White Christmas!

Well we certainly had a white Christmas!  Alex and I made the journey down to my parents in Somerset on Christmas Eve...the journey was remarkably good until we turned into my parents lane to be met with a skating rink..not my idea of fun, but we got there in one piece.

After lunch we headed out into the snow where the little boys (Alex and Daniel) had fun running round and digging with seaside spades,

whilst the adults had a snowball fight! Needless to say, my brother, Andrew, being the biggest and fastest, won hands down,

even when Nel and I ganged up on him!

On Christmas morning we all piled into Mum and Dad's bed for the grand stocking opening, which was the greatest of fun! Even 11 month old Nicholas got in on the action, playing with his stocking presents on the floor at the foot of the bed before having a cuddle with Grandma.

After a leisurely breakfast and games with the stocking toys, it was coffee time and time for everyone to have their main presents. The boys were delighted with their new toys and had great fun opening them...the wrapping went everywhere in the excitement.

Alex and Daniel then played very nicely together with the new Castle, Snapping Dungeon and knights
and then Gran (aged 86) read them a story before my Aunts and cousin Tamsin arrived for Christmas dinner (she looks a little squashed by them both!)

Christmas Dinner was a great success, the food was wonderful

and all the little boys behaved very well. 

They enjoyed the attention of their various great Aunts

and it was a wonderful opportunity for us all to catch up.

After dinner we went out for a Christmas walk and ended up sledging!  The little boys had been given small skid pans which they loved

while the adults (Andy, Tamsin and myself) went on the bigger sledge...all very silly and good fun!

After Christmas cake and tea, Tamsin and Daphne left and once the boys had gone to bed, the rest of us settled down for an evening of reading (three siblings on a sofa!)

and card games. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas Day!

Boxing Day was very gentle by comparison. Alex spent some time cuddling Juno,

then playing with Grandma and Daniel

and I spent some time bird watching...I just love the contrast of a bright robin red breast on snow

as well as a fat male pheasant!

We finished the day with another game of cards.  In the morning the snow had begun to thaw so Mother took Alex and Daniel for a walk across the fields while I packed the car ready for our return journey after lunch.  We arrived back safely having had a wonderful time!

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas as a family with more presents and Alex was delighted that he also was given a castle which he played with for much of the day. I also put away my new crafting stash (promarker pens, stamps and scrapbook papers) and organised my desk with my new drawers (a belated birthday present).

For today's WOYWW I wanted to show you my desk in action making the first of many thank you cards.  You can see my new drawers in the background, my adirondack ink pads which were used for the background of the card (with my brayer), various Lavinia stamps and acrylic blocks, and some scrap paper which I used for masking on the card.

Here is the final card which I will enter for the CCC and PTW 'thank you', and creative craft and Sew Many Cards  'anything goes' challenges. This blog post has taken an age to upload with blogger being a complete pain today so thank you for bearing with me.  Have a great day and rest of the week. 
Love,
Caro
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