laugh

I had a lovely chat with little IzzyWhizzy as we walked through Bünde, it went a little something like this;  "You know what I call GO?  The Ginger Ninja!"  I don't really it's more whinger than ninja, I wasn't going to tell a three year old that though.  She took this in and a while later found me in the shoe shop, "He doesn't look like a gingerbread man to me!"  I laughed and carried on.  As we walked to the restaurant she asked, "Where do you live?" "Ooh, at the moment I don't have a house.  We are living with the Ginger Ninja's mum and dad when after the holidays! Although

there has been lots of rain there and some of the houses have been flooded."  I explained, "Ahh!" She said and walked on, she stopped, paused and then turned to me and asked, "Does that mean the gingerbread house will float away?"  I almost cried for laughing.  I do love little people.

Boxing Day Curry

IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIISMAS!

I hate to admit this but Christmas as a foursome are always a little bit flat.  

It seems like the same as every other day, this year though, without the expectation for a glamourous Hollywood Chrismas and the distinct lack of, not only snow, a chill in the air, we had a lovely time.

The whole day was relaxed and because there wasn't this heightened expectation of perfection we had a good time.  

The food was ready when it was ready and it wasn't the glutton fest that it sometimes can be.  

We had a tipple or two of fruitsecco, and spent the evening playing games and watching Christmas TV (Emmerdale made me weep).  

The day wasn't about the gifts, it was about spending time together. 

It must be Christmas if I'm allowed this

It must be Christmas if I am allowed to eat this for Breakfast.

4. Advent

Driving home for Christmas

And we're off, so long Oxfordshire, after the longest week in the world, that is no exaggeration, we are finally at the ferry terminal on our way to Bünde.  We paid a little extra for a night ferry.  

My thinking behind this is; to stay on a hotel for the evening costs about £30, to get a cabin is an extra £50 (£20 more than the hotel) but when you wake up on the ferry you are already in Holland.  If you stay in the hotel you have a six hour ferry ride ahead of you.  

So rather than nine hours left we only have a three hour drive.  It was a bit busy around the bigger cities, nothing compared to the M6/M25.  

We managed the whole journey on just over half a tank of diesel as well, which is unbelievable.  Oxford to Bünde on about 30L!

There is nothing as lovely as seeing the Nord Rhein Westphalen sign by Melle, the whole family likes to breathe a sigh of relief when we cross the border.

3. Advent

A few days late but, here it is the third advent.

How lovely

My SiL sent me a photo of here Christmas window, she goes all out every year and it always looks amazing.

Apparantly, if you look closely you can see baby brother Chillaxing on the sofa.  Probably giving directions and then taking all the credit I bet.  It looks stunning nevertheless.

I won the raffle

I went visit Mrs F, my BFF and Mr F (who had had his leaving party the night before).  Mrs F wanted to visit some Christams fairs she had seen on Facebook.

She had been after some log reindeers for a while and had seen that a company had a stall at a local Christmas Craft fair.  We popped along and it was heaving, apparantly Father Christmas had called in and was being very generous.  There were all sorts of different companies, one that caught my eye was the boozy cupcake company.  I was tempted but as I had just bought my ferry tickets home I was rather penniless, I gave them a grudging miss.  As we headed back to the car I passed the tombola stall, which had boozy cupcakes as a prize. "I'll buy a ticket, it's only £1!"  I called as family F walked on.  It was as I paid that I realised it wasn't a tombola but a raffle.

"If I win, you can have the prize!"  I told Mrs F, thinking nothing more of it.

We headed to the harbour and had a coffee and cake, BFF and I did some bonding as we oohed and aahed over the Christmas lights and stalls. 

BFF showed off her nearly walking skills, she met a little friend called a bolonoodle (a 3week old puppy) it was ridiculously cute and very fluffy.  

Before it got too late we snuck over to a local garden centre that had real reindeer.

I couldn't tell which of the reindeer they were, but they were very friendly, if a bit sleepy.

We wandered around the lovely Chrsitmas displays and got our groove on to the oldest Santa band in the land.

The following week I received a phone call saying I had won the raffle, unfortunately the boozy cupcakes were all gone.  Nevermind, better luck next time.

It's time for a bucket list

Even though we are moving mid-way through the festive period there is always time for a bucket list;

+Visit Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 

+Bake and decorate Christmas biscuits

+Watch Christmas movies with popcorn, snuggled under a blanket

+Kiss under the mistletoe

+Have dinner by candle light

+Have French toast for breakfast

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

+Have a decadent hot chocolate

+Go and watch a carol service

+Donate to charity

+Make a gingerbread house

+Go to a show

+Make Christmas cards

+Send Christmas cards

+Go ice skating

+Write a letter to Father Christmas

+Read the night before Christmas

+Eat a candy cane

+Take a family photo with everyone in Christmas jumpers

+Drink Gluhwein

+Visit the Waddesdon Christmas Market

+Sit by a real fire and toast marshmallows

Erste Advent

Today is the first day of advent 2015.  I wasn't sure whether we would have a kranz this year, as we are moving, but at the last second we found a door wreath in Lidl for £5.00 with four chunky red candles it is the perfect kranz to countdown the Sundays until the big day.