Finally it was Sunday the 19th and our mulled wine & mince pies party was upon us. Unfortunately it snowed rather heavily in the morning so a couple of friends didn't make it and a few others were on christmas holidays somewhere hot and sunny but apart from that I think it was a resounding success.
There was only a couple of drivers in amongst all the guests so lots of wine was consumed and I think a happy time was had by all. We still have some mince pies left over which we are enjoying on a daily basis and I am already looking forward to doing it all again next Christmas - so keep the last Sunday before Christmas free if you want to come and do it all over again!

Mum & Dad arrived on Christmas Eve and we had a delicious Fish pie for dinner with a few cheeky glasses of wine - not too much though as there is nothing worse than a hangover on Christmas Day (I speak from experience - once and once only!) All too soon (Lily woke up at around 5am) Christmas Day was here and we managed to delay the opening of the stockings until around 6am when I admitted defeat and got up to put the heating on. After viewing what Santa had brought for Tom & Lily, Nick went down and made a pot of tea before we retired back to bed to open our stockings.
We could delay the inevitable no longer and had to get up, so after a starter breakfast it was through to the lounge around 8am to start with the presents under the tree. I needed a break by quarter to nine so we stopped for bacon butties and coffee before finishing off later in the morning when I then required some toast!
We sat down to our Christmas lunch at about 2pm and I have to say it was quite, quite delicious. We all managed to overeat and then we relaxed for the rest of the day. I ate so much at lunch that I didn't actually eat anything else except for a small piece of cheese later on in the evening to accompany a glass of wine and then it was bedtime.
We went for a nice walk along the beach yesterday and some friends popped in for coffee and a chat today and apart from that it's been very quiet and I am getting a bit agitated now and am looking forward to the return to school and work and all that that means;)

Bah Humbug

I finally got round to posting some pictures of Tom as Scrooge in the school play, he did brilliantly.

Even managing a solo during one of the songs. How fantastic is that? I was a very proud mama.

Nick even managed to get away from work early enough to come and enjoy the performance too.

It's now Sunday morning and all the mince pies have been made (192 of them) , the invites have been issued and the ingredients for the mulled wine have been purchased and it's decided to snow again. Bah humbug...we may be eating a lot of mince pies as there is loads more snow forecast for today.

Ta Da!

The Christmas Draw was great fun and in case you're wondering why I am standing next to a Statue of Liberty, this year's theme was 'Fairytale in New York' . The shoes are excruciatingly painful when you are standing in them for a long time so will not be worn again if there is to be lots of standing. They are wearable for an evening of sitting down though as I wore them to Frannie's 40th way back in September and my feet were fine then.
We had a fairly relaxed weekend after that and then it was another Monday and look what I did...

Pastry getting cut out...

Mince pies taking shape...

Ta Da...completed mince pies. Finally got off the mark and made 72 so feeling a bit better about Sunday. I've been at work today so will make more again tomorrow.

The mince pie saga continues with none made yet but at least the invites are now out there along with some of the christmas cards.
Monday saw another day off school due to the snow but at least I managed to get round there with the completed waistcoats as the secretary was in. So I got the last of them finished off as well and in total made up 63 waistcoats - I did a few spares just in case.
Tuesday saw me catch the bus into Dundee as Nick was still driving my car to work but today he finally managed to take his in so I could reclaim the mrecedes and drive to work today.
I thought I would finally get started on the mince pies tomorrow but had forgotten about my appointments with beauticians and hairdressers tomorrow for the Christmas Draw tomorrow night. So the great mince pie production should now hopefully start on Monday. Wish me luck.

I managed to complete Tom's Scrooge costume last weekend and it looks pretty good.

Tom getting into character.

We traipsed round to school on Monday morning with the costume, the waistcoats and my sewing machine only to find the school shut due to the snow. So it was back home for a duvet day....which turned into a duvet week with the school closed until Friday when we were able to repeat our earlier trip to school laden with sewing machine and costumes.

So we had a bit of a rush on to finish the waistcoats, especially when it was discovered that we had 60 to make not 40. So today I have sewn all the ones we cut out yesterday and we have a total at home of 44 with some completed ones left at school so I reckon Monday morning should see the end of the work. Thank goodness - then I can finally get on with making mince pies.

Fun in the snow.

Cool snowman with a scarf made from leftover material from the dreaded waistcoats.

I'll start this post with a photo for Helen, we get nice sunsets too. This one's taken from our bedroom window and I think it rivals the Falklands.
Well, still no mince pies made but I will get them done, promise. I have been busy helping the school with preparations for the christmas play. Painting scenery and sewing. Since we woke up to snow yesterday morning

I spent the morning sewing up waistcoats that we had cut out at school on Friday. Got 15 done and then it's back to school on Monday to get the other 25 done. The children spent all morning outside playing in that small amount of snow. It's amazing what fun you can have with a little snow.

We met up with Angela and the girls yesterday for lunch and then went into town for the St Andrews Day Fair celebrations. Frankly, we shouldn't have bothered, they were a bit of a let down and it was freezing cold. Lily & Daisy got balloon animals made up and we had chestnuts (roasting on an open fire - which I had never tried before) then it was back home for a warming cup of tea.

This was the scene this morning when we woke up, loads of snow (for St Andrews in November anyway), so they are all off sledging and I have just had a phone call to cancel the christmas choir that Tom was to be singing in today at Kellie Castle. The decision has been made that the roads are too dangerous to travel on. It's a shame as I was looking forward to visiting the castle and browsing the goodies to buy at the Victorian Christmas Fair.

Oh, well I guess that means we shall just have to light the fire and stay toasty and warm indoors all day. It's snowing really hard and its really windy at the moment so I don't know how long the sledgers will last outside. I reckon hot chocolate will be required on their return. Fantastic.

Well, I'm not quite the domestic goddess after all. The mincemeat is still sitting in a jar on the kitchen counter where I left it last Wednesday and not a single mince pie has been made. I have a feeling I shall have to post out my invites before I get round to making the pies. Why am I so unmotivated to do anything? I wonder. Saying that, I did volunteer to help paint scenery and sew costumes for the school play. I'm happy to do that but not make my own stuff or exercise myself. Hmm, answers on a postcard please.

I held the book club here last week and so, for once was able to enjoy a glass of wine with the discussion. Unfortunately I felt a bit shabby the next day but was informed it was a head cold I was suffering from and not a hangover. I like that idea, I'd never heard it before.

We had a lovely quiet weekend, Tom had rugby practice on Saturday but no game on Sunday and Nick had to go to a Remembrance Day Service in St Andrews.

After we all got back from that we sat down to a delicious roast beef and yorkshire pudding lunch (domestic goddess again!). As I sat down to eat it I thought to myself I should really take a photo of this plate of food. Unfortunately as it looked so good it never got passed the thought stage and I tucked into it so quickly the photo of my half eaten meal wouldn't have done the food justice.