Merry Christmas Everybody!

The boys didn't get up too early, probably because they couldn't get to sleep the night before.

The Lego Star Wars Wii game was an instant hit. As are the Vtech Pro digital cameras. Frodo took 280 photos today - a lot of them are of the floor, walls and ceiling, but there's an occasional person, or object of interest among them.

They went to bed tonight, listening to a talking book story on their new CD player.

Managed to coordinate the cooking of the meal reasonably OK - it's always a bit of a problem getting the timing right, but the goose was well cooked, the gravy was delicious and the vegetables were all OK. Roast parsnips in goose fat were delicious. Roast spuds weren't too bad either, although I didn't do enough of them - might do another roast at New Year.

We're now loafing about, wearing our new clothes, drinking a couple of large G&T's and polishing off a layer of Milk Tray chocs.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2009

There's a blanket of snow outside in the early hours of Christmas Eve - looks very festiwe.

Christmas Preparations and Panto

In the midst of Christmas Chaos right now, so not much time to blog.

Decorations are almost up - Santa leaves a note for the boys every night, telling them which one to put up next.

Picked up a Christmas tree from Norwegian Wood last weekend. It's a florist on Allerton Road - so I'm supporting a local business, as well as the forestry commission. When it's all over the tree gets recycled at the local park, and is turned into chippings for the forest trails.

Work has gone ballistic, and is getting in the way of everything, demanding extra hours and needing us to be in across much of the Christmas period for a major upgrade. They've cancelled the Christmas party (deferred until January!) and are wondering why nobody's being particularly festive!
I've managed to keep the statutory holidays and bank holiday, but I might end up being in on New Years Day :( Despite this we've managed to get the present shopping done, (and are thinking about wrapping them now).

Did the bulk of the food shopping this morning. We favour Goose at Christmas time - although it's often hard to find one. I'd left it a little late this year, but managed to pick up the second but last one from the usual place I go to.
So after a busy weekend we've launched into the booze, cheese and nibbles.

Went to the Everyman Rock 'n Roll Pantomime on Tuesday (Dick Whittington). We usually go in January, but I managed to find seats for a pre-Christmas evening performance for a change. I think I'll book early and do this again this year, as the atmosphere was really good, the audience was really excited and the cast were on top form. Both boys really enjoyed it - almost as much as we did!

Liverpool Santa Dash 2009

A few pictures from the Santa Dash on Sunday morning - and a bunch of very unlikely looking Santas... Ho Ho Ho!

Big Wheel and Xmas Shopping.

Xmas shopping day today, so we got up early and headed into the Liverpool One shopping centre.

I took the kids for a ride on the Liverpool One Wheel. Novelist Supermum stayed on the ground, whilst we paid our money (6 quid for me, 4 quid each for the boys) for 3 spins in a gondola on the 80m high Ferris wheel. It was a great experience, with spectacular views, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.








Afterwards we visited Santa's Ice Palace - to see Santa in his Grotto




The the joys of shopping! Go Penguins! provided a slight distraction



And then finally home. The last photo isn't the real Santa. It's some imposter who's running in the Liverpool Santa Dash tomorrow.

Domestic 'Droid

I've been doing a lot of overtime recently. The inevitable consequences of this are more pay, but less time at home.
This has helped me to justify making a purchase that I've been pondering over for a while now.
The irobot Roomba 581 vacuum cleaning robot arrived yesterday.

It's spent two half hour sessions tonight, roaming around our living room floor. The kids had a lot of fun watching it glide and spin about (as did we), disappearing under the furniture, and emerging again, sweeping the floor as it does so.

It has it's limitations i.e. it can't clean stairs, windowsills etc, but it's done a pretty good job of the floor. It's no substitute for a thorough 'spring clean', but for regular carpet hoovering whilst putting your feet up and having a cup of tea, it's ideal.

Ouch!

Frodo tripped in the corridor at school on Friday, bashing the first joint of his thumb against the wall. Brave little chap was in agony with a badly swollen hand, but according to the school wasn't crying much - just giving one word answers. A visit to the local NHS children's walk-in centre and an X-Ray revealed a fractured thumb.
He was made up about seeing the bones in his hand on the X-Ray. His thumb has been bandaged up, and he needs to visit the fracture clinic at Alder Hey on Monday.
They gave us a CD with the X-Ray on it. It's viewed through some sort of Kodak image viewing software - I've taken a copy and exported the image, so he can show his friends when he goes back to school.

Tonight's Cult TV

Family viewing tonight was Dr Who: The Waters of Mars. Two small boys were watching it by peering from behind cushions, which they were holding onto for extra safety.
This episode was right on form for us - and a family Cheer! was raised when we saw who's going to be in the next one.

