Merry Christmas! (by sarah)

Our day has been fun even if we all have colds from hell - and we've just finsihed our dinner which was seduled for 2 pm due to an unfortunate incident of us not remembering to get the pastry out for defrosting the night before!

Still the cats loved their special Turkey meals we made them and Jean loves stuffing balls and chocolate - which we found made her strangly hyper and naughty in a way we raely see - it seemed to corrasponde with the choc and not the exciting presant opening so we is gonna keep an eye on that one!

Little baby definatly had fun! - Here she is with her stocking!

Unfortunatly Santa had bought her a water pistol which she spepnt ages hugging - she got this presant about a month ago when she went to see him in his grotto!

She then climbed off of the setee and aimed it right at our Santa cushion! Karma?

Fortunatly he also brought her this cool Xylophone which to my amazement she actually cuaght onto how to 'play' it!

This is her seconded favourite presant - her first favourite is a wooden Noahs ark! That Barbara has given her - she spent ages taking all the animals out and putting them back in again - unfortuantly she managed to catch me with the horn of one animal - giving me a minute cut under the eye - said animal has been removed and will be returned when she is a bit bigger! She also fell over and clouted herself on it resulting in a bit of a shiner! But its still her favourite reguardless of the injuries incurred!

Hope everybodoy else is having a fab time 🙂

oh and shiner = black eye.

Christmas Eve in the Old Bakery (by sarah)

We finally got round to decorating but called it tradition!

Jean loved 'helping' with putting up the decs!

We have eaten cheese and cracker and a few mince pies - wrapped all those presants we had forgotten to wrap - missed the village festivaties as felt too ill. Jean is loving it so far. I di consider cancerlling Christmas altogether after I trod on a bualble destroying it and then in the process of picking the others up crushed a nice little wooden one and then Al droped a maglite onto my christmas mug and then I droped a bell on the cats milk dish - ablittorating it! Then my tacky christmas clock appeared to be broken meaning the little snowmen and reindeers didnt go round in a circle whilst playing christmas carols but it was just on the wronge setting so Christmas was back on 😉

Jean is really into it at the mo - She even sprinkeled the special magic reindeer food her grandmother sent.

Unfortunatly her sprinking it was very rapid and so I missed the exact moment with the camera!

The thing is though - it appears to really work!

Reindeer stake anyone?

Jean has also been really busy at nursery making things, for a while now she has been coming home with bits of glitter still attached or paint under the nails - this is becuase she has been a very busy young lady - I have posted about the things she made on the Salaric Craft Blog - so go there!

Mulled Wine (by sarah)

Right - tis that time of year again!!!!

We are not having a specific week this year - mainly as we are stranded in Gloucestershire due to lack of money - ie we cant visit any of you - so we hope you will all come and visit us over this festive time!

In other words get your bums over here and enjoy our hospitallity and recieve your cards and gifts cos we have no money for posting (all presants and some cards are hand crafted!). We do however have left over wine from the christening - red wine, that is, and lots of oranges and apples and the like - throw in some spice (I could make some really bad Scifi puns here as we've just watched Dune but I wont I promise!) = Mulled wine.

We also have mince pies in the freezer, chocs and plenty of filter coffee and the like!

If you dont turn up we will have to hunt you down in the new year and make you stay with us - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!

Please come and visit - we have a bed setee and a real fire place with real fire in - perfect for those roasted chestnuts - come stay for as long as you like - all we ask is that you tell us at least 1 hr before you arrive so that we can make sure the mulled wine is a heating!

Feel free to bring partners, friends etc...

I will endevour to email everyone - but this is me so - Ella, Becca and Charllee let the regulars know and I will endevour to be more organised than normal (HAHAHAHA).

Whoever controls the spice, controls the Empire.

Disastor Central (by sarah)

Man I dont think the curse is ever going to go away 🙁

We've had yet another frought weekend from hell - sigh.

Ok first of the kittens must have cuaght a dodgy mouse or something as they both went a loo inside - H went in the bath like a good girl though - over the plug whole and everything and shes supposed to be the thick one! He on the other hand decided to poo on the carpet and wee in our wooden cube cabinet - that isnt varnished 🙁

Of course urine soaked into the wood and worse than that when we moved it to clean the carpet we found that where they had been going a wee on the carpet before - it had due to capillary action (I suppose) seeped under said unvarnished wooden cabinate - so guess who was boiling kettles of water (the water heater having died) and pouring what was left of the disinfectants into the bath - to soak the wood. The cabinate I would think will warp - but it was this or fire wood and a bit of warping we can cope with!

