Christmas, New Year, and back to tiling

All through the Christmas break I've meant to write a catchup update so my update today wouldn't be quite so long and crazy however I'm sitting here now with the men working downstairs and I've got a bunch to catch up on so let's get to it!

Pickle riding her plane

Snow still on the ground

T shirts are now hung on the wall

Rosie vacuuming under the old desk

Rosie with her final advent calendar chocolate

A glorious sunrise on Christmas Eve

Now that's a big goat leg

Too big for our cooker!

Sammy still hanging on

Getting stuck into our feast

Rosie ready for bed

Now Christmas can happen

So back to Christmas Eve Eve and one of the most fun Elf hunts we had which involved Pickle riding the foam airplane round and round while attached to one of our ceiling fans. It was epic! Rosie really loved the Elf this year and now that she's gone she is already looking forward to next Christmas. I had to pop to town to collect some stuff from the courier and while I was out was called by Angela because of a broken blender so an emergency pit stop was help which ended up successful. When I got back I spent some time hanging up some of my gig t shirts along the roof corridor and then Rosie and I did our Saturday cleaning with Rosie being super helpful and operating the vacuum cleaner. Christmas Eve was another beautiful day, Rosie was happy to finally get to the large chocolate in her advent calendar and we had a fun day of goat preparation (including me getting the hack saw out again) so it could be prepared before the big day. Sammy the snowman had just not completely melted yet and there was some swinging and running around outside before a super fun Christmas Eve Feast, like a buffet which we all really enjoyed. Rosie headed to bed with her Christmas Eve toys and Angela and I watched Die Hard before hitting the sack early ourselves. Rosie had been told to not wake us unless it was light outside but we had no real hope of that happening...

A very super excited Rosie

These puppies love Christmas

Rosie loves her new puppet

Rosie has worn this dress EVERY day since!

There's a little of Sammy remaining

Perfectly cooked goat leg

Playing with mummy

... and it didn't. It was about 5:30 that Rosie appeared upstairs super excited having found her stocking hanging on her door with some gifts in it. That was it and our day began and what an absolutely lovely day it was. Just the best. I did take lots of pictures of presents being opened through the day but won't bore you with them all. As is traditional Thelma and Xena got incredibly excited to tear up wrapping paper. Sammy did hang on until Christmas day, against all the odds of the warm weather we've been experiencing, so we can pretend it was a white Christmas. The roast goat was just beyond amazing (as always, to be honest) and after dinner there was still time for playing with some of the new toys she received, some fun swords and shields.

Now I can listen to my records again

Rosie with floppy eared bunny

Cooking up breakfast

Rosie all made up

Rosie is great at this game!

None of us are good at this game

Setting cones out to drive around

Chilling out at Nanny's house

Amazing tasty Goat Curry

Boxing day began with time to set up the sound system in the roof so I could listen to my record that was my gift from my mum. Rosie also came to join me and it was a lovely time to listen to Pink Floyd together. Then I cooked up some Bubble & Squeak from leftovers from yesterday and it was very tasty indeed. The rest of the day was full of fun and play. Rosie got her new makeup up, then we played a few games of air hockey (a gift from me to Angela) and finally a game of "Who Am I?" which was bought for Rosie and we had a great time. The weather was so lovely Rosie got to drive her car around the patio for ages before heading over to the neighbours and spending time with Nanny. My favourite time of the year, however, is Goat Curry and it was just so tasty. Everything has been awesome this year.

Rosie on the Merry Go Round at the park

Rosie checking out the Christmas decorations

Let's have some burger for lunch

Thelma dragging Rosie around

Another burger at another restaurant

DVD storage in place

Rosie planting some bulbs

Very proud of finishing her jigsaw

Rosie taking pictures of EVERYTHING

Between Christmas and New Year we continued to have lots of family fun and taking advantage of being able to spend time together. We went to the park in town to see the small fun fayre, check out the public decorations, then went for lunch at a takeaway. Later on we went to go to a new restaurant a friend has just opened however unfortunately he didn't have his chef in so we went to a normal restaurant where we technically needed a reservation but they fitted us in anyway. I also found time to put up a new DVD storage unit which actually isn't big enough so we've got another one on its way. Outside the weather was nice enough that we got a few jobs done, including planting out a whole load of bulbs to brighten up spring.  Rosie has been getting really good at jigsaw puzzles recently and finished an epic one before New Year. She actually did another the same size just last weekend. Brilliant! New Year was both awesome and a bit rubbish - the rubbish was because Angela came down unwell and was not able to join us however the evening was back to the best again and Rosie and I had a blast before heading home just before New Year so we could watch the fireworks from the balcony.

