Merry Christmas to all…

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas, filled with love and laughter.  And hugs.  Hugs are always good 🙂

…and to all, a good night!

x

More Monkey Adventures

Day 22 of Advent and Monkey was getting himself party ready by practising his dancing.

He only does ‘sitting down dancing’ as his legs are a bit uncoordinated.

He can still bust some fancy moves though.

When he finally stopped boogying and took a proper look at his gift, he discovered that the instructions for his 7-in-1 multi tool were written in Chinese.  Sadly Monkey does not speak or read Chinese.

He’s worked out that there’s a saw at the top, then a can opener on the corner, an extremely sharp blade/knife running down the side, a bottle opener to the left of that, and a screwdriver on the bottom right corner but he’s stumped about the rest.

Do you have any idea what those remaining holey bits do?!

x

Monkey’s Advent Adventures

This is essentially a guest post by Barn as what follows is his creation – an idea he came up with to visually share his advent calendar with family and friends – I thought you might enjoy it too 🙂

On Day 1 there were Minion socks and Day 2 a miniature but very powerful torch (ideal for camping trips).  On Day 3 Monkey was introduced to the scene…

On Day 3 of Advent…

…a knitted Monkey become involved with opening the calendar.

He immediately took ownership of the contents.

Day 3 – A passing Monkey was drawn to the bright colours on the tree and asked what was going on.  After having the concept explained to him he asked to join in then immediately lay claim to the contents of box no. 3.

Ooh, what’s in here?

Treatment for man flu – bound to come in handy.

Day 4 – Curious Monkey discovered a Man Flu treatment in his box…and immediately felt a headache coming on.

Monkey is so excited he’s biting his nails.

Calm down Monkey!

Monkey has a new chocolatey friend.

Day 5 – Monkey got so excited he was biting his nails, and actually got a trifle over giddy.  When he finally got the wrapper off he was very pleased with his new chocolate friend.

Went for a bike ride and came back to find Monkey waiting at the window…

…he gave a great big cheer when I walked in.

Off for a good scrub with his new shower gel – hopefully he’ll get some of that muck off from around his mouth.

Day 6 – Barn went for a bike ride and came home to find Monkey anxiously watching out for him at the window.  Monkey gave a great big cheer when he came in, then rushed off to get in the shower with his new shower gel.

On Day 7 Monkey was sent to collect the box.

He was out of breath when he got back…

…but thought it was well worth it for a chocolate snowman.

Day 7 – Monkey was sent to climb up and collect the box from the tree.   He was quite out of breath when he got back but felt it was worth it for a chocolate snowman.

Monkey’s just finishing his breakfast before opening number 8.

Daft Monkey’s got the box stuck on his hand.

Oh Yeah! I got chocolate!

Day 8 – After having his breakfast Monkey was in such a rush to get to his present that he got his hand stuck in the box.  After freeing himself and opening the gift he decided to laze around and do nothing but dream and eat the chocolate bars he’d received.

On Day 9 Monkey models his new reindeer antlers

Gobsmacked by his new Santa socks!

Day 9 – Monkey upped the festive spirit by popping on his new reindeer antlers for the box opening.  He was gobsmacked by the Santa socks he got.

Oh Christmas, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

It’s the 1st of December, which means only one thing – we can start opening our advent calendars!  Hooray, hooray, hooray!

I’ve been very excited about advent this year. Like, really, really excited…the fit to burst kind.  You see, earlier in the year I decided to save up and surprise Big Sis with the Selfridges beauty Advent calendar.

To say I was thrilled that I managed to get one, despite them being limited availability and selling faster than the proverbial hot cakes, would be something of an understatement.

That has been exciting enough in itself, but then I’ve also put together personalised calendars for…

DIY Advent No. 1: Socks on a Line – Pre-printed numbers cut from an ‘in the January sales’ bargain price calendar and glued to ordinary laundry pegs. Baby socks were filled with gifts then pegged onto the string washing line.

…Mum…

DIY Advent No. 2: More ‘bought in the January sales’ bargains – this time little self assembly gift boxes which have been filled with small gifts and hung from a white tree branch. This is an artificial one branch with a stand which I already had, but you could spray paint an actual branch and wedge it in a pot.

…Barn…

DIY Advent No. 3: This is Petit Man’s childhood Advent calendar, now hanging on the fireplace of his first own home 🙂
Some left over pieces of green satin and cream damask pattern fabric were sewn into little pouches and numbers written on the fronts using a gold pen. They were then filled with gifts and tied onto a gold cord using contrasting ribbons.

…and a joint one for Petit Man and Mme. E (he’s green, she’s cream, and they both get something on the 24th).

So you see, since January I’ve been building not only calendars, but also a huge level of gleeful anticipation about handing them over 🙂

Gorgeous advent calendar containing handmade scented wax melts – from Busy Bee Candles

Then, when I went yesterday to deliver the goodies to Mum and Big Sis, they surprised me with an advent calendar of my own.  This tipped me over the edge of reasonable adult behaviour, such that I could barely sleep last night through sheer excited anticipation.

My calendar has a little scented wax melt for each day, and came with this pretty ceramic owl burner.  Today’s scent is called ‘Crazy’, which to me smells of pine and pepper – which is surprisingly nice.  A certain someone commented on the appropriateness of it for me.  I think that sort of remark’s just not necessary.

Mum, Big Sis and Barn loved their first gifts and sent pictures, which made my day extra fun too.  Petit Man will doubtless call me tomorrow morning about today’s gift, because he’s hopelessly disorganised like that 😉

As Big Sis and I observed, advent calendars have come a long way since the days when we took turns to open little paper doors to find, if you were lucky, a picture of the Star of Bethlehem (if you were unlucky it was a drawing of a tree bauble).

Come to think of it, I think I’d actually still rather like one of those.  And now I wouldn’t resent it being Big Sis and Bro’s turn to open a door.  Probably.

Oh, and by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed it yet, I REALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!  May the joys of the festive season be upon you too because more Christmas themed post are inevitably going to follow.  Only 24 sleeps to go… 😉

x

A peek through the window

If you were to peep through my living room window right now (which I sincerely hope you don’t, because that would be creepy), you might deduce that I quite like Christmas. Our tree went up yesterday and underneath it are bags full of wrapped and beribboned presents.  Every time I see it, it fair makes my heart sing with pleasure.

Now, I’m going to get a bit navel gaze-y for a minute here, so you might want to skip forward a bit…

I was told quite recently, by someone once close to me, that the things that are important to me are “just materialistic crap” (another story, not to be told here).   This is the kind of barb that can leave a sore; more than once during my Christmas preparations I’ve paused to question the ‘rightness’ of the degree of pleasure that I’m getting from buying things for people and spending money on non-essentials to make my home feel cosy and pretty.

I find myself to be absolutely ok with it!