The cabinate after server soaking and some elbow grease is now in the workshop drying out - the bit that was soaking had swollen out side ways by at least 1/3 of an inch either side!

Then - Al was going on the night hike with the cubs - when he got there he discovered that somehow the back door of the van had been left ajar - but not enough to worry about - or so he thought!

Then on his way back he found all the Scout files in the drive - in the puddles :/

So I found my self laying out lots of things to dry including all the certificates we are supposed to give them on Wednesday! We checked and we had everything improtant - so breathed a sigh of relief that it hadnt been worse - this was probably our mistake!

Al had lost his special Cubs 90th birthday woggle on the hike so was sad about that.

I mean while had been attempting to do the washing up(the dishwasher still being broken) with Jean still awake as she was refusing to sleep - no afternoon nap, no nothing! It was getting quiet late and she was hyper with tiredness but refusing to sleep 🙁 We only ever leave her with controlled crying for a max of 10 mins - on the umpteenth attempt I'd given up and bought her down stair. however, somehow the ceramic mixing bowl had been placed with the plastic ones I have on the lower shelves for Jean saftey. The very reason it is not placed on the lower shelves is that Jean pulls everything off of those shelves - and vala - one broken bowl - fortunatly no broken bobble!

Anyway, Al came back and we finailly got bobble to sleep at about 11:30, we put the table back after its temporary rearrangement for carpet shampooing - ie aftermath of cats! We sit down to eat dinner - towards the end of the meal a smell arises and a guilty looking kitten emerges 🙁 We where not impressed I can tell you. Al cleaned it up and readed the carpet cleaner - again - this time with the speicial pet shampoo in it. He set it to ultra clean ie with conc. detergant and everything. Unfortunatly the thing had somehow been switched into upholstery mode. The result?

The certificates we had drying get sprayed, the clean jars for jam making get sprayed and the coats all get sprayed including my grandmothers fun fur.

Poor Al was distrote!

I delt with the certificates saving all but one, the jars have yet to be washed but I also had to wash down every coat - using the shower! Once more the house was full of soggy things drying - sigh. Al was finishing off his work work whilst I was cleaning the coats - we went to bed exhusted 🙁

Sunday we had what we thought was a productive day in Gloucester but when we got home the place smelt of urine - we did lots of carpet sniffing. It turned out to be my nans old fun fur coat, it smelt dreadful-it was hanging up in the bath drying from the little bit of water we'd sprayed on it to make it clean of carpet cleaning detergant. So with Al back to work I begain washing the coat - I used shampoo as in my hair shampoo - knowing that I was probably ruining the coat. I was horrified at the colour of water that coat produced!

We left the foul and feted thing, soaking in conditioner - I thought we'll its fur texture so I'll treat it like hair - besides I noticed that the cuddly toys that got covered in the leaked conditionar from the move, came up really nicely when washed and where really soft etc...

Off we went five minutes late (or so we thought) to Babaras for the wild life programme we've been watching with her every Sunday - to our horror she started shouting at us and asking where we had been etc... appearently she had cooked us a three course meal 🙁 I knew nothing of this and Al thought he had said wecouldnt make it. Understandably she was really upset - having expected us at 7 and it now being 9. This made Al feel even worse and like he'd mucked everything up 🙁 Still we did get a nice pudding which was welcome as we hadnt actually had dinner.

Back at the house at about midnight I was trying to put the soggy fun fur up to dry not realising how much it would way - in the process I pulled a muscle in my hand and in my belly and then when me and Al got it to hang up - it bent the metal thing we hung it on 🙁 We where not happy - nope not one little bit 🙁

Maternal Minni? (by sarah)

Babara told us today that Minni gave the kittens a shrew to play with that she had cuaght which they thourally enjoyed! Now this is most definatly a mother cat behaviour.

Apparently Betsy (Babaras cat) did the same when Tim was a kitten with a mouse and it was the only time she has ever seen Betsy catch anything. It just seems strange that she spends so much time beating them up though she is definatly tolerating them more these days.

Oh well maybe the ol' broodyness is kicking in or something!