Please Look Away

If you are liable to get a Christmas gift from us then please look away now!

We decided to try something different for our gifts this year - neighbours and friends are getting hand made gifts instead of bought ones.

Snowman Soup thanks to http://www.organizedchristmas.com/.
These simple gifts were made by putting a bag or marshmallows, some wrapped chocolates, and a couple of sachets of hot chocolate in a lovely snowman mug.

The tag has the poem
Snowman Soup
Was told you've been real good this year.
Always glad to hear it!
With freezing weather drawing near,
You'll need to warm the spirit.
So here's a little Snowman Soup
Complete with stirring stick.
Add hot water, sip it slow.
It's sure to do the trick!


The jars below were also simple to make.
The whiter jars need to be made two weeks before you are going to give or use them. Simply split a vanilla pod length ways and cut it into three. Put the vanilla pod and caster sugar in a sterilised jar and give a little shake. After two or three weeks the sugar will smell devine - mmmm. You can use the vanilla sugar in coffee, hot chocolate, baking or anything else you fancy. This is an everlasting gift too, because when your sugar goes down you can refill it a number of times before the vanilla pod fades.

The other jars are maldon sea salt, with some dried chillies, peppercorns and a couple of star anise. The spiced salt is great for putting on your steaks or rubbing onto roast chicken for a bit of extra kick!

Seasonal Photos

Another busy week gone by. I have spent most of the week just getting things prepared for the big day. I pre made a lot of the food that we will need over the Christmas week so that I wont have to miss out on the children enjoying their gifts.

There is a fair bit to update on so I will start with the photos from last Friday evening (5th Dec). The village where I live had the ceremonial tree light switching on. The children from the playgroup had the honour of doing the switch on, they were really sweet and sang a few carols beforehand.
Afterwards everyone headed over to the church hall where there was a visit from Santa! Sadly I didn't get any decent photos of Santa as I had handed my camera over to Mag to look after and he vanished at the crucial moment.

We did get a snowman photo!



Or two!

SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS

Day out to W5 - PART 1

I am saying part 1 as the most of the day went great for us, but we did have an incident this morning.

We headed off fairly early this morning to go to W5 at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. W5 is a science museum for kids, and the children all love it so much we usually just spend the day there.

We parked up in the main car park as usual. You have to cross a main road to get into the complex, fortunately there are two pedestrian crossings with lights. I lined the children up at the crossing that takes you to the main entrance. When it was time to cross I saw a car speeding toward us. Thankfully I had my wits about me and I just 'knew' that the car was not going to stop so I pulled the children back. It was a scary moment for us all. The driver did not stop the car despite my attempt at flagging him down!

We were quite shaken by the incident and went into the main complex to report this to security staff. They in turn called the police and luckily for us the Roads Service lorry behind the car called in too. Long story short the police contacted the police stations local to the complex and viewed the CCTV, they also viewed the complex's CCTV and were able to track this car's journey through the town. They were also able to see us on the crossing and that we had done nothing wrong. Although we did not get a number plate the car had a distinctive paint job, and we got a good description of the driver inside, because of the paint job and the other things we noted that were inside the car's window they are hopeful.
The police and staff were absolutely great with us, they took statements and nothing was too much trouble for them. I apologised at using police resources but they reassured me that I did the right thing in reporting this to the security staff.

They said they are hoping to get this guy though it could take a few weeks if he was to be prosecuted, and we will just wait and see what happens now.

Spills 1st December

December is going to be a month for crazy stuff - I can just tell - feel it in my water or whatever!

Yesterday the 1st was an ordinary morning, then lunch time we decided to head on up to B&Q to get our kitchen paint.

I did get to test the paint before I bought it - Roy only managed to spill it on the floor and over mine and Toni's new Timberlands. *sigh* then Seb broke a snowglobe.


B&Q I apologise!

Oh yes and while I am on that subject - glowstick bangles ... when they burst they make everything glow. My children thought it would be funny to shake them up and down the hall! My hall glows in the dark now.

Trip round Belfast

SUNDAY
We collected Mag from his friend's house in Carrickfergus this morning. He had a blast -movie which was Ghost Town, a pizza hut feast and sleep over.
We had decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak and head into Belfast to see the Christmas lights and head to the continental market. We didn't make the market in the end but we still saw plenty.

The tree at the Victoria Square Shopping Centre. This tree was impressive, apparently the tallest in Belfast. I had to stitch the photos together as I couldn't get it taken in one go.

This is the Belfast Wheel, we didn't go on it this time as we just ran out of hours in the day, the children were tired and hungry by the time we made our way round. We had gone on it last year and it boasts an impressive view of the city.

Belfast City Hall Christmas tree.

Toni ended up with her hair done! There was stall in the Castle Court shopping centre promoting Babycurls curlers. One of the staff took a shine to Toni, he offered to do her hair, after a few minute of shyness she agreed! The result was beautiful, she sat so good while she was having her hair done and although it took a couple of hours it was well worth the wait. The hair designer (apparantly different to a hair dresser) said her hair was astoundingly good and in the last year and a half had never done such lovely hair. Well of course what made Toni grow to ten feet tall.

DOWN TO THREE

I took an unexpected drive to Carrickfergus today. Mag got a birthday party invite to go to the cinema followed by dinner in Pizza Hut with friends. I had no problem letting him go and staying at their house over night so we only had to make the journey once today. We need to go to Belfast tomorrow so it will work out well for collecting him.


The afternoon ended up a bit rushed though, we headed off at 1.45 to leave Mag off at chess club. The plan was to use the hour he is in chess club to go pick up a thing I had got off Freecylce then pop in the back door of the Flagship Centre and pick up a little present for the birthday boy. Well best laid plans and all that ... Bangor town was a nightmare, it took me ages in the shops and by the time Mag had finished chess club at 3 o'clock I was only just getting my way out of the town. Anyways - long story short we made it to Carrickfergus just in time for the party.

Seb and I stopped off at a parking area by the shore on the way back - we were able to see right across Belfast lough as it was so clear, we walked for a little while and watched the world go by until the light dropped.

I had to laugh, when I arrived home the strong smell of paint hit me as I walked in the front door. Roy had only gone and done the kitchen ceiling with gloss paint.