Cracking Nutcracker Gromit

Writing about http://esales.roh.org.uk/christmas/video/nutcracker.aspx

Went to see this last night.  So pretty!  I am of course a Sugar Plum Fairy myself – have I ever told you the story?

I was, aged 6 or so, practicising before ballet class by ‘pirouetting’ down the hall.  Unfortunately, I twirled down the hall and straight through the glass front door.  And emerged, on the other side without a scratch.

Sadly I was forced to give up a promising career in ballet because I couldn’t reconcile the demands of weekly classes with the necessity of watching Grange Hill.

Filed under: Bicknacre, Children, Christmas, Family

Festive OUBay

Follow up to http://caseyleaver.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/intranet-distraction-oubay/ 

You can almost picture the festive scene….

Enter small child home from school with mud artfully splashed up back of trousers and trailing satchell behind them.

Small child: Mu-um, oh yeah, we was s’posed to get costumes for the play…

Anyone got a child’s monkey outfit for ages 3 – 5 years I can borrow or buy for my daughter’s show next Wednesday?

Star outfit. Does anyone have one that I can buy? For children’s nativity play. Asda did them for a fiver but sold out.

Filed under: Children, Christmas, Clothes, Internal Communications, Work

Where can I get a Panserbjørne?

We went to see The Golden Compass last night.  It was fast-paced (no surprise given the length) and visually beautiful – but the script was a bit clumsy in places:

It’s Ma Costa, Head of the Gyptians and Billy Costa’s mother….

But I was left wondering where I could get an Armoured Bear.

Himself suggested that I could dress up Sprack in some of his old shin pads to get the effect.

I’m not sure she’ll go for it.

Filed under: Cat, Children, Christmas, Films, Sprackle

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

Last night I had an unpleasant reoccuring dream.

It’s Christmas Eve night and I’m at my parents’ house.  But I have not bought one present.

This version of the dream had me frantically checking through my own existing belongings to see what could be gifted to people, running through alternate ideas such as making vouchers or cooking presents.  And generally achieving Defcon 5 panic status.

Anyway:

Kermit the Frog: If you please Mr. Scrooge, it’s gotten colder and the bookkeeping staff would like an extra shovel full of coal for the fire.
Rat #1: All of your pens have turned to inkcicles.
Rat #2: Our assets are frozen.
Ebenezer Scrooge: How would the bookkeeping staff like to be suddenly… UNEMPLOYED?
Rats: [singing] HEAT WAVE. This is my island in the sun.

Filed under: Christmas, Films, Guilt, Irrational Fear

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to each and every one!

(To be said in a Muppet Christmas Carol-style Bob Cratchett voice!)

This year I am on an alpaca mission. So far we have raised enough for nearly 25.

Feliz Navidad to all the Peruvian Families.

Filed under: Christmas

Festive Fun

This is what they do at the Ford Research & Technical Centre at Xmas.

With thanks to my Dad for forwarding it on. It’s gotta be the Pope John Paul II lolly…

Apparently
through the year everyone brings back the tackiest souvenir they can
find from business trips and personal holidays, then they build a
display and vote.

The Tacky Holiday Presents Spectacular! Last chance to vote!

There is less than 24 hours to go before the phone lines are cut off and the winner is announced…

If you haven’t voted yet, then PLEASE come and pass your judgement now. There are less than 10 points separating the top 2 – never has your vote been more needed!

Will
it be the Shot glass with pink flamingo and scenic back drop with it’s
price still on? or possibly the Plastic Gold Buddah pendula wall
hanging or will you go with the flow & choose the 12″ Tri Colour
sponge model of Eiffel Tower with Bent Top or the current favourite
Confectionary on a stick portraying the late Pope John Paul II?

The choice is yours! But we’d love to know what it is so please visit the THP Spectacular display in cube GB-G10

Only £1 to enter – Includes vote & tricast competition (stunning prizes!) entry!

All monies raised go to the Fiver Diver nominated charity for 2005.

Ford News will be covering the winning ceremony tomorrow afternoon at 13.30 – Results will be published next week.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Filed under: Christmas, Family

Christmas Reading

Title:

The Children of Green Knowe (Faber Children’s Classics)

Author:

L.M. Boston

ISBN:

0571202020

Rating:

Last Christmas I reread the whole of the Chronicles of Narnia which made for very festive reading.

(…and Adam lent me the BBC series on DVD.)

This
year I am rereading the Green Knowe series – I think I got the books
for Christmas when I was about 8. I have fond memories of the children’s TV series

What else makes good Christmas reading?

• Dylan Thomas?
• Peter Hoeg?
• Brothers Grimm?

I also want to see The Box of Delights again as I remember that as being fantasic…

Filed under: Book, Books, Children, Christmas, Review

My Non–Winning Entry

Writing about web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/gallery/gallery_winterphoto.shtml

This is the photo that I didn’t get round to submitting for the Radio 4 Winter Photography Competition.

I
was very pleased with it at the time, but on reflection the winner and
runners up are so amazing that I’m not sure what I was thinking.

I’m still moderately pleased with it though – which is why it is here:

Filed under: Christmas, Photography, Radio 4

Christmas is Open

I’ve officially declared it so.

This is because this is
my last week at work until January and I can feel the Christmas spirit
coursing through my veins (although that might just be too much
gluhwein and sloe gin over the weekend!).

I even distributed Christmas cards this morning – which my colleagues hate me for…

We went Christmas shopping on Saturday and managed to get there and back without rowing despite it being Hell on earth.

The Bullring doesn’t know about Goodwill to All Men.

But we did allow ourselves a small Bratwurst and Gluhwein break which made us feel more human.

…and
we did laugh at the poor man with the MacDonalds ‘golf sale’ sign
(standing next to the lovely pork steaks and bratwurst and mushrooms in
cream and toffee and caramelised nuts) trying to direct people towards
Maccy Ds…

Filed under: Christmas, Food

Fat Feathery Flakes

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years
around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant
speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I
can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I
was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when
I was six.

All the Christmases roll down
toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down
the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged
fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out
whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued
ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out
come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen.

Excerpts from A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

I
was searching somewhere for a quote relating snow to eiderdown and
feathers as there are such big flat flakes falling at the moment. I
thought it was Dylan Thomas, but I couldn’t find it.

Edit: …and it’s just occurred to me that I’m missing Sprackle’s first snow.

(Or her first snow of our ownership anyway.)

Filed under: Cat, Christmas, Snow, Sprackle