He's Been !!!

Father Christmas has been very good to us again this year - Ella now has a mini supermarket complete with fruit, veg and a selection of cakes (all knitted by Nanna).. Daddy was the first customer as you can see in the picture..

Ella also had lots of lovely books and a super wooden pumpkin with theatre puppets and some art and craft things.

Tom also had a lovely selection of books, finger puppets and wooden toys.

Nan, Tom and I went to the midnight service at the church last night. Luckily Silent Night wasn't one of the hymns and Tom seems to have an aversion to it.

Nanna and Bampa came to visit on Saturday. Bampa went in the car with Ella to see the lights at Eathorpe. As you can see from the picture, they take it very seriously. Apparently they even had an official "switching on" ceremony with hot dogs and mulled wine.

I hope Father Christmas was kind to you all. Wishing you a very Happy Christmas from us all ..

p.s. The joke from Ella's cracker :

Q : How do you get two whales in a car ?

A : Over the Severn Bridge

Winter Walks, Woodpeckers and Wobbly teeth

Ella's toothache is slowly improving, but she's had a tough couple of weeks with it. Lots of sleepless nights and Calpol.

We went to the Home Ed group's Christmas party on Monday. It was a bring and share party, and it has to be the most nutritously healthy party I have ever been too !

Nan arrived on Tuesday for a 10 day stay, so Ella's had lots of fun playing, reading and mucking about.

It's been very frosty and cold this week so we've not ventured too far. We plan to drive Ella to Eathorpe later (it's a village about 4 miles from us) as they have lots of Christmas decorations and lights on the houses. Will post some pics next time.

Karl had his company Christmas party this week - at his new office in the Gherkin (picture of their lovely Christmas decorations below). I did request a doggy bag, but it didn't materialise unfortunately.

Aunty Sandra and Uncle Brian just came back from a holiday in Goa to celebrate their Silver Wedding Anniversary.. Happy Anniversary from us all. Ella is looking forward to hearing about Aunty Sandra helping to give the elephants a bath.


Nanna and Bampa are coming to visit tomorrow - hopefully with a boot full of gluten-free mince pies and pickled onions.. Hooray !! They will stay overnight so we can all go to the family service at the Quaker Meeting House on Sunday.

The bird feeders have been busy this week with finches, blue tits, robins, a pied wagtail and a very energetic greater-spotted woodpecker who nearly pecked the peanut feeder off the hook.

Toothache, Trees and Tinsel

We had quite a busy week last week.. Monday was the HE group meeting at the library. Ella decorated pine cones with glitter, and made an angel, which was also glittered, of course..

Wednesday we went on a trip, organised by the HE group, to a local organic farm. We learned about their rare breed cattle and sheep, then went on a tree spotting walk. It's incredibly difficult (for me at least !) to differentiate trees with no leaves on them.

Friday we spent some time on our festive seasonal table (picture on left). We decided to have "Three Wise Gnomies", bearing gifts of pretty stones. So we have (from left) foliage, glitter cones, the Three Wise Gnomies, angels and stars, Joseph, Mary and the empty cradle for our baby Jesus. I made the baby Jesus last year our of stockinette and finger bandage, so he actually looks more like a severed thumb, so I may put a face on him this year, in case it gives Ella nightmares.

Saturday, Ella and Karl went out to get a Christmas tree. Here's a picture of Ella decorating it. She started decorating it unsupervised, and half of the decorations were on the bottom 3 branches, bless. It's a lovely age for her - she's enjoying doing festive crafts, decorating the tree and reading Christmas stories.

Ella's had a tootache since last Friday, so we missed the HE group yesterday, because she (and subsequently everyone else) had a very broken night's sleep. However, she's got some medication now and we're going to the dentist Thursday, so hopefully that'll sort her out.

Mr Pheasant has started coming back to the garden on a daily basis. Here's a picture of him hoovering up the seeds dropped from the feeders..

GPs and Glitter fun

Nanna spent the week with us last week, so Ella had lots of fun playing and I had time and space to crack on with Christmas.

Monkey also got a new jumper knitted for him..

Nanna arrived on Melissa's (Ella & Tom's big cousin) birthday, so Ella spoke to her on the phone to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Saturday we had Imogen and Cameron (plus parents !) over to make Christmas cards and go out and collect things for ours and their nature tables.

Auntie Jules came over to visit on Sunday, so Ella and Jules made a start on the new nature table. Hopefully the nativity figures I made last year haven't been eaten by mice in the loft..

Today was the HE group at the library. Ella made glitter covered pine cone decorations for the Christmas tree, so we're all covered in glitter (probably from now until Christmas). We then finished off our Christmas shopping in the afternoon.

We've got a trip on Wednesday to an organic farm one of the villages near us. The farm does a seasonal visit for the HE group - this week we're having a tour of the farm and we're going christmas tree spotting in the forest.

I'm personally looking forward to another 22 days of "Can I look behind the stable doors now" every time Ella sees her Advent calendar (which is currently about a thousand times a day, or so it seems..)