On Tuesday, we took in a meal at Pizza Express, chosen more for their acceptance of Tesco Clubcard tokens rather than their quality food, and then, as a surprise for Oliver, went to the Theatre to see Sleeping Beauty. It was fab - very, very funny and very well done. I drank a litre and a half of water though - after wine and a chilli pizza I had the thirst of - well, a thirty person really. Here is a pic of the view from Pizza Express - unrivalled I think in the City really, since it looks out on the magnificent west front of the Cathedral. so near Christmas, just as dusk was falling, it all felt so very, very atmospheric and lovely. Warm fuzzy feeling alert.

As if working at the hospital on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day wasn't enough, I found myself paying a visit on Christmas Day too! But as a paying customer, sorry - patient - not as an employee. Well - Oliver was the patient. He's been running a temperature for a few days, but very well in himself and we'd had the normal Christmas morning thrill of pressies and excitement, and we were settling down to a game when I noticed he seemed to have a rash. ANYway, we took him to A&E and after a very boring hour's wait - he doesn't have dengue fever, he has a viral rash. And this is him with his DS and new game (and in Christmas clothes) waiting to be seen. This was in the children's 'play area' of the waiting room, which contained the sofa Oliver is lounging on, and a book of nursery rhymes. Bugger me. This is a stretch of the definition of 'play area' if EVER I saw it....

We went on to have a lovely Christmas lunch at the in-laws and a walk through the country lanes and then on to my family for tea and undercurrents. Although I love my family dearly, I am finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy and like them, and found myself longing to be back at the in-laws where we had been welcomed with affection and laughter......

We are off on hols with my Mum & Dad, for the first time, so hope it all goes well. Would really like to enjoy it for lots of reasons. Will report back.

The only creative thing I have done in the last few days is finish off altering some wooden letters for my nieces. They seemed well-received.

glitterpants

Well, maybe not in my pants, but in my hair, on my face, clothes, cat and child. Bloody stuff. And I could only get the really, really super-crap stuff which is as fine as icing sugar and packaged, can you believe, in teeny flimsy plastic bags and sellotaped in with super-strong wide sellotape so trying to get it all out results in showers of glitter and much swearing.

Anyway, I think Oliver enjoyed himself - it was nice to set aside some arts and craft time and grit my teeth to get on with it. The resultant mess is making me a bit tearful lol, but he seems truly happy so that's OK.

And we made a snowstorm, but being very boy-sy, Oliver doesn't have cutesy animals or fairies to put in it, so his has a skeleton tomb warrior in it. Very Christmassy dontcha think?

Had a brill time at my crop - I completed four, yes four, layouts. AND a Christmas card for Mark. And ate loads. Then topped off the day with a meal at Bella Italia. Ah, so blissful.

Here are my layouts:

This one is one of my favourite photos of Oliver when he was little. We were flying off on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas and New Year with Mark's sister and family who, at the time, lived in Le Vesinet in Paris. Their house was so, so beautiful in a most gorgeous and posh area of Paris. I had a wonderful time there and have nothing but fond memories of it.

This layout is done with some of the most recent photos of Oliver on one of our frequent trips out to get him used to riding his bike. Being home taught I try to get him out regularly to do something and this is one of our favourites.

I wanted to scrap these photos and wanted to use this paper and badge embellishment as they all tie up so nicely, but there really is nothing Pirate-like about being on a swing, so wasted time at the crop thinking of a relevant title. In the end, another lady came up with this one. I am not proud, I'll take it.

This is the most simple layout I have ever done, and whilst I shy away from cheesy sentiment on Scrapbook papers in the main, this quote strikes a chord with me, and the photo I have chosen to use with it echoes the words perfectly. It says: 'Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.'

Food facts

Pate has drugs in it. So too do Pringles, emmental cheese and savoury snacks of all types, particularly dry roasted peanuts and twiglets.

I don't think I can risk having ANY of the above products in the house at all over Christmas since I have already wolfed my way through 2 tubes of Pringles (in 2 consecutive evenings), and then an obscene amount of pate (on offer at Somerfield - they should be due for a drugs bust soon) a couple of days later. And I'm not talking a bit of pate on a bit of baguette here, I'm talking a whole one of those big long french loaves, and finishing the evening standing at the fridge door like a slavering dog with a spoon demolishing what was left in the pate packs. So, so bad.

Don't think I can bear to journal my gluttony in my JYC. I am now up to day 3 - don't laugh, I haven't got a whizzy printer like everyone else (you know who you are) so I have to rely on the likes of J Sainsbury to print up my pics for me - I will always be behind!! Am picking pics up on Saturday morning in time for my crop. A whole day of me me me time. Ah, total blissful scrappiness.

Notes to self

Now I am rocketing on (!) with my JYC, having done day 1, thought I'd better get down some thoughts on the days in between then and now, before it is all un-rescuable (is that a word?). A notable thought is the 'festive menu' I 'enjoyed' at McDonalds last Friday. Yes, yes, I know - Capitalist gits and all that, but I have a kid and therefore it is just obligatory. It's the law.

Anyway, the 'festive menu' seemed to consist of the addition of a strip of pseudo bacon onto a burger and adding some cheese-type sauce. And I use the term 'cheese' loosely as I am not convinced there was ever any dairy intervention there. BUT the piece de resistance - the gourmet delight of delights was cheese melts with an caremelised onion sauce. Bollocks. Now this I am sure about - the cheese melts were deep-fried Dairylea triangles. The whole 'meal' (definately a word used loosely here) left me feeling ever so slightly ill, surprisingly. Oliver got off lightly with a 'happy' meal. (yeah, yeah, another loosely used word lol). Those Dairylea triangles felt as if they went straight from my mouth to my arse cheeks to join their cellulite buddies.

There was Oliver's Carol service with the Beavers last Wednesday - mercifully short (I am not being mean - he didn't enjoy it much) and we went to Bickleigh Mill with Mum & my brother the Friday before the Festive Menu debacle. Actually think that was still in November... pity, it was very Christmassy....my brother spent £3 on a box of festive matches, but that's another story.

On Sunday Oliver went to his Judo Fun afternoon (their equivalent of a Christmas do I suppose) and tomorrow we are going to go to the Garden Centre to see Father Christmas. I am going to a Christmas crop on Saturday (can't wait) AND Mark and I are going out with friends for a meal! Almost unheard of.

We did get the Christmas biscuits onto the tree (no small achievement I can tell you) and I have now started feeding (drowning) my Christmas cakes in brandy. I hate brandy as a drink but think it rather spiffing soaked into a cake..... soon it will be time to watch Scrooge and wrap pressies - usually reserved for an evening when Mark is out and I can soak up Christmas in solitude....

Feeling very virtuous...

as this morning I have cleaned the bathroom, hamster (it's living quarters obviously ha ha), cat's bowls and mat, kitchen (ish), hoovered AND emptied said hoover (not difficult but worth a mention), got Oliver to complete some of his workbooks with no shouting or resentment AND played two games with him. And it's not even lunchtime. OH - AND finished off page 1 of my Christmas Journal. Ta DAH!

See what getting up early can lead to.

Falling behind by the second

Well, no change there then. Made biscuits with Oliver on Tuesday with the promise of hanging them on the tree. It is now Saturday and they are sitting reproachfully in an 'airtight' tub waiting for their hanging. By the time I get round to it, doubtless they will be mouldy and inedible. I also wanted to do Journal Your Christmas (as per my previous claims) but didn't even give it a moments thought until hours before it all kicked off, so am playing catch up and am now 6 days behind. Time management my speciality NOT.

Check out this blog: Choice words and tasteful doings. It's bloody hilarious. Also, I use it help motivate me to get going on the JYC. Clearly not quite working yet though.

On the first day of Christmas

Well, the first day of OUR Christmas anyway. I like to get the tree up on December 1st, since the Advent box starts, but over the weekend I got the tree up, and Mark has also put up the ceiling decs, so it is very Christmassy here! I got to open the first of my UKScrappers Advent parcels, which was 2 packs of Herma refills - very exciting if you are a scrapper believe me, but to you non-scrappers - well you must think so what....

I sent this off on Friday-

I made a net of beads around this bauble for a 'Handmade Secret Santa Present' swap on UKS, so hope my swappee likes it. Will report back.

On another scrappy note, I am going to go for the Banana Frog DT - very prestigious in my eyes - so probably out of my league, but certainly a bit more of a chance getting in if I actually enter than if I don't! Trouble is - don't think my current output reflects my commitment or ability. For sure I am more motivated to scrap when I have DT stuff to work with - but haven't had SBS stuff for AGES now.

Anyway, my main reason for posting is to keep up with the theme 'Journal Your Christmas'. Shimelle is doing a class throughout December - daily prompts/ideas etc to your inbox to create a journal of your Christmas - sounds basic I know, but it is actually quite hard work to create an interesting record of any period of time. Jen, from my blog links on the left, has a link to one she did last year and it is lovely. I think it would be great to produce an annual journal of Christmases, since in MY memory, they have all kind of blended into one big Christmassy blur. A good blur, but I would be hard pushed to remember gifts/guests/food/family reactions from specific years, and I think it would have been lovely to have that now. That's my life in a nutshell really - after the event.

SO - this morning I intend to get some pics onto my memory card - a couple for the CJ I am working on, some of Oliver and my niece's 5th birthday last year, which I want to make into a mini-book in time for her 6th birthday next week. Nice to keep abreast of events as they take place I say ha ha. We will walk over to Sainsburys to get them printed, thereby having our daily exercise/chat at the same time. On the walk we normally we play 'guess the Pokemon' using first letters and then the next letter etc, which I think helps Oliver with spelling/visualising words but I might try to con him into some geography today with capital cities and such like. Will it work? Doubt it, like most kids he can spot an educational opening a mile off.

I made two Christmas cakes over the weekend too, a little late as I like to douse them in brandy for a few weeks, sorry - feed them, and I am ever conscious of the pile of pickled onions I haven't done yet.....