Christmas Day

A good time was had by all. The boys were very excited and loved all their presents. Andrew got Scalextric for his main present and John got Warhammer Dwarfs, which will keep him busy assembling and painting them for ages. Dinner went well and we all had a great day.

We haven't done very much since, just relaxed and played their new games. Getting ready now for Mum and my sister coming for New Year.

Merry Christmas

Had a very hectic day running around getting things done, but finally all is ready. Kids are in bed just waiting on Santa to arrive. Their advent activity today was to make a cake and get ready for Santa. The joke was: Spell hard water with 3 letters - I C E!!

Wishing you all a Very Happy Christmas.

Advent Days 22 and 23

Day 22 activity was to watch the DVD Polar Express. This was the first time I have watched the film. It is a definate aaahhh! type of film and the boys enjoyed it. The joke was: How do cats greet each other at Christmas? - Have a furry merry Christmas and a Happy Mew Year!!

Day 23 they had to make pom pom santa and reindeer, but as I was taking Mum to meet my sister, they haven't made them yet. Another task for tomorrow! The joke was: What Christmas carol is the favourite of parents? - Silent Night.

Advent activities

Just in case you're missing the jokes and activities.
Day 19 was to make Snowman table decorations, joke was Why do birds fly south for the winter?; Because its too far to walk!!

Day 20 was to do a Christmas crossword puzzle. Sorry I have got lost with the jokes, cant remember todays.

Day 21 was a computer game again. Joke was: How are Christmas trees like bad knitters?: They both drop their needles!!!

Journal Day 16, 17 & 18

Still playing catch up with my Christmas Journal.

Day 16 is from my Advent Reading Notes.

Day 17 is of the boys with the silk painting pictures they did as part of their advent activities. The pictures were ones my sister brought back from Germany several years ago. The boys loved doing this.

The prompt for day 18 was Food. I love eating cake and chocolate at Christmas, but I am going to try and be good this year and not eat too much!!

Journal Days 13, 14, 15

Having a very productive night tonight - getting my hair done today must be good for me!

Day 13 was about presents

Day 14 was Chrismas Music. I decided just to pick one song this year, 12 Days of Christmas. This is still Andrew's favourite Christmas song.

Day 15 was about Visitors. I had this stamp and thought it would be just right for today's prompts.

Christmas Journal Day 11 &12

Another two pages done for my Journal.

The prompt for Day 11 was your Tree, as I had taken photos of my tree last year I wanted something a bit different. I like this paper with lots of trees on it, so have printed out the words of O Christmas Tree.

Day 12 is of Andrew with his Snowman paper chain, which was one of the boys activities from their Advent calendar.

Today was a quiet day in their Advent Calenders as I thought we might need a bit of catch up time. They could choose their favourite Christmas game on the computer to play. Joke was Why did Santa spell Christmas N-O-E?: Because the angel said 'No L'!!

Christmas Journal Day 7,8,9,10

Had a busy night - managed another 4 pages for my Christmas Journal.

Day 7 is about shopping - its much easier doing it on the Internet now.

Day 8 is about the weather. I always think it looks nice if it snows at Christmas, but not so good if you are travelling. The inspiration for the tag on this page came from Tim Holtz 12 Tags for Christmas.

Day 9 is from my Advent Hope readings.

Prompt for Day 10 was wrapping paper - so kept this page nice and simple.

The boys Advent activity today was a Quiz about Christmas songs. The joke was: What do you get when you cross an apple with a Christmas tree - A pineapple!!

Advent Update

Day 14 of the boys advent activities was to make small Christmas trees out of card. Day 15 was to put up the tree and to read the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Day 16 (today) was to do silk painting pictures. These were really good, they were pre-printed Christmas scenes and the boys really enjoyed doing them.

I have managed to do another page in the Christmas Journal, it is of the boys with their Hama Beads decorations.

Advent 12 & 13

Yesterday's activity was to make a Snowman paper chain and I have to admit we have not got round to doing it yet. Joke was: Why does Santa have 3 gardens?: so he can ho-ho-ho!

Today's activity was to make up a Christmas Alphabet, with a word for each letter of the alphabet that has something to do with Christmas. Joke was: What did the guests sing at the Eskimo party?: Freeze a jolly good fellow!!