Rosie riding her bike around

New bass guitar and she's a beaut

Angela chipping up some sticks

Rosie teaching Dutch on the lead

Working on a small jigsaw

Gluing together wood with me

She's now finished this jigsaw

And so to the last few pictures before today. We've continued to have lovely weather and have taken advantage as much as we can to get outside, both for play and also to get chores done. I got a new bass guitar, Dutch was trained a little on his lead (and he's rubbish at it!) and inside Rosie did more jigsaws and also helped me with some fabrication of wooden frames that will be used for the new model railway that is being started.

Bekir working in the cramped area

Bekir chiseling away at the floor

First wall tile being positioned

A whole lot of wall tiling

State of play at the end of the day

Today we had the men back to complete the tiling for the cupboard under the stairs. The first task was the floor tiles and they got almost all of those done, the only ones left are the final few right round the corner into the lowest part of the cupboard. There was some fiddly pieces to cut and fit around by the door and then they began to set the tiles on the walls to act as skirting boards. This part of the job has now almost been completed as well so tomorrow hopefully they can complete those last few tiles round the corner, and do the grouting. We shall see.

So there we have it. We're caught up, and should be back again tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Christmas Eve Eve

Today is Christmas Eve Eve and the last working day of the year for the men (and probably for me as well).

Rosie's super hair do

The sun burns through the fog

A metal strip to secure this block

Continuing to lay blocks

A beautiful flower on my dad's plants

Angela did Rosie's hair in a very lovely plat today and I liked it so much I had to take a picture to share it. I took her to school again this morning, the last day of the year for her as well, and it was foggy and frosty and cold and on the way back I stopped at the top of the village to photograph the sun burning through. Upstairs the workmen were in and carrying on with laying blocks for the walls up there. Bekir showed me how he is tying in the single bricks going up by the wooden beams either side of the storage access doors; he is attaching these metal strips to the wood and then embedding them into the cement. This will make these walls very strong and not likely to topple. I did a little tidying and that while Angela headed to the dentist and saw that my Dad's flowers are blooming where we put them on the windowsills in the lounge. They look lovely, and Angela has done such an epic job of keeping them alive.

A pile of leaves and grasses that Halil raked up

Ready to dump this into the toilet

Starting to clear out this unsightly mess

Burning the waste

Thelma and Xena play tug with the toy

At lunch time I took my food to sit outside on the patio as it was such a lovely day and saw that Halil had been doing some tidying by the end of the patio; he had raked out all the leaves and long grasses that were clogging that area. When I finished my lunch I grabbed the wheelbarrow and started to sift through all this material, removing stones, and put three barrowloads into the humanure and then another three or four over by the garden for Angela to use as mulch. In the mean time Halil was now cracking on clearing up the rubbish pile that has developed in the old lime pit we put there all those years ago. He separated out any wood that could dry and be used in his fire at home while taking the rest over to the other dump to burn. Angela came home while we were doing this and we discussed plans for the garden for next year while watching Thelma and Xena play with the toy.

Bekir continues the block work

Shoveling out years of rubbish

A goat leg, all ready for Christmas

Look at what an excellent job Halil has done

The cable ducts are cemented in place now

Inside Bekir was working away on his own to get as much of the walls finished as possible and he also moved the network cable that goes to Angela's art room. Halil continued with his clearing and tidying task outside and was making great progress, shoveling years of leaves and ashes and other assorted rubbish out of the pit. At lunch time the men had headed out and picked up the goat leg for our Christmas dinner and it looks like a very good chunk this year. By the end of the day Halil had completely cleared that horrible pile of rubbish while upstairs Bekir was done with the walls and had also cemented in the ducts that hold the power lines for the right hand side of the roof.

Rosie with her gifts from the men

Four eggs from two days

Rosie stirs the jelly

As the day came to a close and when Rosie got home from school we gave the men their Christmas gifts and Rosie received some awesome presents in return. I had heard a chicken laying an egg earlier and popped into the chicken house to find that we now have two chickens laying; this is two eggs each from two chickens. Very exciting. While I was writing the first part of this update Rosie was with Angela helping to make jelly for over the Christmas period which she did very well indeed. She's now in bed and hopefully sleeping well as she is understandably very very excited for Christmas.

So there it is. The year is done for the builders and near enough done for us. I may well be back during the week before New Year to catch up on Christmas but we shall see how it goes. Thanks for reading, Happy Christmas to you all.