Do you want Santa to visit?

Something was said yesterday that triggered a memory. I thought it should be documented so here it is.

When Mr M and I first became 'Us' I took him on a tour of the relatives. He discovered that I have a lot of cousins and we are still involved in each others lives, even if only in a small way.

I have an app

I took him to meet Mr and Mrs Bluefunnel (I have explained their name here). Mr Bluefunnel was recuperating from an operation and was spending a lot of time resting on the settee. All the Christmas decorations were up and the tree was next to the end of the settee.
Mrs B was doing her usual thing of looking after everyone, especially Mr B, and brought us a cuppa and a slice of cake together with a plate of mince pies and a plate of biscuits.
"Is there anything else I can do?" she asked
"There is one thing love" said Mr B "Could you turn the tree around please?"
"Well, yes, of course" she replied, getting up from her chair to do it straightaway "but why?"
It's just that all the chocolate ornaments are empty on this side, so if you turn it I can reach the others while you are in work."

There was a pause - one - two - and then she hit him with a cracker. A Christmas cracker not a nut cracker.

All the silver paper was still there looking as though it was full of chocolate but he had carefully removed and eaten the chocolate.

"Do you want Santa to come here on Christmas Eve?" she asked sternly. "Yes," he replied in a subdued voice.
"Well he won't come at all if you do things like that! I've a good mind to stop your pocket money AND tell Santa you're on the naughty list!"

That was thirty years ago and I am delighted to say that he hasn't changed at all.

Home for the Holidays

Yesterday Mr M was on afternoon shift. This means going into work for 2pm and leaving work at 10pm. It has always been the shift I most hate because I can never get anything started before he goes. I always feel there isn't time to start, even if the task will only take an hour I have great difficultly getting going because all too soon he will be picking up his bag and his coat and going out through the door.
Yesterday was no different. He went off to work and I had to make sure I stayed awake until it was time to collect Miss M from the school across the road. We ate Lincolnshire gingerbread cookies and drank milk and talked about Santa visitng the school and giving her a Winnie the Witch book and some chocolate, and also we watched Christmas 24 channel. We like this.
Pretty soon Mummy arrived home from work and then Daddy arrived, surprising us because we had forgotten that he finished early on a Friday. Daddy pointed out that there was a card to say that the post office had tried to deliver a parcel but no one was in - they lied, again. He offered to run down to the sorting office - about 300 metres away from our house - and collect it for me. As it was Mr M's present I said yes please.
Miss M and Mummy went home and then her Daddy brought the parcel so I thought it would be a good time to wrap it, while Mr M was safe in work until 10pm. The time was 6.15pm.

wearing his wedding tie

I got the wrapping paper, the cutter and the sticky tape and as I cut the paper the front door opened! Mr M was home!

I did the "shrieeeeek" "Stay there!, don't come in this room! go and sit on the sofa and watch the TV for five minutes" I threw the paper over the gift and rushed to welcome him home and to explain in my normal, non shrieking voice that I was wrapping something for him and I didn't want to spoil the surprise.
"That's OK," he said "I don't mind sitting here and waiting. I am Home For The Holidays. I don't go back to work until January second."

I was so excited, I didn't know whether to kiss him first and then do the happy dance or do the dance and then kiss him so I kind of kissed him then danced then went back for more kisses - daft eh?

I wrapped his present. I made a cuppa and then we had fish finger sandwiches for our tea YUM!
Having him going out to work has always been something I hate. I would love to have him around all the time and I love it when there are holidays and we can just be. When he is not here I have this affliction, we call it emptyarmitis. So now I have him home with me until january 2nd

~happy dance~

What she doesn't want for Christmas

Taking Olivia back to Rainbows

Miss M was worried the other day. I hadn't seen her for a few days because her daddy had time off from work  - something to do with taking the days before he lost them at the end of the year. She was with me in the breakfast room and while she was putting her shoes on she confided
"I'm very worried Grandma."
"Oh dear," I said "What's worrying you sweetheart?"
"It's Santa, I think he might bring me a real live Unicorn." She looked at me to see if I was paying attention. "I don't want a real live Unicorn, Grandma, Where would I put it?"
My brain immediately threw its hands in the air and ran around screaming in my head while my body remained perfectly still. How to cope? How to cope!!! Then the part of me that is most like my mother said
"Stop worrying, he won't bring you a real live Unicorn sweetie, because Santa doesn't give real live animals as gifts. He only brings toys and games and sweeties. Never live animals of any kind."
Wasn't that brilliant? It is exactly what my mother would have said and it came out of nowhere. Thank you Mum.
"What I really want is a toy one that is the same size as a real one, Grandma. He could bring that, couldn't he?"
GULP!!!
"Well, where would you put it? you do realise that a real, full size Unicorn is taller than Daddy don't you?"
"Really?"
Oh yes, as big as a shire horse, you remember the shire horses at the farm?"
"Really?"
"Yes, ask Grandpa"
Well, she did ask Grandpa if real Unicorns were as big as shire horses and he said he didn't know because he had never seen one but she should ask Grandma because she used to be a Girl Guide Leader and knew all about these things. If grandpa said Grandma was right then that was enough.
I am telling you these things to forewarn you and give you some extra ammunition and a little more wriggle room because these grandkids can be sudden can't they?

