Wishing you a very happy new year !

We had a lovely Christmas with all the young ones back in the nest.

 We got our tree from a local farm and had great fun choosing which we should go for. 

Typically we all wanted a LARGE tree but had to remember that if the tree looked big in the shed then it was going to be humungous and too tall for home. Also we wouldn't be able to get it home! Whatever we bought had to fit in the car

 When unpacking the tree we found a birds nest near the bottom . I hope we didn't make any birds homeless for christmas. My son pointed out that in the cold they often hunker down in nests. I just hope this was a vacant one!

 Once the tree was decorated the cat was quick off the mark  and procured himself the best seat in the house-

I made hampers again filled with homemade goodies including a fun christmas apron and a variety of preserves including seville marmalade ( I started last January), apple and chilli jam  ( lovely a sweet with a delayed kick), autumn chutney ( made with some difficulty as at the time of making only one of the rings on the hob was working and that was the small one- It took some time to get the right consistency.) I also included a jar of luxury dried fruits soaked in Sherry- lovely with ice-cream and last but not least a jar of satsuma and cranberry relish which has been highly recommended!

I parcelled them all up in the brown bags as above. My daughter helped stencil them. The bags were saved from work- deliveries arrive in them and usually they are binned. I really wanted to reuse them and so came up with this idea. I  am really quite pleased with the outcome! and also very enviromentally friendly!

 Elder daughter wanted the cat to have a Christmas outfit and so she made him a bow tie with a velcro fastening- Cute eh? He actually didn't mind - I think he just loves being fussed over!

 We had a trip down memory lane with plastic soldiers and little dolls-

 I think Tinkerbell and friend have had tooo much to drink !

We had scratch cards with our crackers on Christmas day- ( now that they are all old enough) and that apparently made my younger daughters day!_ even though she didn't win any money!

Ohh I nearly forgot I wore my apron on Christmas day from Mrs Thomasina Tittlemouse's giveaway earlier this year. Its soo pretty and is very much prized!

Cheers to you Mrs Tittlemouse - hoping you had a lovely Christmas! I  am soooo looking forward to catching up on all my blog reading and finding out about everyones festive time!

Thats just a brief snapshot of our Christmas- hoping you had a christmas full of memories too!!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!