Echoes of a Dream

Happy New Year

How is it that you wait and wait for Christmas and then it's all over in the blink of an eye? As you can imagine I'm doing my utmost not to let it all be over and I keep telling the children that there are TWELVE days of Christmas and not just two.

So with that regard we've done nothing to get back to normal. Every morning I light the woodburner in the sitting room and most days we've sat in front of it and played with our pressies. Some days we've not even managed to get of our jammies until tea time and it's been so nice. I just feel so 'in the moment'. The outside world isn't intruding, there's no pull from the computer and we've all just been together. There's been no need to go food shopping as you can imagine although supplies may run out soon.

I've been sitting on the sofa flicking through some of my Christmas pressies:

and reading others:

and eating lots of chocolates.

Even the cats are totally relaxed and have taken to sitting in the stable and wrecking the nativity:

that one is Benjy and this is Arthur:

he looks as if he's eaten everything in the stable!

Gosh I do love being cooped up at home. Tom goes back to work on Wednesday and I think we'll have to return to the real world then. I need to wash a fleece in readiness for doll making at school and seam ten bodies. Maybe that's why I've been putting the world off .........

By the way, I forgot to mention the daily arguments over not having a telly, the boys falling out over their toys, Amber screaming at one or the other about driving their remote control cars too near her, Tom totally pissed off as the new porch gets filled with rain water all the time and me, I just keep eating those Quality Streets and carving more ham.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. By the way do any of you still make New Year's Resolutions these days? I feel I ought to make a few this year ............

Happy Christmas

Oh happy days. The children are sitting around the wireless listening to The Witches on Radio Four. Sister and husband are out for a stroll and Tom is having a doze after working his socks off, poor soul, trying to get the place ready for our visitors. Me, I've just finished baking a batch of oaten biscuits for cheese whilst listening to Handel's Messiah and I thought I'd better leap in and wish you all a Happy Christmas before I turn this machine off for a few days.

Not all of my family are here YET. There are ten of us at the moment and on Christmas morning my brother, who is over from Australia for a week will come down with my Mum and Dad. I haven't seen him for four years and I haven't spent Christmas with Mum and Dad for about eight years. They usually go to my big sister's for the day as she lives much much closer and anyway Christmas isn't really a big thing for them. But this year we all felt that we wanted to be together as my Dad, now 88 has been rather ill lately.

I hope you're not worrying about how we'll manage with all those many people. We've booked a spare bed for the night at some neighbours and the house is literally stocked to the rafters with food. Honestly, when you see how full the fridge is:

the bags hanging from the beams in the shed (admittedly they're mostly full of veg):

food dotted around all over the place wherever we can find space and boxes of booze in the downstairs loo:

you may be forgiven for thinking there's going to be some sort of siege in this part of England and we're stocking up incase we can't get out for weeks. Sadly, the truth of it is that we love eating and we love good food and there are a heck of a lot of us. But did we really need twenty pints of milk, three pints of double cream, eight packs of butter, thirty six eggs and a 20lb ham:

and we're having goose on the actual day not ham. I think I might be surprised actually at how quickly this lot all goes.

Talking of going quickly I'm praying madly that these next few days go .........v...e....r...y.........s...l....o...w...l...y please.

OK my turn for a doze now. Sis is doing supper tonight, having cooked lunch too I have to add and all I need to do is ice the cake and make some mince pies tonight.

So may I wish every one of you that reads my blog and has supported me and encouraged me so much this year  A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS .....................

Busy, busy

I love this week - the run up to Christmas. The children are usually off school and we have plenty to keep us busy although this year we have one very over-excited boy in the equation aswell. (Rohan wants me to point out that it isn't him). So interspersed with making and decorating biscuits:

both boys have been going up to the field to play football or rugby for a while. Which is good cos otherwise I might strangle someone. One afternoon was spent decorating the gingerbread house and another for an impromptu party with our young friend who's back from Uni. Amber spent ages making biscuits from the Martha Stewart website and I chucked together some popcorn. There were some cheese straws in the shape of stars and voila a tea party:

Afterwards we all retired to the sitting room to play Woodland Happy Families:

Sorry about the rubbish scan but I can't be bothered to keep arranging the cards on the scanner. Anyway, it's amazing what fun you can still have with Happy Families - both young and old.

