And That's the End of the 2023 Season

Well, it all sort of fell apart at the end there - this year certainly wasn't going to go easy on me!

Since the last post we went to the Beecraigs Festival of lights, hosted Friendmas, then we had our liverpudlian friends stay with us, complete with Ren:

After that was the home run to Christmas. Well, it should have been, I was drafted last minute to sew curtains for the eldest sister. Her MIL (which, seeing as I was 10 when she turned up in my life is really a bonus grandparent at this point) is very unwell so is moving in with my sisters family until she's ready to move on to whatever the next adventure is. This meant a very last minute, very urgent refit of the conservatory and a lot of hemming needing done. A lot. 

Of course, muggins showed up trying to save the day armed with the sewing machine and presents.... And promptly face planted as soon as I was out the car. Downplaying my new war wounds, the curtains were fixed and I hoped that karma was gonna be on my side for a little bit. 

Did I mention that was the Thursday and we were flying the Saturday? 

We finally ticked Christmas at Disneyland Paris off the bucket list. My good dead paid off as, despite my knee looking like a bruised grapefruit, everything went smoothly. Flights on time. Taxis on time. Got booked into the hotel no problem. It went perfectly.

We followed the American tradition and gave out gifts to all the staff on Christmas day... Which totally isn't a thing in Paris. St Nick was looking down in us though as our merry gift giving was met with absolute shock and delight from the cast. So much so that we were gifted with some complimentary fast passes from the lovely crew at the train station - we absolutely did not expect any kind of reciprocation to the key chains we gave out, so we were absolutely dumbstruck to be pulled aside and handed them.

Honest thoughts? If you just want to go for the season, go at the start of the month as it was heaving. If you want to be crazy and try and start a new tradition giving out cards, then go for it. That's what made the day actually feel like Christmas to us. 

Missy was not forgotten - she had a midweek break being spoiled at our friends. We had sent her off with a mystery stocking and really did appreciate the photos of her "opening" it. 

Then it was home and here we are. Hubby is back to work (the joys of retail) and I've been catching up on sewing and generally trying to recharge my very much exhausted batteries. 

Talking sewing, hubby was very unimpressed with the Wish merchandise. We had a tremendously wonderful meet and greet with Asha, the main protagonist, and he wanted Star. But the only Stars available were either ginormous, or hard and not very snuggly. So I present to you, my first attempt at designing my own embroidery pattern for the face, Star:

Is he a bit too chubby? Yes. Is he a bit wonky and out of proportion? Absolutely. Does he look like he's wearing a onsie? Yes, although I don't understand how. But am I chuffed to bits with it, and more importantly, is hubby? Yes. So all is well. 

On that note, I hope you all have a lovely festive season. I'd also like to wish you all a happy New Year and most importantly, I wish you all a 2024 that offers you no more than can fit on your plate. I am done hoping for "my year" and so I merely ask that it be one with trials I can cope with with dignity and grace.

As is tradition, I raise my cup of tea to you all. I hope the chapter can be cleanly closed on 2023 with the happy moments at the front of it, and that 2024 offers many more to you. 

Bringing in the Bells

Firstly, Happy New Year. It is not only a new year, but a new decade. Merely by virtue of being alive I have now seen two millennia, two centuries and now five different decades - not bad for 32! 

In my house, New Year is the time of friendship and we didn't buck the trend. In what's become a tradition, we had a friend come stay with us on the 30th, and then we went to another friends (parents of our honorary neice and nephew) house for the bells. Missy was definitely ready for a party and we all played with hot wheels, then pass the parcel and then had dinner before moving onto more grown up games as the kids went to bed. Hubby had picked up the crystal maze board game and, with his best Richard Ayoade impression, was desperate to be games master. So as with years past, and hopefully those to come, the bells arrived to laughter, friendly rivalry and good food. What more could I ask from the year ahead? 

New Years Day presented the usual problems, what was open, where could we go that two young kids would enjoy and we can either bring Missy or won't have her left long. The Camera Obscura and World of Illusions stepped up to the plate for us and ticked all those boxes. Most importantly, open. Indoors, warm and dry and good for kids? Absolutely. And the best part, much to the delight of the little ones, dog friendly. 

We arrived for 11 and Missy was immediately fawned over by the staff. There was a lady in the queue who wasn't keen (read visibly rigid in terror) of dogs, and that was  absolutely fine and we offered to move Missy as far from her as possible. The Obscura runs a comfort policy, so Missy ran the risk of being removed to a different part of the building if she upset the lady too much, but she was as keen for us to have a nice time as her and her family to have one. It's always nice to come across someone who is reasonable about their phobia, too often the hubby and I have been screamed at for the mere presence of Missy, calm and relaxed and under control, at somewhere she is perfectly entitled to be at, so I always get a bit panicky about these things. 

