Here is the preparation for my magnificent garland, which due to a lack of patience morphed into...

a mantelpiece decoration instead...much easier and infinitely less stressful. 

 On Sunday we held our annual Christmas party for some of our neighbours and friends

And then it was a final week at work and school and all too soon it was Christmas Eve and I had rearranged the mantelpiece decor...all that was needed now was for some sharp eyed person to notice... 

 Thankfully it was Nick that noticed before Tom or Lily discovered it and it was carefully rearranged back to say Christmas again.

 Tom made Nick a model Concorde for Christmas and I got a book of vouchers for such things as hoovering, making dinner, washing up and unlimited kisses and hugs from Tom which was wonderful...Unfortunately there are terms and conditions attached and I'm not at all sure I'll ever be able to get dinner made or the hoovering done but I can live in hope.  At least I will get the kisses and cuddles.

 Tom had just asked for money for christmas as he had been saving up since August to get the Lego Death Star (cost £275).  Unbeknown to him, I had already ordered it as I knew he would have enough money after Christmas to pay for it and I got a big discount during a sale last month :)  So on Boxing Day we went to order it online before his grandparents left for the farm and lo and behold there it was!  Needless to say, that is the last we saw of Tom (which is why I didn't reveal it on Christmas Day). 
The instruction book that comes with the set is 260 pages long and ringbound...the bets are now on for how long it's going to take him to emerge from his room with the completed Death Star.

We went to the Air Force Christmas Draw last Saturday night and spent last Sunday recovering from what was a very good night! 
The weather has been a bit rubbish recently and the Tay Bridge has closed twice whilst I have been at work in Dundee, making me have to drive home via Perth which is a real pain.  Lesley came up on Tuesday and was delayed with the weather as well and also on her way home on Thursday.  Whilst she was here on Wednesday we went shopping in the morning and then wrapped up our gifts. Once the children were home from school we decorated the Christmas tree and listened to Christmas carols.  A lovely day.
Today I have washed the floors and the windows, vacuumed and bought the wine for tomorrow, I will make a final batch of mince pies in the morning.  I am currently toying with the idea of trying to make some sort of garland with ivy and other greenery from the garden.  Not sure how succesful that will be.  Rest assured I will take photos:)

Gosh, I can't remember what we did 2 weekends ago, I guess it was a quiet one, Nick was in Doncaster for a small RAF reunion and we must have just had a lounge about weekend. 

 I have managed to make 90 mince pies so far before running out of mincemeat this time.  I prepared more mincemeat last night and left it to soak overnight before putting it in the oven this morning so I am feeling quite festive and organised as I am also sitting beside a pile of ready to post christmas cards that I wrote out yesterday as well. 

The school was closed last Wednesday due to strike action but as it fell on St Andrews Day (30th Nov) there was a tree planting going on in celebration of the Queens jubilee next year so the 3 of us went along to that and planted some trees and Lily got on the telly!! 

Then on Saturday this last week it was the school Christmas Fair and I was helping on the raffle stall so that kept me busy for most of the afternoon.  Sunday we had friends round for lunch and then Nick managed to watch Wolves beat Sunderland on the telly after they left.  All in all a very pleasant weekend. 

I got up today all ready to go on the mince pie making for our christmas 'do' only to find the pastry that I started on the other week had gone a little bit mouldy so it had to get thrown in the bin.  So I got everything else ready then went off to Morrisons with my shopping list only to come home later and unpack to discover I had forgotten to buy the flipping pastry.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow ;)

Also, earlier on this week I had just typed up a quick post/tweet on behalf of Printing.com when the phone rang, Angela answered it and was asked if she had just tweeted...not having a clue as to what was going on she passed the phone to me...it was a journalist wanting to know if there was a story and what was going on in downtown Dundee...the moral of the story is don't tweet about traffic and/or police unless you want journalists tracking you down. 
Just in case the police were about to come and give me into trouble I quickly deleted my original post and changed it to something altogether more innocuous.  Lesson learned.

We went for a lovely walk up Hill of Tarvit on Sunday...

 The views were spectacular

as were the gates into the gardens.   Nothing much happened last week, Nick was down south until Thursday and then the two of us were out for dinner that same evening.  We had a great night but drank rather a lot so my Friday was quite subdued...not as subdued as some of the others who had been out with us though (they didnt get home until around 0430am - we got home around 0030am). 
Caz Smith arrived on Friday, she was visiting us for the weekend.  Had a lovely time catching up with her and all her news.  We pottered around St Andrews on Saturday and then relaxed the rest of the day and on Sunday Caz and Nick went for a round of golf before coming back home for a big Sunday lunch and then a big game of Monopoly which Nick won and then some more relaxing.  Lovely. 