Yesterday we made stars and snowflakes for the windows. I made some very simple stars which I'll show you how to make at the end of the post:

and Rohan decided to beat all to make a thirty two pointer:

I put these in the window yesterday and took some pics and was shocked at how dirty the windows were so guess what I did this morning? Of course, I re-took the photos so that you now see the stars on my clean windows. If you see any specks of dirt please don't tell me as that's how they're staying now.

I decided to tackle the local shops at 8.30 this morning which was just as well as the place was heaving an hour later. I picked up the ham which was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It weighs about 19lbs! and is in the oven right now. I also got five loaves of bread for the freezer and some cheese before our posh deli gets really busy over the weekend. I still have to do a HUGE shop at Waitrose which I'm putting off and off. I'm tempted to leave it till Sunday morning and go with sister who arrives the night before. It will be effortless then but I'm not sure how she'll feel about it.

This afternoon the children baked biscuits and took them around to a few older friends in the village:

whilst Tom tidied the stable and got a few bits of furniture into it. The builders finished this morning and here it is in all it's glory. Well, here's before incase you've forgotten:

and here's now:

and a side view a fews days ago:

It looks amazing inside and I can't wait to use it.

Before I go here's a quickie on how to make the stars. I used kite paper which I cut into eight pieces 4"X3". Fold in the middle long ways and unfold again. Then turn each corner over to the central line like so:

and turn the top corners over to the central line too. So that you get this shape:

Turn over and glue each piece to another overlapping like so:

and there you have it. This is the very basic version of the star and you can go on and on folding in different ways and cutting different shapes likes squares. I only managed to vary it a little with this yellow sixteen pointer before I ran out of steam:

Supper is beckoning and the children are desperate for me to wrap some presents to put under the tree. They want to spend hours feeling them and guessing what they are they say. Hope I have the energy for 'It's A Wonderful Life' tonight. I want the older two to see it this year and I'm not sure the cousins who arrive tomorrow will want to see it. So tonight it will have to be .........

Preparing our stomachs for Christmas Day

Last Sunday we had the boys godparents down for their annual visit and I swear we ended up having a Christmas meal rehearsal. Amber did the majority of the cooking and I was doing 'sides' as she put it. On the menu was partridge with blackberries and apples. The sides being sprouts and chestnuts in a mustard butter sort of sauce. Baby carrots cooked in orange juice and ginger and roasted parsnips/potatoes with bits of pancetta. Are you groaning already? Well hold on to your seats because I haven't mentioned the pudding(s) yet. Firstly we had Mont Blancs (and I'm sorry that's the only photo I remembered to take):

this is basically a layer of chestnut puree, chantilly cream with meringue on the top. Divine and decadent. Then there was chocolate mousse made with about 6 eggs and I was well and truly groaning and holding onto my stomach. I've never had partridge before and I have to say that it was really very nice with a very subtle flavour. Oh I do wish I'd taken some photos to show you everything.

Holding onto our stomachs we managed a short walk and then down to the church to sing carols. I love the festival of nine lessons and carols especially when the church is candle lit. This time I found myself imaging former occupants of our house going to the church a hundred or more years ago. I did manage to belt out the carols though in between day dreaming.

There was exchanging of presents in the evening and I was amazed the next day how a simple present like plasticine kept the boys occupied for hours last night. At about three o'clock in the afternoon they decided to make 'creature comforts' as they put it. So they produced Jeremy the monkey (seen here with a bandage on his head), Claude the snail, Arnold the pig, Percy the tortoise, Peter the pigeon and PC Growler:

and then they decided to make a film with the video camera:

It was amazing to watch as they painstakingly moved each figure and did the voices AND argued constantly. Finally, at about 9 o'clock Tom edited it and put it on a CD and we all watched it. It really was very good considering and the boys were dead chuffed. I'm going to try and show you later in the week (it's only about three minutes long) but I don't know how to put a film in a post. Have to wait till Tom gets back from London I guess.

Yesterday was also spent at the huge shopping mall in Bristol. I knew I had to go to real shops just once this Christmas despite doing all my shopping on line. So we got up at half eight and went for it. Can you believe how packed it was for a Monday morning? We lasted about three hours and managed to get most of our bits and bobs and I found this really cute set of Christmas plates for myself:

My dad gave me £100 way back in September and I decided to spend some of it on these plates. I love the shape and the design and they can become a family heirloom (if anyone wants them).

