Only One More Sleep Till Santa…!!

I cannot believe that for the whole of December, this is only my third post!! When I last posted I was tucked up on the sofa doing my best to beat the dreaded lurgy, having missed a day off work on the Sunday. Well, the lurgy put up quite a fight & I actually did get back into bed until the Wednesday, when my voice returned but I was still coughing & had no appetite!

I pottered around the house, cleaning bathrooms, washing floors, doing laundry & generally getting ready for our Christmas houseguest! But my gift list still had items unchecked, so on Saturday morning, Lee & I set off at 8am into town & in four hours we had ticked off every item on the list & as I had a sudden craving for KFC, grabbed a bargain bucket & headed for home!! Buoyed up with our successful morning I called my boss in-store to say that I felt well enough to be back in work the next day, for what would be the busiest trading Sunday before Christmas. Then the white stuff started to fall…..& it didn’t stop for hours!!

On Sunday morning I got up as usual & readied myself for the trek into work. I hate driving in icy conditions but generally if I can get out of the village the main roads will usually have been ploughed & gritted. Lee was concerned & offered to drive…I will admit I breathed a sigh of relief & off we set allowing a full extra hour for what we guessed would be slow progress! Getting out of the village was interesting to say the least but when we made it to the A600 it was obvious that no plough or gritting lorry had been along since the snow had settled!! We managed to get as far as ‘Hammer Hill’, which is a steep incline about three miles from our village….after two failed attempts & much wheel spinning we made  change of plan & we turned around to head for the A421 bypass to take the ‘long way round’….we slithered & slipped along the A600 in the opposite direction until we came to the hill down from the village to the A421 slip road…not an option!! There were already two abandoned cars at angles on the hill & again, undisturbed deep snow!! So back home we went & I didn’t get to achieve my December sales target this year!!

The temperature hasn’t got above freezing since & even as I write, we still have inches of snow in the back garden, the village roads are just compacted powdery snow & the boys are having a great time building snowmen & having snowball fights! I even looked out of the window on

Tuesday to see two older boys from the village having a snowball fight while stripped to the waist!!! It begs the question…WHY?!!! Oh the folly of youth!!

& me…well I’m still coughing & dosing myself up with Covonia, Lemsips & Lockets!!

We had to make a decision on Tuesday about our Christmas plans. Lee’s Mum is always with us for Christmas & Lee was due to drive to Hereford on Tuesday & bring her back on Wednesday. With so much disruption on the roads & much research on-line & phone calls back & forth to various relatives in Herefordshire it was decided that it just wasn’t viable to travel, especially as all the severe weather warnings followed the exact route that Lee would take either way!!  So it’ll just be the four of us for Christmas this year & we’re hoping that the road conditions will have improved sufficiently for M-I-L to at least see the New Year in with us…& of course we will be having a second turkey dinner & gift exchange!!

On Wednesday we headed off to Tesco…the car park was still under inches of snow, no slush…still too cold!! Cars were left where their drivers had guessed the spaces must be & it was impossible to wheel a trolley further than the cleared path along the front of the store!!

We filled our trolley with all the goodies needed & some not…namely a festive ‘double dozen’ Krispy Kreme donuts!!! Lee placed them lovingly in the trolley to my protests that we didn't need that many saying ‘they’re such a great price & we can freeze them’. Well….maybe we could have if the freezer wasn’t already stuffed to the gills with all the extra stuff already bought for the festive season!! So the dilemma was, what to do so as not to waste them?!!! Solution? Eat them of course!!! Can you believe that we ate all 24 in two & a half days?!! I am definitely going to be excommunicated from Weight Watchers at this rate!! BUT…they were delicious & in my defence I stuck to the glazed ring variety & left the boys to polish off the more exotic ones!!  

We have also been busy baking gingerbread men & stars for the tree…the boys took so much trouble decorating them…it’s lovely to see them enjoying things that I did at their age, as a change from all the techie stuff I normally have to prise them away from!!

 
Alex has asked if we can make some more before M-I-L arrives & something tells me we’re going to need to!! They are just scrummy…I think Santa may find he has gingerbread stars left out with his milk instead of a mince pie this year!!

I’ve nothing scrappy to share with you this time…I’ve been working on my JYC album, but I’ve not photographed anything as yet! Maybe as M-I-L isn’t with us I may get some serious scrapping done on Boxing Day & BH Monday! I know I won’t get a word of sense from my men folk as they play with all their new gadgets!!

So may I take the opportunity to wish you all a happy, healthy & warm Christmas & thank you all for dropping by & taking time to leave such wonderful comments all through the year! I love reading them & also reading your blogs too! I may not get to post again before December 31st…so if that is the case may I also wish you all a very Happy New Year too…may 2011 bring you everything that you would wish for yourself!!

I’m off to finish wrapping the last few gifts & to get my thinking cap on for some really tough treasure hunt clues for the boys for tomorrow’s after lunch search!!!  Come back soon : )