Tuesday 27 December 2011

Where Have I Been?

I know I have been AWOL for a while and this is why.  I have a skill, one that I have mastered to a fine art, this skill is called procrastination! Back in April or May I decided to knit my friend a cardigan for Christmas, I'd already knitted her the matching hat and she loved it so this year I was going for the biggy, the cardigan.  I was very organised and bought the wool in July and then finally got my needles out two weeks before Christmas, yes TWO WEEKS!!!  I was doing a full day at work and coming home and knitting until 2 or 3 in the morning to get it done, hence why I've been so quiet on here.
 Was the midnight knitting worth it? Yes it was because she loved it:
I was also busy baking because we decided to have a Christmas bake off at work, this is a cake from Gemma which looked absolutely fantastic:
 Alison made these unusual meringue topped cupcakes:
 I made coffee cupcakes and came second in the competition!
Alfie enjoyed trying to guess what was in my crop advent swap, I really was spoilt with some beautiful stash that I can't wait to use.
 This year was the first year that there was only me and Maddie for Christmas morning, lucky Paul is away in Austria.  We had a lovely, quiet morning before sound levels rose to epic proportions when we went to my 'beautiful' sister, Jemma's, for Christmas dinner:
 Isn't she a knock out?!?! I even managed to appear in some photos this year and here I am with my sisters Jessica and Jemma:
 And with one of my brothers, Jon - my other brother Jamie is in Thailand.
 Maddie joined in with the fun at Jon's playing on the Wii Just Dance Abba with one of my nephews, Archie:
 And then she found time for a picture with her old mum:
 My nephew Jack had had far too much excitement for the day and crashed on the sofa, amidst all the noise and chaos:
 And finally my sister in law, Lisa, the real dancing queen of the night.  All she kept saying as she was dancing the night away was that these pictures better not appear anywhere!  Well we won't tell her will we?!?! :)
The only downside is that my 90 year old grandad got taken to hospital with chest pains on the Friday before Christmas (I promise you he's not the Duke of Edinburgh) I did mention how he was trying to keep up with the Royals though!  Thankfully he is doing ok at the moment and further tests on Wednesday will hopefully tell us what the problem was.

I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas, ate lots, smiled lots and spent time with the people you loved. 

Right now I'm only 27 days behind on my Journal Your Christmas and I have about 4000 blog posts to read so I guess that's what I'll be doing for the rest of the year :)

Thanks for stopping by, can't wait to blog hop and see what you've all been doing.
Jo xx

7 comments:

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Wow! It looks amazing Jo. Knitting into the wee hours was well worth it.

Sandra said...

Looks like you had a fabulous Christmas, boy I'm super impressed by your knitting.

May 2012 bring you all good things, you deserve them xxx Thanks for being an amazing friend x

Carol Anne said...

That's a great cardigan. I think I would have given up and said "Next year". You're very dedicated to have completed that AND all the baking.

Alison said...

Looks like you had a great Christmas...glad the cardi was well-received!
Alison xx

Sian said...

Your photos are fab Jo! I started a Christmas cardigan for my brother, but I didn't get mine finished lol

Hope the patient is starting to feel better

Anonymous said...

What a fun filled Christmas you had Jo. What a fantastic friend to stay up so late to get the knitting finished!

yvette said...

I admire you Jo, taking on such a big project with only a few weeks till the big day! but it was worth it, the cardigan looks fabulous. Looks like you all had a great Christmas, glad you enjoyed it. Hope your grandad gets better soon. Wishing you a very special 2012.