Stitchy catch up

stitching update

I'm getting excited I am nearing completing this center diamond

 The lower pale lemon was stitched wrong so this evening I have unpicked it

soon I will stitch for an hour. 

Hubby was bored today, so when I got home from work he had put lights in the back garden, we had decided not to bother this year, but he made noises along the lines of not to disappoint Sam.
Sam has already rejected dressing my real tree in the garden with bird food, so I have a couple a strings of beads and stars for him to use tomorrow after school.
Josh is doing a project about families, and I have created a small family tree for him, we will discuss everyone tomorrow, it's nice to help with school projects.
In work we are full on into Christmas, Wednesday is our Christmas lunch, our whole office is eating together. Next week we have Christmas Jumper day, department raffle and secret Santa, which is a party day, loads of party food. Then we have the building raffle, with huge prizes, not that it will matter, I'm not lucky enough to win.
My knee's are still aching from Saturday night, but it is worth it, we had so much fun, we are waiting for the photo's to be published, we had a nice one of us taken. Another earlyish night tonight should see me back to normal, it really does take longer to catch up with missed sleep.

The festive season is really upon us.

Christmas tree

I'm feeling festive

got my presents wrapped

 I love my tree

it's our main and only large decoration

 No lights anywhere else inside 

It just glows in the corner of the sitting room. 

Last night on a very windy night, no rain for us in the south east, we went to a local Naval Base and enjoyed a Christmas Ball, all long frocks and mess dress or dinner jackets, the whole place was full of Christmas and looked magical. We stayed out to 1.30 this morning, with a lovely meal, which without fuss catered for Fliss, gluten free, hubby no cheese and me no nuts, which mean different food on one course for hubby and I, and Fliss's food cooked separate. We danced to Killer Queen, who were just brilliant, hubby loves Queen and these were the best tribute band we have seen.  I managed to dance on and off for 90 minutes, which was pure joy. We left Fliss and Jonathan to enjoy the rest of the party, I did not want to push my luck by overdoing things. Hubby and I came home to cup of tea and a rich tea biscuit.
Lazy day at home today, my knee's ache so not much walking.
I have checked the garden and all is OK, my summer flowers are now gone, the wind finished them off. We have decided not to put up Christmas lights in our garden this year, we normally only light the back garden.
So my task for today, get cards ready for posting tomorrow, add a few silk holly and ivy to the sitting room and stitch, with time for an afternoon rest.

1st Friday in December

My 12 days of Christmas swap 

arrived today and look at this lovely stocking

what a great extra bonus

After work yesterday we popped out shopping, I required a pair of shoes for Saturday night, so we went to M&S, they always have what I am looking for, low heal party shoes. They had nothing, so we popped to a few shops, it looks as if this year party shoes only come with 3+ inch heals. On our final desperate search we went to TOP Shop ( I Know!) and got just what I was looking for, the bag came from Accessorize. The hope is to keep them and use them for daughters wedding in April. They are beautiful. 

 My dress is not new, it's about the third time I will wear it

the beads are new. 

We are going to a Christmas Ball at HMS Collingwood, we will see the group Killer Queen, which hubby is very happy about. Should be a lovely meal but a long night. We are hoping to get a good photo of us, it's been a while since we had a posh photo.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments regarding our health after earlier this week, we are now all much better, it really was not nice. I picked both Sam and Josh up from school on Wednesday, it was a cuddly evening, Sam and I watched new Bob the Builder on TV, poor Sam was tired. They are back to normal today and full of fun.
I have not done much stitching, but I have finished the book, I let you go by Clare Mackintosh, if you can get a copy it's a real good read and noted as my December good read.
I have presents to wrap tonight, I have just one small one to try and find for hubby, then I am finished. I do have cards to make, so that's a job for Sunday. I hope to have them all in the post by Monday, then we can relax and look forward to the holiday break, with out stress. We do have a couple of busy weeks in work and at home.

Really two days lost

How to lose a couple of days, 16 of the people who attended the lunch on Saturday, have been really ill over Sunday night into Monday, including both hubby and I, Fliss and both boys. Josh was ill in the car on Saturday, we just thought it was travel sickness. On speaking to the pub, who were very helpful and ran through every thing with hubby, (hubby taught food hygiene), we don't think they did anything wrong, it was a clean lovely location, but the bug came from there, it was the only place we all went together. It could have been another customer with the bug, they do travel fast. On the plus side 4lbs lost.
Monday was lost to us all, spent all morning in bed, afternoon reading in my chair, a second day off work, where I had no energy. I am reading I Let you go, Clare Mackintosh, it's brilliant, I have just got to the twist, it's very clever.
Back to work today, but I finished early to collect both boys from their first day back at school, both were very tired, so snuggly time all round, again we will have an early night.
On Monday our neighbour had his four large trees cut down, Conifers not my favourite, but I hate to see trees being cut down. We now have more light into the sitting room, but I would rather see trees.

This is one reason I love December, I love these CD's of Christmas music,

Our tree is up, looking pretty in the corner, Sam spent loads of time checking everything out. We also have a singing Santa on a motorbike which is fun to see out again. I still have a few things to put up inside, but they can wait until tomorrow, the room does look cosy with the lights on, again this year I am using the little sets of battery operated lights in the tea light holders, it's just so safe and they can be tucked in dark corners. We purchased a new set of tree lights, it was 15 years ago Kev's youngest son was caught in a house fire and has serious burns to his arms and body, caused by tree lights in an adapter which overheated, here we take no chances.
I hate the news at the moment, should we bomb more people, will it change anything, are we adding extra risk to the country, but doing nothing won't resolve anything, oh I wish I had a magic wand, just one wish, peace everywhere, that in it's self would solve so many other issues.