Only two sleeps to go....

Excitement is building in the Hampson household - just two more sleeps.. Ella "wrote" a letter to Father Christmas asking for a dolls house and a woodlouse, so Karl will be scouting around the garden tomorrow evening looking under flower pots...

We've made a couple of trips to Eathorpe again this year, to see the lights. Ella and Tom both enjoyed the spectacular.
On Sunday we went to the All Age meeting at the Quaker Meeting House. The children did a Nativity puppet show using puppets we'd made the previous week. Woody and Wendy and their horse Nee Naw (who played the donkey) also took part. We sang carols and Ella declared that she had the most beautiful singing voice out of us all.

We have a few more christmas presents to make today and some presents to wrap - Ella and Tom had lots of fun in the bubble wrap and boxes our presents were delivered in.

Yesterday my friend Non and her children came over to visit. Ella and Ella Mae set out a picnic in the garden for the chickens, complete with chairs, plates and corn. They rounded the chickens up and sat and watched them enjoy their snack.

We picked Nan up from the railway station yesterday. They have been slowly working their way through Ella's latest library books since then.

Nanna and Bampa are making a flying visit on Christmas Eve, bearing gifts of pickled onions, gluten-free mince pies and Christmas cake. Brian and Sandra are visiting at the weekend, so we're looking forward to that too. Below is a picture of Ella and Tom watching out for Santa's sleigh...
Well, from all of us...

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year !

with love to you all xxx

Gigs and Goldfinches

We're all getting into the festive mood here. Woody has some new woolly hats for his lion and Nee Naw, his donkey. Karl and Ella went to choose a Christmas tree last night, so we'll be getting the decorations out of the loft tomorrow.

Nanna has knitted lots of Christmas tree decorations for us to put at Tom height so we don't have any bauble eating incidents or such like.

We went to the library in Rugby yesterday and Tom found a new little toddler friend called Amelie. There's a group meeting there every Friday so we'll make it when we can. Karl has a gig tonight, so he's off to Bristol with his drums and a couple of Red Bull to see him through the journey home.

I have a few more christmas presents to finish off over the next couple of weeks, but we're almost ready for christmas. We've started on the nativity seasonal table. Ella drew a nativity scene on the window - with woody and wendy bringing gifts of perfume and precious stones to baby jesus.

The hens are in good form. They have a new friend - a male pheasant who comes to visit each afternoon. We have lots of birds at the feeders at the moment - blue tits, goldfinches, robins and great tits. Apart from that, the garden is looking a bit desolate. Time to start planning autumn and winter planting for next year I think...