'Twas the week before Christmas

Hi folks how is everyone doing in the final countdown to Christmas? We have been super busy interspersed with periods of sheer laziness. Last week was spent in a frenzy of 'getting things ready', we went into Somerset West which took the entire day between shopping, collecting things and then sitting for two hours at the hospital waiting for my X-rays to be done. I am happy to report no broken toe just ligament damage. The week also included me having a massive 'bake off' on Thursday. I put the oven on at 9 am and only turned it off about 12 hours later. Why so long you may be asking - well, me being me I dcided to do everything, rotating in batches. I started off making a double batch of crunchies (oat biscuits) then while they were baking I mixed up a huge batch of dough to make rusks, which went in when the crunchies came out, while the rusks were baking I made a ciabatta bread, put that in whilst the rusks were cooling. During this time I boiled the mix for a Christmas fruit cake, bread baked then rusks went back in to dry out. Once they were finished I put the Christmas cake in and Voila one exhausted woman and a whole lot of baked goodies ready for the family. Sadly the Ciabatta bread has been repeated about five times since then and the Crunchies tin is looking a tad bleak. So back to the kitchen tomorrow, but this time I will blackmail Poppet and Princess into helping hehe.

The girls arrived safely on Friday afternoon, it is SO good to have them here, now we are just waiting for Big Guy who arrives on Thursday. BigBear and BabyBear fetched them from the airport and then due to the very late sunsets we have here we were able to spend a lovely evening all together catching up and unwinding. This will be repeated in a somewhat greater measure on Thursday when they fetch Big Guy at the airport and then come through for what we call 'Express Christmas' which is where we do an early Christmas dinner and have present opening the following morning. This I s because BigBear and BabyBear will be up the West Coast with her Mom for Christmas. We have decided that actual Christmas Day is going to be extremely laid back, lazy and Hubby darling will be doing a Braai (barbecue). For some reason we have had super hot weather for the last few days although it is clouding up now and the wind has changed direction, hopefully bringing some VERY much needed rain we hope. We have seen the weather forecast for Friday which says we are in for gale force winds and lots of rain, Poppet is already looking forward to a fire going.

Today we went into Kleinmond for a few supplies and oh my goodness it was BUSY and HOT and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into the house. Unfortunately we have to make one more foray into Somerset West on Friday as we are having a get together meal with the other side of our Cape Town family, the last time this particular group were together was at our wedding. Just wish that Miss Muffet and her family were here to be with us. One day soon I pray. I will use that trip to stock up on whatever groceries etc that are needed and then scuttle back home as fast as is possible.

Is everyone this busy of is it just us? The one thing I am completely and utterly delighted about is that Christmas gift shopping is all finished, wrapped and waiting under the tree. Gemma has shown absolutely NO interest in the tree thankfully although I know without a doubt that had Kiko been here she would have caused major damage. I overheard Jelly Bean talking to Hubby dearest the other day where she was saying that apparently I will be solely responsible for her having grey hair (she doesn't have one grey hair yet) - this after I walked outside and somehow my foot slipped down the step, my shoe broke and I ended up in a fairly graceful heap, on my back looking up at the sky #faceinHands apart from my dignity and a rather sore behind I was fine.

Friends we have had a few drops of rain which necessitated Poppet and I both running (running I tell you) out of the house to rescue the dry washing, so on that note I do believe I have rambled on long enough and am going to bid you goodbye until next week. We wish you ALL a very blessed Christmas and I pray that your day will be filled with love and good memories. For those who will be traveling please go safely and for the rest of us be safe and have fun.

The Christmas tree awaiting the balance of parcels.