Advent Day 16

With Mr Madaboutbags and Master Madaboutbags out at the cinema this morning I was able to catch up on some last minute sewing my final swaps of 2016. I was having trouble deciding what to make for one of them and after thrashing out some ideas with my sewing box buddies on Tuesday night I had a few ideas on the table, but then this morning I had an ephinany moment and knew exactly what I wanted to make and I'm glad to say I really pleased with how it turned out. Anyone else work better under pressure? With too much time I tend to faff around, Pinterest has a lot to answer for when it comes to procrastinating!! 

I still have one last thing to finish tomorrow and then I'll be closing the door on my sewing room until the new year. My Christmas bunting never made it to the cutting table but there is always next year. 

Anyhow my photo today to join in with Julie's Scrapbook Advent Calendar is ....

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a box of Quality Street, although the tins are definitely smaller than I remember as a child and because they are now in the shops from September we have usually polished off at least one box before Christmas Day has arrived. My favourites were always the purples ones with the hazelnut in caramel but I have been favouring the pink fudges and the blue coconut ones this year. There are always the ones left that no one eats, these used to be the round gold toffee ones but this year Master Madaboutbags has decided these are his favourites so I think between us all there won't be any sorry looking chocolates lingering in the bottom of the box and then we can start on the tin of Roses!!! 

Do you have a favourite?? 

Advent Day 10 - 15

Hopefully this will be my last catch up post (famous last words) for the Advent Calendar. I will try (really hard) to post each day. So joining in with Julie's Scrapbook Advent. 

Day 10

The decorations are all now up in the conservatory so I have been adding a little Christmas cheer to the stairs, this was an in progress shot, I just liked the way the lights looked and now I've added the rest of the baubles it really cheers up the hallway. 

Day 11

Today it was the turn of the living room to get a Christmas make over. I'm still working on Mr Madaboutbags to buy another Christmas Tree but he isn't convinced!! I picked up this nativity set last year in a charity shop and it fits perfectly on the mantelpiece. 

Day 12

I bought three of these metal signs last year, all with different sayings. Last year I hung them on the wall but this year I decided to add them to the tree. They look much better there. 

Day 13

I meet up once a month with some friends for a evening of craft and lovely conversation. We don't always get much crafting done but we do have some great conversations. This month everyone came to me and we have a fabulous evening of laughter, there was a very small amount of crafting! I picked up this bottle of ginger beer at the local farm shop and it definitely had a fiery bite and although it was non alcoholic I think the full bodied part went straight to our heads!!! 

Day 14

Chocolate oranges have always been a part of my Christmas for as long as I can remember. Mr Madaboutbags bought this little lot home recently, I'm not sure if they will last until Christmas Day! 

Day 15

Today is Mr Madaboutbags' birthday, he isn't a great one for birthdays, but he will look forward to his all day breakfast on Sunday when Miss Madaboutbags is home from Uni. I have to say I'm glad I don't have a December birthday and do feel for those that do. This afternoon I spent a lovely few hours making a Christmas wreath. It's something I've always wanted to try and this year Miss Madaboutbags' church was running a workshop. I really enjoyed making the wreath and will definitely try some different themed ones throughout the year. 

Yay! I back up to date, now I'm off to bed as I've been a bit of a night owl recently and need to catch up on some sleep. See you all tomorrow X 

Advent Days 6 - 9

Firstly I wanted to say thank to Kezzie as I received a lovely message from her checking if everything was okay because I'd stopped posting my Advent Day photos. Sorry I couldn't reply to you Kezzie as when I checked you are a no reply blogger, so you have a very public thank you. It's one of the things I love about the blogging community and it's always nice to know you have been missed.

Luckily there was nothing really wrong just a very manic week and a half of school events, family life and a severe lack of energy at the end of the day! 

So this is one of my catch up posts...

Day 6

Today, I helped out on the school trip to Colchester Zoo, after a late night at the School Carol Concert, I did think it was going to be a tough day but the children were super and the zoo staff gave an interesting talk and tour on endangered species. Master Madaboutbags wanted to use my phone to take some photos and he did a really good job. As you can see the animals were really getting into the Christmas spirit. 

Day 7

I recently took part in a wonderful swap over on Instagram that was star themed and today I received the most amazing parcel in the post. One of the handmade goodies was this star mini quilt. I was really drawn to night sky quilts when I was posting ideas for my partner and my swap partner didn't disappoint, I absolutely love it. You can see what else I received and what I sent over on my IG feed. 

Day 8

Today I received another swap parcel in the post, this one is from Mary and is part of the Santa Sack Swap. A gorgeous quilted stocking full of intriguing packages that I'm trying really hard not to squish and squeeze! 

Day 9

Today I finished off my two cracker swap parcels ready for posting to America. I'm starting to see lots of lovely posts both here and on Instagram of all your cracking crackers (sorry I couldn't resist!) and I shall pop a linky post up over the Christmas break for you all to share your posts. If you don't have a blog or Instagram please feel free to send me some pics of your crackers and I'll share them on my blog.

