What else is there to do except hibernate...

  

Joe spends his days curled up on the sofa.....

....While dad spends hours laid on the bed, hard to tell them apart, but Joe doesn't shout so loudly on the phone.  I have been making presents and trimmings and Charlotte has had Matt to keep her company for a few days.  As yet we haven't any snow but it is certainly VERY cold.

We have finally got Wifi, it is dad's christmas present from Charlotte, and Matt connected it up for us yesterday.  So we can now use the internet without freezing in the conservatory.  But problems, problems my camera is playing up, the flash seems to be broken....

I won a prize....

...in a Boots promotion, they rang me yesterday and asked me to collect it from New Oscott.  So over we went, Charlotte and I, and spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering round the shops there.  The prize, only just fitted into my largest shopping bag, and has been squirreled away into someone's present box! 
      Got into M and S just as they were putting out the bargains, Ch was a tad overexcited as most bits were only 50 pence.  So we had soup for supper, followed by chilli marinaded prawns with tomatoes and clotted cream rice pudding.  It's sausages and soup for lunch tomorrow, with a big bag of oranges, as well as more prawns stashed in the freezer for another time.  As it was so cold yesterday we ate in front of the TV, cooking our supper on the little Raclette machine Irene gave me last year.
     It was such beautiful sunshine this morning we nipped out for a couple of pics...

      .....I swept up and put everything ready for Christmas[and winter]the other day....

     Brought everything in, out of the greenhouse with all this cold that is expected over the next couple of weeks.   My Christmas cacti is just about to flower and is packed with buds, that has had to come and live in the conservatory until spring.  Cleaned up after Ch's fire basket evening and put it all ready in case she decides to do it all over again.  We need to look out for a few bits of wood and fir cones when we go out for our walks, but Joe is quite happy to snooze on the sofa, only nipping out for a quick wee, and then yapping to come straight back into the warm again.

Messing around with my camera settings.......

......and took this pic of my flowers, was rather pleased with it too!

Christmas is coming.......

            ...and Joey just cannot wait....

                 

...his Christmas suit has been hanging by his bed since Halloween.........

......I have been making Christmas trees with all the felt that Irene gave me.....

....and Charlotte got into my craft room last night to make someone's present...the mess she left was unbelievable!

The girls have gone home.....

...both Kate and Emma are back at work tomorrow.  Charlotte has spent a peaceful, snoozy afternoon curled up in her chair recovering from FRIDAY night, she is obviously way too old to stand the pace. 
     Took the girls into town to catch their buses this morning and had a couple of hours to wander round town, didn't need anything just had a wander, it wasn't particulaly busy but there was so many lovely presents and trimmings around.  Went into Debenhams and although there was some nice things for sale it was obvious that the shop hadn't been cleaned from the previous day!  The floors were dirty, lots of rubbish and fluff rolling around and discarded cans, coffee cups and papers discarded on the display stands!  Down to Selfridges and the difference was very obvious, it was all clean and tidy as well as been bright and cheerful to look around. I wished I could buy my own Christmas presents this year, there was so many things I liked.
     Spent the afternoon sorting papers in the family room, the filing cabinet is overflowing onto the floor.  We now have 3 bags of shreded paper ready to go to recycle, so we have made a good start.

Busy few days, with lots of visitors...

coming and going for Charlotte's birthday..Matt came to stay, and Sel and Pete, Chi joined us for a rather cold BBQ and Kate and Emma have also stayed for most of the week.  Now dad is back, looking rather chubby to say the least!

It has been really cold and then really wet so we have been out and about between downpours.  Met up with Selina after her conference and went to the new Jamie Oliver restaurant for supper on the 2nd day open, it is really big with 300 seats and dozens of staff.   It doesn't have an instore deli, despite it's size, it was a delicous evening and we were well and truly looked after.

Charlotte has been doing a bit if driving and getting used to her new car, she drove into town, Lichfield and upto Tesco in Brownhills and Oscott a couple of times.  All she needs is a bit of confidence and possibly power steering!

Made a good start on our Christmas shopping and Selina has taken a tree and some trimmings for her house, I want to get all the trimmings out for a good sorting and throw all those old lights away, if they don't work whats the point of keeping them all, just in case we get chance to mend them-we are talking about a very large crate, not just acouple of strings kicking about. 

Planning  to go to New LIfe this afternoon and then to Caldmore for our supper, looks like fatty daddy is here for a few more days yet then.

I had my hair cut....

...so has he.
His was a lot more expensive than mine.
He came back in looking very pleased with his new look.

He was in the kitchen tonight, just willing me to drop that spagetti bolognaise into his mouth.......funny how he totally ignores me when he gets what he wants!

Charlotte having a go at driving the camper van.

Darsh has gone on his holiday, it is so peaceful around here, no constant background of shouting and endless mobile phones ringing. I can actually hear Joe slurping in his dish. Funny how I didn't hear Charlotte yelling and banging when she locked herself in the conservatory, I thought it was a combination of fireworks and "trick or treaters" I never realised it was a desperate trainee solicitor, missing the start of X Factor!

Charlotte is busy painting...

...the bathroom ceiling and sorting out all sorts of rubbish...Selina and Pete are coming over later to celebrate Charlotte getting a training contract and to eat birthday roast lamb.  We went shopping last night and Ch. thought I was buying fresh apricots in Tesco..."Yuk" she squealed, holding up the pack in disgust,"who's going to eat them?"  "I don't know" I said, "it's not my trolley".  She put them back mighty quickly and apologised profusely to the trolley's 'owner' who was stood behind her shaking his head!  The shock was so great she bought an 8 pack of Snickers ice cream and scoffed 3 by the time we got from the shop to the car...."don't want them to melt" was her excuse....yeah right.

It was a very wet bonfire night so we sat in front of the telly with the curtains open, scoffing enchilladas [and Snickers for pudding.]  Decided on a walk in the rain, taking Joe, who surprisingly, was well and truly up for it.  He was pulling ahead at the end of his long lead when a rocket went up right in front of him, he watched it for a few seconds then firmly turned round and headed straight past us back to the front door.  When we got back later-dripping-he was sat on the top stair waiting for us.  That was obviously his new favourite spot, dry warm and well away from any sudden surprises.


    Charlotte was keen to open the champagne....

          
         ......Selina preffered to watch the X Factor...

Kylie was on

HMV in the 21st century!

I think it was the cuddle as much as the music, but his face says "turn it down".

Charlotte sat in the hall in a sunny spot to read the paper, she wasn't to know that was someone else's favourite spot and the newspaper on the floor was an additional favourite......and if there was a free cuddle thrown in...bring it on! Silly dog