Church Carol Service

This year the Carol Service was taken by my old Sunday School teacher, which was just so lovely. Now she is no longer permanently assigned to a particular parish, when she is able, she has been attending our village church again. It's wonderful to see her and her husband again after such a long time.

The Small Person was an angel as part of the Sunday School involvement and had to say:
"The child that is born of you shall be holy,and shall be called the son of God".
She practiced all week to remember the words without the paper in front of her :)

We bribed the Smaller Person with Haribo to keep him quiet! Although it didn't stop him from piping up every now and again, especially when the readings were taken place. I read one of the readings this time, and the Smaller Person recognised the other readers too, so during the last reading he asked (quite loudly) "when's Daddy's turn?" Well, if Mummy gets a turn, surely Daddy gets a turn...

As usual, we ended a lovely festive evening with mulled wine and mince pies, and chatting with friends and neighbours. That's what Christmas is all about!

Lucy Price Christmas Party 2012

We had the busiest weekend ever, but it was fun busy. We'd had apple club, the light switch on and the Christmas tree festival on Friday, we had dance class with the showcase in the morning, then we had to hurry back home, do a quick change and head to the village hall for the Lucy Price Christmas party.

Our village has a trust for children which is called the Lucy Price trust, and they hold two Christmas parties for the children every year, one for the older children and one for the younger children (up to the age of 7).

The younger children were entertained by Uncle Mick who got them dancing, did a little bit of magic with them, played pass the parcel and then led a conga line around the room. The Small Person was a bit disappointed she didn't get a turn on pass the parcel (even though Uncle Mick asked her if she'd had a turn yet, and when she said she hadn't, he said, don't worry you'll be next, then he stopped it on a little girl who'd had a turn) but she took it quite well, considering. Other than that, they had a great time, Uncle Mick's great at getting thekids to join in and have fun. He's pretty good a making them laugh too. the Smaller Person kept saying 'man scary' but he didn't seem actually afraid of him, it was more like he considered it a game, running up to him, then running away. He was quite happy to join in the songs and games.

Afterwards, they all had their little tea party. Lots of little sandwiches and other buffet food with mini crackers for each of them. The party is great for all the children because it gets most of the children in the village together. They may all live in the same place, but the attend all sorts of different schools, and at this age, are too young to go off on their own around the village to visit each other.

After food, Santa always visits to talk to the children and give them a gift, but this year was an extra special treat because Jolly Jester Jingles was here too! The Small Person absolutely ADORES Jingles. She had Jingles for her superhero party a couple of years ago, and we used to see her at Warwick Castle when we visited. Jingles came to get the children ready for Santa and help them call him from far away. Once they had shouted loud enough, we could hear Santa's bells.

He came in with a sleigh full of gifts and sat on his special chair. Jingles helped call the names out and each child got their special gift. The Small Person got a lovely case with a knit your own owl kit inside. She hasn't tried knitting yet, but I promised her, once she's got the hang of sewing, I'll show her. She has visions of knitting everyone Christmas presents next year! The Smaller Person got Mike the Knight and Gallahad the horse. He's suitably pleased with those, he likes Mike the Knight and often watches it on TV.

After the festivities we visited my Nan and Grandad so the children could show what gifts Santa had brought and chat about what a wonderful time they'd had.

Alexandra had another party to go to in the early afternoon! Back over to dance class for their Christmas celebration. We used the time to race around the supermarket buying last minute things for her birthday party and a few things that will keep for Christmas. We just managed it in time and got back to collect her at 4.30pm. Phew!

And that wan't the end of our jam-packed weekend...

Baginton Village Christmas Fayre - 2012

It's that time of year again - the busy run up to Christmas! It begins right here with our village Christmas Fayre. We will be non-stop busy from this point onwards, and I will swear we have no idea where all the time has gone, and then in a flash, it will be New Year and I'll be wishing we had more time to relax!

So, anyway, our Christmas Fayre was held in the Village Hall yesterday.

Most of the stalls were run by various village groups like the WI and the Church. There were the usual refreshments and mulled wine with mince pies.

There were raffles and tombolas.

The gardening club had pine cones for the children to decorate (like we made for Toddler Group Tuesday this last week) and also Christmas wreathes for anyone to have a try at.

There were stalls selling jewellery and a knitted items, cards and cakes. The art group had different pieces of their art on display and for sale in the committee room where people were sitting for tea and cakes.

Santa stopped by to see the children and give them all little gifts. (The Small Person was asked if she'd like to be a helper like last year, but wasn't that keen this time. I don't think she really knew what to say to Santa standing there so long with him!)

Mr Bogert's Mum and sister stopped by with Auntie Dawn for a browse of the stalls and a cup of tea. (We're heading over to Mr Bogert's mum's for Sunday dinner tomorrow and to celebrate his sister's birthday.) We also saw plenty of neighbours and friends, including one of the Small Person's little friends, so we were able to pass on the last of her birthday invitations. We had a lovely couple of hours.

Did we win any of the raffles? No, in fact, we're really disappointed not to have won the Christmas tree, but there's always next year...!

Bonfire Night 2012

"Remember, remember the 5th of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot."



 

 

 

Although i'st not offically Guy Fawkes night until Monday, the Village bonfire and fireworks are always held on the closest Saturday, so that's where we've been this evening.

 

 

It was icy cold, but once the bonfire was lit, we wamred up. Volunteers ran stalls selling hot and cold drinks, burgers, hot dogs and jacket potatoes, sweets, sparklers and alcohol.

 

 

It's always such a lovely relaxed and friendly atmosphere with lots of familiar faces. Mr Bogert was on the cash gate this year, so we took him hot drinks and a burger to defrost him! :)

 

 

 



Harvest Festival

This evening was harvest festival at our village church. I always enjoy evening services more than daytime, I think it's the atmosphere. It's the same when they hold the carol service, but then what's not to love about anything festive and Christmas feeling? (and we all chat with mince pies and mulled wine afterwards!) Unfortunately, I couldn't go because I have this awful EMA (end of module assessment) to write for my linguistics course on 'attitudes and values to English language'. Yay.

The Sunday school children were asked to create an animal/creature/person out of vegetables for their display. It's a similar idea to what the Small Person did for her school fair, back before the summer holiday, when she created a likeness of the Queen, for the Jubilee. This time it's a bunny. I pushed (hammered in some places!) sticks in for her, and she positioned her bits and pieces.

What do you think? Is it a vegetable masterpiece? The body is a squash, The ears are baby corn, the cheeks are button mushrooms, the nose and eyes are raisins,

the feet are made of a halved shallot (which I chopped for her),

the arms are satsuma segments, and his tail is a flower of broccoli.

The whole thing is put together with cocktail sticks (Did you know it's really tough to push cocktail sticks into squash without them snapping?!) and he's holding a baby carrot in case he gets hungry.

Because of the shape of the squash, he has a lovely little sideways tilt, almost like he's tilting his head on to the side to look at you. I think it gives him character. My nan thinks it makes him look like he's had one too many! :D

The Small Person was given a chocolate bar for her efforts, so was very pleased. Less pleased was Mr Bogert who said that both of the Small People had not been on their best behaviour. So she hasn't been allowed to eat her chocolate bar.

Absent from the service was the Sunday school teacher, Jeanne, who is unwell and in hospital. We're really wishing her a speedy recovery. The Small Person made her a card which one of our neighbours is going to pass along.