2011 round up

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Became landlords.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year? My new years resolutions last year can be seen here and i kept them until i got pregnant (february) and then everything went to pot. I will make more for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Oh my goodness where do i start? My sister had Harry (jan), Bev had Lola (april), Becky had Ella (may), Becky F had Fyn (july), I had Aaron (october), Amanda had Hannah (nov)and Sheryl had Judah (dec).

4. Did anyone close to you die? No

5. What countries did you visit? Just England. We went to the Lake District in May and i went to Hayes in August.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? A flat stomach and my fitness back

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory? 12th October - the day Aaron was born. Also, My 30th birthday on the 1st March and my fab party on the 12th March. It meant so much to me to have a roomful of people who had made an effort to come and party with me! I had school friends there  from London that i hadn't seen in over 10years. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Growing and giving birth to another beautiful boy!

9. What was your biggest failure? Being useless during pregnancy. I felt like i failed my boy when i was forced to work full-time and had to put him in nursery 4days a week.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A few minor illnesses. I got Labyrinthitis in September which has left me with permanent tinnitus and partial hearing loss. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our beautiful new home!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? As usual, my husband's. He's great; kind, patient, rarely angered, calm and so tolerant. He did EVERYTHING involved in renting out our flat and in buying our house. Im useless when pregnant. 

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Whoever's decision it was not to let me work part-time and giving me the option of full-time or redundancy.

14. Where did most of your money go? On our new house

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Getting pregnant, my nephew being born, my son being born, the royal wedding, my 30th and seeing old friends

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2011? Adele's 21.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder? Happier

Thinner of fatter? Fatter :-(

Richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercising

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Working. Those 6 months were hard going. 

20. How did you spend Christmas? Christmas morning opening pressies just the 4 of us. Down to my mum and dads at 1pm to open more pressies with my sister and her husband and my nephew and then a yummy dinner. 

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My husband

22. Did you fall in love in 2011? Oh yes, with my new baby Aaron

23. How many one night stands in this last year? None

24. What was your favourite TV programme(s)? Im a celebrity get me out of here (!), The Good Wife, Desperate Housewives,

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Hate might be too strong but i strongly dislike some people i had to work with. 

26. What was the best book(s) you read? I read a lot of mindless chick lit this year, it was good but no best stands out!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Adele

28. What did you want and get? A new house!

29. What did you want and not get? To sell our flat, but at least we have a tenant

30. What were your favourite films of this year? ......im having to think about this for too long so obviously nothing stands out.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 30 and i went to Edinburgh zoo with my husband and son. Then had a party on the 12th.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not having to work fulltime for 6 months.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Maternity. Baggy. Ugly.

34. What kept you sane? Days off work

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Mark Wright? lol

36. What political issue stirred you the most? The daft tory/lib dem coalition government. The SNP landslide. I dont want an independent Scotland.

37. Who did you miss? The 2 Sarahs; my best friends. We live too far apart. 

38. Who was the best new person (people) you met? Aaron and Harry

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. A cliche but life is indeed short and precious. In 2011 my ex-boss got mouth cancer, a friend of mine in her early 20's discovered she had leukaemia, 2 friends had miscarriages, and my best friend lost her brother right before Christmas. It makes you think and value life.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?

"Seven days of saturday is all that I need" Bon Jovi

Over for another year

To quote my dad immediately after all the presents are open (said every year since i can remember) "well, that's it for another year!" We had a lovely Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve having our traditional Chinese takeaway at my sisters house and Christmas Day at my parents. Last year Caleb was the only kid on the scene. This year, my nephew Harry (11months) and Aaron (2 months) were added to the mix. Good times!

I finished my ornaments for the boys (on boxing day). I'm feeling slightly guilty that son number 2's looks a bit small compared to son number 1's. Im quite sure neither will mind/care!

I fully intend to keep my blog more up to date next year (and even maybe more interesting) and keep up to date with all the blogs in my Google reader; it contains about 500 unread posts at present!

Today i'm enjoying a toddler free day which is, quite frankly, bliss!! One baby=easy peasey, despite his ridiculously short naps.

Cheesey Christmas Jumpers

Happy Christmas to all! Thanks to everyone/anyone that reads my blog!

Nearly......Simon Cowell's birthday?

2 days to go! I have a lot of wrapping to do in the next few days. I have finished the stitching on both the boys ornaments now. Here's how Caleb's looks

Now i wonder if i'll get these made into ornaments in time for Christmas day?? Hmmm.

Advent Blogging

Day 21 - We watched Curious George - a very Monkey Christmas.

