Ward Relief Society Christmas Party

The RS President and I decorated the hall, most of this stuff came from her home! Her husband used to say that he felt like he was walking into Santa's Grotto when he came home. I had great fun with the fake snow spraying the table centre pieces.

Angela and I with our Christmassy things on.

We asked the men in the ward to be our waiters, they were brilliant! Our apple juice never ran low, the food was served hot, and they even entertained us while serving. But when it came time for the pudding things got a little out of hand :)

They were going around taking pudding orders, there were about 6 things to choose from. I didn't even know what some of these puddings were, so I asked if I could have a little bit of everything. This is exactly what I got. Be careful what you ask for!

Then after the joke was fully laughed out, I got a better serving of a little of everything. Then one of the men came around with cream and custard and asked which I would prefer. I love cream, so I went: "MMMMMMM, Cream please." Well I got CREAM, I don't know if the picture shows it too well, but the pudding is swimming!

I haven't laughed so long and hard in a long time, and neither have the people who were at our table either. We had a great evening out with the ladies. I am glad I could be a part of it.

Happy Birthday to me!

Pete took me to breakfast in the morning, as he was working that evening. We had a lovely English breakfast cooked for us by the most colourful English man I think I have ever met. Then we went shopping for a new top and jeans for me.

In the evening we went to Mc Donalds (yes I actually enjoy their food) with Patrick, Ange and their children. It was nice to be out with them.

Later we sat and chatted in our lounge until late and played with some glow sticks that Patrick had brought along. Thanks to everyone who called and sent cards, it was a good day.

Getting a headstart on homework!

Kids surprise me every day.

Family Home Evening

We did the Christmas tree tonight. Before the tree was dressed the two younger ones decided to dress themselves.

Ho, Ho, Ho.

Giddy-up reindeer.

The kids had fun, I watched, Christmas is after all for the kids.

I decorated the mantle piece and hung the stockings up.

It was good!

Sunday walk

We still hadn't gone and seen any of the island, except for where we live so on Sunday we took a drive. Our intention was to go to Ventnor beach, but we got lost on the steep windy roads and landed up at Bonchurch beach instead. It is just up from Ventnor, so we weren't' too far away.

Cheryn was at Angela's house and we had Vincent, it was a lovely walk, and on our way back it was already quite dark.

Those tins contain little plastic army men, not chocolates, but they once did contain lots of chocolates..... yum, yum!

Pictures

Zeek and Rachel's First day of School

The school they go to is wonderful. They don't do homework in the "normal" sense of the word, they say it exhausts the children and doesn't work effectively anyway. So every three weeks they are required to hand in a project illustrating the work covered in those three weeks.

They don't separate the subjects, if you are learning about Italy (geography) and there is a certain kind of animal that lives there (biology) which has in the past been considered a pest for XYZ reasons (history) but is now being protected (current affairs).... So all the subjects are rolled into one big interesting lesson. I love it!

On Fridays they stop work at 12:00 and can go off into groups to do enrichment activities (all free of charge) swimming, golf, music, dance, tennis, hockey, theatre, and so on, I don't remember all of them, but there are 20 different things to choose from. Zeek said he is doing the golf, and Rachel wants to do the theatre.

Like I said, I love it!