cpie's baptism and christmas

sadly i don't have any photos of cpie in her lovely dress - this is the dress which o made for stella when she was baptised - this is mainly because i was too caught up in the actual ceremony - and then she changed into 'ordinary attire' for the drive to the restaurant where we had a meal - never min! - hope you like these:

the star of the show:

oma with lizzie and f'ster:


cat and janey:


g and me (looking typically stressed!!):




. . . and then it was christmas:

this is our crib - we have had the figures well over 20 years - most of them are a bit chipped now and poor old joseph's head has fallen off a few times and been glued back on - boogs made the stable 8 years ago when he was recovering from his throat op:


christmas eve: me, g, o, kpie and rich:


jpie:


and cpie:


and last of all: my tree - this fell over just after i had finished doing it the first time and i didn't have the heart to start all over again so just chucked the dec on after that!! - still it doesn't look too bad - though there is a decided tilt!!

cpie

i did say i would post december pics - but i'm a bit pushed for time tonight so i'll do them next bloggins

i will just add this pic of cpie last march: she was just 2 days old . . . and it was the first time i met her . . . in the words of stevie wonder 'isn't she lo- o - v - ley?'

look!! photos!!

Yay!! Cracked it!!
now to update with photos of the last few months:
LAST JUNE: we went to Austria:

It really IS this beautiful!


g, janey and eric in berg

We also went to Helen and Geoff's Pearl Wedding Celebrations - I forgot to take my camera but a friend mailed me this shot of eric in his weskit:

JULY:

F'ster as we first knew him

David and Becky's Wedding:

In the chapel

Tony, Kathy and Anna with Jess

and here are anna and jess with claire who was one of the bridesmaids.
claire also has the honour of being my one-and-only god-daughter . . . and she is LOVELY!!

SEPTEMBER: Anna and Ricky's wedding:

Anna and Ricky at the Reception

anna and claire with kpie

stella concentrating on her camera, kpie concentrating on? mischief?

my kpie! . . . and if this isn't mischief personified . . . .

back next time with photos of cpie's baptism . . . and christmas

more luck than judgement!

i'm not sure which of the photos i have uploaded here - it should be (l - r) cpie (in the customised t-shirt Auntie Mary made), jpie, kpie holding lpip
hope you like it - if i have been successful, more to follow!

my news since last time . . .

it has been an exhausting and emotional 2 weeks!!

stella and the pies are still here - rich travelled down by train to help out with jpie and cpie for a few days (kpie nipped off to cornwall with jackie and company for a week's hols) when stella went down with flu - and then i caught it too which didn't help!!

little lpip is doing well - she was transferred to the brompton hospital when she was 4 days old and frankie and alex stayed with her there for a week. but now she has been discharged and they are all home - hoorah!! - stella and the pies called in on them and kpie, jpie and cpie were all delighted to meet their new little cousin - with f'ster included, that means 5 cousins born within 4 years - what fun for them all as they grow up!!

pipkin has arrived safely!

and she is doing well!
weighed 7 lb 14 oz
real name: lucia-rose collette
mummy daddy and all the family thrilled to bits!
another instalment some time soon . . .

this life, this week

I have hardly touched base this week - it has been very busy

but briefly:

wednesday: met pauline in the essex for chat and drinks - really enjoyable evening!

thursday: zoomed up to luton after work for tutorial -it's ahassle getting there but well worth the effort

friday: party at liz and david's to celebrate OFSTED - another great evening

saturday/sunday: to janey and eric's - arrived for coffee, then after lunch we went for a good walk around the grounds at calke - cold but beautiful sunshine - janey cooked a fabulous dinner of duck and trimmings . . . and we sat around the table (peter joined us) and, as usual, we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed! more laughing and talking this morning . . . and eric made a terrific 'hearty'.

frankie: is still bearing up - only one more week of work. spoke to her this evening and she sounds well but looking forward to finishing work next friday and (hopefully) a well-earned rest before the baby

this is what is says about a canna!!
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

i am this flower!