Day 22 - Caleb went to play at his friend Canaan's house. He was supposed to decorate a gingerbread house but preferred the toys so will shall attempt to decorate it tomorrow hopefully!

Day 23 (today) - Caleb is in nursery all day. I have a few last minute bits of shopping to get. When Caleb's home we're going to read his new nativity book that he got at our church service last sunday. Jesus is the reason for the season, lets not forget! I was watching something on TV the other day and in a survey of 1000 kids, a high percentage (cant remember the figure) thought that Christmas day was to celebrate the birth of Simon Cowell!!!!! Can you believe that? And that Obama, Beckham and a few others were reindeers! And that Gary Barlow, Mark Wright and Prince Charles are the 3 wise men??! Oh my goodness! Says something about today's culture/education system! Read the article here. My children will grow up knowing the real reason we celebrate Christmas, whether they believe it or not is up to them!

Advent pictures

Jeez this new blogger is not easy to work.

Anyhow, the last few advent days in pictures....making salt dough ornaments, meeting Santa at playgroup and painting salt dough ornaments

Stitching for the kids

Lo and behold i've been stitching again! I try to make a Christmas ornament every year with a nice personalised message on the back. I stitched this for Caleb last year and this the year before. This year, with time being scarce and two kids to stitch for now, im keeping the ornaments simple. Ive just picked out some motifs from a JBW Christmas stocking. Here's Aaron's (stitched in my favourite DMC 115):

Advent catch up:

Day 17 - Aaron went to his first ever birthday party, his wee friend Athan. Caleb stayed at home with Daddy. Daddy and Caleb had to come and rescue Mummy and Aaron when they got stuck on icy roads. Daddy also had to rescue Mummys friend Becky who also got stuck. The Salt dough never got made. Whoops.

Day 18 - Christmas service at church. Boy did Caleb have a blast and he even stood on the stage to sing! The kids were so cute holding hands, i think my favourite moment was when Isla started singing Jingle Bells in the middle of Away in a Manger. Too too cute! Nice memories.

Day 19 (today) - Caleb is at his playgroup Christmas party and ive to go back at 11.15am to watch him get his present from Santa. We are supposed to be painting our salt dough ornaments today but seeing as we never made them in the first place thats not happening! We will perhaps try and get them made this afternoon!

Days 10 - 16

Wow, ive been a rubbish advent blogger. I just dont have enough time!! (and i like to sleep more than i like to blog).

So, whats been happening. I'll go backwards this time, because i like to spice things up....or more because the latest is the freshest in my increasingly forgetful mind.

Today, day 16 - Caleb is at nursery all day and Aaron and i will be going up later this afternoon for his Christmas party!

Yesterday, day 15 - We had a Christmas picnic. Whilst Caleb was at playgroup i set out a quilt on the floor, put out some goodies for lunch and gave Caleb a nice surprise when he got home. He loved it! Cookies, crisps and tzatziki, cheese, pancakes, cucumber with hummus.

Needless to say, he had the white chocolate chip cookies before anything else.

Day 14 - We made paper snowflakes. Or mostly i did, and Caleb wondered around the house finding other things he could cut with his cool new scissors. Did i mention my boy isnt really into crafts? LOL, i think i need to change up these advent activities next year. He did like sticking them on his bedroom window (i love the view out of the back of my house, a footpath and the forest, lovely)

Day 13 - FAIL. We didnt watch the Santa DVD because i couldnt find it. It'll be in a box waiting to be unpacked no doubt. Caleb was at nursery all day anyway. I went to toddlers and then Christmas shopping, which is now complete, hurray!

Day 12 - Make Christmas decorations. FAIL. I bought a kit out of Tesco but didn't realise everything required sewing or glueing. I didn't have any glue, i couldn't be bothered and Caleb wasn't interested at all. Again, less of the crafts next year!

Day 11 - We to his friend Isla's birthday party and then by chance, Elf was on the tv when we got home! Good job because like the aforementioned Santa DVD, i wouldn't have found that one either.

Day 10 - Our church went to a restaurant for a Christmas meal and it was fab!! We had our own room, the food was amazing and the kids all had a blast playing together. Our church has had some tough times over the last year so it was really great for everyone of all ages to be together socially, having a lovely time. More of that to come in 2012!

Hurricane B***** and more catching up

Day 7 - we made 3 Christmas cards for Gran and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa and Lainey and Andy (pretty good for Caleb, he is not the arts and crafty type at all).

