It's Now Over!!

Phew! Christmas is now officially over and I survived! So next year, if you hear me saying that it might be a fun idea to make a lot of my gifts, please DON'T LET ME! Actually I enjoyed doing it, but I underestimated how much time and effort it would take!

So on Monday, Christmas Eve, me, Nat and Zach went to Pizza Hut for lunch with the Browns as per tradition. David was working so didn't get to to. We had a relaxing time at home for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Nathaniel was so excited he said 'I'm so excited I feel like I could burst out of my skin'! How cute is that?!? He enjoyed putting the tree up and I've left it just as it is. No rearranging or balancing out baubles. It's his baby! Later on he said that his most favorite people were Heavenly Father, Jesus and Santa Claus, following by his family, and then his friends!! Way to go on getting your priorities right! Santa comes before me and his family! :)

Nathaniel and Zachary must have been good at some point during the year as Santa stopped by with his usual sack load of gifts. The boys were really excited Christmas morning but managed to sleep in until 7am! We came down and opened gifts and played with toys until we went to the Browns at 10.30am. They were preparing our Christmas Dinner for 12pm so we wanted to get there in time to help. We had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Yummy! In the afternoon we did gift giving and ended up surrounded by mounds of fun pressies! We stayed until early evening when we came home.

Yesterday, Boxing Day, we went to Freeport shopping in the morning. We weren't sure whether it would be open or not but wanted to get out the house anyway! Luckily it was open and wasn't very busy when we arrived. We managed to get some bargains. I went into Next and bought four tops and four pairs of jeans/cords for only £27!! One pair of the jeans alone was £30 at full price. I also got 4 tops in M&S for a total of £10.00 so bargains to be had!! When we left the outlet the car park was jam packed so looks like we went at the right time to miss the mad rush! On the way home we stopped off at the grocery store as I wanted to make another roast dinner for that evening. We had delicious roast beef, yorkshire puddings, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, yummy veggies. Delicious :)

Today we went to the retail park this morning and I bought a deep fat fryer. We don't really fry much food but I you really can't beat homemade chips (chunky fries). So I bought a fryer for those odd occasions when we want them! We had some for lunch and they were so tasty!! We ate them with left over roast beef from yesterday. We are planning on spending the rest of the day relaxing while the kids play with their new toys!

Can't wait until next year when Helen comes up for New Years as we are all going to stay over at my mums and have fun again! We will have gift giving again and probably another yummy meal knowing my mum!

I'll add some pics later..........

Almost There!

I managed to get lots done today and am feeling like I'm finally making progress towards being ready for Christmas :)

I took the boys to school today and Nathaniel's teacher said that they didn't need my help this morning as they were off their regular schedule. I was quite relieved at this however as it meant I could get home and continue putting my gifts together. I finished off the journal jars and even if I say so myself they are looking good! I put them together with the journals and notebooks and am happy with the result! I then took the mirrors I had bought from Ikea and put the transfers, transparency on them and again was pleased with the result. I like the dark wood mirrors much better than the light wood ones. Hopefully I'll get photos on here before they are all wrapped and delivered!

I then went to pick up Zachary from Nursery. I dropped him back off with David and went to the grocery store to pick up the brown sugar and baking powder for the cookies I'm making. I also picked up lunch. I went home and we ate and I then worked on another batch of gifts. I put a cute Christmas tea towel together with a dish cloth and wrapped them and included a fun poem. I made one to take to my friend for her secret santa gift and then made 6 more for the couples gifts I'm making. I also dropped off some craft goodies for my friend from a joint order we'd placed on ellison design.

I picked Nathaniel up from school at 3.20 and went home to tidy away the crafty gifts I've been making as my sister Helen was coming for a visit and for dinner and some of the gifts were for her and her husband. It was fun to have Helen visit. She now only lived about 1.5 hours away so we get to see more of her, which is great for me and the boys love it too!! She stayed until about 9pm. She is having Christmas at her in-laws and I'm having Christmas at my in-laws so we are planning to meet up at my parents for new year.

Once she left I got on with making my cookies. Some were for my secret santa (wrapped in cellophane with the quote 'in the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips'. The remainder of the cookies are for Zachary to take to nursery tomorrow for his Christmas party. Of course I could have taken shop bought ones, but why make life easy for myself???!!!