After writing my blog last week we headed over to Leuchars for the annual Fireworks/Bonfire night which went with a bang!

 Then on Saturday we got up early and drove over to Lenzie as John and his girlfriend, Alison were up.  So we arrived around 10 and had a quick coffee with them before dashing off into Glasgow.  Lily & I went shopping whilst Dad, Nick & Tom went to the Science Museum.

 Lily and I got home in time for a late lunch and then we were able to relax for the afternoon before Nick & I got a taxi into Glasgow to attend the Rangers 70's Disco Charity Night.  We arrived in plenty of time to take advantage of the champagne reception in the VIP lounge before being escorted to the chairman's table to enjoy a lovely 4 course dinner with lots of wine:)


Gordon Smith (ex rangers player) & Craig White (Rangers chairman)

  The evening was great fun and the 70's disco after the meal was fabulous, the singers, The Soul Kings were brilliant, you couldn't get me off the dance floor

But all too soon it was time for our taxi home again and the evening was over.  Needless to say, we had a fairly slow start on Sunday, Mum made some bacon rolls for us before we drove back home to St Andrews and then poor Nick had his afternoon ruined by having to work (luckily from home, but it was still work) as a problem had arisen that needed some organising. 

This week Nick has been very busy and is looking forward to relaxing tonight and tomorrow before Sunday when he has to attend the memorial parade in town and lay a wreath for Remembrance Sunday.

Today I have been catching up with housework, I washed the outside of the bedroom windows (long overdue) cleaned the bathrooms, hoovered, tidied the understair cupboard and did a general tidy around the house before making my first batch of mince pies this year.

 They are a perfect one bite size mouthful and there are now only 8 left on the plate.  Oops.
I forgot to mention Lily's news last week.  For her birthday she got a knitting kit from Soma and made this frog (with some help from me).

 She then sent a photo of it off to Blue Peter in the hope of getting a Blue Peter badge and finally, some six months later a badge came through the post for her.  Boy, was she excited.

How cool is that?

Whoops, it's November and I havent posted for over a month.  I havent been too busy, more like too lazy.  Been a bit fed up so haven't felt like blogging. 

Anyway here's the update...it was the October holidays for 2 weeks and during the first week I held a Boden clothing party which Lily enjoyed immensely as she got to dress up in lots of different clothes.  To be fair, so did I and when Angela came round we dressed up some more and then the next morning when Tom came down for breakfast he caught me and Lily dressing up again and just rolled his eyes and said "you're not still dressing up are you?"  But of course we were - what fool female wouldn't take the opportunity to try on lots of gorgeous clothes in the comfort of your own home!

 A couple of days after the party Tom, Lily and I headed off down south for a few days to visit schools.  We had an unscheduled stop at Gran & Grampy's in Lenzie en route due to an unfortunate vomitting incident -  so a shower and quick clothes wash and change was required before we could resume our journey.  And no, it wasn't me that vommed.
After that we sped off down the M6 arriving in Hereford some 6 hours later and found somewhere to stay the night.  The Green Dragon is one of the oldest building in Hereford and appears to have the original floorboards - what a noisy place, I hardly slept a wink, the chap in the room above us appeared to wander around his room all night until about 3am when the floorboards finally fell silent and I finally fell asleep somewhat later.  On Friday we visited Hereford Cathedral School and got shown all around it and then we went on to our booked accommodation in a small village outside Worcester called Leigh Sinton.  Saturday we had our visit to The Kings School in Worcester and got shown around the school by a lovely boy called Ben who is in Year 9.  After that we had some lunch and then drove over to Eastnor Castle for the afternoon where we planned to play in the adventure playground, get lost in the maze and generally have some outdoor fun.  Alas, we got there and it was closed for bloody winter.  A major disappointment to our plans.  Anyway, we went back to the house and pottered around for the rest of the day.  On Sunday we drove an hour down the road to visit with Helen and her kids for lunch and the afternoon, it was lovely to catch up again and nice to know if we move there will be a friendly face not too far away.
Monday was our last school visit and this one was RGS Worcester, then back in the car and up the road, this time for a planned stop at Gran & Grampy's minus the vomit.  Result.
Mum & I went for a quick shop on Tuesday morning without the children, double result and then we headed back home to St Andrews for the rest of the holidays.    Tom & I made some tooth rotting tablet

 and then Tom & Nick went hill walking again.  It was a very windy day.

but they appear to have had fun despite the weather. 

We have now decided to go for Kings School and have taken the step of registering with them for next year.  So it looks like we will be selling up and moving sometime next summer hopefully for the last time.