Tomorrow we're decorating the gingerbread house and making snowflakes and kite paper stars. A couple of people have asked how to make these so I will remember to take pics and measurements as we go along.

Tonight I plan to sit by the fire and watch A Christmas Carol (called Scrooge on the video box!) with the oldest two if I can keep my eyes open that is ..................

School's out

Gosh I can't believe that I haven't blogged for a week! Wish I could say that I've been up to my eyeballs with things but I can't actually remember what I did every day this week. Hmmm.

Well last Saturday was spent at my parent's cleaning and shopping for them but also managing to get some shopping done in a really cool vintage shop we found in the City centre. The next day we went to Birmingham and looked around the the German Market which was very good but I wish they'd had more toys and crafts. There was a funfair too and the boys had a go on the carousel:

afterwards we headed to the Hippodrome for The Nutcracker which was really amazing.

The dancing was superb and so was the set and all well worth the nearly £140 it cost. I wanted a traditional version and that's what we got and it was so nice looking at the children's faces, especially Rohan. They were mesmerised.

Monday morning heralded three tired children and the last week of term. There were class performances to see nearly every day. A carol concert and finally the end of term assembly yesterday morning. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief at midday and as Rohan said "Christmas has started now".

We came home to a Christmas box from Jodi packed to the hilt with goodies:

just take a look at these bird decorations that she makes. Aren't they amazing?

This morning we had a great time at the Farmer's Market but came home pretty cold. So it seemed pertinent to have some over-the-top hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream:

before I packed the boys outside again to help Tom tidy up the garden. A little bribery goes a long way in our house.

I meanwhile put on some Christmas music and strung up a garland of chillies and nutmeg:

and I restrung the orange slices/cinnamon sticks with dry bay leaves that didn't curl up this time.

Do you remember that I had to make a second advent wreath? Well, that one has been a disaster too in that the candles would just not sit in the greenery and kept toppling over. So I got fed up and stuck it up on the back door (the first one being on the front door) and Tom drilled some holes in a log for me. However, it looked a bit boring to say the least so I wrapped the orange/cinnamon/bay thingummy around it like so:

and it looks great now. I have to admit that I pinched this idea from Liz as she's done something similar around an advent candle. Thanks Liz.

Tomorrow we have godparents coming for much and Amber is cooking partridges which I've never had before. I'm doing the veg and Rohan is making a decadent chocolate mousse. Amber is also making Mont Blancs and my stomach is groaning already. Luckily we'll be walking it off when we go down to the village church for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols later on.

Guess I ought to go and cook supper ................

Some things for sale

Just a quickie (if I can manage to be short that is) before we go off to my parent's this weekend.

First off I picked Annie's name out of the hat so all the goodies will be winging their way to her just as soon as I get her address. Congratulations Annie I hope you enjoy the mince pies and other goodies.

We got our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon and managed to squeeze it into a corner of the sitting room. I didn't want to move any furniture out as there will be ten of us together and we'll need all the seats we can get. It looks a bit squashed and I don't know how we'll get the truck loads of presents underneath but we'll figure that out nearer the time.

Raj spent ages making  twizzles as he calls them which he then draped over the tree. They look quite good actually and I might get him to make some more. They're basically two strands of wool entwined and then doubled and entwined again. He makes them every Christmas:

I've packed up about five little christmas boxes to friends in America and just realised as I was typing that i haven't actually sent my sister in New Zealand anything yet! On the list for Monday I guess. I must also get to the Butcher's on Monday morning and order the (huge) ham, the goose for Christmas Day and whatever Amber has decided for next weekend. Can't believe I've left that so late too. What happened to my love of list making I'm asking myself. Notebook in the car for the journey this morning I think.

Other than that just to let you know that I've reduced some prices in my Etsy shop if you want to go over and have a look:

and Amber is still keen to sell some Christmas cards. Here's a better picture of the different ones she has:

She's trying to earn some money for Christmas presents and clothes I guess and as you know I've always encouraged her to make things and sell them. We don't overload our children with money and they are actually very good at saving and spending accordingly.

The cards are £1.50 ($3) each or four for £5 ($10) plus postage. I also have some packs of plant dyed fibre which I haven't listed on Etsy yet but they're $10 each:

Email me if you want any of the above for postage costs.

