The end of the year is near

2010

As 2010 comes to a close I have been thinking about the past year.

The last few months have been taken up with the extension.
We cancelled Christmas because of it, the house was not in any state to be decorated.

The rooms will be all finished by the end of January and I look forward to showing you some photos when it's all done.
Although the extension has taken over our lives these past few months, it's not the only thing that has happened this year.

Baking in 2010

I did a bit of baking in 2010.


Lucy's year

Lucy has been photographed hundreds of times this year-as she is every year!

Lucky me!

I have also been very, very lucky and I have been sent some beautiful gifts from my bloggy friends over the year (forgive me if your gift is not pictured, I have hundreds of photos to go through and it took AGES to find these!)

While I was going through my photos I realised I had not done too bad on the craft side this year.

I have done more Arts and Crafts than I thought!


Westminster Abbey, London

We had some lovely days out, a holiday in Shropshire and a couple of days in London too.

Shropshire Hills

Liverpool

Downton Hall Gardens

Spitfire in Haworth

We have said goodbye to some dear friends and pets this year, there have been a few ups and downs but thankfully we have had more smiles than sadness

So this is the end of 2010, I look forward to the fresh new start that the new year brings and all that remains for me to say now is

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Christmas Eve 2010

Merry Christmas to everyone!

It's Christmas Eve and Hubby and I have been cleaning the lounge so we can at least relax in one room in the house that's back to normal and clean and tidy.
it's gone from this....

Lucy isn't levitating there, she's sat on the end on the ironing board, can you see the tiny Christmas tree on the mantle? and the layer of dust on the bureau? the washing drying on the maiden? the presents piled on the chair?

Just a few lights around the picture and my little tree and the Christmas cards on the window sill. but it's clean and tidy and the only room in the house that we can relax in at the moment.

The presents are piled around the Grandmother clock which is where we usually put the Christmas tree.

We have some lights on the box tree outside.

I have been following Santa's journey on NORAD. And I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful gift in the post yesterday. Yes I won ANOTHER giveaway, must stop entering them and give someone else a chance!!!

This time it was over on The Linen Cat blog and I won the most adorable bunny purse.

and it came beautifully packaged and with one of Beth's famous birds! I love it Beth, thank you so much.

Manchester Albert Square

I took some snaps when I went to pick up Hubby after his works Christmas meal

Frozen Fountain

I also thought I would show you some photos I have taken of the winter wonderland around here in the past few days.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas came early

I have had a busy few days.

Mr Robin having his breakfast

Christmas shopping in Liverpool with my mum and sister on Saturday then I braved the shops again on Monday this time I went to Manchester.



Liverpool Christmas decorations

The Christmas markets in Manchester has lots of lovely stalls and well worth a visit to get you into the Christmas spirit-which has been sadly lacking around our house!

I have done my present shopping and just need to get my food tomorrow and we are as ready as we will ever be!

The garden is looking very wintry.



Frosted fruits

The apples on the tree are proving popular with the birds.

And Christmas came early for me yesterday.

Little Sue arrived....
she's lovely......
Thank you Sam!

I am afraid the welcoming committee was not as welcoming as it should be!

I'm still here!

yes really I am!

Today was the last day at school.
After lunch we all walked up the cobbled lane to the church for our Christmas service. The Nativity by the Reception children was a hit with the parents and Year 6 did a great job of narrating it.

Ice on the INSIDE of my car windscreen

It has been a busy time at school and home. There is a little more Christmas spirit at our house and I just about got my cards done and posted in time for the last post today. I am so late with them this year and I am sure I have missed some people. A few Christmas tree lights have been put up amongst the dust at home and one of the children at school brought me a miniature Christmas tree today, so that's sitting on the mantelpiece in the lounge.

Crazy Christmas Lights!

I know I must be crazy but I am going to Liverpool with my mum and sister tomorrow to do some Christmas shopping. So I hope to have it all done by tomorrow night.
Some nice news-I won a lovely give away over at Silkie Sue's. I will show you when it arrives. It will be an early Christmas pressie for me!

Driving Home For Christmas.

Sorry this is a bitty sort of post, not really telling you anything or showing you pretty things. I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit, I usually 'love' this time of year but this year the sparkle is just not here. It's due to lots of things. It was lovely to see the Nativity today and that is after all what Christmas is all about.

it's snow go!

So we have reached the 4th of December and I am going to mention the 'C' word!
Yes, the children at school are starting to get excited. We had our school concert dress rehearsal on Friday. The performances will be on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. I have been making props and costumes, I do enjoy this time of year in school and the snow has added to the excitement this year too!

Drive to work on Wednesday

We won't be decorating our house this year for Christmas. It's in such a state and the building work won't be finished so we are seriously thinking about booking a table somewhere for Christmas day.
But I did visit the local garden centre to buy some bird seed and enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights and decorations.

The first electric lights were produced and displayed by Edward H Johnson, vice-president of the Edison Electric Light Company and his 80 red, white and blue lights were illuminated on 22nd December 1882 at his home in New York.

We are enjoying some warming foods at the moment like Chicken stew and dumplings and today we went Christmas shopping to Uppermill.

It was a lovely day, we had a jam slice from our favourite bakery.

We managed to get quite a few family Christmas presents from the lovely little gift shops and I took a few photos as the landscape zipped by on the way home.

Hairy snow!

Freezing fog on the tops

I have a tale of woe to tell before I leave tonight.
I feed the birds all year long but during these cold times I have been putting out extra food and clean water everyday.

On Friday morning I slipped down the last three steps in the garden right onto my bum! I stayed there for for a few seconds as the pain was awful. I hurt both my wrists and bum and throughout the day my body ached more and more! I'm sure that bloody robin was having a good old laugh behind me!