Lego = hours of fun = hours of PEACE!!!

And isn't peace what the Christmas Season is all about?  Well, I certainly struck Gold with my idea of buying the kids a mega bucket of lego this Christmas.  They play for ages with hardly a peep!  And the fact that I love it too, so we can also create together is a bonus.  I would recommend it to every parent of a child old enough to know better than to put it in their mouths.....

And as you can see from the following pictures, even the box is a lot of fun......!

The first picture was taken in their shared bedroom.  We live in a townhouse and the top floor has two bedrooms, with the third bedroom being on the middle floor.  As the children were (and are) still too young, in our opinion, for one of them to sleep on a floor on their own, we decided that they would continue to share.  We also don't like the idea of them getting up in the night to use the toilet or to come into our bed and have to negotiate stairs in a half asleep state.  As we have a playroom on the ground floor, most of their toys stay there and this leaves plenty of room in their quite small bedroom for sleeping, clothes and books.  However, we have now converted the playroom into a temporary guest room as we are having a visitor, and the children are being trained to ask before they go into that room.  Why?  A french student on a placement at their school is coming to stay with us for the month from tomorrow.  I am very excited as it will be a great opportunity for the kids to get to know someone from another country (other than family) - and a great opportunity for me to brush up on my french.  à bientôt !

2010 are you ready for the Allen's???

Because 2010 is going to be our year! 

We had a great time with family in Birmingham seeing in the New Year.  Which usually means lots of noise, lots of fun and even more FOOD!  In two days we had almost every Caribbean speciality....curry, saltfish and ackee, green banana, dumplings, patties, fried fish, Escovitch, roast chicken, roast lamb, rice and peas, and hard dough bread (which despite the name, is the softest, doughiest bread!).....as well as the usual nibbles.....I was so stuffed and have vowed to cut down now 2010 has started.......

All the boys

Cheers!

All the kids insisted on sleeping together in one of Nanny Allen's famous 'floor beds'

They equally insisted that their respective teddies experienced the pleasure too!

Travelling home for Christmas

Which for me means Leicester....

And for Nick means Nottingham...

....where I spied the kids being ever so cute.  Unfortunately, we'd left the camera out in the car over night, and the lens frosted over.  No amount of cleaning and wiping would help, the condensation just kept reappearing instantly.  So not a great quality shot, but you get the idea.  And the camera is back to normal now, thank God!

Christmas Day Part II

Dinner time!!!

Nick sets a beautiful table

Jasmine is NOT amused that dinner is still not ready yet...Ben on the other hand has already started!

Beautifully moist turkey

Delicious stuffing

crackers and cava

Presents!

Jas models her gifts from Ben

There's a story behind that headgear!  Nick was cleaning the kitchen as I was finishing off dinner...as I am not of the 'clean as you go' school, Nick decided to get all Marco Pierre White on me! "Clean down your station Chef!" he yelled as he banged a wooden sponn down near me....I think he was getting into character a little too readily!

Finally, the lego Jasmine had asked Santa for (though it was to share)!  And a huge box at that

Blankets and Button babies (courtesy of yours truly and Alex!)

Pippi with her artwork

Anyone fancy a game of 'Kerplunk!' ?

Look at that mess!  I was so good at not getting all anal.  I let it go, it is Christmas after all, the season of goodwill....

One worn out, but very happy, contented and Baileys-mellowed mummy

Christmas Day Part I

Looks like Santa and his reindeers enjoyed their snacks!

Before the kids went to bed last night, I told them that in order not to confuse Santa, they should stay in their own beds the whole night. Otherwise if he sees empty beds, he might think there aren't any children in the house anymore and not leave them any presents.....  Both Ben and Jasmine promised to stay in their beds.  Ben was quite reluctant though and took some convincing.  Needless to say, he came into our room in the wee hours.  He'd seen that Santa and the Reindeers' snacks had been eaten and surmised that, since he'd already visited, he could safely come into our bed.  I sent him back.  And I sent him back the second and third time he came in....each time telling him that he needed to see the night through.  To be honest, I was enjoying the unusual amount of free bed-space.  I did feel a bit guilty though when he sulked back to his room with his lip trailing on the floor.....