Well, we must be off I guess ............more on the German market and The Nutcracker when I get back.

A little Christmas gift for you

I know you're going to say "does she ever stop" when I tell you that we've been making Christmas cards the last few evenings. But I do enjoy crafting guys and I love making cards each year. This year I seem to have more time on my hands because Amber, bless her has already made the Christmas cake:

and a trillion jars of mincemeat too. So that's a huge job out of the way and, bless her even more she spent a sick day off school last week going through various cooking magazines and books and she's planned the menu for the festive season. We have godparents coming up on 16th and she's planned what we'll cook and she's done Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day too. Mind you I am going to put on about two stone with all the things she wants to have.

So food lists and whatnot over we sat and made some cards which I finished off this morning:

as usual I'm using old Christmas stamps:

but I've made the cards more elaborate this year (last year's are here). Amber has actually made some to sell if anyone is interested. I thought I might take them down to one of the shops in town and see if they wanted any.

Looking at the mountain of stamps I seem to have acculmulated I thought it might be nice to share a few so with that in mind I rushed around and put together this:

a jar of mincemeat (with a recipe for mince pies of course); some dried orange slices, a handful of old stamps and a Christmas card. Here's a close up of the card and stamps:

If you'd like this little lot just leave a comment at the end of this post and I'll send it off to you on Monday morning so's you can get it in time to make some pies and cards.

I'm away this weekend visiting parents on Saturday and on Sunday the highlight of our week has to be a trip to the theatre to see The Nutcracker Ballet. I've been waiting until the children were old enough for this and finally it's come. I am so excited and we're going to make a day of it in Brum because there's a German Market in the City that weekend. Ooh I hope they have lots of Lebkuchen there.

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PS Email me if you're interested in buying Amber's cards. They are basically like mine and are £1.50 or $3 each plus p&p. I'll can send you some pics of the different sorts. Here are a couple though:

Excuse the bad pics in this post today but - guess what - it's bucketing outside and nice and dark inside. If it weren't Christmastime I'd be mighty depressed about the weather ....................

Catching up

It's such a great feeling to have gotten the fairs out of the way and to have the time to concentrate on our Christmas now. I spent most of the morning putting away stock and deciding whether to spend ages listing things on Etsy. I think it would be a good idea but I just haven't got the time at the moment so I'll give you a peak here of what's left and you can email me if you want to buy anything.

Yesterday, was spent drying more orange slices because I seem to burn as many as I do successfully. Everything's fine for the first five hours or so and just when they're nearly done I go and forget to put the timer on. Last week I remembered them when I was just nodding off and ended up running down stairs at midnight to get the darned things out of the oven. Why do I bother?  Well, they do look nice when you use them like this (even with wrinkled up bay leaves):

A few folk have asked me how to do them. Well, I slice up small oranges and put them in my Aga in the oven that is about 140C. I leave them for about five hours turning them over a couple of times. Then I leave them in a warm place overnight just to be extra sure that they're dry. Just to warn you - they smell nice whilst they're cooking but don't give off any scent once dry so I guess you're just doing them for the visual effect really.

I've also been getting some bits and bobs together like this huge tin of Amaretti that we have each year:

Eat Me dates as the children call them - why the heck have they got rid of the lovely card or wood box that they used to come in?

and on Sunday we had our first mince pies - pure heaven:

I haven't bought the huge tin of Quality Street yet although I keep walking past it in the Co-Op. I have to confess that Tom did buy a small box last week which did not hang around for very long. I'm worried that the tin may have a similar fate. Of course Christmas would not be the same without walnuts and clementines either and they are certainly decking the halls here.

Other news is that building work is still going on in the stable and it looks wonderful in there. I didn't take any pics today cos it's pissing down with rain again (surprise surprise) but I will show you later in the week once the scaffolding comes down. Other than that I'm busy buying Christmas presents on-line and I just have to mention this crazy book I read about in the Telegraph last night. It's called Potty, Fartwell and Knob and the review said "This compendium of amusing British names is as smutty as its title promises: Roger Quicklove, Hester Snogs and Willy Wanker all make an appearance, with plenty more besides. In between the sniggers, though, there is the occasional poignant or curious name that makes you wonder about the life that person led". Can you believe that there was someone called Fanny Cockup? I think I'm going to have to get two copies - one for Tom and one for my brother-in-law. Infact, maybe one for my brother too. It's just the sort of stuff they'll chortle over in front of the fire after Christmas dinner.