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

Burns Night

had the most fantastic evening at the rose and crown, rickmansworth, with a group from work.

this was the first Burns Night i have been too and, lord!!! what fun it was!!

this was the programme of events:

piper outside to pipe us in

first course of salmon/or scotch broth (i had salmon)

piping in of the haggis - with poem!!

toast to the haggis (with whisky)

main course: haggis (yumm!! - this was totally delicious!!)

toast to the lassies

toast to the laddies

pudding - not sure what this was but it was marvellous

then a space was cleared and we had a tutored ceilidh - which was HUGE fun

at some point people from different tables got up and read a burns poem each but i forget when, exactly, this happened - david was the brave soul from our table!!

we all had such a terrific time that we resolved to come again next year - hoorah for matt who organised it all with such enthusiasm!!

if i were clever enough to know how to put links, i would do one for the pub as it is well worth a visit: fantastic atmosphere, welcoming staff, lovely old building and wonderful food! - please go if ever you find yourself in the area - i'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed!!

grrr!!! car parking!!!

i have just written a very moany entry about car parking in watford

but then i read it through and it really was so very boring that i felt it just didn't deserve to be published

so i deleted it

and all i can say is:

don't attempt the shrubbery car park by the town hall

today it took my money, let me through the barrier and then: there were no spaces!!

it's rubbish!!!

wheeeeeee!

phew! well what a week that was for weather!!

stella phoned on thursday to say that a tree in the park over the road from their home had fallen towards the houses, just missing the windows of next-door-but-one and blocking the road. fortunately no one was hurt though it did cause disruption for some hours and missed s and r's car by inches!!

fran and alex's area lost most of their fences and numerous twigs and branches came off my trees though everything else survived intact. there used to be 3 large pine trees in our garden but 2 of them were damaged in the hurricane of 1987 so the previous owner had those 2 chopped down to stumps. i was a little worried about the remaining one - it is too far from the house to do any damage but didn't fancy all the clearing up!! but it's a sturdy old thing and is obviously good for a few years yet.

other than that it has been a quiet week:

went to janine's on wednesday - and then as soon as i came home, started to make myself a cheese roll - and sliced through the top of my left thumb!! (it is only a little cut - that was a bit over-dramatic!! - lol!!)

eleanor phoned on thursday to say tutorial was cancelled because of the storms and disruptions on the roads - so spent a cosy evening in front of the fire with a mug of hot chocolate, a blanket and a book - mmm - bliss!!

a temporary (january-related) low

well it's been an absolutely dire week at work - totally totally dreadful!

thank heavens for lovely friends:

book group on wednesday: which was here and we discussed 'the abortionist's daughter' by elisabeth hyde

women's group on thursday: which was at cathy's and we decided on the programme for the year

evening with the neighbours on friday: which was at tess and richard's - and lara and ricky came too and so did tess from no 10 (whom i had not so far met)

and thank heavens for lovely relatives too:

stella, frankie, janey and eric who all (wittingly or unwittingly) managed to cheer me up when i was more than a little despairing

oh yes we did!!

no prizes for guessing where i went yesterday evening!!

janey, eric and lizzie came to stay and we went to the aladdin pantomime at the palace. kezia, jago, rich and most of rich's family (almost the whole of the front 2 rows!!) were there too - and a jolly time was had by all!!

it's years since i last went to a panto - since the girls were small in fact - and i really enjoyed it!! - it was a lot of fun!!

both thomas and daniel (k and j's cousins) were invited on stage to sing, mime and (in daniel's case) tell a joke!! and it was lovely to see kezia shouting and doing the actions in audience participation

we were supposed to be going to 'much ado about nothing' at the novello but, because i stupidly left it too late to get tickets, decided to say nothing and just turn up 'behind you!!' at the panto. i think james and imy were suitably aghast at the sight of us there!!

and then we all went back to jackie's and had a cup of tea and saw stella and clara, who can now walk (!!) - at least she does when she feels like it!

janey, eric and lizzie left around 10 this morning as they had to get back to ashby, load lizzie's stuff and take her back to sheffield

ricky came round and made short work of digging up the stumps of hedge along the front of my garden

and i've been doing my latest assignment most of the day

. . . and now that 2007 is here . . .