Phew! That took longer than I thought and now my bed is calling so I'll post another catch up post tomorrow. Joining in with Julie's Advent Calendar. 

Advent Day 5

***Edited to say not sure why but this didn't publish when I posted it last week***

Day 5

We are hitting the ground running this week as we have so much to squeeze in. 

I'm not sure if I will be fit for anything by Friday!

Tonight was Master Madaboutbags' school Carol Concert at Chelmsford Cathedral. 

It was an evening of singing, instrument playing and a rather enthusiastic organ player! 

We were all rather tired by the time we arrived home so after a warming cup of tea and a festive bakewell it was time for bed as we have another busy day tomorrow. 

Joining in with Julie's Scrapbook Advent Calendar 

Advent Day 4

A relaxing day was in order after our busy night yesterday, so after a quick swimming lesson for Master Madaboutbags, followed by a scrumptious sausage sandwich made by Mr Madaboutbags it was time to tackle the job of putting up the Christmas tree. Well that was the plan but I think we were all feeling a little lazy today so after several cups of tea (me) and several games of Minecraft (Master Madaboutbags) we started delving into the numerous boxes that house all our Christmas decorations for the other 11 months of the year! 

I'd forgotten how many super handmade decorations I've acquired over the years, and it was a little like Christmas morning when you realise you bought some new decorations last year in the sales. So after much oohing and ahhing we got down to business and put out some of the room decorations. 

The tree is always my job, we have a lovely artificial one that we bought about 15 years ago and every year I forget how long it takes to fan out all the branches and add the lights. 

Master Madaboutbags got a little bored at this stage and went off to watch more Minecraft videos and build a fire station! 

I was also losing the will to live as the orangery looked like an explosion in a Christmas factory with boxes and decorations everywhere, including the table, which we needed to clear so that we could eat the delicious roast dinner that Mr Madaboutbags had cooked. Sufficiently sated, Tomas was keen to get back to finishing off the tree, and as I was busy sorting through boxes and faffing with my twig tree, I let him have free reign with the tree. In retrospect I'm not sure this was a wholly wise idea as I feel that there may be just a little bit of rearranging to be done!! 

Master Madaboutbags then found the box of Christmas puzzles and felt that right now would be a good time to start one of them, calling me in to help. Needless to say the orangery still looks like an explosion in a Christmas Factory and I'm not sure what Mr Madaboutbags is going to think when he comes down in the morning but this was not quite the photo I thought I would be posting today. 

So joining in with Julie's Scrapbook advent calendar is my #reallifehome Day 4 not quite finished tree, with my too many boxes of decorations, and oh my! what a mess, just close the door and worry about it tomorrow photo. 

Advent Day 3

Tonight I spent a wonderful evening getting festive at not one, but two, Christmassy events. 

First it was the lighting up of the Christmas tree at our local church. A few days ago I joined other members of my WI and decorated the tree outside the church, overlooking the village green and then tonight we joined lots of other people from the village to sing (out of time and definitely out of tune) a few Christmas carols and to switch on the tree lights. 

Then we all went inside the church to enjoy a warming cup of tea and some delicious cake as well as buy some gifts from some of the stall holders.

There were some beautiful wooden figures on sale carved from olive wood from Bethlehem. Master Madaboutbags took a liking to a nativity bell decoration and a camel. 

We also bought a Christmas gift Miss Madaboutbags and Master Madaboutbags had a go at cake decorating. 

We also saw Father Christmas himself, so this is my Advent Day 3 photo, joining in with Julie's Scrapbook Advent Calendar. 

He was very jolly and handed out candy canes to all the children. 

Then is was time to head off to the next village and watch a Christmas show at the church that Miss Madaboutbags goes to. 

The play was called Twas The Night Before Christmas and was by The Saltmine Theatre group.

 All the parts were played by just four people and it was funny, moving, poignant and with just the right amount of religiousness. The underlying story was to be thankful for what you have and not to catch stuffishness, and it does make you realise that there is more to Christmas than stuff, stuff, and more stuff. 

It was a wonderful way to spend an evening especially as it was shared with good friends too so I'm feeling all warm, nostalgic and thankful. 

Advent - Day 2

Joining in with Julie's Advent Calendar over at Julie's Scrapbook by posting a photo every day throughout Advent.

Day 2

 For the past few years I've been collecting Christmas and Winter themed books and during Advent I wrap 24 of them and Master Madaboutbags gets to choose one each day which we share at bedtime. Some are old favourites and some are new charity shop buys, I even picked up four more this afternoon so we have some new ones for next year. 

I'm not sure how much longer Master Madaboutbags will want to do this (I'm hoping that I have at least another year) but I think this will be a family tradition to pass down, so after Christmas the books will be carefully stored away until next year. 

Do you have any Christmas family traditions?

If you would like to join in with Julie's Advent Calendar then pop over to her blog for more details.