Christmas Lunch take 2

Christmas Day started at 8am sharp and as usual we had to wait for Dad to come downstairs before we opened our pressies. I half expected him to come downstairs wearing his old brown towlling role that only ever came out for Christmas day! Instead he arrived wearing Cous Cous' slippers that he took a shine too and Cous Cous hadn't seen for a couple of days.

We didn't have many pressies becuase of the secret Santa but I had a great book of facts explaining for example why penguins feet don't freeze, why solids normally turn to liquid when heated by eggs do the opposite. I bored my family to tears with my facts all morning :) Aunty and Cous Cous defintly won the most unusual present from Cous Cous' aunt - a jar of gerkins. I kid you not, that's all there was.

We had a leisurely morning watching 'Love Actually' and then I drove home via a big detour. I had a couple of hours to spare so I drove to Cheddar, through the gorge and for the first time in my life, there was absolutely no one there! I stopped in the middle of the road and took pictures all the way up the gorge. I drove all over the Mendips with the help of very patient 'Tim Tom Tom'. It was great thinking time.

I arrived at Hayden's at 2pm where a very large dinner awaited me. It was so nice to see Livvy playing with her new toys. I'm not so sure I'm excited that he favourite toy is a kitchen and she is obsessed with feeding her dolls but she loves it. She even took her 'gogg' out of her mouth for enough time to give me a milky kiss.

Christmas evening was spent avoiding all food and watching Christmas tv at al's. I loved this Christmas, it entailed everyone special to me and I didn't have to use the entertainment I had taken to each venue!

Not so secret Santa

The Shackell familydecided to do something a bit different this year for Christmas. We didn't have gifts for each person and we weren't going to have our family christmas meal on Christmas day. Instead we had dinner on Christmas eve and did a family secret santa. Or not so secret becuase my secret santa called me the day before to tell me that he forget to go on Amazon and get my pressie.

The problem with going to other peoples houses over the festive period is that I didn't buy any food for my house. So at lunch on christmas eve I called aunty saying that I was bored and had nothing to eat. We opened our secret santa gifts, I had a hot water bottle and earings that I'm allergic to :( Cous Cous' mum, dad, brother and partner arrived for dinner and we just stuffed ourselves silly with Turkey, beef and all the trimmings.

One day I will learn the true name of the 'Amanda's blue basket game' but for now that has to be its name. For those that have played it, let me put images in your head. You mother describing in as many words as possible, then 3 words and then acting 'multiple orgasm'. Shortly followed by Aunty acting 'Nobby's nuts' :)

The Magic of Disney

After many months of planning we finally were able to tell Al's neices that they are going to Disneyland Paris. Its a good job I didn't take it to heart that they seemed more interested in the ferry crossing. We had a very very early start on a rainy bristol day. We had a 12 hour coach journey ahead of us. For 11 hours 55 minutes Al and I had two boys kicking the back of our chair. I hate naughty children and I was on a bus full of them with no where to go! The ferry crossing was more like a roller coaster ride/ being completely drunk. After 12 hours of travelling we got to our twin room. What we weren't told was that one bed would be a childs short bed and it would have a stary/ stripy decor :)

The next day we had yet another early start. Have you ever walked backwards on a horizontal escalator??? I love having the children as an excuse for doing these things. We were one of the first into the park so we headed straight to Thunder mountain (a runaway mine train) and the haunted house. We went to the top of the Swiss Family Robinson's house and on the pirates of the caribbean ride. I'm a big fan of the film...ok ok, I'm a big fan of Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly ;)

We spent the day being in the right place at the right time. We saw a disney on ice show, a lion kings show and then it was time for lunch. The park is very very american so what did i do? I insisted on speaking french, even though everyone spoke to me in English. We were in France for god's sake!

Some time to let the food go down, a ride on the Buzz lightyear ride and then it was time for space mountain 2. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we couldn't see what the ride consisted of. Caroline didn't actually want to go on but before she could change her mind she was sat next to me and the overhead seat belt was on. WHAT A RIDE!!!!! It was petrifying, in the dark and all I kept thinking of was how I was going to explain this to my neurological doctor....sorry but I voluntarily whacked my head about for a few minutes....

Space Tours was a bit too much for Al's sister who thre up straight after :( The christmas parade was gorgeous but spoilt by the child throwing up next to us :( We were so crushed that she couldn't move so we just had to stand there.

In fantasy land we went on the carosel and the flying dumbo's and the light was going down. We had another parade and left the park. We had a great day and I would recommend it to all...to be a kid for a day (or in my case, I'm a kid every day).

Westonbirt arboretum in the autumn

I don't think of myself as much of a treee lover but today's day trip might have changed that. We visited Westonbirt Arboretum with Rae, Jue, Archie, Fran, Nicolette and Al. It was a perfect day to visit, as the number of people showed. It was cold, crisp and bright. We wandered through the trees, avoided the tourists, looked sultry on the branch (one clue who did that :)), climbed trees, lifted Rae into the trees and everybody got to hug one each :)

Caza, Cathy and Kiwi go to Beamish

This weekend Al and I drove the furthest north in England that I have ever done in my life. I am a true southerner and can safely say - ITS COLD UP NORTH!!! It really really is. It is also a long way. After 6 hours of sitting in traffic, we arrived at Al's sisters house in Darlington. I'm afriad to say that at first I couldn't understand the girls accents :( I'm sorry.

