Friday 25 December 2009

Happy Christmas everyone

Hi Everyone
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and Happy New Year.  I have had a lovely one which I'm surprised about as I'm not a great lover of Christmas.  I did no planing - in fact I thought I would just see my two children and grandchildren to open presents and then everyone would be off, but I was told by my daughter only a few days ago that 'of course they'd be coming to me for Christmas lunch'!!  Anyway no panic - I couldn't be bothered to get worked up so I just did chicken, vegs etc.  I already had everything in so didn't need to do the horrendous Christmas shop.  The family had decided to do Secret Santa for the adults so I only had to think of one present, and my daughter sorted that out for me!

I am taking my daughter and grand daughters to Australia in February, so that's their birthday, Christmas and birthday presents all rolled into one - obviously my daughter knew but the girls didn't so we did a Treasure Hunt around the house ending up with labels I'd made giving them a return 'ticket' to Australia.  This is the moment Chloe realised what she had found -





priceless!!  

When Emily realised too her reaction was just as good:




Emily said "I've always wanted to go to Australia Grandma"  Just as well really!!

I made them some thank you cards for them to send off, which I put under the tree - I'd seen the idea on C & C with Sara Davies, Crafters' Companion, and used my Cute Companion stamp and CDs, no change there!!  This is Emily's




This is the box:

Here are the cards with inserts and matching envelopes. 






And these are Chloe's:










I think they quite liked them.  I know Kate, their mum, did!!

Right off now to top up my glass (hic)!  Enjoy the rest of your day and what's left of the holiday!
Love xxx

Saturday 12 December 2009

Christmas dinner with new doctors

Last night I went to my first Christmas Dinner of the year.  All the new Foundation doctors were invited with their consultants too.  We had it at the Beachy Head Hotel - very nice but a bit spooky on a dark and foggy night!  There were about 30 of us and we had already chosen our meal.  That in itself was a nightmare as none of us could remember what we'd chosen!!  Luckily my Foundation Administrator, Anita, had the foresight to make a list and also gave one to the waitress.  Good thinking.  

So we all turned up (well most of them anyway!) and our first course arrived - I had pate, which was OK but someone didn't turn up and they'd ordered Prawn Cocktail, so I had that instead!!  (perogative of being the Manager!).  Then the fun started - Graham had brought along two face masks - one of Maggie Thatcher and one of Tony Blair.  He divided the doctors into two teams - A - M and N - Z.  They each chose someone who had to wear a mask and say why they should go to Heaven and not Hell.  the idea was to have a debate and the best one chosen would win the point for their team.  Well it wasn't very intellectual and Tony Blair won because it was a female doctor wearing the mask and she looked better than Maggie Thatcher!!





The next challenge came whilst we were waiting for the main course - I had venison pie - very nice I must say.  This time two members from each team had to wrap up a parcel, each one using one hand only and then tie a bow!  You can imagine the cheating that went on and I had to choose the winner!  Well the N - Z team who had our Clinical Tutor, Salim, in it made a terrible effort so I had to award it to the A - M team, but I believe there was some skull duggery involved, but I didn't actually see anything!  Unfortunately I only took a picture of the losing one, but you can see how terrible it was!!




So after main course (you can imagine the poor waiters, but they were very good) Graham bought out some bananas.  Anita and I knew what was coming next !  - Four members of each team were given a knife and banana and told they were to perform a circumcision on the banana!  Our Director of Medical Education, Scarlett had to have a go!  Her excuse was it was a vey long time since she'd had to do this!  Believe you me, you could tell!  Well I'm glad I'm not a man!  Our trainees definitely need more training which I shall have to organise!!  Some of the bananas lost the whole tip, others broke, others were too drastic - the pictures are very dark I'm afraid, but if you look carefully you can see the winning banana.



They then had to put a condom on the bananas.  That was the last straw as they nearly all broke!! I didn't get any pictures of that.  Then after desert (I had cheese and biscuits) two more doctors were chosen from each team.  One of them was blind-folded and the other had to sit on a chair with a pint glass between their legs.  The blind-folded one had a bottle of beer with 1/4 of water in it between their legs.  The idea was for the seated person to talk the blind-folded one to come towards them, keeping the bottle between their legs, no hands, and pour all the water into the glass.  It was a very clever and entertaining party trick.

Finally at Graham's request we had downloaded the Poges Christmas song onto a memory stick.  He had printed out the words.  He was the man and one of the other doctors was the female and we were all the chorus.  B that time there were not many people left in the Hotel, which was probably a very good thing.


It was a very good meal and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  I would certainly recommend the Beachy Head Hotel - not just for Christmas meals but all year round.  I believe the food is very good and reasonable.

I'm here again

Can't believe this is my first posting in December.  Where has the time gone?  I have been busy honest! 

First of all had a brilliant time at Jill's (Cardinal Colours) crop on Saturday.  Linda brought everyone a yummy scrummy bag of chocolates, See pictures on Linda's blog 'Linda's Cards and Pages' to see how busy she's been.  Lynn made everyone a stunning 'sand' bag to hold all sorts of things in.  Look on her blog 'A Moment in Time' to see them in their glory.  Anita made everyone crackers which had individual jewellry inside for each of us - I can't believe we didn't take pictures before we pulled them apart, Anita!!  Anita also made her Raspberry-offi Pie - its to die for, believe you me!!

I made a few cards for my friends at the crop and also for my work team.  I wasn't sure what to do but when I opened up the Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine they showed some cards using stamps which I already had!!  It was meant to be - so I used Christmas Bunnies stamps - Robin and Post from Lili of the Valley together with Basic Grey Wassail paper pack.   I was very pleased with the result.







Then at our last class with Anita at Jill's she showed us how to make a surprise tower.  I overheard one of the ladies saying that someone else had said the little drawers would take three Sprinkles bottles perfectly and there was my next solution to a Christmas present!  My friend Sue is just started to concentrate on wrapping parcels and presents and is looking into doing it commercially.  Obviously she needs lots of goodies so I decided to fill a surprise tower.  This is what I came up with.





Hopefully she will be pleased with that.  I also always make a special card for both of my friends, Sue and Sandie and again I got my inspiration from the same edition of the Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine using - surprise surprise - Cute Companions stamps!!  I couldn't come up with two different ideas, so I did the same, but changed the colour!  Well why not.  What do you reckon?



This is the red and gold one and the other one I did was in green and gold.  They're both identical.  The top plate opens up and the two sides open to show a central snow scene and two verses on each side plate.



Of course, being an idiot, I didn't work out how large the card would be until I made it  Didn't have an envelope to fit it, did I so I had to make boxes instead!  I ask you talk about making extra work - anyway I was quite pleased with the result:



I can't believe how much I've rabbited on and I've still got more to tell you all, so I'll close this one down and start again!  Sorry but you can't stop me!!! Bye xxx