But soon enough, it was MORNING!!! and the kids came into our room lugging their heavy Santa Sacks...

Jas wanted to know why Santa didn't get her anything off her list.....(these kids are too smart!)  "Er, well, that's because he knew mummy was already buying something off the list!" I fudged...."oh, and he knows you like to do art, so he got you lots of crafty stuff instead!"  She accepted that (I even heard her telling her aunty Dawn that on the phone later!

Ben get's his snowglobe! And yes, he's still in that old costume!!!

This Christmas was one of Firsts for me.  The first First was that I went to church for the first time ever on Christmas day.  Now, having been brought up in a Christian home and family, you'd have thought I'd have made it before now, but I hadn't.  This year I decided I was going to make the effort - in keeping with trying to appreciate Christmas for more than the eating and presents.  I couldn't convince the kids though.  Or Nick.  They stayed at home in their pyjamas - Nick back in bed and the kids snuggling with Pippi......

The next first, was going for a walk on Christmas day.  The weather was beautiful.  A crisp winter's day with the most dazzling sunshine.  We decided to go for a walk around the lake at Blenheim Palace which is just 10 mins drive from our house.

Nick getting a stone out of Jasmine's welly

Ben does his best Wallace & Gromit grin!

Ahhh, what a lovely couple lol!

our future home.....

Christmas Eve....

Making some food for Santa's Reindeers.....

yes, Ben is still wearing that costume!

Santa gets a brownie and some baileys (or rather I get the brownie and MIL gets the Baileys!)

two not-at-all-tired children pretending to sleep so Santa will come....

Christmas day prep

So far I have made pate and homemade stock, baked a meringue for my Eton mess and baked toffee pecan brownies.  The spiced red cabbage is braising and the turkey is stuffed with herbs, carrots, celery, onion and garlic, as well as having a layer of herb butter under its skin - it is now waiting to go in tomorrow.  The stuffing is made and ready to go into the oven tomorrow and the pancake batter ready to be cooked for breakfast tomorrow.  All that is left is to par boil the potatoes and finish off a bit of tidying, then it's a glass of bailey's and a brownie!

A peak at some of the food.....

Chicken liver, fig and port pate.  Looks gross, tastes delicious!  And not for the diet-conscious either!

 

Turkey!

I also finally finished the kids quilts.......and despite the many amateur mistakes (it is only the second project I've done on a sewing machine), I am so pleased with how they look and very proud of myself.  A lot of hard work and time has gone into their making.  From the hours I spent trawling the internet and the local sewing shop choosing and sourcing fabrics, to the many hours I've spent in the middle of the night sat at my sewing machine (often times cursing it - especially when the thread kept snapping and I had to unpick and redo my stitches about 10 times!!!), to finishing the quilts by hand tying them and adding the buttons,  And here are my masterpieces.....

the front of Jasmine's quilt

a close up to try and show the different buttons used

a peek at the back

The back of Ben's quilt - I put the buttons on this side because they didn't look right againts the elephant print

A close up of the buttons - Ben got to pick these out for himself, though he didn't know what they were for...

The front. with the gorgeous elephant fabric from Japan

the front and back together

And how did I manage to keep the kids occupied whilst I have been beavering away?  Well, worried that they were too quiet, I went to go see what was up and found them like this

Now that is a really difficult puzzle, but they were doing really well (Ben is wearing the chinese suit from their dressing up box that he put on yesterday and went to bed in - he's still in it as I type...)

When they got fed up with this, they resorted to playfighting - cue tears and strops.  To entertain them some more I hid gold and silver chocolate coins around the house and had them go find them.  When they got them all, I allowed them to eat one every time they completed a task.  First task was to make their beds.  Second was to tidy the mess in the playroom.  Third was to watch a cartoon (there has to be some fun!) and lastly, before daddy got home and saved the day, they had to go and read a book each.  This left me to cook and blog!