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. I have to be up at 6.45 to take David to work. Watch tomorrow be the one day that the boys decide to sleep in!! Then I need to get the kids to school, go to a primary presidency meeting at 9.45am, pick up Zach at 11.20, go grocery shopping with my friend at 11.30am, pick Nat up from school at 3.20, having home teachers come by at 6.30. In between all of this I have to prepare gifts for 2 teachers and about 7 assistants, prepare a gift for my grandad, get my sister and her husband's gifts ready and work on a billion other projects. So no pressure there then!!

So I'm off to watch Criminal Minds then bed at midnight......

The Buildup to Christmas......

How come I'm here, scrambling around getting organised for Christmas at the last minute?? Don't I know that Christmas is ALWAYS Dec 25. ALWAYS. EVERY. YEAR. It's not that I don't start thinking about it until now, it's just that's where it's stayed this year until now! And since I'm planning on MAKING some of the gifts I really need to get a move on :)

I took my sister in law to Freeport Outlet yesterday so she could get the last few gifts she needed. She's done so well! She has 40 to buy for and yesterday she got half a dozen and now only has 2 to get!

Tonight I'm going to get the journal jars done and make sure the journals and notebooks are all complete. I then have the mirrors to put transfers on. I have to make the nativity blocks for my bro in law and sis in law. I have other small gifts to wrap in cellophane. I hope that all these items are complete by tomorrow night (Wed). Then at the end of the week I have to get the candy bouquets done for my two 'little' bros in law. I'm also making framed quotes for my parents and David's parents. I really need to get everything out that I've already got and put them together in the boxes I'm using. Last year I made food gift sets for the couples and put them in woven hampers. Everyone LOVED them. So I'm making couple gifts again. This year I'm using cardboard storage boxes with lids and handles that I got in B&Q for an amazing 50p each!! The recipients can then reuse the boxes for whatever they want after Christmas. We all need storage right? I'll put tissue paper and paper shreds inside and then I'll wrap them in cellophane and add ribbons. I must remember to take a picture!

Talking of pictures, I will add picture of Zachary's school nativity once I put the pictures on the computer. David took the camcorder to Nathaniel's nativity so I'm not sure whether I can get a pic on here.

Yesterday I took delivery of a scrapbooking kit from QVC which was reduced to less than half price. I have another kit coming too, which was also less than half price. Today I took delivery of craft papers and sizzix dies from the Ellison Design website sale. 75% off!! Me and my friend, Lisa, put in a joint order. I told David how they now have one of the die cutting machines on there for 75% off and he said I could order it for Christmas from him (it won't get here until the new year though!) so did just that and popped some more dies on the order to make it up to the minimum order amount. Thanks David :)

Not sure whether I mentioned that I was doing secret santa for a friend. Well she caught me in the act delivering the very first gift! So it's no longer a secret, but still very fun :) Have some fun, cute ideas for the rest of the run up to Christmas :) And a cute Christmas gift for her from her class. Me and her classroom assistant are having to be sneaky to get part of it done. I'm post about it when it's done and put on a picture.

I am in charge of a craft table at the Ward Christmas party on Saturday evening. I've decided to have the children put together a little bag of reindeer food. They can combine all the 'ingredients' into a cello bag, add a ribbon and instruction tag. Should be easy to organise and supervise! And not expensive either!!

Well I'd better get on with the many projects that need starting/completing rather than just talking about them :)

Time Flies

Wow, Just Wow!! It's Friday already! And only 1 more full week before Christmas. And being the creative rather than organised type, I'm not at all ready. Yes, I've got a head full of ideas etc, but that's where they still are - in my head! But this week has just been soooo busy. In fact, I bought a sewing machine last week and haven't even had chance to take it out the box to look at.

So what have I done this week? It's all blurred into one it seems. Nathaniel came home from school on Monday afternoon as he had a bad cough. He stayed off school on Tuesday too as he still was coughing. I spent most of Tuesday at the Browns getting ready for our shopping evening we were having on Wednesday evening. I also packed up 12 packages of items I'd sold on ebay. David was off work on Wednesday and Thursday so we ran essential errands like grocery shopping. Wednesday night I had the shopping evening at the Browns. I'd spent 10 hours earlier in the week making decorated notebooks to sell, along with other goodies!