. . . this is it so far:

new year:

the meal at jude and john's was super - the whole evening was great fun - and we watched the 'fireworks on the green' from the back garden to the accompaniment of yowling foxes in the undergrowth

i dobbed out on the new's day walk and lunch at the clarendon as i really had too much to do at home - but called briefly on fran/alex on the way back and met alex's younger brother patrick who had stayed the night with them

wednesday evening:

met pauline in the essex - and saw the photos of sophie - she is lo-o-o-ovely!! babies eh?? they're just so-o-o exciting!!

yesterday (thursday):

to london after work to see the 'alice in wonderland' ballet at the coliseum. as a small child i had a book with the 'tenniel' drawings and at that time i found both the drawings and the story itself rather frightening. the plot was difficult to convey in dance and i think that if one had not read the book it might well have been confusing. that said, it was very enjoyable with some superb balletic sequences and i was impressed by the way the costumes and the make-up were so true to the original drawings - very clever!!

today:

stella, rich and the pies arrived this afternoon at jackie's - hoorah!! but i haven't been round to see them because

a) i woke very early this morning after a late night and have double vision from tiredness and

b) i have to get all the decorations and christmas tree down tonight . . .

altogether now . . . . aaahhh!!

final thoughts for 2006

post-christmas has been for me a quiet and peaceful time:
friday: went for meal in the evening with jackie and trisha to the 'windmill' at chipperfield - very pleasant!
saturday: lots of 'course' reading - French Revolution - and general tidying up - and watched 'The Hours' in the evening - excellent! - knitting too - have almost finished my scarf
today: stella phoned to say she rich and the pies were at luton on their way home - and then 30 minutes later they turned up in my driveway!! - they had forgotten jago's bupp - disaster!! - quick coffee/milk/ christmas cake and then they were off again
had text message from pauline to say tim and debbie's baby girl born at 10 this morning - hoorah!! - sophie may - lovely name!!
new year's eve dinner . . . is at judy and john's this evening - janey and eric, jane and dave and denny and jonno will be there too - and then i am going back to denny and jon's to stay the night - this is a great tradition!!
and so for all my readers near and far . . .
i wish you all a very
happy and healthy 2007
may all your trials and tribulations be small
and all your joys and triumphs be great
onwards and upwards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

away in a manger . . .

. . . is possibly my favourite christmas carol

when eric and i were little we lived next door to a lovely couple called nan and cecil pollett and every christmas eve we would go and sing a carol outside their kitchen door and they would invite us in for a hot drink and mince pies (nan pollett had the best hand for pastry that i have ever known!!). every year we would sing 'away in a manger' and every year o would say 'oh sing something different this year'. we never did!! children are such little traditionalists - we never needed even to discuss it - we just stood outside the door and sang - and it was the same very year.

this year, stella taught kpie to sing it - which she did beautifully of course!! - on christmas eve we had a little ceremony of jpie putting the baby in the crib while we all sang - kpie had a 'solo' on the first verse! prior to this, i had put the baby in the cupboard the crib stands on and got him out to hand him to jago. kpie and jpie spent much of the evening hiding him back in the cupboard when they thought no-one was looking - hahaha!

CHRISTMAS 2006:

christmas eve:

frankie and alex collected o and g and brought them down to bushey and stella, rich and the pies came over too. we had a lovely meal all together - we had lasagne, salad and crusty bread - and it was just great to have all the generations together - the great-grandparents (o and g) in their 80s, then me, then stella and rich and frankie and alex all in their 20s, then the pies:kpie, jpie and cpie all under 4 and last but certainly not least, pipkin! terrific atmosphere!!

christmas day:

o and g and i were up for 'quick breakfast' and then early mass - stella, rich and the pies were there too - and janet and geoff came as well - an added bonus!!

back to our house for salmon and brioches and coffee and/or milk and then communal present openings

frankie arrived while we were 'presenting' and then stelps and co left for lunch at jackie's

alex and malcolm came soon after - it did feel a bit like victoria station!! - and we had a (very) late lunch and just generally sat around talking and relaxing into the evening - very pleasant day for most of us - poor frankie was unwell again with a recurrence of the 'bug' she had a couple of weeks ago

(footnote: she is ok now but has passed it on to alex!!)

