Christmas Day

Christmas has been busy but enjoyable.....family staying. C hristmas day began with breakfast and present opening followed by church then lunch which was roast turkey with lots of vegetables, stuffing, cranberry and bread sauce with Christmas pudding and clotted cream for desert. Then a few napped while others entertained the twins...or maybe the twins entertained us! After supper and little people were in bed the adults played some scrabble then Trivial Pursuit...I was glad to be on the winning team of a very close game. Bed came pretty late and morning came too soon with little people coming into Grandma and Grandpa's room for stories and early morning snacks.

Two little elves find the last of theAdvent chocolates

Pretty Christmas dresses

New bedding from Mummy & Daddy

Watching The Snowman with uncle Ben

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Early morning snacks

Christmas Rocky Road Cake

Isaiah 9:2-7

For to us a child is born,

to us a Son is given,

and the government will be on His shoulders.

And He will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne

and over His kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

will accomplish this.

Snow and Stuff

Life has been pretty hectic which is why I havent been around for a few weeks. Our eldest daughter and her family visited from South Africa, they have now returned and are preparing to spend Christmas over there. Things have calmed down a bit until next week when the rest of the family arrive for Christmas. I thought I would post some photo's I took while they were here and then a snowy one from this morning when we woke to 8" of snow. Snow is still a novelty for us as I lived in the South West of England since I was 16, we rarely had snow down there. Since moving here last year we have had two winters with plenty. There are also a couple of photo's of Christmas decorations in London. Liberty looks great, my eldest son has done some photo shoots for their catalogues. http://www.bentoms.co.uk/ The boys loved our walk in the woods and picking up our Chrismas tree, they have now got theirs up in SA and have put their decorations on that they bought whilst here.

Snowy Morning

Carnaby Street Decorations

Looking for a Christmas Tree

Window display in Liberty, London

With Grandma

With Mummy

God's Favour

Blessed is the man who listens to Me,

watching daily at My doors,

waiting at My doorway.

For whoever finds Me finds life

and receives favour from the Lord.

Proverbs 8:33-35

A few weeks back a came across this piece of Aquascutum fabric in a charity shop, I used it to make two more cushion covers for Christmas gifts. I used the same design as I used previously but this time because the fabric is fairly thick I stitched on the right side and then bound the edges with a blanket stitch in wool. I am really pleased with the result. I used velvet tape for the hoop and recycled buttons that I bought in the same Oxfam shop.

Grandchildren

All our Grandchildren are together in South Africa at the moment the twins will be back in the Uk on Monday and will be with us until Tuesday, on Thursday we travel down to Devon to be with them for their birthday. I thought I would post some photo's of them all enjoying themselves in South Africa.The girls appear to be taking on the Zulu culture of carrying their babies on their backs and I can imagine Maggie's great excitement when the turtle swam up to her!

Finishing Off Jobs

I have a couple of days finishing off some items, my sister in law has a birthday coming up so I have made her an apron and birthday card and bought her a few edible items to go with it. Another job which I should have done for last Christmas was an advent calendar for our youngest son and his wife, I made one for our children when they were young and then one each for our daughters and their husbands when they got married. I have then made a card each for our twins who have their second birthday next week.

Wales

We have just retuned from 5 days in Wales. We stayed in a caravan on top of a hill with fantastic views for miles all around. The weather was lovely, although a bit blustery at night, this added to the atmosphere of staying out in the countryside in the Autumn. I visited a number of patchwork shops and one of the highlights was our visit to the National Wool Museum. This is housed in the old Cambrian Mills where amongst items of clothing, beautiful Welsh blankets were made. There is still a commercial working mill on the site. There is a wonderful textile gallery showing a great range of blankets. The photo's really dont do it justice. My ancestors on my mother's paternal side are Welsh and my mother was born and grew up there. This photo was on the wall in the museum but I can imagine my ancestors looking something like this lady!

Birthday Dresses

Years ago when my children were young someone gave me a copy of this book, Little Clothes for Little People. Igot it out again to make some dresses for the twins. I used a fine needle cord fabric (see earlier post) I am really please how they have turned out, my daughter asked if I would make some waistcoats too so I decided to make these reversable, putting buttons on each side and making loops out of velvet ribbon. I used very old glass buttons on the black side that I had in my button jar. They are coming to stay tomorrow on their way to visit our other daughter and her family in South Africa. We can have a fitting and if any adjustments are required I have time to do them before their birthday in February.