Day 8 - was crazy mad storm day otherwise known in Scotland as "Hurricane Bawbag" A name which i still cannot stop laughing at and if you want to read more about, follow the link. Anyway, the storm kept us inside all day, nervously watching the trees and the back fence. Fortunately there was no damage here. Oh yeah, and we made paperchains

Day 9 - Caleb is in nursery all day and so i took the opportunity to do some Christmas stitching (photos to follow in another post) and done some Christmas shopping. I didn't make the Elf yourself video as intended, but i will at somepoint.

Day 10 (today) - our church is having a Christmas lunch in a local restaurant, so we're looking forward to that. I have the boys Christmas jumpers all ready, oh how they'll love me for this when they're older lol

Advent activities catch up

I loved reading all your comments on my last post about Christmas stresses! Its good to know im not alone LOL

I knew i'd never get round to blogging everyday of advent but hey, i never promised to! Lets see what ive missed

Day 4 - a much more successful day of Christmas decorating. The tree is done, the lights are up inside and outside the house and look super pretty. Yay! This was mainly achieved because my parents took Caleb for a few hours, which i know defeats the point of the activity but he had a nice surprise when he got home :-)

Day 5 - We wrote and posted a letter to Santa. Royal Mail have this great scheme where you post a letter to:

Santa/Father Christmas,

Santa’s Grotto,

Reindeerland,

SAN TA1

and you might even get something back! I took a picture of Caleb's letter but i dont want to post it here as it has our address on it. He asked for a new bike, some new dvds, a gun (!) and "a drill like they have at playgroup." We went to the postbox (in the snow!) to post it away to Reindeerland.

Day 6 - When Caleb got home from nursery he got his message from Santa video. Check this out here, Calebs video message from Santa. If you have kids you've got to do this, its so cute! Portable North Pole TV. Love it!

Today we will be making Christmas cards.

Christmas cheer?? Not here!

"Tis the season to be Jolly"..........tis it heck.

Today our Christmas Advent Activity was to get the trees up and start decorating. I had visions of laughter and Christmas music and all things merry....HA. The toddler was in a foul mood all day, the husband wasn't much better and we generally spent the day dealing with the toddler and bickering with each other. We couldn't agree on the tree. We couldn't agree what room to put the tree in. We couldn't agree where in the room the tree should go. The toddler threw the decorations around, had more tantrums and so the day went on.

In conclusion, it was a crappy day. We got the main tree up but its not decorated yet and neither is the house. We now have boxes everywhere having brought all the Christmas stuff in from the garage...which also has boxes everywhere as we haven't finished unpacking from the move.

Now, with the toddler in bed and the baby fairly settled, we are having some mulled wine; the one good thing to come out of the day.

Gotta laugh! "Its the most wonderful time of the year" hahahahahahaha

Wooden Advent Calendar

This year i bought a lovely wooden advent calendar from Next, with little drawers for each day of advent. Today (yes, im a day late) i filled each drawer with a slip of paper which has our activity for that day written on it. Ive planned our activities around things we have on already and busy days (like the days Caleb's in nursery) have less time consuming activities.
1. Hang up 'Cars' Advent Calendar

2. See the lights switch on in the village and Wooden Advent Calendar

3. Get the Christmas trees up and start decorating

4. Continue decorating the trees and the house

5. Write and post a letter to Santa

6. Message from Santa video

7. Make Christmas cards

8. Make paper chains to decorate bedrooms

9. Elf ourselves

10. Christmas meal at a restaurant

11. Go to a party and watch Elf with mummy and daddy

12. Make Christmas decorations

13. Watch Santa dvd

14. Make paper snowflakes for windows

15. Have a Christmas picnic

16. Christmas party and Santa visit at nursery

17.Make salt dough ornaments

18. Go to Christmas service at Church

19. Paint the salt dough ornaments

20. Ribbon and hang the salt dough ornaments

21. Make star shortbread

22. Go on wintery walk for pine cones and holly

23. Read a Christmas book

24. Make Gingerbread men and read the Christmas story from the bible

DeBloAdMo

You may have heard of NoBloPoMo? Well, last year, my friend Lori invented DeBloAdMo which stands for December Blog Advent Month. It's basically a Blog Advent Calendar. Copied from last years post..... "Post every day in the month of December until Christmas one special idea you can do as a family, a couple or a group of friends. Or if you're really clever, post a wee thought each day about Christmas or something."

I can pretty much guarantee i wont blog everyday in December. Ive only just managed to blog this now. However, we will do a special Christmassy activity each day. I have my list of activities ready and will post them tomorrow (maybe).

Today's activity was an easy one....hang up the chocolate advent calendar, explain the advent calendar i.e. *we only open one door a day* and start the Christmas countdown yay!