Cool Moon!

We were so lucky yesterday. For once there was a galactical event and we actually saw it! Usually we have cloud cover when anything happens but yesterday morning we had beautiful clear skies and so got to see the first winter solstice lunar eclipse in 372 years. How cool is this:

 Unfortunately, a house got in the way before the full eclipse, but I love how much of it we got to see. I even woke Emily up as she just had to see it!

 Then we had the news on where they were talking about the eclipse and they said you could also see Venus in the east. So we ran through to Emily's room and looked out the window and there it was!

 OK, so it's not obviously Venus from the picture but the fact that you can see a planet 93,000,000 miles away is a bit cool!

The moon created more photographic opportunities when it came up again last night. I just love how my camera captured it: first one for all fans like me of a good old end of the world disaster movie:

 And then for any Twilight Saga fans out there:

It's That Time Again!

It's a week before Christmas so that can only mean one thing....

ELF YOURSELF!!

Amazing!

Emily came home from school on Friday and read us a poem. It was beautiful and I asked where she'd found it? 'I wrote it Mum' she replied. Er what? You're not yet 9 and you wrote this? We think it's amazing!

Baby Brother

It's a boy

He was born with love and joy

He's my brother

His life is thanks to my mother

His life shall be my mission

His life shall be protected

He was my mother's decision

And I'm glad she made it

Cause he's my baby brother

I will love him forever

Even when he is looking pale

His body's frail

He can hardly move

To when he turns around and does a weird groove

Cause he is my baby brother

It's a boy

He was born with love and joy

Cause he is my baby brother

by Emily R M Gillard

Dedicated to Xander W J Gillard

Wow!

Happy Birthday Handsome!

Today was my lovely Grandad's 89th birthday so me and Xander popped along to see him:

Look at him, no way is he 89, he certainly doesn't act it!

Happy birthday Handsome!

An Early Christmas Break...

...well for the youngest Gillard it is anyway. Yesterday, Master Billy Jim took a trip over this and ended up with this:

 Yup, just like Beckham before him, Xander has broken his metatarsal. In fact, he's gone one better than those football players and broken 2!

Poor Xan, he was so brave. Mummy here thought it was just a sprain so sent Rob and him to the walk in centre (well, hop in for Xan!) who decided it was more serious than a sprain and sent him to the hospital. 5 hours, 3 xrays, 1 pot and a teddy for being the best behaved boy of the day later and my injured little soldier came home all potted up. He didn't seem too bothered but maybe that was the Happy Meal Daddy bought him on the way home:

So Xander's going to spend Christmas in pot. He can't walk on it for 2 days so poor little thing is crawling round like a baby! We're also having to do a quick rethink as he's not allowed to sleep in his cabin bed for the next 6 weeks (pots and ladders don't exactly go well together!). And I have no idea how school are going to cope now Xander's armed with a heavy weapon! It's going to be an interesting 6 weeks....

Journalling A Very Shivery Christmas

So December is upon us and that means, amongst other things, one of my favourite Xmas projects: Journal Your Christmas. I took part for the first time last year and just loved doing it so was keen to do it again this year. The only trouble last year was it was so time consuming: I made my own album, made every page a different size, shape etc. So this year I decided to not stress and make it simpler, after all it's about writing about Xmas so the format shouldn't really matter. So, I bought myself a ready made album and made a promise to myself that I would stick to one page size all the way through!

Dec 1st's prompt was to write a manifesto about what your Xmas was going to be. Mine had one main word: SIMPLE! For too many years I've been tired or ill or run-down at Xmas because I've taken on way too much, so this year it's about simplicity both in general Xmas stuff and my crafting. You may get a handmade card this year but you may get a shop bought one, it doesn't really matter as long as I send you a card does it? And am I really going to get people walking out at Xmas dinner because the stuffing's Paxo rather than a home made one?! And do you know what, as much as I'm sure my friend's kids love knitted/sewn toys, are they really going to complain about one bought from Argos? Nope! So why make it hard on myself? There will be some home made cards and some home made gifts, but there will also a lot more things purchased in the old fashioned way (oh and the new fashioned way, god bless Amazon!).

 

Day 2 was all about the weather. Oh how I laughed when I looked back at last year's entry  and saw how I talked about how we rarely get snow, what a difference a year makes! Obviously yesterday's entry just had to be about snow. This year as well there's an extra prompt in the JYC class that focuses on photography. As my photography could do with vastly improving I thought I'd have a go. So the 1st prompt was about the rule of thirds so I took a pic using this with my picture focusing on the hanging basket covered in snow in the left upper third:

And just to emphasise the point of how chilly it is, last night was one of the coldest nights for a long time, down to -9C here. This was my car this morning:

Very pretty but that ice was on the INSIDE and took forever to clear!

Right, off to today's entry which is to do with the aforementioned cards. I have a plan, it's just dragging my bum into that freezing cold conservatory to do it!

The C Word!

So, it's now December which means I now have to officially relent from this:

Say it with me people (though let's just whisper for now)...christmas!

I've now officially allowed the christmas movies on the tv and we've been doing christmas crafts. TBH, we're having to do that and fill our days because we're stuck in because of this stuff:

We've had quite a bit of the white stuff since Friday night now, but yesterday we got a huge amount dumped on us, which lead to my school being closed, the kids' school being closed and Rob having to leave the car miles away and walk home. It's that bad that even Rob hasn't ventured in to work (I know, I know, and no asteroid strike needed either!).

