❄Snowed in..eagerly awaiting Christmas❄





I haven't been out since Monday morning, apart from in the garden, to watch childrens snowfights, and snowman making, its been quite blissful, all cosy and warm, have done lots of baking, and kept busy planning for Christmas.

Little daughter has written, and posted her first letter to |Father Christmas, well with help from mummy....




Letter to St Nic





Snow star yucca



This morning the children played, or should I say  wound each up,violently pelted each other with snowballs, then elder son stuffed snow down younger sons back, nearly making him cry, resulting in me nearly banging there heads together. They did  kindly make little sister a snowman, of which she is terrified to wake in the morning, and find melted (no chance) She actually cried when she watched Raymond Brigg's Snowman animation the other day, bless her, a chip off the old block, still gets me every time...

We have put some decorations up, I favour very natural looking decorations,  I HATE tinsel with a vengance, I like to 'see' my tree, so don't smother it in decorations. The red berry wreath and garland were a bargain at half price, from Argos last year. I have lots,and I mean LOTS of fairy lights around my house, my kitchen is starting to resemble Nigella's, I love them and leave them up all year round.

Festive fireplace

All of my chidren have spent hours playing with these delightful little dolls, over the years, they always end up rolling under the couch, so am forever trying to find them.

Russian Santas and penguins

                                                                     

 Nearer to Christmas day, I will go to the local park and cut holly, and  any type of attractive foliage with berries to decorate the table. We are waiting for our 'realisic' Xmas tree to arrive, I  have aways had a real tree, but have decided to invest in one that looks real, because im fed up with it dying on me after a week, no matter how much I keep it away from heat source, and water it, it looks droopy, and feels crispy by Christmas day. The snow has held up the delivery, so probably won't arrive until next weeek now, which is dissapointing, I like to have my tree up in time for my birthday on the 6th.

 I like to listen to traditional carols sung by the Cambridge choir, 'Christmas at Kings' whilst im decorating the tree, and have glass of port, with all the candles on, this makes me soo happy, and takes me right back to being a child.  My dad used to love Christmas, sadly he died at  a very young age, 14 years ago, and this time of year is when I miss his presence the most,  we always sat and watched Scrooge together,and Its a Wonderful life, I do this every year now with my boys, we always have special food, nibbles, they really enjoy it this too, they just know its the 'done 'thing with mum.I try and  keep all the traditions going, its a  special magical  time, and I hope my children will too.Everbody else in my family hates Xmas,  namely mum and brothers,which deeply saddens me, how can anyone 'hate' it? There are such simple pleasures to be had from the holiday, its not all about commercialism,  I'm not religious, and am certainly not an athesist either. I lean more towards its Pagan origins. Oh well 'Bah humbug'! to them, they will not dampen my spirits! Thankfully my husband , my children, and my friends love it.

 I will post pics of the new tree when its up, your opinions on whether it has a 'real' look to it, will be very  welcome please;)  



To celebrate our  Christmassy mood ,we made our first batch of mince pies today, they were so buttery and yummy, and a welcome treat coming in from the cold. I followed this recipe here


* Bear in mind, too add a little liquid, milk or water to your mix, to make the mix roll easier, or it will be too dry, and crumbly*

Rolling and cutting



'I want to put the snow on them' little one say's.

I'm really looking foward to next week  and hope the snow clears a bit, as im going up to London to see Wicked, for my birthday treat.As you may have guessed from previous posts, and my ' Dorothy painting on my header I Love TheWizard of Oz, should be great!

❄Happy cosy snowtime everbody!!☃
{Although I am rather looking foward to being able to venture out now}