Wishing all my blogger/facebook/ friends a wonderfully warm and happy christmas. For those who might be finding christmas hard this year i pray for peace and grace to follow you through the season. 

TeamJames 

xx

so i lifted this idea from my blogger friend Mel...

9 years

3285 days

78. 780 hours

4, 730,700 minutes….

2 houses

5 in patient visits to the Liverpool Womens followed by discharge with new little person

2 inpatient visits to the children's hospital

3 jobs

3 cars

1 temperamental camper van…..

5 flights (minimal ish carbon footprint perhaps?)

2 rabbits..currently missing

2 snowboarding/skiing holiday

3 mountain bikes…

2 stolen mountain bikes.

9 nativity plays

3 applemac's

4 iphones

hundred's of nights spent apart when he never forgets to phone the NICU to say goodnight.

Happy Anniversary to my fabulous husband…man, was it really 9 years ago…feels like i have blinked and here we are….

xx

teamjames

so i guess ill do ten.

1. Today we managed some wrapping of presents. I was starting to wonder when this would actually happen. I had pretty much accepted that it was going to be a late night thing but then our friends who had the kids for a sleepover hung onto them for the rest of the day. Matilda went for a nap and we reckon we can trust Jemimah not to tell..

2 Made brownies…which i was planning on giving away for presents…and i did..but i also tried something new with them, which maybe as i was giving them away wasn't such a good idea. They came out a bit gooey.

3. This arrived today for jemimah…i like it..its called big mouth….can't understand why?! 😉

4. Whilst wrapping this afternoon we watched 'the terminal' about a guy who gets stuck in an airport terminal for an immigration type reason. Not a particularly strong film, it didn't gallop along but it had Tom Hanks in it and that was pretty much enough for me. 

5. Our christmas tree is in need of a facelift. when we put it up I just put the lights on and left the kids to the rest. Yes..completely, as in left the room leaving them with a box of decorations.

I remember once feeling like i should re-do it once they has gone to bed and this was mostly because they are short, the tree isnt, so it was mostly decorated at the bottom.

Now, not so much, i tend to leave whatever they have put on. At the moment we are looking like this..

now if i had taken a picture of the bottom of the tree,  you would see that they are quite depleted of decorations now as Matilda has taken it upon herself to take them off and distribute them round the house or just put them on the floor under the tree…and no i have not hunted for and hung them back up. 

Yeah..shocking i know…but when 'beautiful homes magazine' comes knocking on my door i will…okay?

6. our next door neighbours washing line  looked cool today. The snow looks like bits of fabric or something attached to the line. 

7. My 50mm lens is playing up, the AF is not working..anyone else of the photog's that read here have that problem. Its annoying, its one of my favourite lenses. 

8. Today the car went to be serviced. Its computer has been pinging at us for ages and we finally bit the bullet. 

9. My washing machine has finally succumbed to the freezing temps and given up. Its outside in the shed and at around -10degrees it just freezes over. Im back to begging for people's washing machines again.

10. You know what i hate most about washing, the putting away. I let it build up till the kids are going to their cupboards and are unable to find a shirt or a skirt or even a clean pair of pants…for example today Poppy got changed into shorts……

that would be the sort you would wear on the beach and in high summer….

its only -9degrees (15F) today….

I was saying this to her when i realised its probably because her clean trousers are most likely in the large pile of washing in our bedroom waiting to be put away…so she was just going with what was there….

*cough cough***

teamjames

so you might be able to guess that this is my vague effort to blog every day. Im not promising anything…i rarely do well with these sorts of things. My 365 project lastest till March i think. But this is just a two week holiday so i reckon slightly more realistic than a whole year. 

Today i had my hair cut. I know…you come here for such incredible facts! But i did and it was an indulgent 2 hours of time for me. Apart from the sweet girl trying to engage me in conversation. Thank goodness we had the weather to talk about because usually it runs dry after the inevitable 'are you going out tonight' To which i usually respond "huh uh huh yeah' when reality is going home to make food for kids. 

Anyway I sat and drank two cups of weak tea and read some womany type magazine. Which i found a pretty interesting article about dogs….in particular how they can be trained to be assistance dogs. Incredible. Dogs who detect when someone is about to have a seizure. I want one i think…that is a dog not a seizure detecting one. 

The kids are at a sleepover this evening, thats the big ones, with our fantastic friends. I have no idea where we would be without the support of some truly awesome and generous folk. thanks guys.

We had a quick tea with the kids and then headed off to the retail park to finish off a bit of shopping in the biting cold. Not fun. This weather makes any sane person stay in front of a fire with a big fat hot chocolate steaming on their knee. 

Hanging out with friends on such cold days means there is plenty of time for lying on the sofa..

catching up on some game shows! 

and of course play on the computer. Always a priority for the boys

and when you are this little you just hang out and enjoy the view.