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A little snow has fallen...
We noticed at about 8.30pm and rushed outside to play and have a bonfire. The flakes were huge and caught on our eyelashes like sugary buns.
There was enough for a snowman...
and the obligatory snowmouse...
More is forecast for the coming days. I'm hoping for a school closure - is there anything more exciting than hearing there's no school? I remember once being sent home during an English exam because of heavy snow. Brilliant.
We've been busily making hearts for the upcoming Christmas Tree Festival. One cold Saturday morning my daughter and I happened upon the festival quite by accident. We saw a sign which we followed to the nearby church. We stepped inside and instantly left behind the frantic and noisy street and entered into an oasis of magic and calm. All around us were fairy lights and happiness and children playing handbells. We spent an age looking at all the different trees - most of them made us cry with either happiness or sadness. From that day on we were hooked and last year the Children's Centre where I work entered the festival for the first time with a very small tree. Because of our entry we were then selected as this years chosen charity so we've stepped it up a gear and we're going for a 5ft'er covered in hearts. We've all been busily making and glueing in earnest ready for the big event.
Let the magic begin!
I'm now in the transition period. It's no longer Autumn but not quite Winter and it's heading towards Christmas but not even December yet. For the past 5 years the offical changeover date is 21st November. On the 20th November my Sam will be 6 and after that we can then go into Christmas mode.
This year more than others the lines have blurred somewhat and I haven't quite been able to resist the urge to Christmas things up a bit in advance of his birthday. The Christmas biscuits for one thing and preparations for the Christmas tree festival and just thinking so much about all the Christmas plans ahead - the cooking; the collection of the Christmas tree; the advent calendar; visiting family and friends and my ever persistent desire to dress the dog up in antlers - who will submit first?
Family love today.
Illness has a way of making life so real. I think most of the time we dawdle around thinking we're present but then the bubble bursts and we find we were just marking time and life becomes so real it is surreal.
Today there was good news and a happy voice at the end of the phone. I can hold it together until the phone goes down and then I have a weep. Joe wondered if I was crying over how good the email from Strada was (2 mains for £10 is worth a tear of joy).
Onwards and upwards.
Is it ever too early for Christmas biscuits? I think not particularly when you have such a large collection of cookie cutters sitting in the cupboard waiting to act out their Christmas destiny.
Well ok maybe not all of them have a Christmas theme but the tree certainly, the moose/reindeer yep, the hedgehog - well who doesn't love a little snowy hedgehog? The chick is dressed up as a penguin, the bat a leftover from halloween and the ice creams because it's such a good cookie cutter and the topping ideas are endless.
So this was a day well spent. We also made salt dough but more on that later!
I love Bonfire night.
This year we had the added pleasure of at last releasing our lanterns which have been gathering dust on top of the wardrobe for the past couple of years. This is of course no surprise when you read the instructions which I can only imagine are to deter you from ever lighting one and warn you that if you do there will almost certainly follow some hideous amount of destruction which of course will be all your fault. So they went on top of the wardrobe for fear that yes we did live near a road and quite a few trees and certainly there are sometimes aircraft nearby and would you believe it there is also wind, such a lot of wind.
But it was time for the lantern to fulfil its destiny and take flight on a slightly breezy and oh so chilly starry night.
And it was magical. We all stood and watched in utter awe and amazement at this balloon of light take off into the darkness. We didn't speak a word as it went higher and higher until it just looked like another star in the sky except more golden and more twinkly.
I am pleased to say there were no incidents to report.
Ah. . . what lucious lanterns of Yuletide loveliness. Yes the countdown has begun, mainly in my head but often it will spill out into the everyday world where it is greeted with groans of "don't get too excited, remember what happened last year!". Ah yes, last year I woke at 5am with an excitement headache and in my early morning stupor took some Nurofen on an empty stomach which resulted in my having to have a lie down for an hour at about 11am. The day itself was all a bit of a blur and the 5am start had been totally unecessary also, as after lighting the fire and doing a bit of 'tweaking' I more or less sat there for 3 hours until the children awoke.
This year will be different.
We're going to be having a visitor for the whole of December and I'm really looking forward to him coming. I've recently spent some time with my dearest friend who was lucky enough to receive a similar visit last December. On hearing of her happiness which lasted the whole month long I have put in a request to the 'big man' and I can reveal that our visitor will be arriving on December 1st. And that is all I can say about it for now. In theory it should have the result of stringing out my excitement and being able to channel it into the whole of the season rather than having to restrain myself and end up with the inevitable messy explosion on the 25th.