boxing day:

we were up late today for a day of 'doing nothing'

stella came round just before noon and so we all had lunch together which was nice and relaxing and then stella went back to jackie's

watched a bit of tv and played cards in the evening - thinking of boogs who used to love a game of cards!

yesterday:

i took o and g home and was back here mid afternoon

frankie and alex popped round - f had been to the mid-wife: all well.

today:

stella, rich and pies round for lunch - more left-overs!! - and kpie and jpie had some of the 'special' christmas cake we made back in the autumn - they enjoyed it - yay!!!

jpie went for a little sleep after lunch and kpie, stella, rich and i played a game of ludo - i must say they play a very peculiar version which consists of building 'barriers'!! which made it last for ages!!

so that's christmas 2006 - and it was lovely!!!

and this did stress me out . . .

. . . although i'm laughing now!! - almost!!!

i decorated the christmas tree tonight:

foil over the little table that it always stands on

trailed the lights from top to bottom and then checked that they were nicely distributed

decorations placed on the tree starting at the top and then proceeding downwards with military presicision

and then i started to push the whole thing into the corner between the two sofas where it always stands

and then the whole darned thing fell over!!

about half the decorations fell off

the lights became all twisted and tangled

and lots of the needles fell off and made a mess on the carpet!!!

hahahaha!!

well i got it up again but didn't have the heart to take everything off and start again

so it doesn't look at good as it normally does - the lights aren't really very well distributed now - and there is a decided 'lean' !! towards one of the sofas which i can't seem to correct

and i am a little bit worried that it may all fall down again in the middle of the night

but actually . . .

i think its quite funny really

hahahaha

christmas is coming . . . .

. . . and i was almost stressed about it!!

thursday before last:

infants' nativity play - aaahhh!! - was lovely and funny too with lots of topical bits (watford supporters, ofsted inspectors etc) as well as all the traditional parts - don't you just love the way the wise men always but always have to have a 'page' each so that every child gets to be in the play? - this felt like the beginning of christmas for me!!

last wednesday:

christmas lunch at school - which was lovely! - i sat with some wonderful children and monique - who is the school bursar - and a good time was had by all!! this was followed immediately by:

christmas shopping: had been starting to feel a bit panicky as i thought i had done so little - but when i looked at the stash i have been collecting everytime i see 'something-i-think-someone-would-like' i found i had done at least half of it!! so i only needed to finish off - managed that pretty sharpish so that now i think i really have finished the present shopping . . . and then that evening it was . . .

book group: at catherine's house where we had biscuits, mince pies and seasonal drinks and talked about tracy chevallier's 'virgin blue' which we had all enjoyed - but which still provoked quite a bit of discussion

friday:

collected the christmas tree after work then out in the evening for the p & t christmas 'do'. we went to the 'rose and crown' just outside harefield . food was excellent and then a space was cleared on the floor for scottish dancing - hoots mon!! - i have to say that mel, matt and i did very well (kath, chris and sarah declined to dance!) but guests at other tables (some of whom were 'drunk as stoats') were rubbish!!

today:

christmas lunch with the p & t team (yes i know we had christmas dinner on friday - this was christmas lunch - ok?) at '143' was very pleasant

the house is now all tidy so i am just about to go and decorate the tree, put wreath on front door and do rest of the decorations - and then tomorrow it is christmas lunch with the income team - i really am getting into the christmas spirit!!!

clara's baptism . . .

. . . was lovely!!

it was during the 10.30 mass at their local church so a very early start for all of us hertfordshire folk!

kezia and jago behaved beautifully . . . and so did the other children: freddie, thomas, jessica, toby, eve and isabelle all came too . . . and james and imy were great at looking after them - at 15 and 12 they were very grown-up!!

brian and fiona were the god-parents - and it was lovely to see other of stella's friends from school too - as well as heaps of relatives!!

clara was an absolute star!! i was in fits laughing when the water was poured over her head - she didn't mind the water at all - but she struggled in stella's arms so she could turn around and look to see where it had come from and where it was going - she is a very inquisitive child!!!

sadly, frankie was unable to come as she had a really bad case of what we think is gastro-enteritis - we all missed her and alex - it was the only blot on an otherwise perfect day!!