Journal Days 4 & 5

Yes, I know I'm still a long way behind, but never mind I'll get there.

Day 4 is photos from the first activity the boys had on their advent calendar - to paint Santa candle holders.

Day 5 is Christmas Cards. I decided this year I really only had time to make cards for the immediate family, so have bought all mine.

Day 10 & 11 Advent

Well yesterday's activity was a bit of a miss. We tried to make snowglobes using water with glitter in it - but they didn't work. Never mind the kids said they enjoyed trying. Joke was: What do elves learn in school?: The elp - abet!!

Today was Andrew's school play, so for an activity I just directed them to a Chistmas website to play a game. Joke was: What do you call a cat on the beach at Christmastime?: Sandy Claus!!

Andrew's nativity play went well, but he is very tired tonight.

Christmas Journal

I'm getting going, slowly. I have managed to do another two pages of my Christmas Journal. I have changed the order of some of Shimelle's prompts and will be adding some of my own ideas as well.

Day 2 is the text of Isaiah 9 and the title Hope from the Past comes from my Advent Reading notes I'm trying to follow this year by Joel Edwards.

Day 3 is Advent Calenders. I love advent calendars and have actually got a chocolate one myself this year. The other picture is of the one I have done for the boys with their daily activities in it.

Day 8 & 9 Advent

Yesterday's Advent activity was to go and see the film The Golden Compass. We went to McDonalds for lunch first and then to see the film. It was really good and we all enjoyed it.

Joke was: What do you have in December that you don't have in any other month?: the letter 'D'!!

Today's activity was to make a snow scene. We had great fun doing this. Todays joke: Who is not hungry at Christmas?: the turkey - he is already stuffed.

Day 6 & 7 Advent

As promised here are the pictures of the boys with their Christmas Hama Bead decorations.

Yesterday's activity was to play an online Christmas game and todays was to do a Christmas Word Search. The jokes were: What do snowmen eat for lunch?: Iceburgers. What bites but has no teeth?: Frost.

Day 5 Advent

Andrew got an unexpected day off school today - the heating was broken. Thankfully it has now been fixed and school is on as usual tomorrow.

Todays activity was to make a Hama bead decoration. It has been ages since we did this, but it was good fun. They are now waiting to be ironed, photos will follow tomorrow.

Today's joke was: What comes at the end of Christmas?: the letter 's'!!

Christmas Journal

I finally managed to get started on my Christmas Journal for Shimelle's Journal 2007. I have done my first page, which is like a Manifesto or declaration of intent. The journalling reads:

I Intend to keep a Journal of my Christmas this year. This will be my second year of doing this.

I Hope that by doing this I can record the things that are different and the things that remain the same each year.

I Believe that Christmas is a special time, which it is good to remember the birth of our Lord Jesus, and the Hope that He brings to our lives.

I am finding the prompts a bit tricky this year as so far they have been the same as last year and I dont want my Journal to be an exact copy of last years, so I may have to change them about a bit and do some pages differently.

The book I am using is a really nice one that I got from Tearcraft. It is tied with red cord and is a lovely red Christmassy colour. I have still to do something on the cover and do a title page and pages 2,3 and 4, but at least I've started.

Day 3 & 4 of Advent

Didn't get around to posting yesterday. In their Advent calendar yesterday the boys got a Christmas code worksheet. Joke was: Why did the snowman cross the road? To melt on the other side!

Andrew's favourite Christmas song is The 12 Days of Christmas, so today they had to type up the words of the song and find pictures or draw pictures to go with it. Andrew has already done his - he loved it. Todays joke: Why did the reindeer fly over the mountain?: he couldn't fly under it!!

Painting Santa

Day 2 of our Advent calendar. Today the boys had to paint a Santa candle holder. They enjoyed doing this. John thought it would be good practice for painting his Warhammer army which he is hoping to get for Christmas.

Todays joke was: What bird can write? - A PENguin!!

