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!

Snow, and a new door

What an exciting and fun weekend, and sooo many pictures and videos to go through and share. So settle yourself and get ready for an epic update!

Pickle with her snowman drawing

First of all the antics of Pickle on Saturday morning as she drew a Sammy Snowman on the window of the lounge and then was hanging upside down by her boots. Rosie thought it was brilliant when she found her.

First thing Saturday morning

Rosie and Dutch playing in the snow

Thelma bouncing through the snow

Xena and Dutch chasing each other

Rosie loving the snow!

Saving the peas, I hope

The snow building up even on thin branches

This is foreshadowing as it snowed from Friday night all night and pretty well all through Saturday and we had epic fun with it! I was up just before Rosie and let the puppies out onto the fresh snow. It was very beautiful! After finding Pickle (and waking Angela up with her excitement) Rosie got wrapped up and went outside to play with Dutch while I got my exercises done and after that I also wrapped myself up and went out. Thelma joined us for a bit but mostly it was me, Rosie, Xena and Dutch having lots of fun. I was heading to start building a snowman when I noticed that all the pea plants were totally collapsed, and the frame had gone with them, because of the weight of the snow so I called Angela and we both worked together to recover them and tie them all back up. The snow was very sticky and sitting on branches which was potentially causing damage to other plants as well.

Rosie placed this snow on Sammy

Bringing more snow

Happy playing together in the snow

Rosie is happy Sammy is taller than her

Our Snow Angel

The flower still hanging in there - just

Xena bouncing through the snow

Very festive with real snow now

With that done Rosie and I set to rolling and gathering snow and built ourselves an absolutely epic Sammy Snowman. Rosie was gathering snow from all over and she was doing very well patting it in place and helping with the assembly. With the body, head and shoulders done we grabbed some sticks, egg shells for eyes, a chili for the nose and a plastic shape for the mouth and we were happy with him. After that there was plenty more snow play, and I also went round a load of the trees and plants and freed them from the snow, and then we spent quite some time throwing a toy for Xena and Dutch. It was fun but we were ready for the fire and dry clothes when we went back in.

Rosie working on the jigsaw

The awesome lego box is out

Thelma and Louise cuddle up

After drying off we had a lot of fun inside as well, with more progress made on our jigsaw (Rosie was doing SO well, she found loads of pieces without help and slotted them in correctly) and also we pulled the lego out for a bit and she had a lot of fun playing with it, then put it all away herself. That evening we once again settled down for some Lord of the Rings films and then bed. It was a brilliant day.

Rosie so light she doesn't break the surface!

Sunday morning is one picture and LOTS of videos. We took ourselves outside as soon as it was a little warmer (it was a glorious sunny day) to the slope by the chicken enclosure and made ourselves a sledding slope then spent a good hour or so sliding down and having all the fun (and getting cold and snow inside our backs and all that good stuff too). Rosie really impressed me as we went up and she just jumped on the sled on her own and went down the slope without any fear! It was brilliant fun and I'm gutted that today (as I'm typing) has been so warm that the sun melted this too much for us to go again.

Heading back in after finding Pickle

Very cold and icy conditions

The tree got snow damaged

Frost on the vehicle gate

It was so cold last night I had to wear socks in bed and we were up very early because of the snow as driving Rosie to school was a concern with how icy the roads would be. First off, however, we had to find Pickle who was outside on our sledding slope in her own sled. It was too dark for a picture of that however Rosie was very impressed and amused. The drive to school, I left with Rosie 15 minutes earlier than normal, was OK with only a couple of slides on the hill but on the way back up it was freezing fog and -6 on the hill, though a little warmer up by us. I had to stop and push one of my neighbours out of the deep snow as he was stuck. Unfortunately I hadn't thought of my Silver Birch trees by the driveway and they have once again been damaged by snow. It was super frosty indeed, but the sun was already coming up and burning the fog off.

Bekir gets started

Hammering bricks to size

Getting ready for the door

The new door is delivered

Super quick fitting

And so to the men, who managed to get up to our place even in Halil's little Golf. They weren't even late! The first task was to get the beam, poured on Friday, out of its shuttering which they did and then they slotted bricks into the gap above it to fill that in. They were working away on this until the window people arrived with the new door and fitted this in very short order indeed. It is a big door and looks great and will give us very good access into this storage.

Such a beautiful winter day

Halil plasters at the far end

Bekir continuing on the electrics

It really was a glorious day today however I didn't have the best one as the upstairs toilet blocked. Twice. I spent about an hour unblocking it the first time and was successful but then towards the end of the day I found that it had blocked again and this time our cleaning tool wasn't long enough, even from the extra access port we fitted on the wall downstairs. Hopefully we can get it resolved soon. The men were now continuing on the tasks in the cupboard under the stairs with Halil plastering while Bekir worked on the electrics. I've told them I want this completed this week so let's see how they do!

Rosie, Sammy and Dutch

After school me and Rosie went to check on Sammy who has lost her head but is still standing tall - taller than I expected after the heat of the sun. This evening we have watched more Lord of the Rings and I'm now thankfully done with this update!

So there it is, an epic update indeed. I hope you watched all the videos, they're all short but very funny. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.