Chinese whispers

When my children were small we lived in an old water mill just outside the village of Raglan. When you live in or near a village you either take part in village life or you exist on the periphery. My children went to the village school and I was involved in every aspect of village life. Junior Football club? my boys were there and I was on the touchline. Cubs Scouts, Brownies, playgroup I was there. The Scouts and Guides in Raglan are, or used to be, Church units and had a Church parade once a month. I was in the church choir, a member of the WI and the young wives group and I was a committee member of the Village Hall Committee. All this evolved over time but when I first went to the church the children were quite small and this is where my story begins.

Eldest Son was five when we moved to the mill and it wasn't long after this that I started going regularly to church. I took the children with me and they were always well behaved, unless one of them dropped their collection money and started to giggle. That didn't happen too often. They enjoyed the hymns most of all because they liked to sing. With everything else that was going on in their lives they needed to be able to make noise.
One day I heard Eldest son talking to his teddy bears. He had two that he loved deeply one was called Baba, the other had no name. Until now. "Look Baba, this is Gladly. He's a church bear."

Gladly? where did that come from? I chose my moment carefully. I didn't want him to know I had been eavesdropping so I waited until he mentioned the bear by name and then asked why he had chosen that name.
As is usual in such moments Eldest Son gave me a scornful look as though wondering how his mother could be quite as stupid as that and said "Like the bear in the song, Mummy"
"Oh," said I "which song is that?" He sighed, his mother was obviously denser than even he had thought. "The one we sing in church, Mummy, you know." and then he sang to me
"Gladly, my cross I'd bear"

This story has been brought to you through Sian at fromhighinthesky. please visit her blog and enjoy all the other stories in the series.

Mr Movember

I just have to share this.

http://vimeo.com/33022252

My eldest grandson is the young man with the Movember Moustache right at the beginning. He won £100 and he has raised money for the male cancer charities.

~Proud~

Family... My Family

Eldest son and family

We have just had a weekend that was like Christmas but without the hassle and the music and the alcohol. What we had was just the fun!
While two of my children live close enough to pop in whenever they feel like it, my eldest son live on the other side of England. This means that we don't get to see him and his lovely wife and two delightful sons as often as I would like (by this I mean, of course, EVERY DAY).
This weekend they came over to us so we had the pleasure of seeing how much the boys have grown since April (photographs are fabulous but seeing them and hugging them beats all) and we managed time to sit and talk.

Daughter and S-i-L and family (not the balloon lady)

At one stage there were ten adults and six children under ten years old in the house and it was great. I cooked dinner for eight adults and two of the children and we all managed to get around the table even if my daughter and I were standing up to eat. it was ok because we were passing things like glasses of wine and beakers of water and the salt and more gravy.

granddaughter and family

My great granddaughter sat on her chair with her chin just level with the table and ate her chicken and vegetables with a big fork "like M". Miss M sat beside her and showed her how to do it properly.

Continental Lentil Toad-in-the-Hole

I cussed and swore at the oven because it is the most nasty piece of torture equipment ever devised! If you put things in the top of the oven they burn if you put them in the bottom of the oven they take at least double the recipe time to cook. I have some fabulous heavyweight baking trays that fitted my old oven but are too darned big for this new pile of scrap. The biggest mistake I ever made was to listen when I was told that this oven was far better than my old one. I am saving my pennies and looking at things to sell on eBay because I want a new oven. I cooked a four bird roast and a Continental Lentil Toad-in-the Hole for the family dinner and the packaging stated that the roast would take three hours from frozen at gas mark 7 well I was prepared and put it in two hours early in the bottom of the oven and after 3 hours it was about defrosted so then I zapped it for half an hour in the top of the oven before putting it back at the bottom so I could put the Toad-in-the-Hole at the top.

Once again I am defeated by the formatting on Blogger. All I want to do is put the pictures down the side with the text alongside but it just leaves huge gaps!!

A Wedding

We were at a wedding yesterday. We were there in the role of "Parents of Choice". One of the grooms is a close and treasured friend of ours with no family so he asked us because "If I could choose who I wanted to be my parents if would be you two."

We are honoured to be thought of that way.




We said yes.

I got to walk him down the aisle and we got to sit in the front row and I was able to cry quite freely throughout the partnership ceremony.

They had two cakes, one was made of cheese! Isn't that incredible
?

The evening event was a masked ball - it was amazing! There were so many people there from the live roleplaying and freeforming community so we caught up with old friends, reminisced about past freeforms  and caught up with the latest news.

I was hugged. Lots of hugs from lots of lovely friends and acquaintances. I like hugs.







We arrived home at 11.45pm having taken exactly two hours to drive back from Tamworth. I took loads of pictures and I have been asked to put together the guestbook, because "you're into scrapbooking aren't you?"
"Yes, a bit" I replied and Mr M snorted with laughter.

So, a good day a stress free journey there and back and the chance to meet up with people I haven't seen for more than ten years.

I have given up trying to put the text and pictures where I want them Blogger is being bolshie and messing up everything I try - sorry