post christmas recap

It's been a wonderful Christmas season! Warning: Long post ahead (with lots of photies)!

We had our office Christmas do on Thursday 17th December, which was tons of fun. Lunch at Harry's then off to the pub for the whole evening. Unfortunately, I drank far more than was necessary and lost my camera. Gutted!!! Not only am I bummed to lose the camera (which my dad gave me) but I've lost all my December photos. But in the evening it started snowing and by the time we were heading home it was a proper blizzard! Those that weren't hungover the next morning were greeted to this:


Glorious!

Unfortunately, it only snowed on the Thursday so the snow quickly turned to ice, dangerous icy roads of death! It was insane, Friday, Saturday and Sunday the sidewalks were actual ice rinks. My wellies did nothing to grip the ice! We ventured into town slowly and carefully, for sure. I saw Leashie on Saturday 19th, and we exchanged Christmas pressies! She made me the most amazing pair of mittens and a lovely lovely hat, plus a book on crochet motifs! Spoiled, I am :)

Then R and I headed off to his parents back in Northern Ireland in the wee hours of the morn on Monday. We booked a nice sensible 8.30am flight and gave ourselves 2 hours. Omg, the line for Easy Jet (which probably had at least 20 flights leaving before ours!) actually snaked past all the other check-ins for all the other airlines. Luckily it was moving quickly, but boy oh boy, I will never not check-in online again! We had a lovely week back with his folks, and his brother and his preggo wife (yay for soon to be neice/nephew!). On Wednesday the 23rd, we all took the train down to Dublin and visited the Guinness Brewery:


Christmas Day was great, too. It's always strange spending the holidays away from your own family because somehow, it never feels right doing new traditions. But I love my in-laws, and they always make me feel right at home. We were back in LA for Christmas last year, so it was great for R to see his folks this year. And next year, there will be a new MCK in the family, so I can't wait for baby's first Christmas! But this year J&J absolutely spoiled us for food. Most delicious Christmas meal ever:


MCK Family Christmas tree:


Compared to our cute little tree back in Brighton (I swear it's not really that crooked...I think):


My favourite pressie by far is the one R got me. It's the Pegasus Necklace (with matching earrings!) from Tatty Devine:



I also treated myself to a new camera, the new Nikon S220 (nothing too flash, but it's shiny and blue!):


Coming home wasn't too painful, only an hour delayed (considering the travel chaos on the British Isles with the snow, we were very lucky indeed!). It's been great being home and relaxing just the two of us. We've been sleeping in every morning until about 10, and just lounging about the house. Bliss! My new project (after scouring over all of R's dad's albums) is to start organizing and printing off all of our pictures. We're going to start with 2009 and work backwards from there. I can't wait! I love looking at the whole MCK family from the last 30-40 years, and I want to make sure we have that for our family :)

Lastly, I finally had a chance to see the movie Cinema Paradiso last night at the Duke of York's. It was okay, but looooong. I don't know if I'd watch it again. A bit too schmaltzy for me. But oh my god, the actor who played Alfredo was an absolute spitting image of my Dad (he may disagree, ha!)

tee hee!

Now I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve tomorrow - we're heading out to Southend on Sea for a little mini gathering. Should be great fun! x

Winter Hat numbero uno

I did a nice and easy winter hat project last weekend, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I used the leftover wooly cream yarn from R's skull and cross bones jumper, so it's super warm, but it doesn't have much stretch to it. I like the little puffs on it, but I might try and make a simpler beret, or a nice beanie, as well. At the moment, I'm too skint to buy a new winter coat, so it looks like I'm stuck with my plain black pea coat. As long as I keep up with nice bright accessories, like hats, scarves, and gloves, it won't be too dull!

Terminator eyes will KILL YOU

autumnal

After our camping trip a couple weekends ago, I was amazed to realise how quickly the seasons are changing. It seemed only yesterday the sun was only setting at 9.30. But in my guitar class the other day, I was shocked to have to turn the light on by 7.30.

Summer is by far my favourite time of year, but autumn does provide a lovely segue into winter. The end of summer always lead to the chain of holidays leading up to Christmas and I love it! It means you always have something to look forward in the not too distant future, and you don't really mind the drop in temperatures because it means Christmas is coming soon (and you get to wear cute jackets and boots!).

September always excites me because it means my birthday is coming up! (Big quarter century one this year *gulp*)



Then after my birthday, time to bring out the cobwebs and candy corn, because Halloween's just around the corner! We've already started thinking about our costumes this year!




After the candy slump, all of a sudden it's time to start planning your Thanksgiving meal! The past two years, I've cooked an entire meal for guests, including mashed potatoes, green beans, cornbread, cranberry sauce, stuffing and of course, the big bird!




After all this build up, we finally arrive to the biggest holiday of them all! Christmas! Now, my family is not religious at all, but Christmas has always been my fave holiday. I love decorating the tree, and attending carols, and dressing up for family dinners, and getting pressies for all my friends and families. Since I've met R, Christmas has been very different, and I actually love developing our own family traditions. By the time we have kids, I think it will be a nice blend of both our families :)




But before I get too far ahead of myself, I have this weekend to enjoy! As R's birthday was last week, and mine is the end of the month, we've planned a joint birthday bowling bonanza (where I will kick some ass) this Saturday at Bloomsbury Lanes, and I'm super excited. I even bought a new dress for the occasion! And in the immortal words of Bill Murray:

Sometimes a bowler just has to face the music.

i <3 snowy days

As you may have heard, Britain's had it's biggest snowfall in a bazillion years. Awesome! And it's even settling in Brighton, on the beach! We enjoyed our snowy evening by visiting the beach last night. This morning was so amazing, the roads were empty, and it was just powder everywhere. Unfortunately, by lunch, it's just turned to slush, and by evening, ice. It's supposedly supposed to continue tonight, but we'll see. Anyway, it's awesome!

And the best part? The decision to get Bailey's and make naughty coffees! 4 down, who knows how many to go?