sleigh bells ring

I had such a lovely Thanksgiving this year!

Lovely lovely Alicia moved down to London, and joined us for the day. I brought out my little 1.5k (3lb - hey, he was cute) turkey, and I made cranberry sauce (from scratch and AMAZING, thanks Martha), garlic mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, roasted carrots and parsnips, lemon butter green beans, stuffing and gravy to go with Mr Gobble Gobble. A few pals from work came along, so we managed to feed (and more impressively, seat) 8 people in our wee flat. It was cozy, fun and delicious. And we even had a special delivery earlier in the day - my grandma in LA sent us some Peppermint Bark. We had it for dessert, what a treat! And one of my co-workers picked up some turkey napkin holders for me, boy did they look snazzy.


On the weekend, our friend Glenda's son turned one and we went to his little birthday party. I guess one year olds don't really have friends, so it was actually a bit of a boozer (no other kids in sight), which I can never complain about. How cute is James hanging out with his daddy????


We've also just stepped into the month of December, yippee! On the dot, out came Father Christmas for our front door, and Elvis Christmas Carols on Napster. I've also had a chance to make some new festive cushion covers:


Hmm, they look a bit wrinkly...but trust me, they are festive!

First mince pies of the season:


And out came the advent calendars:


Hopefully this weekend, we'll finish our christmas cards, pick up a little tree and get it decorated. Bring on the festivities!

been pretty un-busy

I haven't been up to much recently. The weekend of the 8-9 was spent doing nothing, and boy was it lovely. We were both recovering from the lurgie, so I finally ventured out of the house on Saturday and walked along the beach (coughing the whole way).

As I had taken 2 days off work (for being sick), I was so so rammed when I got back. And it didn't help that I was going on a trip to our printers for a tour for a couple days. Eep! But it was beautiful! A few of us from work left Tuesday afternoon, and drove up to Shaftesbury to our little BnB, and a curry. We spent the day touring the printers and learning a bit about print production. It was great to be out of the office for a few days (and all on expenses, you really can't complain!) A few little pics of the trip - we were in proper English countryside!

view from the pub

Golden Hill, where they apparently filmed the famous Hovis advert in the 70s

gorgeous English countryside

On the weekend, we took a trip to Westcliff in Essex to visit our friends Glenda and Dave and their little boy, James. We haven't seen them since March, and James is now 9 months old! It's amazing how fast they grow - he even has little teeth now! His hair was much darker when he was born, but it's turned pretty blond, and is super fluffy like a little bird!

doesn't that make you go, 'oooh I want one of those?'

James n' me, chillaxing at the beach

Babies, when they're newborn, are terrifying, but at this age, they develop such a sense of personality and curiousity about the world. I can definitely feel the broody factor growing after trips like this, but I also know we're just not in any financial position to consider kids right now. In the meantime, I love our friends having babies!

This week is pretty relaxed - but I need to get back into the exercise groove. I have done zero exercise since the triathlon, and it's starting to get a bit pathetic. I'm going for a swim tomorrow after work, and now that I have my bike back, I'll go for a little ride on Wednesday before my guitar class. And maybe, just maybe, we'll even go to the pub quiz that night! Oooh the exciting life of a married 20-something :)