Chez Spud

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

It’s beginning to feel a bit like…

Posted under Things I hate

17 Comments »

…etc etc etc. I’m writing my Christmas cards. A task so mind numbingly boring that scooping out my own eyeball with a spoon and eating it would be more fun. I’m alleviating the worst of the tedium and the taste of the envelopes (MOO are you listening? Yuck to your gum…pity the fool who has 100 cards to write) with wine. What else?

I’m feeling the love though and would like to add some of you lovely bloggy pals to the list. So leave a comment and tell me your WORST Christmas chore and what you do to make it more tolerable.  The first 10 to leave a comment will get a Christmas card from me (email me your addy!) and, bonus, a little Christmas present for the funniest response (doesn’t have to be in the first 10).

Come on, make me laugh. I hate this chore. Only one thing for it…down the hatch and bottoms up, chin chin.

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Christmas card photoshoot…NEVER AGAIN

Posted under Photography

12 Comments »

Next year I’m buying Christmas cards in packets. Or going pagan or something. I am NOT ever ever ever attempting a Christmas Card Photoshoot never ever again. I really thought I’d get a cracking shot this year. I finally kind of know my way around a camera and the boys even have nativity dressing up outfits for the nursery play next week (Diggy isn’t actually in the play but is insistent on being the lesser-known-thumb-sucking-fourth- king-bearing-’attitude’ probably…).

So last weekend I brandished some Smarties and attempted to bribe those megaboys in to their outfits and in to the garden for a photoshoot. Diggy was compliant, Bertie threw a monstrous tantrum. Attempt one? Fail.

I tried again today. Both were willing, hoorah, but SHEESH it was like herding cats. They just wouldn’t stay still, look at the camera etc etc. So I got the photo above (very ‘star of wonder’ I thought….moody, but hardly a two boys first equal shot). Then this, lovely but erm only one boy…

Then there was this, so sweet but Bertie’s got mischief on his mind…and it’s a bit out of focus too…

Oh, wait, yes Bertie definitely has mischief on his mind…he seems to be strangling his brother here…still, at least it’s in focus…

Diggy, zoned out post strangulation…

Then it got silly…

This is the best I got. Two boys? Check. Two boys looking at the camera? Check. Vaguely in focus? Check. No strangulation going on? Check. Spud out of patience anyway let’s call it a wrap? Check. Break open the Smarties mummy? You betcha.

Bah humbug.

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Treasure Two: My Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted under Material things I love, Ten Treasures

11 Comments »

USA: Land of the Free, home of appletinis...

I have a really large and special collection of Christmas tree decorations. My mother started the collection when I was a child, and bought me one, very beautiful decoration each year so that I would have a real treasure chest of decorations when the time came for me to have my own tree.

Terrible photo of our tree a few years ago

Terrible photo - taken with a P&S (gasp)

When she died, I inherited her huge collection too…so it’s quite a big box now, too many to actually put them all on the tree in fact so I have to rotate them a bit.

Taken with the Nikon...much better...

My Mum was big in to Christmas. And when I say big, I mean BIG. I used to cringe as I drove down the road coming back for Christmas once I’d left home, I think our house was visible from Outer Space. These days I would probably really appreciate it as the boys would like her over the top approach way more than my minimalist one!  Bah humbug.

Hang on! Whats THAT doing in there? Taken with an Olympus (double gasp)

Hang on! What's THAT doing in there? Taken with an Olympus (double gasp)

Some are very special…the grim plastic fairy with no knickers on which used to adorn the top of the tree as a child…the slightly manky looking fairy which a friend gave me for my 5th birthday…hand carved russian figures bought in Moscow…a little beaded angel from our honeymoon in South Africa…dressing the Christmas tree is like a trip down memory lane for me and I love it.

But the stars & stripes heart pictured above is my favourite one. I actually bought this one myself in New York. I have spent a lot of time working in the US over the years, and I miss it. But a little piece of the Land of the Free nestles on my Christmas tree each year…to remind me of the appletini years.

Wot no appletini?

Wot no appletini?

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Secret 26…I will never, ever forgive Mr Spud for ‘the saucepans’

Posted under 30 Secrets in 30 Days, People I love

20 Comments »

Oh how MrSpud just adores this story…

Let’s go back. Way back. Way back when. Back to the early days of me and MrSpud’s courtship, when we were young, less lined and at least one of us was a whole lot less shouty. Let’s go back to Christmas 2001 shall we? We’d been dating for 3 months, it was getting serious – he’d given me a key for his house, I’d introduced him to my cats…you know the score.

He’d impressed me with his ability to actually ‘give me a call sometime’ and I’d started to adjust to Life with a Little Bloke (although I was still hoping he might grow at that stage, or that he might consider built up shoes?)

And then, out of nowhere, it was Christmas and it was time to meet ‘the family’. I remember parking outside MrSpud’s family home feeling a little shaky with nerves, but felt a whole lot better after spotting MrSpud at the window upstairs and giving him a cheery wave and enthusiastically blowing kisses to him. Thank GOD I didn’t take it any further as it turned out to be MrSpud’s brother, and not MrSpud, at the window. Not a brilliant start I will admit.

After that it all went swimmingly. I loved them, they loved me, we all loved each other. There was a ‘bit’ of a moment when they forced me to endure 3 hours of Hobbit related nonsense at the cinema but I was full of bonhomie and only penciled them in to the Grudge Book, for review at a later date.

And then came the time for ‘The Exchange of Gifts’ between me and MrSpud. Naturally, this being our first Christmas, I had spent hours researching and sourcing unusual and fitting gifts…a book he’d mentioned he’d love that was out of print…a tedious TV documentary he had loved as a teenager…and a ‘new to the market must have’ watch with a camera in it.  Each lovingly wrapped and beautifully presented. He was thrilled with them all…I had triumphed.

Then he handed me a couple of plastic carrier bags and mumbled something about ‘not knowing what to get me’. I was alarmed at the weight of the bags but quickly computed that heavy = loads of gifts and relaxed.

I started ferreting around in the bags and was a bit puzzled to find a sea of white tissue paper. At this point MrSpud started to look a bit shifty and mumbled something about not having had time to wrap my presents. These days I would immediately start berating him for such a transgression, but it was early days and I let it lie (whilst frantically scribbling the Grudge Book).  Fiinally I got to the bottom of all the tissue paper and unearthed…a set of saucepans. With the price still on. AND THEY WERE 50% OFF.

Yes, that’s right. My husband bought me saucepans, in the sale, for our first Christmas together. And didn’t even wrap them up, he just handed them over in the bags from the shop. WHAT…THE..HELL…WAS…HE…THINKING?

He will never, ever live this story down. His friends howled at him when they found out. As a punishment he has to cook my dinner every night for as long as those saucepans are still intact. They are Le Creuset. They have a lifetime guarantee….who’s laughing now, saucepan boy?

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