Sweeping Over at Christmas

Oh hai! Thanks for coming to see us. You all seem a friendly bunch, join us for a moment if you like whilst I stare off into the middle distance and daydream for a few moments...

*insert a twinkly transition to a dreamy day dream scene*

Ah, Christmas, 2 days off work and the joys of the festive season. What a nice time it is.
A funny old Christmas though. It all started when we packed our bags when - lucky for us but unlucky for Norngirl's mum - Sweep had stowed away to join us in our holiday sleep over.
Luckily for Sweep, Norngirl's sister had prepared for his arrival and had knitted him a festive woolly hat!

Isn't he cute, with his little buttoned hat. Sweep squeaked out in happiness when he saw it.

It wasn't long before it was time for bed, even Dogs that squeak need to be asleep before Santa breaks in. Sweep could hardly sleep and watched on as the family drifted into the world of nod.

Unfortunately, that night Norngirl and I couldn't sleep very well on a strange mattress, we'd been too spoilt by having memory foam at home. Sweep wished his head was made of memory foam, he started to imagine what shapes he could mould himself into to escape Soo's wrath.

Before they knew it though, Christmas morning had arrived, well, a brand new car in the street had but it was only 5am. Me, Sweep and Norngirl were all very pleased that the happy people were happy but they were so noisy that the whole world must have known about it and at 5am on Christmas morning... really, just nooooooo.

Eventually we managed to get a little bit of rest and before we knew it the day had begun properly.

Sweep was very happy to find he'd been given some presents to open too and joined in with the rest of the family.

From paper plane books to film lens mugs... all sorts of weird and wonderful things were emerging from the bright and colourful wrapping paper.

Oh what fun!

But the best was yet to come as one box was opened to reveal a surprise of epic magnitude, so awesome that Sweep almost let out a little bit of wee.

SOOTY!

This Lifeform and his Sweep Clone now had a Sooty Clone too! Does that make me Soo? I hope not.

As with each Christmas, a lot of hard work goes into the preparations but undeterred, Sooty and Sweep gave me and Norngirl a hand in the kitchen preparing the vegetables for their Christmas dinner.

Sweep found the biggest stainless steel blade he'd seen since he discovered the wounded body of annoying little cousin Scampi clone who had been run through with a sword by the clone of Snuffles the rabbit. The poor rabbit, she might have had an appetite but even she couldn't stomach Little Cousin Scampi. Talking of Snuffles, she'll be due for release soon, I hope she visits!

Oh what fun it was to chop carrots on Christmas day.

Sweep couldn't keep chopping for ever though and there were so very many carrots and parsnips.

So he handed over to Sooty for a turn, who with a tap of his magical wand - which he keeps in his secret magic pocket for special occasions I must add - he had chopped the lot.

We were very impressed!

It wasn't long before the food was being put in the oven and the happy pair of puppets were enjoying watching their human friends enjoying their Christmas dinner.

After some TV, drinks and watching the Dr Who Christmas Special it was time to relax for the evening and Sooty and Sweep fell asleep after all their hard work.

Norngirl and I stayed up and wondered how bad the nights TV viewing had got on Christmas day. Thankfully the wine is always good and we had a very nice time chatting with our family and watching random stuff on TV before heading to bed for a relatively early night so that we could get up to help out at the football match the next day in which our team were victorious!

*Fade back into reality... wakey wakey*

I guess I best get back to reality. Is it Christmas yet?

Checkpoint 2011

After leaving my camera at my mother-in-law's flat after our Christmas visit and therefore being short of my recent photos, it seems a good time to have a look back over the year from the start of 2011 when I made a 2011 list. It was a sort of loosely tied list of hopes for the year. So with the amazing powers of hindsight, I'm going to have a look back to see how it went.