Later After the kids had gone to bed, the latest episode of Fringe showed Dr Walter Bishop and his lab assistant wearing tinfoil hats to protect themselves from mind control. This is a running joke at work, whenever over zealous Security measures are being discussed - great to see the equipment in operation!

Remember Remember...

Bonfire Night again. This probably should be renamed "Fireworks Night" as I've seen very few bonfires in recent years.

Took Frodo and Samwise to the display in Sefton Park. There was supposedly a 'space' theme to the event, which turned out to be the choice of musical accompaniment, with loose connections e.g. "Whole of the Moon", "Dark Side of the Moon", "Walking on the Moon", "All the time in the World", "Space Oddity", "Star Trek Theme" etc.

The rain which had been pouring down all day, held off in time for the fireworks, which were as good as ever, and lasted about 20 minutes.

We chose our favourites. Frodo liked the red starbursts. Samwise liked the multi-coloured ones. I liked the blue and silver ones. We all liked the 'screamers'.

Hallowe'en 2009

Spent some of this years Hallowe'en face first in a bowl of water trying to grab an apple between my teeth. Competitive Dad lost to Samwise, who's gnashers had a much better grip on the fruit - once we'd quartered them, since whole apples were proving to be impossible.
Good healthy lad then ate three of the quarters.
Pumpkin lanterns were carved and lit, cakes and biscuits were decorated and scoffed.
We'll wait until after bonfire night to take down the luminous skeletons, ghosts and assorted paper creepy-crawlies.
So that should keep the evil spirits away for another year (only good spirits are allowed in our house - hic!).

Spaced

Spaced is being shown again on Dave - so we've got the boxed set out and started watching the lot again (series 1 and 2).
It's still one of the best things that Simon Pegg has ever done.

http://www.spaced-out.org.uk/

H.M.S. Illustrious

Queen Mary 2 left the same night. HMS Illustrious is in today - bristling with Helicopters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/liverpool/hi/things_to_do/newsid_8315000/8315111.stm

Queen Mary 2

A bunch of us have just nipped out of work to wave at the passengers coming in on this huge vessel, that's blocking our view of the Mersey.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8315670.stm

The stats say that it's 200 feet high from the waterline. Very impressive.
When they blast the ships horn it's shaking the building.

No Obligation

Had to take a day off work today to deal with a family crisis.
Whilst buzzing around in the car like a blue-arsed fly I got a call from work asking if I could volunteer for 6 hours of overtime tonight, under no obligation of course! Naturally I declined to oblige.

Dusk Till Dawn 2

It's another all-nighter planned at work for tomorrow night. Might get out before sunrise if I'm lucky.

Small boys in the park...

It was a fine windy autumn day on Saturday. I took Frodo and Samwise up to the local Park and showed them the location of the "secret" Horse Chestnut trees that I know about. We collected a huge bag of conkers. Next I need to show them how to play - might have to invest in some safety goggles and hard hats - since this highly dangerous pastime is banned in their school.

Mini Stonehenge

I saw this and immediately thought that Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap did have the correct dimensions after all :)

Flesh Detectors

I've had to stop forwarding emails to work. Novelist Supermum's book covers are bouncing with "inappropriate content" messages.

Too much flesh I guess. e.g. (shameless plug) Ruthless Beauty

More Legoland Photos

Legoland

We went to Legoland, Windsor for Frodo's Birthday treat this year. We had a 3 night stay at the Windsor Marriot, with a 2 day pass into Legoland.

The hotel was good for kids (we booked it through the Legoland website, which gave it a '5 brick' rating. This meant that small boys running around the corridors were reasonably tolerated. The hotel provided a swimming pool, soft play room and small outdoor play area. Also the restaurant did a children's buffet.

It was a short drive to Legoland - 1 junction along the M4.
The boys would have had a great time just staying at the hotel. We didn't tell them where we were going until we set off for the first day, and they started reading the signs.

Legoland itself was great fun, and everything that we expected it to be. There was a good range of rides and plenty of other activities. The stunt show was fun to watch, with jet-ski action, slapstick fights and people throwing themselves off a tower time and again into the water below.

Bit of a fast-food zone foodwise, but plenty of variety.

On day 1 we did a fair amount of queueing for rides. We gave in and spent an extra 40 quid on a "Q-bot" on day 2. This is a virtual queueing device, which means that you select your next ride and are given a time. You can then go off and do something else at which point you can go to your ride and get on it pretty well straight away. This certainly took the stress out of waiting for the next thrill, and meant we could shop, have coffee and cake or wander about in between.

I'll post our own snaps on another day. We paid for 5 shots of us on the rides - so here's the other 4: