Christmas: Done!

Sorry about the long radio silence. I started my new job a couple of weeks ago and I have been busy trying to stay awake in the evenings! Also, most of the knitting was for Christmas pressies and I didn't want to spoil any surprises!

So, first up, here are my Christmas hats:

Stripy hats for cousins Jonny and Christopher

Beaded hat for cousin Laura

Pink hat for cousin Lizzie

Black hat for SIL Jenny

The hats all seemed to be a hit as they were all put straight onto heads and worn for much of the day! Hoorah! I told Jonny I will gladly make him more hats if he wants them as he was so pleased with his.

Walking socks for Dad

Phill and I went back to Reading for Christmas. Naturally, the day before we planned to drive North, record breaking snow fell in Reading, causing total gridlock and impassable roads (well done, Reading Borough Council... leaving the footpaths ungritted for 4 days was genius!) This meant that if we wanted to get home as planned (and I did as it was the Sticks and Strings Christmas party on Tuesday) we had to get the train. This was an interesting experience as we had to travel separately from two different places, Phill from Portsmouth and me from Chichester. Phill had to take the cat with him! Several changes later as we were home.

Thanks to my secret Santa for my fabulous sewing and baking goodies!

On Wednesday, I went out to play in the snow but by that point it was just pretty ice and wouldn't be formed into anything other than a pile so no snowman for me :(. I cheered myself up by taking lots of pictures of the snow. Here are a few of my favourites!

My parents' back garden

Mum's gnome

Chilly bird house

The Red Kite flew into my view finder =)

We had a lovely Christmas. On the day itself we went to visit my Dad's family at my Grandparents house near Evesham. Then, on Boxing Day we drove down to Cornwall to visit Mum's family. It was very nice to see everyone.


I got some lovely presents including Christmas socks with bells on, loads of lovely chocolate and alcofrollic goodies and these button kits from Sue. I am looking forward to having a go at making my own buttons!!

In my "stocking", there was a box of Ferrero Rocher. As I was looking at them, I realised something was wrong... there were c ouple of missing! It turns out Santa got a little peckish during the wrapping process =)


I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2010!

So Long, Pookiewoo

What have I done?

I have just registered for the Great North Swim. Along with Charlotte and Simon (and Dave for support), I will swim a mile along Lake Windemere next September. I will have to wear a wetsuit! And do some training. It fits in well with the whole weight loss resolution for next year which is good.

Charlotte is going to do all four of the swims (North, Scotland, East and London), Simon is going to do three of them and Dave and I will be doing just one. We are hoping to raise £2500 for Barnardo's, who work with children to help them realise their potential, no matter their background. We have a Just Giving page so if you would like to sponsor us, please click the link to donate and thank you!

You can also keep up with what we are doing on our fancy pants blog that Simon set up.

Random Thursday

She's a princess! Anna came to visit us in our new house this week. We had a fabulous time involving the Spinnaker Tower, shopping, Chinese takeaway, wine, buttons, an enormous puddle (and associated wellies) and fancy toasted sandwiches in Chichester.