Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Michael, Happy Birthday to you.
Wishing you a wonderful Birthday and many happy returns.
We will be having the family over for the day so this is just a very brief entry from me to send extra Birthday wishes to my beloved.
Wishing you all a happy day and a great weekend.
It is so dark here today that it is more like the middle of the night and rain has been falling steadily for hours. Not Christmas weather at all. Too early to put on the Christmas lights inside as we like to keep the electric bill as low as we can.
Was sad to read about the twins that were found abandoned in a cardboard box. For our American friends, a twin boy and girl around a month premature were left in a hospital car park in a box. They were very cold. They are said to be making progress although the little girl is more poorly than her brother. The hospital staff have named them Joseph and Holly. I do hope their mother comes forward. She must have had her reasons for abandoning them like that. These little mites have not had a good start but are now receiving loving care. Let us hope that all their future Christmases will be filled with love and joy.
Mike and I have had a high old time this morning playing Sherlock Holmes. You see we are getting lots of Christmas cards in now which is great because they certainly lift the spirits in the morning. However, this has caused something of a mystery. I know three people called Jean and three people called Sylvia! So we had to search for clues. The postmarks were illegible. Out came the magnifying glass and we squinted and peered trying to make out a postcode or something that would give us any indication as to what part of the country the cards came from. We have not had much luck but, no doubt, we will get there eventually by process of elimination. It all adds to the fun, a new Christmas guessing game!
I have not really got much else to write about today. All very quiet on the home front. I have been looking out all my Christmas music and singing along with carols and all the popular songs. That is something you do not want to hear, believe me.
I have got some tidying up to do but with all the preparations for the festive season done, apart from the food shopping, I shall probably curl up with a book this afternoon.
Hope my signature gives you all a smile today. Have a good day and enjoy whatever you will be doing.
The sun is shining brightly but it is very cold. I thought I would share some of our Christmas decorations with you today although the camera never really does justice to lights unless you are a professional with thousands of pounds worth of equipment.
This first one is on the outside of our bedroom window (our bedroom is at the front of the property)
All the tiny lights in the tree twinkle and flash and it is really very bright and pretty. The lights you can see behind the Christmas tree are actually in our bedroom, yes we do have lights in there are well, around the dressing table mirror and the angel hanging on the wall. Nice to lie in bed reading in the warm glow of Christmas lighting.
These lovely candles are on our dining room window which is also at the front of our home.
Here is the snowman on our porch roof, some of you will remember him from last year, he is a regular and has been for years.
Put them all together and add some rope lights and you get this effect from outside. Nathan wants to stay out there and stare at them all the time because the rope lights are chaser lights and constantly on the move, along with the flickering candles and the sparkling tree.
The rope lights do not go around the dining room window unfortunately but we think we have enough. For one thing we do not have enough sockets and even with extension leads it can be a nightmare sorting everything out and the glow from our home is already bright enough, we do not want to dazzle the neighbours too much. I must say we do attract carol singers like a magnet as we are about the only people at this end of the street to bother. Down the other end of the road nearly everyone decorates their houses.
Now for some inside pictures.
This was taken earlier this morning when I tried to capture the sunlight on the tinsel.
Here is our new fibre optic tree
It truly does not do it justice. It is much brighter than this and Nathan loves playing with the branches, they fascinate him. You can see our rope lights outside the back of our property and the illuminated reindeer in the back garden.
I just had to post this next one . With our patio doors you get double reflections as you look out through them and it seems we have many more lights than we do. It is beautiful to see in the evenings.
This next one was taken from our garden looking back towards the rear of the property
Finally, another Christmas tree we have in the lounge as our main one is in the sunlounge. I quite fancied trying these new LED lights and I must say I do like them. Not sure I would want masses on the outside of the property because they are very bright, but I do like the effect that this tree gives
A couple of years back, Mike and I had got to the stage where we did not want to bother much, just the two of us here and a lot of work involved, but now we have Nathan and Daniel it is all worthwhile and we want to make it as much a winter wonderland as we can for them. From the delight shown by Nathan, it has all been worthwhile.
I hope you have enjoyed this little peep into our Christmas world today and I hope you are all enjoying putting up your decorations as well.
Have a wonderful day everyone.
Thank you all so much for your kind Anniversary wishes of yesterday.
We had a lovely day. Becky and the boys came over and spent most of the day with us. Nathan had seen our Christmas lights briefly on Saturday and that was lovely to see but yesterday was something special. He went to each piece of tinsel and lovingly caressed it, the wonder in his eyes was amazing. He ran from the fibre optic snowman to the Father Christmas then to the tree pointing at each one and beaming at us, chattering him away to himself. I taught him how to say "pretty" and before the day was over he was pointing to everything and saying "pretty". He stared out of the window at our illuminated reindeer and I knew I had done the right thing getting a fibre optic tree because he spent ages playing with the branches, trying to catch the colours, all the while singing and chatting away to himself. When he first arrived he ran over to me for the first time with a big hug and I thought my heart would burst with love for this tiny human being who is blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh. Nathan can now sing "Twinkle twinkle little star" - not the words but the tune and he is note perfect.
Daniel was his usual laid back self but he stared at everything with eyes as big as saucers and smiled his little smile from time to time. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of children is beyond price.
We had nice gifts as well. I got a lovely bouquet of flowers from Mike (we had already exchanged gifts last week). Becky and Dean bought us a new G. Foreman grill. In fact they bought us the last one several years ago and it has been in almost daily use and was looking sad and worn. This one is slightly bigger with timer control on it and we will use it for the first time tonight. We also got a book of grilling recipes to go with it from Nathan and Daniel. Then we got a special extra gift. A framed picture of Mike and myself on our wedding day. The heading was 1970 wedding and listed the price of things then,what was in the pop charts, world events etc. etc. We absolutely love it and , after Christmas, it will hang in our living room.