Advent

I can't quite believe today is the first of December and Christmas will soon be upon us again. In addition to having their usual chocolate Advent calendars this year, I got this one in B&Q yesterday, altered it slightly. I have put activities in each day and a joke for each day for the boys to do. They have also covered a ring binder folder to make a Christmas Journal to keep the various activity sheets in. When each day has been done I will cover that days drawer with paper.

Todays activity was to complete a Christmas maze which I had downloaded from the Internet. Today's joke was

Where do snowmen go to dance? - Snowballs!

The children are getting on better than me as I have not actually started a Journal yet for this year. I am going to follow Shimelle's Journal, although I will probably change some of the prompts as I did it last year. Hope to get this started either tonight or tomorrow (maybe!!).

Bad Blogger

Oh dear what a bad blogger I've been - its been ages since I last posted. I really dont know where the time goes to. I always feel busy but not actually sure what I achieve! At the moment life just seems to trudge along without anything much exciting happening. There is talk at work of the council cutting classroom asst hours, which would mean my job dropping to only 5 hours a week - which hardly seems worthwhile. I am always feeling tired and the house looks like a tip. To try and counter all these negative thoughts I have signed up for the Wellness Journey over on Big Picture Scrapbooking. Hopefully this will help me get back on track with lots of things.

Here is my front cover of a 6 x6 album I am making for it.

The only page I have done so far is this one - my three motivations for doing the class.

My motivations are - to establish a fitness schedule, to gain control over my weight and diet and to reduce stress and gain a more positive outlook on life.

So far I have managed to get to AquaFit for the last two weeks and am trying to walk more and not take the car as much. I am trying to cut down on biccies and cakes but that ones not doing as well. I think I need to look out my old Weight Watchers points and try that again.

Beware Alien!

Watch out there's an alien about! You dont need to worry too much - its only Andrew dressed up for his Cub party this week. Thankfully it was a simple costume he wanted this year. He enjoyed his party.

This has been a busy week, but I'm not too sure what I've actually achieved. We have two additions to the family - two goldfish. Well one is actually black and the other gold and silver. Its been several years since we last had goldfish and Andrew wanted one, so now we have two. Last time we just has a simple round bowl, but not this time, no. The tanks are now bigger and have a mini-filter in it. I wonder if the fish will actually last any longer though!!! Watch this space.

Its Friday!

Thank goodness its Friday! The decorator has finished the lounge so I've now got to put everything back into it - having checked of course that only those things we really really need go back!!!

New Home Card

One of the challenges this weekend was to make cards. I haven't made any for ages so I decided to do one today. I made this card using scraps of paper and then stamped and embossed the house design.

The rest of today has been spent getting the lounge ready for the decorators coming tomorrow, with the result you cant actually get moving anywhere in the rest of the house. Hopefully they will only take three days then we can get back to normal!

Back to Work

That's the holidays over, went back to work today. Kids back to school. Roll on the next holiday.

Yesterday I spent almost all day trying to do an acetate album for the cyber crop, thankfully I finally managed it. This was the first acetate album I have tried to do. It was quite fiddly but I like the end result but not sure how many more I will attempt. I used the pictures from our crop party weekend at my sisters for it.

Got the Book!

Another couple of LOs from the cyber crop. This one was for a class by Papermaze. The photo is of John reading the last Harry Potter book, which he went and bought at midnight - he managed to persuade his Auntie Karen to take him. The paper used is Sassafraslass Serendipity Crimson Dots and Exuberant.

This one was for a class by one of my team mates, Sarah, it involved painting and using a mask. Very messy but a lot of fun! The photos are from Johns trip to Legoland last summer.

Dinosaur Day

One of the highlights of the cyber crop is the Mystery Kit. You buy a kit, the contents of which are a complete surprise, then you have to make something using only the contents of the kit. This time I made a concertina mini book of a visit John made to a Dinosaur Exhibition several years ago. I really liked the kit this year, mine came from Crafty Pastimes.

Cyber Crop Fun!

Here are some photos from our cyber crop at my sisters last weekend.

The first one is our mascots, all good cyber crops need some scrapping friends.

This is our cropping table, Pringles and Maltesers being essential cropping items!

Last of all a party would not be complete without some alcohol!!!

The fun continues this weekend on UKS, there are more classes today. I have the kits for two of them so hoping to get them done.