Christmas 2011

We have returned from our Christmas in Devon, having had a lovely time. The cottage we rented was in a beautiful location on an organic farm with sea views and lovely walks to the sea. We spent time with family and friends

This was the sunrise that greeted us some mornings

We spent Christmas day at our daughters house, the boys cooked dinner

Gilby's first Christmas

 The twins playing on Uncle Ben's ipad

 Heading for the beach

Our beautiful daughter in law

Sunrise over the sea

Christmas Greetings

Tomorrow we leave for Christmas in Devon. This year we are looking after my mother and so have rented a cottage not far from our daughter and her family. We will have my mother, youngest son and his wife staying with us and our eldest son will stay with our daughter. 

We will spend Christmas Day at theirs and most of the rest of the week at the cottage. 

We are really looking forward to our stay, the cottage is in the country with sea views and I hope to get to take some photo's. We will miss our eldest daughter and her family  who are spending Christmas where they live in South Africa

I pray that you will all have a happy and peaceful Christmas, experiencing the love of God and celebrating the 'reason for the season'

Christmas Baking

A few days ago I visited Gratefulprayerthankfulheart blog and found the recipe at this link

http://gratefulprayerthankfulheart.blogspot.com/2011/12/white-chocolate-cherry-shortbread.html

So today I got baking.....

I followed that task with Rocky Road Brownies

6 eggs

225mi vegetable oil

400g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

100g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g cocoa

Topping

75g plain chocolate broken up

40g butter

75g mini marshmallows

40g chopped walnuts

Method

1.preheat oven to 180c/350f/gas4

grease 30x20cm baking tin

Beat together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla for 4 mins or until thickened and sugar dissolves

2. Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa. Stir into the egg mixture until smooth. pour into tin and spread level

3. Bake for 30 mins or until cooked through

Put tin onto wire rack for 10 mins. Leave oven on.

4. For the topping, melt chocolate and butter. Spread a little over the brownie in tin. Scatter with marshmallows and nuts. 

. 5. Bake for 3 mins until marshmallows are soft. 

Pipe the remainder of melted chocolate over the top

Christmas Wedding

Yesterday afternoon we went to the wedding of some friends. It was in the pretty village of Aldbury. 

Only official photographs were allowed during the service and it was too cold to stand around outside at the end...so no photo's of the couple. The service was lovely with lots of candles and Christmas carols.

The reception was held in the Greyhound Inn, we were handed hot mulled wine on arrival, followed by a yummy three course meal and mince pies!

A great idea for place names, they are now hanging on our Christmas tree

Christmas Dresses

I managed to get the girls dresses finished. The fabric is a very fine needle cord which I bought from http://www.dotsnstripes.co.uk/index.cfm I am really please with the fabric and it was great to sew with. The dress on the left is for Maggie and the  other one for Primrose. They have different tastes in clothing, Primrose likes the bright pinks and Maggie like blues and is a little more of a tomboy :) Hopefully they will fit and the girls will be happy with them

Missing them

I do miss these two lovely little guys.....my daughter just messaged me and told me that Joe (on the right) has been talking about when they visited last June and he sat next to Gwumpa on the train and how 'cool it would be to go on the train with Gwumpa today' It certainly would...really hope they can come and visit again soon!

Getting Ready

If you visit my blog regularly you will know that every now and again I receive requests from my daughters for items to be made for my grandchildren. I have just made Gilby's trousers, I have finished one hat for the twins and am working on another one, same but different coloured buttons and I have cut out the fabric for their dresses, the cord that I am using is below. I have added photos of them going to choose and cut down their tree for Christmas, each year they go to the same place, romp around till they find the perfect tree.

Trousers

I managed to get Gilby's Christmas trousers made today, it was a nice quick pattern which I downloaded for free and decided to make them reversible. The fabric also arrived today for the twins dresses which I am very pleased with too!

Advent Calendar

I have made fabric Advent calendars for all our children, some from printed panels and one from scratch. Friends of our son and daughter in law saw theirs and requested one for themselves. They have been out in South Africa working with my daughter and son in law and will be home at Christmas. So I made the calendar below for their return. The night time photo's look a bit orange but you get the idea. The panels are a bit fiddly to turn in the edges and sew, I added wadding and backing and finished with hand quilting

This lovely fabric below is brushed cotton and bought from www.jbquiltingfabrics.co.uk. If you haven't visited their site, take a look they gave great service.

I will be using the fabric to make Christmas trousers for Gilby!

Christmas Decorations

Next week our church is holding a Christmas Market to sell preserves, handmade decorations etc to raise money for our oversea missionaries. I have been making some felt baubles to hang on the Christmas tree. 

Christmas Shawls

Last Christmas I crocheted a little shawl for my Mother, she loves it and wears it all the time. So when I came across a pattern I decided to make her a couple more for this Christmas.