Last night we had our RS Christmas meal out. We went to the Toby Carvery for a roast dinner. Yum!! All those delicious veggies and potatoes! I had turkey but could quite easily have enjoyed it with no meat at all! There was only 12 of us there, but we still had fun and enjoyed each others' company. We really do have an awesome group of women in RS - women who I would choose to be friends with and associate with even if we weren't at church together.


David went to Nathaniel's nativity play at school yesterday and I went today as they hadn't given us both tickets to the same performance!! Zach is playing with Sammy upstairs this afternoon so I can get on with some secret santa gifts I want to get ready.

I've realised that this post is probably as jumbled as my head at the min, lol!! I have lots to do before Christmas as I don't feel organised. Must write it all down! I still haven't mailed Christmas stuff to the States yet so it will probably be late now!!

Cash Advance Loans

Yeah! Like I didn't know that already :)

Today I went to an all day, late night crop in Leeds with the Leeds Paper Dolls scrappers from UKScrappers.co.uk. It was such a fun day. We were there from 10am til 10pm. Lots of fun!!

I've forgotten what my house looks like??

Yesterday (Wednesday) was such a full day that I didn't get a chance to update my blog so here I am, a day late! It's not that it's a particularly interesting life, just full sometime!!

The day started with me helping in Nathaniel's classroom. I helped the children paint the salt dough santas they had made. The children then went into the Hall to practice their Christmas Nativity Program. They are performing it next week and from what I saw they need a lot more practice!! There is only enough space in the hall for the children to have one ticket for a parent to attend. It falls on David's day off so I've told him to go as I get more opportunities than he does to see the children's performances. Nathaniel is in the music section, playing a triangle!

Zach's is tomorrow (Friday) which is David's day off this week and because it's only the nursery children both David and I can go. Zach is a King and I know he'll be cute!!

After school, Zachary went to Jannine's house to play with Sammy and I went home where I met my mom to go to Country Baskets. We had a bite of lunch first. We had a good walk around and managed to buy a few bits and pieces for Christmas. I bought this lovely Nativity figurine.


It's made of resin to look like wood. It stands about 10 inches high. It only cost about £4.00 ($8). I do really like the Willow Tree Nativity but that's way out of my price range at the moment! So the one I bought will do just fine for now :) I also bought a couple of gorgeous framed pictures which were reduced from £6.95 to £1.50!! They are still in the car so I'll take pics later! My mom got me another couple of fun, cute pictures for my kitchen to put away for Christmas. I'll be sure to post pics of those later (after Christmas obviously:) )

I got back from Country Baskets and went and collected Nathaniel from school and went to Jannine's for dinner. David was working til late and Jannine's husband, James, has been getting home from work lately too. So we had dinner together and the children had a chance to play. I'm so glad that my boys have such lovely friends!! As a parent I always worry that they'll have good friends and so far they have chosen well!! :)

After dinner I left Nat and Zach with Jannine while I took her oldest 2 boys to church for the primary achievement night Christmas party. All the children were very wired and we were exhausted by the time we'd finished!! I took Jannine's boys back home and picked up my two. They were all ready in their PJ's after Jannine had bathed them with her little boy. That was such a help!! We got back to my house at about 8.30pm. When the boys were told to walk up to bed they ran up the stairs and both were acting silly and quickly turned the lights on and off....... and blew the fuse. The house as plunged into darkness! So David had to scramble around to find a flashlight and then went into the cupboard under the stairs to find the fusebox. Unfortunately ours is an old electric wiring system and instead of the normal fuses it has the old-fashioned fuse wire. Which of course we didn't have spare of. David suggested stripping the wire out of the ties that come with sandwich bags, but of course all the sandwich bags I have are ziplock ones! Well I put the boys to bed in the dark then lit some tealight candles. I then took off to Asda to see if they sold fusewire (which we didn't think they'd have) and if not get some sandwich bags with the ties. I also bought a few cheap lamps (which are quite nice actually!) as the sockets in the house were working so we could use those. I got back home at about 10pm and David looked at the sandwich bag ties and found the wire in them was too short! I then had a brainwave and remembered in my craft collection I had some decorative ties and they were actually long enough! Hurrah!! So David worked his magic and shortly after we had light again!!

