Happy New Year

Hogmanay was just the girls (and cats) in our house as Andrew was working. We had a walk in the sun with Isla riding her bike. Evie tried out the balance bike for size and her legs are just long enough for it now, it won't be long until she is whizzing along too. And then I will need to get roller skates to keep up!

On New Year's Day we had a delicious steak pie but unfortunately Isla and Evie were poorly so they didn't eat much. But they did look pretty smart in their new dresses.

While Evie had a nap, our home brewing enterprise continued with bottling. Now we have to leave the beer for a month or so until it should be ready.

Isla and Evie have been enjoying their toys.

Today we went out to the park and duckpond. We got soaked by the rain! But at any one moment at least one of us was enjoying ourselves and it was good to get out again after poorliness. Splashing in the puddles, squelching in the mud and feeding the birds was good fun.

This afternoon we baked some fairy cakes. We took it in turns to do the different tasks and used our Hugh Fearnly-Whitingstall recipe  for Victoria sponge recipe. It involves weighing the eggs and then using the same weight of butter, sugar and self raising flour plus some vanilla essence. I think they taste nicer than the Mary Berry recipe we have used previously.

Father Christmas visits!!

On Christmas Eve we went for a walk to post some Christmas cards and presents to friends in the village and look for some Christmas lights and wreaths on people's doors. Isla and Evie were both very excited that they were near the end of their advent calendars and that it was Christmas the next day. Evie knew that Father Christmas was coming to our roof that night "Ho ho ho!"

At last, it was Christmas morning! Isla and Evie were pleased to see that the mince pie and mulled wine left out had been eaten by Santa, and the milk and carrot had been enjoyed by the reindeer. Father Christmas had even written them a letter in reply to Isla's note asking for many presents. Most of all, they were thrilled to see lots of presents in their stockings around the tree!!

Very excited about finding a Dip Dab in her stocking:

Excited about opening her Thomas book:

We headed off to Granny Margaret and Grandad David's house to share Christmas with them and Isla and Evie's cousins and aunty and uncle. We all enjoyed the food, company and presents. Evie and Archie walked around holding hands. Isla could be heard asking "which one is that?" a couple of times and got her fair share of cuddles from the babies. Isla liked trying out Grandad's joke set, especially the chewing gum and squirt ring, and the joke poo, which even got enjoyed by the babies. And there were many, many chocolates on the Christmas tree. To start with anyway.

On Boxing Day Andrew got his new home-brew from Santa started off, with help from Evie:

Pob has been trying a couple of different styles out:

We went into Bath for a look at the Christmas lights and a browse through the shops. When we were having lunch in the Italian pizza restaurant, we saw a street performer painted silver walking past and he stopped, stared spookily and waved at Evie, who was thrilled. 

Yesterday we went off to Bristol and visited the S.S. Great Britain. It was really good and had changed a lot since we'd been around ten years ago. We walked around underneath it and went on board, where there were realistic sounds and smells of the different rooms onboard, such as in the galley and the surgery. A highlight was when Isla got pooed on by a seagull. We had a nice lunch at Bordeaux Quay and saw Carol Vorderman having a coffee with someone!! We went to M-Shed where there were lots of buttons to press and Evie dressed up as a Victorian child.

Today we went swimming. We haven't been swimming for ages and all really enjoyed splashing about. We had a shivery-bite afterwards and then went shopping and played dobble and labyrinth and Lego. And went to the park.