Day 619

Day 619...

Well it is rather late in the day and I've still got stuff to do so this may be a quick post.

The morning started with breakfast and snow...yes we had snow this morning and for a while it came down quite heavy leaving everywhere looking very festive. 

As Molly and Dan had arrived home yesterday Simon had decided to cook up a treat and he'd made a batch of waffle mix so that this morning we could have Mickey waffles for breakfast.

Mickey waffle maker

Mickey waffles!!!

The first job of the day was to help Molly and Dan load up Dan's car with some of Molly's stuff that we hadn't been able to take with us when she moved out a few weeks ago. Thankfully the snow had stopped but everywhere was very slushy and very cold.

We then decided to carry on working outside as we were already cold and put up our Christmas lights. I have had to come up with a slightly different way of doing things this year as our new windows will not let me feed cables through as I've done before so I am having to use just the two outdoor sockets that we have. But I've been able to get the majority of lights plugged in and so my back garden is looking pretty festive.

Although I did have a slight mishap when I accidentally cut through a cable (thankfully not plugged in)...oops! This meant I was one set of lights short so I then had the brainwave to re-purpose the lights that are normally hung along the front of the house. I'm not able to put any along the front of the house this year as we don't have any outdoor sockets that side of the house.

The finished results;

Then this afternoon we dropped Molly off at her old kickboxing academy as she was helping out with their black belt grading as we then collected our grocery shopping before heading home to carry on with more Christmas decorating.

Back home and we had a few bits to finish off outside before me and Dan spent a couple of hours assembling my three trees; one in the dining area, one in the hall and my main one in the living room. We have all the decorations out and now have the task of deciding where they should go and decorating the trees...think this maybe a job for tomorrow!

And with a much deserved Indian take-away that was our Saturday.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Back Together

Day 254...

Well today has been another busy day and the day in which Molly returned home after the longest she has ever been away from home.

The work day revolved around catching up with my deputy manager, paying wages, ordering storage container units, catching up on banking and liaising with parents over various matters.

This time of year is usually very busy at pre-school with fundraising, Christmas activities, Christmas concerts and parties but this year we are having to take a different approach to all of these. We have scaled back our fundraising so it is much more low key but will still hopefully raise a few pennies for us. We have the next few weeks planned out with various Christmas themed activities, crafts and even some baking. And then we have our Christmas concert which this year will be all virtual; a series of short videos that we will be able to share with our parents. Which leaves us, the staff, with still plenty to do!

Once home and fueled with coffee I had a few more work emails to deal with while at the same time completing a little more online Christmas shopping (taking advantage of a few Black Friday deals). 

Just prior to Molly arriving home I moved all the boxes of Christmas decorations out of her bedroom and downstairs into the hall...I figured that she might want to sleep in her bed tonight and as the boxes were all on her bed I'd better move them. This does mean that we are all set up and ready for our Christmas decorating weekend - whoop!

And this evening Molly arrived home. It is lovely to have her back after what has been the longest time she has been away and more importantly it means we can now decorate the house ready for Christmas. It is on the calendar that this weekend is Christmas decoration weekend and I know that had I have attempted to decorate on my own Molly would not have been happy. One of those traditions that has evolved over the years is that me and Molly take charge and while we are happy to have help they are under our direction!!

Best stop writing and relax ready for a busy weekend ahead.

Take care out there.
xx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 16

16th December

So today sees the remainder of my Christmas decorations going up.  Now I already have twinkly lights in my garden, a trio of light up figures on my patio (Santa, Snowman & Penguin), a tree in my kitchen, a tree in my hallway, wreath on the door, a few faux boughs of greenery, ornaments a plenty and tinsel hanging from numerous places but today is the day that we put up the real tree in the living room.

Now this tree is a bit special, because this is my Disney tree.  I already have a light-up Pooh Bear Hundred Acre Wood display, and a Tigger tree topper that's just too heavy for the top of a tree, there's a couple of Jingle Smells Vinylmations on  the cupboard and a glitter ball set of Mickey ears hanging off a curtain pole but there is still more to come!

My first proper Disney tree ornaments were a present from Simon, who brought back a handful of decorations from a work trip to San Francisco back in 1992, I even have the original boxes they came in and each year they get carefully packed away in their correct boxes.  But since then the collection has just grown and grown, and each trip to a Disney park wouldn't be complete if we didn't bring home a new edition or three to our collection!

A few of our Mickey decorations!

But it looks like my attempts to get the tree decorated today are to be thwarted...a combination of a weekend away and our youngest having her first music performance has meant that the hours have just disappeared.  So tomorrow (hopefully) will see my tree completed, with an appropriate blog post and photos to follow :)