christmas
tired adults, lively children
the fantastic cake
jane’s dad caused laughing mayhem by saying the christmas cake had icing and christmas ‘knickerations’. he probably didn’t actually say that, but jane repeated it and tears of laughter ensured.
when we finally saw it, we were very impressed by the kickerations, although there was some tree subsidance
kezia reset them like some cosmic anti-lumberjack
it did look (and taste very good)
so that’s the story of the christmas cake and knickerations.
jane’s fantastic christmas dinner
a pile of tasty traditions
kezia and esther were first to the table
my plate (not featuring parsnips (or the other sort of stuffing which i forgot to add)
happy christmas !!!
a day that warrants three exclamation marks in the title !
and seeing as everyone else on the planet has done this, so have we we’ve deliberately used dreadful photos of ourselves just in case you are worried !
jesus in a bin bag
poignant thoughts for christmas day. it’s a jesus statue in an old bin bag. no room at the inn.
treat vouchers – the perfect last minute christmas present ?
UPDATE: pdf download here
We’ve made some ‘treat vouchers’ for our girls for christmas, and it struck me these are a brilliant last minute or additional christmas present for a friend or family member. Best of all, they are individual and needn’t cost you any real money if you don’t want !
essentially you print off the voucher, cut them out and staple to produce a cheque book of lovely treats, such as:
- A trip to the fun park
- A day out with just mummy or daddy (your choice)
- A free room tidy
- Stay up 30 minutes late
- Use mummy’s nail varnish
- Trip to feed the ducks
- Free bag of sweets from the supermarket
- Cook dinner for a week
If you want to download my template, i’ve put it in my flickr account here . it’s a 2MB download, which you can get to via the ‘all sizes’ then ‘original’ above the image here
There are 5 on a sheet – we’ve made cheque books of 10 vouchers, so that’s 2 pages (for those who are mathematically challenged)
Let me know how you get on and the kinds of things you put on the treat vouchers.
UPDATE: just to let you know, jane says it was her bestest friend julie who gave her the idea of the vouchers, so credit to her excellent self is due. And the vouchers themselves went down a treat and esther says they are amongst her best present ! huzzah.
lots of church
there’s been lots of church services recently. that happens around christmas. we’re halfway through the last 4 though, and it’s great to meet together around christmas. the church looks a bit empty in this picture as all the kids and the kids teachers had left for their groups.
strange belgian nativity
did mary really wear this much make-up ?
pouty shepherd
there were a couple of real sheep wandering around in this life-sized nativity in Belgium’s grande place. generally quite bizarre.
visit by exiles
some good friends we haven’t seen for a few years popped by with their reshaped accents and ex-pat stories yesterday.
you can see a photo not unlike this here. Exile is better at writing real words than i am.
it’s a shame they live so far away in the modern era, although when they didn’t live quite as far, we still didn’t see them. shame on us really.
We last saw them on the 11th May 2003 and here’s the evidence from the funkypancake archives (which are still a bit broken, so here’s the picture instead of a link. I started doing funkypancake in April 2003 so these were early days pictures.
the annual christmas tree chopping
yesterday was the first day the girls and i had a chance to go and chop down our christmas treet
off we went boldly in to the ‘forest’ to select our tree
can you see kezia in this picture ?
once we’d chosen our tree we then got to work chopping it down
unfortunately the one we chose was half dead – but we only discovered once we’d dragged it home which was a big disappointment (20 pounds worth of disappointment to be exact). i chopped the dead bits off and now it’s a christmas stick. oh well – something to watch out for next year.
the story of the unloved vacuum cleaner
this would make a good xmas story about a vacuum cleaner who nobody loves left to wander the streets at christmas time.
it probably has a happy ending or something.
or perhaps it doesn’t
a wall
a wall near london wall in london