Al's neices, Caroline and Catherine were very keen to join me for a day out. We decided to go to Beamish, a living museum. Unfortunately we arrived an hour early so we played British bulldog and street games to warm ourselves up.

Inside the museum we played in the fairground on the carousel, went into the hall of mirrors and went on the swing boats. We ate in a tea shop, went inside the mining houses, dentist, lawyer, stables, went on an old fashioned bus, on a tram. We had great fun, as the pictures show.

Aunty & Cous Cous get hitched!!!!! Piccies

Stiperstones without a skirt!!!!

This weekend was quite a mixture, we had the city, the seaside, a village and what's next - hill walking. I've been to the Stipperstones once before with Rae but that time I was sporting a wrapover skirt and bobble hat. Vica - notice that the skirt appears often when I'm hiking :). Although I only had half of my lung capacity, it was a great walk and definitly cleared the cobwebs. There were great views at the top and the pub lunch afterwards went down very well.
We had a fantastic weekend with Rae, Jue and Archie and look forward to the next.

Walking off into the sunset :P

Now I thought that I couldn't resist temptation but just as Al, Jue, Archie and I were about to leave Rae home to revise....'are you sure you don't want to come'...and off she was putting her shoes on :) We visited a really quaint Welsh village and had cake ina shop that had 25 litres of palestinian olive oil on sale. Who finds 25 litres of palestinian olive oil? Not something you would bring back on your hols is it :)

We visited the seaside at Borth and had a paddle in the sea which actually wasn't too too cold. All the while, Archie was content in the backpack.

At night Rae told us over dinner about her Jif confusion. A little Rae got slightly confused when being sent to the Spar for Jif and came home with Jif bathroom cleaner. A simple mistake you would think. However, not on pancake day. I'm not sure whether Rae thought that her mum had a jif cleaner emergency but still :) You know that feeling when you can't breathe cos you are laughing too much :)

Is that the Pakistani flag?

Pride number two for the year, Manchester. Al kindly shared her cold with me so coughing and spluttering, we headed north to Rae, Jue and Archies. Manchester Pride was quite spectacular. We watched the parade with its very colourful and in some case scary floats (S&M dykes were quite a sight). One very confused eldery gentleman did Ask Rae what the flag was, 'is it the pakistani flag'? He was referring to the Rainbow flag :)

Archie is without a doubt one of the cutest babies I've seen and boy did he get a lot of attention. Sporting a rainbow bandana, flag and balloon, he was pointed at and I lost count the number of ahh's.

One civil partnership, two broken chairs

Today Rae and Julie tied the knot :) I'm so happy for them. We drove up to Powys on the Friday and visited Ironbridge en route. Rae and Jue were married in Welshpool registry office and I was the witness. Emotion got the better of me and spelling and signing my name was a struggle. How I got through uni, nobody knows...Back to the house, we walked around the grounds while photo's were being taken and had hog roast for lunch. Oh what a good vegetarian I am. I loved the whole day, it was so chilled and relaxed. So Rae and Jue. Over coffee, I recieved a gift for being a witness. What else by the Bristol version of Monopoly and a book commenting on what should happen if you hit a jellyfish with a spade. I shall let you know.

There was a theme of the day...broken chairs. Phil and Marina sat on the swing chair and down they fell. Half of Phil's red wine went over his shirt and trousers. Luckily I looked over and out came the camera (I forgot about helping them first). I tried to hide and take piccies becuase I didn't want to draw attention to them but then Rae found out. We stood and watched them, had a giggle and out came 'its not all bad, I got pictures' :)

We even turned into a nursery at one point when I was holding Archie while Al held Aimee (Rae's Neice). I'm ever so slightly (ok hugely) broody at the mo.

I do believe that Rae and Jue had the best idea in the whole world for entertainment...A BOUNCY CASTLE. As soon as we finished lunch, we were bouncing away. One tip, remember what your mother says and make sure your food settles first. Also, don't bounce with Rae and Phil. I spent more time on my bum than bouncing. You have to imagine this...white skirt, corsage, make up and hair done and bouncing on a castle!!! However, I didn't have a change of clothes! Needless to say, we had an audience. I even commented that I had to get off the castle elegantly but Rae and Phil had other ideas. Instead I exited with my legs in the air :) Bouncy castles are more knackering than I remember. The picture you should now have in your head is a very bedraggled, hair all over the place, corsage hanging off and skirt tucked in pants. Oh, I like to make an impression at a wedding (Amanda and Phil could testify).

I really don't learn quickly becuase I was back on the bouncy castle with Mollie (Rae's other neice) only 15 minutes later.

I told you that broken chairs were the theme of the day. Broken chair number two resulted in Rae's father (Ray) doing vertical freefall through no fault of his own. He neither jumped nor moved. Mid conversation, he ended up on the floor with legs in the air and a chair that was completely in peices. Julies father quickly refused to take out the splinters :)

The drink was well and truly flowing at this point and phil started his pendulum dance. Well, so did the rest of the group too. It consists of hands raised and waving from side to side by the waist while in a circle around a handbag. The handbag didn't stay on the floor for long, soon Phil was modelling it to everybody (including the owner). Piggy time was next when Rae jumped on phil's back and progressed to chase Julie around the stereo...why? I don't know :)

Pictures can be found on http://beervana.co.uk/rae_jue_photoweb/index.htm

Its so nice to see such great friends tie the knot. I will never forget such a wonderful day. Thanks Rae and Jue for letting us share your special day. xxx