Where did that week go?
Well that week has just disappeared.
Somewhere along the way I did a day in the book shop, and gathered some of the recipes from people for a church recipe book. I baked some gingerbread loaf cakes and some raisin and cherry ones*, also made gingerbread men brownies and a large carrot cake that I cut into 4 and boxed - all those for the cake stall at the Christmas coffee morning to show off the Church Christmas flowers :)
*They would have been fruit loaves but I realised I had just put 500gm of raisins to soak in spiced tea rather than mixed fruit - so I added a tub of cherries as well and it made them a bit more festive!
Tuesday I shopped and wrote a few cards. On Wednesday I put the outdoor lights on the bushes, and around the edge of the front grass, made another, simple, wreath for the front door and put the decorations into the porch. These include a string of lights like holly berries and leaves; the berries are the lights and so my front porch is now something of a red-light area :)
On Thursday we put the lights up in the big front window - I need help from S2C with those as I cannot easily reach the top corner behind the TV.
On Thursday it was then WI night and we had a social quiz night with mince pies and Christmas cake.
My sister is now on our branch committee, and had actually set the quiz questions - but this honestly had no bearing at all on the fact that the winning team was made up of my niece, our friend Pauline and me! Unless it is that our minds work in the same way as Jackie's. We got 69 marks out of 90 and the next team got 56 :)
There was a whole section where you had to identify Christmas carols and songs from the initial letters of the words of the opening line. The 3 of us turned out to be really good at that - but we couldn't name all the von Trapp family children from the Sound of Music.
Friday afternoon I helped set up for the coffee morning - which meant doing a bit of reorganisation as the lady who runs a bric-a-brac stall had to cancel at short notice as her husband had to be flown away to hospital.
Yesterday was the coffee morning, which was lovely, and had a good number of people there. We sold every cake from our cake stall, which was good.
Then there was a quick turn around as Jackie and I were going to the all-island WI 'Carols and Cake' afternoon to represent our branch. We ended up sitting at a table with older ladies from two of the branches in the south of the island - and they were an absolute hoot, so we had a great afternoon. There was a quiz sheet on each table to keep us amused between the carols and the cakes - and there was a section of "identify Christmas carols and songs from the initial letters of the words of the opening line." As the person who set these used quite a few of the same ones that Jackie had used for Thursday, her and I romped through them in about 3 minutes - to the delight of the other ladies; and our table came 2nd and got a box of Celebrations to share!
Last night I watched the Strictly Final. It was a foregone conclusion really, that Chris McCausland would win as it is totally on the public vote at that stage (he is totally blind but really was almost as good a dance as the other 3 finalists) - but it was a good show.
After that I finished rewriting a script for the Nativity next week, and this morning I worked out with the children what parts they might play next week.
Then, this afternoon, I put the big tree in place and decorated it.
So now it really does feel like Christmas. Tomorrow I hope to get the small tree done - and there may well be pictures.
Somewhere along the way I did a day in the book shop, and gathered some of the recipes from people for a church recipe book. I baked some gingerbread loaf cakes and some raisin and cherry ones*, also made gingerbread men brownies and a large carrot cake that I cut into 4 and boxed - all those for the cake stall at the Christmas coffee morning to show off the Church Christmas flowers :)
*They would have been fruit loaves but I realised I had just put 500gm of raisins to soak in spiced tea rather than mixed fruit - so I added a tub of cherries as well and it made them a bit more festive!
Tuesday I shopped and wrote a few cards. On Wednesday I put the outdoor lights on the bushes, and around the edge of the front grass, made another, simple, wreath for the front door and put the decorations into the porch. These include a string of lights like holly berries and leaves; the berries are the lights and so my front porch is now something of a red-light area :)
On Thursday we put the lights up in the big front window - I need help from S2C with those as I cannot easily reach the top corner behind the TV.
On Thursday it was then WI night and we had a social quiz night with mince pies and Christmas cake.
My sister is now on our branch committee, and had actually set the quiz questions - but this honestly had no bearing at all on the fact that the winning team was made up of my niece, our friend Pauline and me! Unless it is that our minds work in the same way as Jackie's. We got 69 marks out of 90 and the next team got 56 :)
There was a whole section where you had to identify Christmas carols and songs from the initial letters of the words of the opening line. The 3 of us turned out to be really good at that - but we couldn't name all the von Trapp family children from the Sound of Music.
Friday afternoon I helped set up for the coffee morning - which meant doing a bit of reorganisation as the lady who runs a bric-a-brac stall had to cancel at short notice as her husband had to be flown away to hospital.
Yesterday was the coffee morning, which was lovely, and had a good number of people there. We sold every cake from our cake stall, which was good.
Then there was a quick turn around as Jackie and I were going to the all-island WI 'Carols and Cake' afternoon to represent our branch. We ended up sitting at a table with older ladies from two of the branches in the south of the island - and they were an absolute hoot, so we had a great afternoon. There was a quiz sheet on each table to keep us amused between the carols and the cakes - and there was a section of "identify Christmas carols and songs from the initial letters of the words of the opening line." As the person who set these used quite a few of the same ones that Jackie had used for Thursday, her and I romped through them in about 3 minutes - to the delight of the other ladies; and our table came 2nd and got a box of Celebrations to share!
Last night I watched the Strictly Final. It was a foregone conclusion really, that Chris McCausland would win as it is totally on the public vote at that stage (he is totally blind but really was almost as good a dance as the other 3 finalists) - but it was a good show.
After that I finished rewriting a script for the Nativity next week, and this morning I worked out with the children what parts they might play next week.
Then, this afternoon, I put the big tree in place and decorated it.
So now it really does feel like Christmas. Tomorrow I hope to get the small tree done - and there may well be pictures.