What's not to love?

OK, so there are times when I stop and thank my lucky stars, not only for the good health of myself and my loved ones, but also for the fact that weekends like I have just experienced are no longer few and far between but a weekly occurrence................I couldn't ask for more.

I've been feeling really unwell this weekend but standing at the edge of our country and enjoying not only the feeling of space, but the sea air in my lungs has helped no end, I may resemble Rudolf the red nosed reindeer at present, but hey who cares, I've had a fab weekend.

A request from the shrimps to go for 'coffee & cake' at our favourite beach cafe,'The Winking Prawn' at North Sands, Salcombe, certainly didn't meet with much opposition from us. It may of course have something to do with the huge dressing up box that they love to delve through...

And dress themselves up to entertain not only us, but those at surrounding tables..

'Ay, Ay Sailor'.

"Maybe I'll grow into it"?

"Loving this hat, darlingggggggg"....

We always follow our visit with a walk on the beach immediately outside.

They love to explore and climb over the rocks.

It doesn't take long for the shrimps to get wet so I invested in waterproof dungarees, which seemed to do the job!!

A little further along the road and we reach Southsands and views such as these.....I certainly didn't feel as if this was a winter weekend in January....this view couldn't help but lift my spirits!

For me, my favourite time of the week is when I creep out of bed on a Sat/Sun morning without waking the family and enjoy the beautiful sunrises as I walk along the quay with the dogs.....All that can be heard is the sound of the water gently lapping against the boats or the birds above.

I love to walk to the waters edge and spend a moment contemplating the day ahead........bliss.

As it turned out, this morning we found ourselves 15 minutes down the road in Beesands, a favourite of the shrimps as not only do the get to ride on their scooters....

.......but play in the little park and run on the beach whilst I beachcomb, adding to my collection of driftwood...not to mention enjoying views such as this, the sun glistening in the sea and the soothing sound of the gentle waves.......

So you can see, I have very little to complain about in my life for which I'm eternally grateful for. I went through a little patch a few months ago when I contemplated if this 'split' life was worth it, after all there is alot of driving/packing/un-packing/gardening/cleaning etc involved in running and visiting two homes, I don't for a minute expect anyone reading this to feel sorry for me, but it is the reality. Those times were however during the dark/rainy weekends, when we have weekends such as this it makes me realise why we have sacrificed other things to give ourselves a wonderful quality to our lives where we get to enjoy the best of both worlds.......Long may it continue.

Frosty the Snowman....

Oh my goodness, what a slack blogger I've been of late....the last few weeks have gone by in a bit of a blur to be honest. So much going on and so much to enjoy, I'm not quite sure where to begin!

Since I last posted we have been busy...

...Visiting Santa at Longleat, which is something we've done for the last 5 years. The train takes you into the middle of Longleat's wood, where you are greated by a roaring fire, trees sparkling with different colour fairy lights and a woodland chalet where the shrimps escaped the cold for a few minutes to visit Santa.

Before we left for Longleat, they wrote their letters to Santa...

....ready to be posted on the board outside the chalet for Santa to read later on...

On the 24th when we returned from the Crib service at church, Daddy's old boots were left out in the porch for St Nicholas to fill with sweets (my daughters aren't stupid, they soon worked out they could get more in Daddy's boots than their own shoes!!.....they were so excited when they actually heard the reindeer sleigh bells and a 'Ho, Ho, Ho' outside the door.

With their Daddy being half German, it's a tradition that we follow each and every year and something that truly makes Christmas Eve for us all. The girls also opened presents off their little friends and always look forward to opening their presents from Uncle Thomas over in Germany before phoning him to wish him a very Frohe Weinachten (Happy Christmas).

Of course there were more presents to open on Christmas Day....

A particular favourite of little shrimps being some Minnie Mouse shoes that have hardly left her feet since.

And a fun sparkly Christmas cake to enjoy, courtesy of my mother....

In our household Boxing Day is always celebrated in the same way as Christmas Day, we even give out Boxing Day presents... More guests arrived and were treated to a Christmas show by the shrimps! By the way if you hadn't guessed, little shrimp is Mary!

On the 27th, we packed up our car full of new toys and lots of warm clothes and headed to Devon for a week full of relaxation.............pure bliss.......no sales to trawl around, no retail parks to visit...no supermarkets to endure, just a week of family fun. Lots of games were played, family films watched, left over chocolates and treats eaten and long walks on the beaches and along the quay to blow away the cobwebs. We even managed to meet up with big shrimp's best friend from school at the Winking Prawn in Salcombe on New Years Eve. She was visiting her grandparents that live a few minutes walk away. The girls had great fun exploring the rock pools for Mermaids Purses!