However, it does look beautiful round here and very christmassy:

I'm afraid there may be more christmas posts, I've just started Journal Your Christmas for the 2nd year running and so will be boring sharing my daily journal entries with you all! I'm sure aswell there will be lots of Emily and Xander christmas creations to share with you.

I may even say the christmas word in a quiet voice rather than a whisper...christmas. ***Shudder***, may need a couple more days for that one yet!

Chocks Away!

I think Xander has found a new career ahead of him, helicopter pilot!

Crafty Catch Up

Do you know, we've not had a crafty catch up for a while. Shall we have one? Just a quick one?

So was going to this in date order but I just can't get my head round Blogger's new picture uploader and tend to find myself fighting with pictures trying to move them, so I'm just going to leave them as they were uploaded!

First of all (well wasn't but for the purposes of this post let's just pretend! ;)) I went to my first crop in months last weekend. Only managed 3 layouts but that's 3 more than I would have got done on Saturday if I'd have been at home! First there's a couple of Halloween ones:

 And then one of Emily being enrolled in Brownies. Need to add something to this I think but it was for a challenge and I was making sure I got all the challenge elements in:

 I've been weedling a mean crochet hook a lot lately. I've made a runner for our bed using the wave stitch which I love:

And then a little baby blanket for Rob's boss's new baby:

And there's also been a couple of Fimo fairies. First of all one for Evie's birthday:

And then one for Elise's birthday who coincided with a huge funghi crop in the garden (why is it when we plant stuff it never comes up and yet these things can grow of their own free will?!):

Right back to the craft room, I have a whole pile of C******** things to get on with!

Not Exactly Jet Is It Em?!

On Sunday afternoon, we had to take Zoe for her train back to London, so decided a quick stop on the way at our favourite pre-Xmas place in the world was in order - The German Xmas Market! We have a rather important date here with Ally, Steve and Elise just before C****mas so we just had to go and check that it was up to standard, can't possibly disappoint my BFF at Xmas time!

Oh it never disappoints! Emily was in her element with all the horse-type rides. First of all the rather fast carousel (so fast, no pics worked with the kids on it!):

Xan wasn't so keen on the speed of the carousel, so we found him something a little more age appropriate for a 4-year-old:

OK, so note to my daughter: it's age appropriae for a 4-YEAR-OLD, you're nearly 9 woman!

Must admit, we were highly amused, not exactly the equestrian rides you're used to eh Em?!

Next, on to what the German Market is all about...EATING! First up, the delicious hotdogs:

Go on girl! The rest of us were quite satisfied after the snitzels (sp?) for now but not my daughter, she insisted on a humungous pretzel to finish it off:

Yup, no denying she's my daughter eh?!

So, now even more excited about the market next month. Ally and co - keep those bellies empty, we got a lot of eating to do!

Never Forget

 Today is Remembrance Sunday and Emily has been on her first Brownie parade. She just missed the remembrance march last year as she didn't start Brownies until 4 days later so she was so happy to get to do it this year. We all got well wrapped up as it is freezing out there and headed up to the town centre to watch her. Xander was so excited to see Emily marching:

And Em and the girls took their duties very seriously in the parade:

The service was really moving as usual and I think it's great that we have a permanent memorial in our town:

After standing round in the cold for a long time the girls still did a great job marching back and saluting the mayor:

Well done Em, really proud of you on what is such an important day.

Bonfire Night Part Deux

OK, so only took me a week to blog this! Been kind of hectic this week and I just didn't get round to it. So last Saturday we had bonfire night part 2 with Ally Steve and Elise. Rob had a lot to live up to but do you know what...nope, he came nowhere near to matching the big organised display from the night before! However, for £15 the garden fireworks weren't too bad:

 Everyone seemed to enjoy it anyway:

 Plus all the treats we had, especially the hot chocolate with whipped cream (and a little something extra for us mummies!):

Then we ventured inside to warm up and a Hungry Hippos tournament:

OK, so not very bonfire night-ish but after the 'hot chocolate with a kick', it seemed like a good idea!

So, that's it now until the dreaded C word (please note that word shall not be mentioned on the Garlics until there is a December on the calendar!). I can see Hungry Hippos making a return and I have it on good authority (from S**** himself) that there will be more 3+ games in certain stockings. Sandbags - you up for the challenge?!

Ooooooohh...Aaaaaaahh!

Had a good bonfire night yesterday. We went with my mum up to the organised display up at the rugby club and, though we were disappointed with the 'entertainment' provided, we had a good time with friends. We met up with Amanda, Pete and the kids and Emily saw her friend Justine from school. It was a bit of a while waiting round for the fireworks but the kids entertained themselves:

Even though the rest of the event was disappointing, the actual fireworks display was fantastic. And must say I'm loving the fireworks setting on my camera!

 The girls (who had also met up with their other friend Hannah) watched whilst trying to look cool as only 9-year-old girls can!

 While Xander and Cameron avoided the girly stuff and watched the fireworks together at a safe distance (from both the fireworks and the girls!)

 I think Xan's face says it all, they all had a great time!

More fireworks tonight. Ally, Steve and Elise are coming down and we're all relying on Rob's garden display to knock the socks off the rugby club's! No pressure Rob!