What a day!! Nothing exciting or particularly newsworth, but that's the stuff my life is made of :) I'll update again later today with today's happenings and thoughts which hopefully will be less hectic (although my voice is very croaky and disappearing by the minute, grrr)

A busy few days..........

Well I've had a busy few days and haven't gotten chance to update my blog so here goes :)............

On Saturday my parents took Nathaniel and Zachary to see my grandma as per usual. I spent a few hours taking pictures of items I was listing on ebay and then listed them on ebay. I made a couple of pumpkin pies to take to my parents on Sunday and did other odd chores such as preparing for primary (our church's children's sunday school organisation) on Sunday.

On Sunday I took the boys to church and we actually got there on time! We start at 9.30am and it seems like no matter what time we get up we are always about 5 mins late. Well I needed to be on time as I was conducting Opening Exercises in primary so had to be there early! My sister, Claire, was down visiting from Scotland so when she arrived at church with my parents to attend their Ward (church congregation) I quickly stole her away to come into primary with us! She then came into our Sacrament meeting. After church we went home, got changed and then went over to my parents house. My Grandma Phyllis was there and so was my Grandad Charlie. They came over to have dinner and visit with Claire. We had a lovely meal, followed by a delicious pumpkin pie (even if I say so myself!). We left in time for the kids to get home and ready for bed to get a good night's sleep for school the next day.

Monday morning always comes around too quickly!! I'm NOT a morning person :) I picked up Zach from nursery at 11.20 and then headed to Tesco to get a few groceries. I then decided to head over to Ikea since I was half way there. Zach went into the playarea for an hour while I wandered around the store. I bumped into Jannine while I was there, which was funny as I'd just been thinking about her! I managed to get a few bits for Christmas gifts and a few Christmas decorations. I can always find something to buy at Ikea!!

Today (Tuesday) has been busy too - I took the boys to school and stayed to help in Carol Adamson's class. I was given the challenge of making the 'gifts' from the Kings for the school nativity! I got one done there and am going to do the others later. At recess I was on the way to the staff room and looked into the hall. The nursery children were practicing their Christmas play that they are doing on Friday. Zachary was soooo cute, all dressed up as a king. He saw me looking in and gave me a quick wave. He had his huge smiley face on :) He is my little bundle of fun. Usually so happy and giggly. He's not got to that grumpy stage yet. I wish I could keep him 4 forever!! He's just perfect like this (well he's not actually perfect but this stage of life is!). He's not been tainted by the world!! If that makes sense!! After nursery we went home for lunch and then went to Louise's (primary pres) for a primary presidency meeting. He played so well at Louise's house. I was very proud of him!

Nathaniel went to a pantomime this afternoon on a school trip. We were told they would be late home, possibly 4.30pm. It was actually 5pm when they arrived back so once we'd walked home it was about 5.20pm. David got home from work at 6.30pm so we had dinner with him. Usually the children are so hungry after school that they eat before David gets home.

The rest of the week looks really busy too. I don't mind being busy, but it does mean the housework suffers! Will have to plan housework into my schedule sometime!

Claire has got back to Scotland today. I wish we could have spent more time with her while she was here but it wasn't possible. Claire and the parentage went down to Helen's yesterday but obviously the kids had school so we couldn't go. We won't see her now until sometime next year as she is staying up there for Christmas. My parents and grandad are going up to her's for Christmas which will be a lovely change for them all. Probably the first time that my mom hasn't hosted Christmas and so will be able to relax for a change! Claire enjoys cooking Christmas dinner so it works out all round! We'll probably do New Year's with my parents when they get back. I think Helen and Adam will be up for New Years too, yeah!! It's really difficult to get us all together at the same time, so we just have to enjoy each other's company when we do see them. I'm hoping that come the New Year we will see more of Helen and Adam since they are now only about 1.5 hours away. I'm really glad my boys are growing up being close to lots of family that they love and who love them. I'm sure it makes them feel safe and secure. And who could want more than that for their children!?!?!?