New Years Day was fabulous. As we were up and about early, we headed to Bigbury on Sea. We arrived around 9.45am and apart from 2 other couples , we had the entire beach to ourselves. It was only at around 11am that others started to arrive. It was fabulous, the dogs and girls absolutely exhausted themselves running around and climbing all over the rocks in search of Mermaid houses (you may have guessed, but my daughters are slightly obsessed by Mermaids).
We returned home at the weekend ready for school on Monday morning and however much I love my daughters I was REALLY looking forward to my first day off from the girls in almost 5 weeks. I get 2 childfree days a week when big shrimp is at school and little shrimp at pre-school. I relish these days SO much after 5 solid years of 24/7 childcare with no family nearby to ever give me break. Before Christmas both girls managed to be ill during those childfree days for the 2/3 wks leading up to the big day and with all the Christmas preparations falling on my shoulders I was almost cartwheeling down the lane last night at the prospect of a 'Me' day today!....no whinging, temper tantrums or whining to listen to (Little shrimps 'terrible twos' started at 18 months of age and she's still going strong/getting worse at 3.5 years.

You can imagine how, however beautiful this scene was to wake up to this morning, my heart sank a little when I heard the list of school closures....Oh well, may as well make the most of it and turn it into a day of fun....

Yes, very funny, hit a woman with a snowball when she's helpless with a camera in her hand....

Yes, you'd better start running, or better still girls, get daddy.

Making such a friendly looking snowman put a smile back on my face, isn't he sweet?

Ok now, that's enough raiding of mummy's button tin....can we put the lid back on now please?

I hope that snowball isn't meant for me?!

Now, shall I make a run for it determined to still get that 'me' day, or shall I curl up on the settee with the girls, heating up full whack and enjoying a few good films?.....

Looking at the lane from our front door I think the 'me' day will have to wait another week!

Wherever you are reading this, I wish you a happy and healthy 2010. Have a wonderful day and if you're in the UK I hope the snow isn't effecting you too much and you're able to enjoy it.

"It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas"......

Christmas DVDs are out and being watched.

Festive CDs are being played and sung along to.

Cards read and displayed.

Many doors on the Advent Calender are now open.

I don't think I am supposed to have noticed that someone just couldn't wait!!

Teachers' presents waiting to be taken to school.

Nearly all the chocolates in the 'advent man' have been eaten.

And drawers now laying empty of treats.

The advent candle is getting smaller by the day.

Artificial tree decorated traditionally in sitting room.

7ft 'real' tree decorated with contemporary sparkly decorations in family room, with lots of room underneath for presents!!!

Santas hang from light fittings in flying cars.

Wooden hearts hang from door knobs.

Mantles are decorated with musical ornaments.

Stocking holders wait patiently for 24th Dec.

As does this lovely Santa who sees and knows all about how little girls are behaving, ready to inform the real Santa when he squeezes down the chimney.

What a mean mummy I am?........ It's working though!!!

Enjoy the lead up to Christmas, wherever you are.

Hey Rudolph.....

Being only too aware of how quickly these magical first Christmas's fly by with little ones, I wanted to do something a little bit special for Big Shrimp to give out to all her little friends at 'big' school. She's so excited with this being her first Christmas at school and is loving all the fun times that these final weeks are bringing to the classroom. So I've been a very busy mummy today making sure that she has something to make her fellow classmates smile....

1. Hand draw 40 (Little shrimp got in on the act too and wanted some to take to pre-school), cartoon reindeers onto brown card.

2. Stick on red stickers for noses and hand glue 80 wobbly eyes!

3. Buy 3 pots of edible glitter, meaning that when the children sprinkle it on the ground it won't harm the wildlife, as opposed to using real glitter.

4. Mix with bird food.

5. Add to cellophane bags and staple. The camera hasn't picked up just how sparkly it is!

6. Stickers added to card read....

7. Reverse sticker wishing each pupil a very Happy Christmas from the shrimps.

8. Add Candy Canes.

And we're good to go.........................

The pleasure of parcels.

Don't you just love receiving parcels through the post? It's definitely one of life's pleasures. Sometimes the parcels you receive make you gasp a little in anticipation, this was one such parcel.

You may remember in my last post a picture of big shrimp carefully decorating a Christmas decoration? We were unable to stay long enough on Sunday for them to emerge from the kiln so the owners of the Art Cafe kindly offered to send them on to us.

All week I have been waiting for the postie to arrive to see if they have been delivered and today was the day!

I was able to see this work of art, transformed from this.......

.......to this. Only another mother could truly understand how precious these tree decorations are to me. With them named and dated on the reverse, I'm sure we will delight in un-wrapping these with the tree decorations for years and years to come.