Before I go and slump in the sofa here are a few of the things I have for sale:

lots of brooches all at $11 each:

one baby doll made from cotton velour and filled with sheep's wool at $42:

and two books both for £9 each. I'm listing those in pounds as they'll be too heavy to send overseas(?):

That sofa is beckoning I'm afraid. It's too darned cold to be sitting in here any longer ..........

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PS I've been meaning to ask this for ages but does anyone have any audio tapes of the Henry Huggins books? Bron from PA who we stayed with in the Summer sent Raj this tape last month:

He, and Rohan just love it. Infact Raj has listened to it umpteen times already and does a great impersonation of Scooter and Henry. I've looked on Amazon and there's nothing over here ofcourse and I just wondered if anyone has an old tape I could buy or infact if you know that any more tapes exist at all? I think it would make a small boy very happy.

Advent - at last

 

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know how much I love Christmas but I think you'll all be a little surprised to hear how hysterical I was when we opened up the Christmas box this morning. I even surprised myself a little and Amber was heard to say "Mum, what's the matter with you". I even reduced Tom to near tears as I exclaimed and gushed over every little thing that we pulled out of the box.

All those things in the box from the nativity down to the decorations are old friends and each Christmas is so lovely in our house that a piece of that memory goes into the box with them. Then you pull it all out and voila the memories and fun times come out too.

So we took everything out, found the nativity and stable, the advent calenders and then put everything back until we get the tree as the party poopers in my family don't want to decorate the place just yet. Honestly, this morning I felt as if I was the over-excited child and they were all the dour adults! I'm going to have to make sure that we get the tree early this year in that case. Actually they weren't being party poopers they were just pointing out that we always put the decs up at the same time as the tree and you know my children they love their rituals and traditions.

So the nativity is on the table, the Christmas stories are out, the advent wreath is made although I'm not very happy with it. The florist only had a large wire circle and whilst it looks good it's a bit too thin to take the candles:

they aren't embedded enough and look as if they're going to fall down. I may well make another one and use this one for the door or maybe I should just pull the ivy and holly off and bind more greenery around it to fatten it up.

Some of you may be wondering why I love Christmas so much and I have to tell you that it's probably because we didn't celebrate it when I was growing up. I didn't mind at the time because I didn't know any better and because of this I don't think I have any hang-ups or bad memories associated with it so I have really just made it my own.

Christmas for us starts today on the first Sunday of advent. We clear the nature table and set the stable down with Mary and Joseph and the donkey. Every night we have Christmas stories that culminate with blowing out the advent candle and then moving Mary and Joseph along the star path and then putting that star up on the silk sky.

We listen to lots of lovely Christmas music - both classical and pop and then once a week or more the children and I sit around the table and make presents for friends and family (I love these evenings so much). We do this because I've always turned the focus towards giving rather than receiving because I hate all the Me, Me, Me and what can I have at this time of year. As you know we don't have a telly so the children aren't subjected to lots of advertising. No catalogues come through the post either and I will probably just go shopping once before Christmas with them and that's only because the boys need trousers and tops. So luckily they aren't bombarded with all the crap that's out there. I do most of my shopping on-line and nearly all of it on eBay and Amazon. Of course Amber does go shopping and go to the cinema but she's old enough not to be influenced by any of it these days.

As usual I'm wittering on a bit so for more on the subject go and take a look at some of my posts from last Christmas here, some fun ideas for making fairies here and a recipe here. Whilst you're at it I started a Flickr group here with some our advent storybooks on it. Please feel free to share images of any books you love on there. By the way apologies if I've repeated myself today.

On another note the fair yesterday wasn't hugely successful. I was stuck in a room off the central area and a number of people came up to me later in the day and said they didn't realise that I was there. I'm thinking of complaining to the school (not mine) to suggest that they don't use this room in the future. So all in all I have lots of things left. Ought to list them on Etsy when I have a moment but I'm also wondering if the local Farmer's Market will have spaces on the 15th and how much they charge for a stall.

Gosh this just reminds me how busy we are from now on ........better get on I guess. I need to use up those dried orange slices in some sort of arrangement or hanging.