General :
- Live a little more whilst we're still young and relatively free'n'easy:
If affordable, try to make it on at least 2 foreign holidays and take in new places.
Within our means I think this was a success, we made it on one foreign holiday (to Mallorca for a week) as we were saving to head to the US (which is now going to be this year - a matter of weeks away!) but it was a new place for me :) We had our mini adventures to Dublin, London, Cardiff and Yorkshire and saw plenty of new places.
De-stress a little more often and don't let work stress carry home when at all possible.
To be honest I failed at this, and I did try my best but when even folks at work who have been in the industry 30 years or more are telling you it was a mad year, what can you do? With the goalposts moving all the time like they did, just thinking about June to October still makes my blood pressure rise :(
Book more wee things we like to do like comedy gigs, cinema trips, Belfast Giants games and the likes.
A total success on this one. There were some months when week after week we were out and about, not always spending money mind (couldn't really afford to), a lot was spending time with our friends and family such as at the film festival nights. Not to mention the sports stuff, volunteering, trips and the odd comedy gig, heritage day etc. Hopefully more of the same in this regards for next year.

- Remember to back up my hard drive more often.
Success!
- Invest in some new shoes.
Check... and comfy they are too!
- Sign up to a gym that is open during hours that are good for me to make use of it.
We did indeed and for the most part of the year we even went, that slipped over Christmas but hopefully back again soon
- Look into the possibilities of moving house again.
We looked into it and decided not to yet, maybe 2012?
- Use what I have before buying more and stop hoarding junk + sort through my mass of t-shirts and get rid of a few to make room for some trousers.
Ah... that would be what is now known as clothes mountain, yeahhhhhhh, about that...
- Keep an eye out for a Career change to something I'd enjoy more that is more suited to my studies.
If only! Still keeping an eye out, one day I'll probably just get annoyed enough to spam the world with my CV.

Blog related :
- Take more photos (I really enjoy photography).
So far so good... maybe I'll take more next year if I don't leave my camera at other peoples houses.
- Spend less time on things like blog promotion and put that time to writing posts.
Though there were a couple of lean months for my blog posts, including this month, I've posted the most I ever have, so I think that one goes down as a C+ 'Meets but with plenty of room for improvement'.
- Spend more time commenting on the blogs I really enjoy reading.
I did try at certain points of the year but like the blogging, the plan was swept away by reality, I'd give myself a 'D' - 'needs improvement'
- Clear out Troll blogs I've been hooked on from my reader (Note to self: I'm human - not a fish - don't get hooked into wasting time debating with ill-intentioned people who don't deserve the attention - especially in relation to those with religious or political ideals I find questionable who like to stir controversy - Northern Irish politicians being the exception since they have a real life influence over our lives)
I think I managed this one, and much better I felt for it too :) Highly recommended!
- Make a new title banner.
Did I make my current one this year? I can't remember but I probably did, not that it really matters.
- Finally write a post about our wedding and honeymoon.
Sadly not, my writing pad from that time still hasn't shown up, it'll probably fall out of the woodwork the next time we move house. Nay worry, I'll keep it on the back-burner as a day off/rainy day post for the future.

So it appears I didn't get everything done and not everything went to plan but then when does it? It was a busier year at work than expected and to be totally honest, we didn't really find the opportunities to live 2011 as awesomely as we'd hoped but it was still an action packed year in which we learnt a lot as well as did a lot even if it was more a case of preparation for the future. The other stuff could obviously wait anyway, luckily there is still time to cover the rest since contrary to the beliefs of the odd religious nutter-butter, the world didn't end.

Like 2010, which was packed to the point of new experience that posts flowed into 2011, we're hopefully setting ourselves up for bumper year in 2012. Just sticking with 2011 though: The thing that made 2011 most memorable, besides all the crazy events in the wider world, were as always, the unexpected moments. The little moments that get lost in time and don't get noted online, but those moments where if someone who was there reminds you about it in the future, it will spark a memory and bring a smile to your face or a shudder down the old spine.

Most importantly looking forwards, apart from Kelly the Cat, 2011 was a year of no fatalities of our nearest and dearest and long may that continue! Hopefully, given the things we already have planned, no matter what the economic outlook or political stupidity that goes on around us, there will be lots of great moments to discover in 2012.

So let me raise this post in a blog toast to 2011 and all who sailed on the crazy ship Earth during the year gone by. To 2011, so long!