So, it was a day filled with family and love. Dean had hoped to join us but, unfortunately, got called out to an emergency up in London , but he did telephone us and we have arranged to have a celebratory meal together on Saturday, a sort of combined anniversary meal and birthday meal for Mike as it his birthday on Friday.
My dear Father is very much on my mind today as it would have been his Birthday. It pulled me up short when I realized that, had he still been living, today would have been his 100th birthday and he would have been receiving his telegram from the Queen. It seems incredible that my own father was born 100 years ago and, come Christmas Day, my mother would have been born 102 years ago. It was only thinking of along those lines that really brought home how the years have flown, how Mike and I are growing old, not in spirit or mind but in years. I wish my parents could have lived to see Nathan and Daniel. How proud they would have been. I like to think they are watching over us all.
Wishing you all a happy and blessed day.
5th December. Our special day. Thirty-five years ago today my beloved was waiting at the church. He thought I was not going to arrive. The photographer spent so long taking photographs at my family home that I was over twenty minutes late. My dear Father practically ran me down the aisle. The sun was shining brightly through the windows of the church even though the December day was cold and windy. Every seat was taken. I had a dreadful cold and had almost lost my voice the day before but I managed to croak out my vows. Mike said his loudly. We were man and wife.
We walked out proud and happy to be showered by confetti and to commence on our life together. We posed happily together with bridesmaids and family and friends. It is all so clear. I rememer our wedding reception in the little Parish hall. Little did we think we would now be living so close to it. I remember every single thing about it. No honeymoon for us, we could not afford one. Instead we went back to our new home, the home we would share together. Was it really thirty-five years ago? Where did all those years go to?
So Mike, on our special day I want to tell you here how much I love you, how I appreciate all you do for me and what a great support you are to me. I could not have chosen a better partner in life. We have had our ups and downs and often more than our fair share of downs, but we have weathered them together, growing stronger down the years. We raised a daughter we are truly proud of and now have two wonderful Grandsons to bring such joy to our lives. We look forward to many more years together.
Happy Anniversary darling. I love you now as I loved you then. I will always love you.
Well, apart from the tidying up (bits of tinsel and flattened drawing pins everywhere) we are almost done. The sun was shining this morning and it was so nice to see everything twinkling and gleaming in its light.
The first two Christmas cards have arrived (and I thought I posted early!) all my overseas cards have been posted. Thank you ,Jean, for the unexpected little gift you sent me to help replinish our airing cupboard. It was so sweet of you.
I have some new pictures to share with you. The boys have been getting some new clothes whilst on Christmas shopping expeditions with their Mum and Dad. Here is Nathan modelling the latest in Christmas casual wear. A real must have for the "young man about town."
Of course, their favourites are the new tops with trucks featured on them. Will they take after Grandy and be long-distance drivers? Although they are trucks and not lorries or tankers, they are well on the way. Daniel seems tickled pink with his.
Now for my favourite. I think this is a lovely picture. It touched my heart the moment I saw it. It speaks of brotherly love, sharing secrets ~ and I adore the smile on Daniel's face. Was he dozing and heard Nathan whisper something in his ear, something to the effect that they both had tops with vehicles on? Or was he truly asleep but sensed that his brother was there? I know this is a picture that I will treasure.
I cannot really add anything to a picture like that. Have a good day my friends.
Well, we are certainly having a busy time here. The desk or work station as it is called, arrived on Tuesday at around 12.45 p.m. Him indoors started assembling it around fifteen minutes later. He actually finished at 10 p.m.! Having had more than enough that day he decided to wait until Wednesday to move all his computer stuff. Masses of storage space, drawers - in fact more room than I have with my computer desk. Only one problem. The monitor just balances there. He did not take into account that computers now all come with flat screen monitors and our old one is one of the enormous types. So he has had to put it one side which means that when he does start using his computer again he will have to sit with his head turned to the left. Nothing to be done but to save up and get him a flat screen.
Yesterday was the dreaded day that all the decorations came down from the loft. Boxes and boxes of them. I decided I had to be ruthless, some of it just had to go, so we went through every box taking out any tarnished tinsel, chipped baubles, lights that did not work, all the things we had somehow hung on to for sentimental reasons. That took most of the afternoon and early evening.
Today we have started putting up all the decorations. The outside lights will be switched on for the first time this evening. Most of the living room is done now apart from one or two touches but we still have to do the sunlounge (we look out onto that and that is where our main tree is) the hall and the dining room. Busy, busy, busy and it takes longer because we are much slower than we used to be. We did try out the fibre optic tree last night and it looks lovely although it is hard to get used to it in daylight - a tree with no decorations on it. You really cannot decorate this type of tree because all the fibre optics are at the end of the branches and it would spoil the effect. We will get used to it but it seems strange this is the first year I have not had to decorate the tree. It does mean less work thought and it is much safer for Nathan and Daniel.
Whilst Mike was up the ladder, I could not resist getting the camera out
Sorry about the strange angle.
Here is our fibre optic snowman who is sitting on the hearth. The true magic does not really show in this photo but he looks perfect there twinkling away
I should imagine we will get everything finished some time tomorrow. Now, while he is getting on with the decorations I am going to start writing the Christmas cards, watch the grand switch on of lights when it gets dark, have a meal and then just flop out in front of the t.v.
Hope you have all got started on your preparations.
