Happy 1st of December!

Its that time of year again to CRACK open the advent calenders and start the count down to Christmas.

I was reminded of the great importance of the advent calender last night, when myself and some friends popped into PoundLand to grab some sweets for the movie. They were shutting and had stopped letting people in and some teenage girls were begging the security guard to let them in just so they could get an advent calender! The most over-rated chocolate of the year!

The 1st also stands as a bit of a marking point in mine and Anthony's history as it was the 1st of December 7 YEARS ago that we enjoyed a first date...well actually there is a discrepancy there as I believed i was going on a date that night, however Anthony thought we where 'just hanging out' and was oblivious to the fact that it was a date!....in fact come to think of it I have no idea how the heck we ended up together?... A total accident or a total miracle!

Anyway in perfect timing for that Christmassy time of year the snow finally reached London on the first day of December. And last night as i was driving home i decided to indulge myself a bit, taking some detours. And I thoroughly enjoyed driving around London in the snow, enjoying the Christmas lights, listening to Christmas songs on the radio, with the snow falling in to the window screen, looking at people in there hats, scarfs and hunter wellies whilst I'm toasty warm in my car. OOOH Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and I love it.

Life gets busy and every now and then you get the opportunity for some 'me time' and you have to seize it!

I am embarking on some creative outlets......we shall see what happens........

Thanksgiving by default!

A pro about living in London is that there are so many other cultures here that you can jump on the band wagon of their holidays and celebrations (Why don't we do thanksgiving? Britain needs to adopt that holiday!).

We where really excited when we got invited over for a thanksgiving dinner at the Bassets (an American family who go to our church), however we later found out Anthony and I where only invited by default! When the basset parents asked the Basset kids 'who do you want us to invite over for thanks giving?' the kids replied 'WILLLIAM!' So as the parents of William it was our honour to stuff ourselves silly on a real authentic American thanks giving dinner. I didn't get a pic because i was to busy stuffing my face with marshmallow covered sweet potato! And that wasn't even the desert!

BONFIRE NIGHT....WKND

a Late post from bonfire night/s.....we had four n all!

1st, Thursday at centre parcs.

2nd Friday, watched fireworks on motorway on way home and at our local pub on the river with bonfire.

3rd, Saturday night, the big Ravens court park fair/display was fantastic this year....seriously what a job to design fireworks they get better and better, soon they will be able to spell out names and do dance routines in the sky, i love the darting ones.


4th, Sunday, Anthony's parents home, he had a bonfire and fireworks as a combined belated birthday celebration.



I love the atmosphere of Bonfire night, wrapping up warm and walking down to your local display. Next year i am defiantly doing toffee apples!

William, who smiles and gets excited at everything sat nonchalant staring, un phased by them with an expression of "an what like? av seen better".

Antony turns 40!

OK so it was his 36th Birthday but at that age he may as well be 40! At least that was my Joke!

His Birthday was on the Tuesday during our Centre Parcs trip so we had lots of friends around to celebrate with.Kelly girl had an ingenious idea to recycle some pumpkins and carve 36 into them! Bravo!

So for dinner i was gunna get a load of birthday party goodies....hats, napkins, poppers, those horn thingys...but the pound shop was a little bare in that area but i did find some stick on mustaches!!!...so since Anthony was gettin so old, a last minuet make shift gentleman's party was born (10 mustaches, two flat caps and one blazer = total fancy dress of eve. not really a success in that dept! but sometimes ya just cant be bothered with effort can ya?).



I stuck my mustache on and received some strange looks...and then the penny dropped as they realised what was familiar about me and in a chorus they all said 'YOU LOOK LIKE YOUR DAD...THAT'S WEIRD!'. Its true. I knew i looked like my dad but until i stuck this mustache on i didn't realise how much alike we where! HA.

Its uncanny isn't it!??

36 CANDLES

Later we enjoyed pass the parcel, Hot choc and birthday cake by the fire.

Happy Birthday Anthony! Only 4 years off 40! sheesh!!

Centre Parcs Kids

I decided to give the kids their own post because they where mega cute all week and i had so much fun hanging out with them! Take a look......

Where is Jordan's head in the photo below? freaky!

Annabell

Esther

Storey Time

Eli

Hudson

And of course red eyed William!

Centre Parcs 2010

Centre Parcs..........Where we where in the P.O.S.H Posh lodges for a week! I felt like going round doing that Harry Enfield skit and saying to people 'We are considerably richer than YAU'.
Some how Kelly Boy swindled up a cheap deal in the plush lodges. Each room had its own en suite and TV, we had jacuzzi baths and a sauna, a games room/TV room with a snooker table and well games.
We played a game of Mr and missus one night. The Dixon's Lost!
We enjoyed going to the pool each day. I actually got to enjoy the rapids this year! I say enjoy but what i really mean is holding onto my tankini pants whilst simultaneously doing my best to fight off Anthony and get down the rapids quicker than him!

Note to self: next time when on rapids with Anthony where a one piece to maintain dignity! Anthony's fun game.The pool guy got a good flash of my BEEEEHIND!

However it was an improvement on last year when i was heavily pregnant so every one ditched their kids on me and went down the rapids for 'just one turn'...they showed up 30 mins later having hit the rapids multiple times and all the slides too..yer cheers!

The Lodge. 63 Ash.


There where so many T.V's in the place Adam thought they wouldn't miss one!

We always make a point of inviting Laura to centre parcs. She's the one who can get us into the spa for £5. Do we look refreshed. Because we felt it after 9 different steam rooms, one HOT sauna, water beds, and hot tub/pool.....oh and that weird meditation room. Picture this. we are in the meditation room and I sit apart from the other girls. Two strangers come in and i pretend to proper meditate with deep breathing, climaxing in full on humming followed by a stand up stretch wooshy arm movement, a Chinese 'prayer style' bow and a gobbledygook word that you can interpret as 'thank you'! And then I swiftly vacated the room!! heha. You don't get many opportunities these days to act daft so i took it and ran with it!



Hannah, Jordan and little Esther Lau joined us on Thursday and we watched a fire work display across the lake. Below i catch a picture of Anthony with the marching band/parade behind him.
The above photo was taken after we vacated the lodge on the last day. We where supposed to vacate the lodge by 10am. I wake up after a day of food poisoning (it was rough), to hear the cleaners are in the lodge. the time is 8 mins to 10 and nothing is packed up. Needless to say the cleaners where not happy but i was glad of the extra rest Anthony gave me. Anyway thought id explain this photo, maybe its my paranoia but I'm pretty sure i have the 'just fell out of bed' look!