Almost as soon as our hands were stamped and the first glimpse of wonder had been seen in the distance, the fire alarm went off. Sheer outrage and disappointment dissolved to delight once a fire engine showed up and my neice and nephew waved eagerly at the firemen - oh, to be five again when life's problems were so swiftly fixed. Thankfully the false alarm was quickly resolved and we got to skip the barmy of the newly forming queue and dashed straight up to the very top to see the Camera Obscura itself. 

Missy has visited in the past, so I won't go into too much detail except to say that the staff were just as friendly to us all, and that we had an absolutely fantastic day. Their hop in and out policy meant we could leave for lunch and then come back in when it got a little quieter again. Its the first time our friends have done an actual "attraction" with Missy, and they were all very impressed at her as she calmly mooched about and paid absolutely no attention to the crowds (except her admirers, of course, dogs aren't that common a sight at the Obscura, so I found myself promoting the policy a few times!) 

And that was the day. The 2nd was spent recovering from two back to back busy days and then I started the process of putting the house back together again as hubby was back in work. I have had a break from the tidying to get on with some sewing:

The one feedback from my attempt at a low waste Christmas? The presents could be seen. Solution? Gift bags with zippers, just in time for my eldest neices (15!) birthday. She was very pleased with her gifts and loved that her feedback had been taken on board. I suspect the bag will end up storing craft materials or something, so very pleased.

We also managed a games night with them, at 15 and 10, my eldest niece and nephew are now old enough to actually learn and play (nicely) proper games. Well, that's if you consider exploding kittens and throwing a burrito at one another as real games. 

(Side note, I'm not very good at exploding kittens, but I am the champion at throw throw burrito!) 

Here's hoping the year continues with good laughter! 

Hello 2017

Well, that's Christmas firmly packed away and in the loft for another year! I had hoped to get some posts done in December but life, the earth and the universe did its best to stop me. 

Christmas itself is a mixed bag for me - my hubby works in retail so I never really see much of him in December (in his more humbug moments he complains that Christmas is merely a day off between the two busiest days of the year for him) so we've been ships passing in the night. Missy also hates all things to do with Christmas. We know she was originally abandoned at this time of year and the whole tree-going-up debacle triggers off her anxiety. This year was quite bad as she had a bit of a melt down over a paper snowflake decoration (I will not be buying those again!) which she barked at and then hid in the spare room from. Despite the temptation to just not bother with the tree etc, its something we hope she'll just get used to over time, so we do our best to make the whole thing fun and treat-filled for her.

Are you positive this Christmas malarkey is necessary?

On the plus side - my family managed to congregate together (I shall spare you all the family politics, but the fact that everyone (my siblings significant others included) was able to sit in the one room and play nice is a big deal) and the day itself went great. Typically we all overate and Missy was spoiled absolutely rotten as everyone insisted she get one of the treats they'd brought for her! All the bits I'd sewn went down very well (I'm happy to report my eldest niece adored the dresses for her and the doll) and I managed a few other crafty bits that went down well too:

An apron for my Brother-In-Law

And a matching mini-apron for my niece!

A kimono styled dressing gown for my sister

Family "sigils"

The little shields was a last minute addition to the Christmas pile - like a lot of families, we have a group chat that's usually pinging away with utter nonsense, but occasionally some fun useful bits pop up. I wont into details, but we decided to make up our own Games of Thrones-esque family crests and mottos. I used the ideas everyone came up with, made them a bit more interesting/practical and handed them out. With two of my three siblings buying houses this year, they went down much better than I had expected. For those interested, mine is the one with the three grey dogs - no surprises there!

New Year was spent at the in-laws (we try our best to rotate the two families) and we danced in the bells at the village ceilidh. They live in very-rural Aberdeenshire, so Missy enjoyed lots of walks in the woodland and fields, whilst I did my best at bird spotting (I had a few firsts - a partridge (aptly festive) and a handful of long tail tits).

Like many, I'm quite looking forward to 2017 and what it will bring. Last year was very much a mixed bag of a year. There were too many lows - I had to say the final goodbye to my grandfather, and my last surviving grandparent has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so we have ticking away slowly in the back of our minds. There has been some great highs too - Japan (back in May before I picked this up again) was the holiday of a lifetime, bridges are finally being built and mended between family members I thought would never speak again, and I have the wonderful news that I have not one, but two new members of the family joining us in the big wide world at some point next year (one niece and one nephew respectively, providing the scans are right!)

So, to all those reading, I raise a mug of tea (well, I am terribly British after all) and wish you all the best for the year to come!