Christmas Cheer

It's been a busy old week here at Belmont Yarns. We had our first Christmas with Baby R and it's been totally magical. Unfortunately little R developed his 3rd cold and 2nd ear infection the weekend before Christmas and he was in terrible form. I thought he was teething but then on the 3rd day of him being out of sorts he was so lethargic and clingy and only wanted to lie on my chest so we were lucky to get an appointment with the doc that afternoon who promptly diagnosed a red raw sore throat and nasty ear infection. The poor wee chap, a few days of antibiotics combined with calpol/nurofen and he was back to his bubbly self. But unfortunately it doesn't end there, he was on the mend for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but the day after Boxing day started coughing and has a runny nose and now has his 4th cold (or maybe the same one from last week - who knows) and is in rough form again. Sleep is scarce for us all but we'll survive. 

So I wanted to say a few words about how we got on over the Christmas weekend. Christmas Eve (my absolute favourite day of the whole year) was lovely. My younger brother (the godfather!) and his girlfriend came to visit to give Baby R his first present, a lovely red fire-engine which we had a good play with and Monty even got in on the action as Baby R wanted to share his little fireman with him, so cute!

We are still desperate to instigate some traditions here at Belmont Yarns but so far we don't have many, one thing we always do is to go for a walk after dark on Christmas Eve with the dogs, and now Baby R hurray, and oooh and aaah at all the lovely Christmas lights in the gardens and in the houses. The posh streets can be a feast for the eyes but we aren't fussy we love to look at all the lights (although we are more of a fan of the tasteful ones, not overly keen on people who have every inch of their gardens covered in everything from Santas to entire nativity scenes but hey each to their own). So after Baby R went to bed (I have to admit I didn't want him to go to bed, I usually get a bit sad when Christmas Eve ends) we treated ourselves to some bubbles and Christmas carols on the TV. We had waited a long time for the bubbles as I had a dry 9 1/2 months due to breastfeeding and I can tell you they were worth waiting for! 

 Then we exchanged our presents as we sipped our bubbly, mind you only small presents this year as the purse strings have been tightened but we never concern ourselves with expensive presents as, for us, Christmas is about being off work (well I'm still on maternity leave for a few days yet) and spending time together and not about consumerism. However is always nice to open a little something. So my lovely husband bought me...

I can't wait to get using these. My husband thinks it's hilarious that I wanted a Japanese crochet book and thinks I have bitten off more than I can chew. I am defiant and although the patterns look a bit tricky I am confident hopeful that in 2012 I will be able to make something from the lovely Japanese book and if I don't I am going to blame working and looking after a baby. K? It doesn't end there though very excitingly I also received this (he really does listen)...

My own little Pecker from Sew Sweet Violet. She is so lovely and as soon as I took her out of her beautiful packaging she flew up into my Christmas tree and has stayed their ever since! Jooles has the most amazing work, such attention to detail and the craftsmanship is 100%, I would definitely recommend purchasing something from her etsy shop if you ever get the chance. So I was very happy with my haul. I also got new PJs that I purchased myself and donned on Christmas Eve, gotta love new PJs! 

On Christmas morning Baby R came into bed with us and opened his presents that Santa left. Now we really didn't buy him that much as he's only 11 1/2 months and he really enjoyed bashing the boxes and ripping the paper. Isn't that always the way. 

We got a lovely crafty present for Rowan from a very talented, jack-off-all-trades-master-of-all, been there done it, friend of mine and I fell in love straight away. A lovely stripy knitted rabbit, which his own jumper emblazoned with an R. I'm not sure what to call him, Roger seems a little too obvious, what do you think?

We had a lovely Christmas day with our folks, we went back home and my older brother and his girlfriend kindly hosted Christmas dinner this year to give my Mum a break and they were so good at it. They told us that they don't really like Christmas that much so I had my reservations but I think they were fooling us as they made their house so festive and Christmassy and they made us so relaxed. It was great, he got the thumbs up from me and can definitely host again!! We then visited my sister after dinner to exchange presents. A few years ago I suggested we did Secret Santa in my family and it was been a hit with everyone so it's now tradition. I received a £15 gift voucher (the budget was £10 so Santa was a bit naughty) to the local craft shop which now excitingly stocks a small supply of yarn so I was very excited and grateful to receive this. I suspect my Santa was my lovely younger brother as he is the only one who is really interested in my rambles about crafty things and my blog. The present I was most excited about was the one I made for my sisters baby. My sister loves dachshunds too and I found this really cute sausage dog fabric on the internet. 

I didn't really have much time to make something bigger like a quilt or something so I decided to make some personalised bunting (I just love bunting) and I thought bunting would be cute in her bedroom. I don't have a good photo of the full length of it as it's about 5m long, just of the name and the fabric, but hopefully you get the idea. I'll try and take a photo of it when my sister puts it up. 

On Boxing day we went to visit the in-laws and little R got some more presents so he is a very lucky boy who has lots of books to read (I love getting books and reading to him) and just the right amount of toys to play with. Unfortunately Baby R then started to come down with a cold but we did manage to carry out another of our newly forming traditions, we watched the new Poirot and enjoyed some yummy Beaujolais and a mini-buffet. Oh we are good to ourselves!!

It's been a busy period for us as we also celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary and unfortunately due to Baby R's illness we weren't able to make it out for dinner to the newly opened Italian restaurant, we wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway as we would have been worried for little R and our baby sitters. Anyway times have changed and Baby R is the best gift we could ever have so we aren't too concerned about not making it to dinner, there'll be other outings I'm sure. 


At this rate of going I'm not sure I'll make it back on before the New Year so I wanted to take this opportunity to say wish everyone a wonderful, safe, peaceful, productive and crafty 2012! I'd also like to thank anyone who has popped by for reading my blog, for commenting and for encouraging me to keep going at this blogging malarky, you really are a special lot. On that note I have been nominated for a blog award, I'd really like to post separately about this as I'm so chuffed and mega excited about it. Cross your fingers that I get time to!


Phew another long post... hope you are still awake teehee
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