New Years Day 2010

Happy New Year to you all. We begun this New Years Day down in Devon with our daughter and her family. They live near the sea so we went for a lovely walk this morning....the sun shone and as Devon is in the south west of the UK it is usually warmer in the winter months than most parts of the country. Later, after lunch we drove back up to Hertfordshire and watched the thermometer drop as we travelled back up country. Thankfully the snow had all cleared while we were away. The house is all quiet after the busyness of the Christmas holiday and we will miss having our Grandchildren coming into our bed in the morning for snacks and a story. I look forward to getting back into some patchwork again, it seems a long time ago that I did any as I have spent the past couple of months making Christmas presents for my children and neices and nephews. I also look forward to all that God has planned for us and our family and seeing Him move in the lives of those who we know and love.

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!