Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I've been busy this past week, trying to get myself all organised for Christmas, so no time for crafting I'm afraid.  But this year, for the first time I can ever remember, certainly not whilst we've been living in this house (some 20+ years), plans have been thwarted by the weather (or more precisely, the snow)!  I know, I know, in other parts of the world the amount of snow the UK has been experiencing would be looked on as just a sprinkling, but here, it has caused real problems around the country - people stranded, cars abandoned or wrecked, broken limbs from falling over, and although main roads have been "gritted" to a degree all the side roads (ie where everybody lives) have been neglected. 

My car has been buried under a mound of snow for the past three days and is only now just emerging as the snow begins to thaw.  The same at my parents' home, they couldn't get beyond their drive today, everywhere is too icy - I had planned to take up some Christmas food and pressies for them this afternoon, but we've abandoned that idea for today.  Now all the food (that won't fit in my fridge) is chilling out in the garage until tomorrow.  Lindsay and David also have to make the journey over today so hope they don't encounter too many problems with the roads.  It's our dad's birthday tomorrow (Christmas Eve), so we are all supposed to be gathering at our house to celebrate ...... anyway, fingers crossed, it looks like the snow is finally starting to vanish, so all should be well by then.

Mind you, it has been lovely to look out at the snow in all its beauty, especially where it lies thick on the ground with no footprints in it.  We have an old tree at the edge of our driveway and the weight of the snow brought a large (and I mean LARGE) branch down onto the pavement (it's the size of a small Christmas tree!), so we had to drag that back onto the drive.  Luckily, it didn't land on a nearby parked car!

Yesterday evening the sky looked really dramatic too, all turning a fiery pink, as a backdrop to the snow-laden trees and rooftops - and the garden took on a mysterious, eerie glow as dusk fell.

Little Mia has been enjoying "helping" to wrap Christmas presents and exploring the radio - she couldn't figure out where the music was coming from and wondered if she could climb to the top of the aerial! 

We've tethered the top of the Christmas tree with string to avoid it toppling over ..... Mia has had great fun climbing up the trunk on the inside as far up as she can get before we catch her!  One night she came running into the living room with a garland of tinsel streaming out behind her which she could only have pulled off the tree ..... if only I'd had my camera to hand, it was such a funny sight! 

I hope you all have a very happy time over the Christmas/New Year holidays, however you choose to celebrate ..... and I'll be back posting again in 2010, hopefully refreshed and ready to go with new challenges and ideas!