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Advent, day 4
Dec. 4th, 2025 10:48 pm
Another lemon and ginger tea! And several jigsaw pieces - it's starting to take shape...
Over in the Jacquie Lawson advent calendar, today's treat is a Santa's Sleigh minigame which turns out is basically Flappy Bird with Santa (though a lot less frustrating than the real Flappy Bird).
Today's also when my early christmas present to myself turned up - Metroid Prime 4! And it's good timing as I've just finished Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (well, there's still a collection of sidequests to do but I've defeated the main boss). That'll keep me occupied for a while.
Advent 2025, day 1
Dec. 1st, 2025 11:31 pmSomeone was asking me about my blog, and well it's been many months since I've posted anything (and far far too long since I posted anything that isn't a Eurovision or Strictly liveblog). So here's an attempt at trying to actually start blogging again. Who knows, maybe I'll get round to posting about this year's adventures as well (New Wine! Ireland! Rend Collective!).
Anyway. As is traditional, my sister and I exchanged advent calenders filled with tea and not-tea, and here it is with pocketses full of surprises for me:
And today's surprise... jigsaw pieces, Star Wars stickers, and interesting tea.
Disappointingly the tea doesn't actually glow, but that's probably for the best. Glowing tea would be rather worrying!
As is also traditional, my parents sent me a Jacquie Lawson digital advent calendar - this year it's the Christmas Village, and I've decorated the tree in it. I'll put the actual tree up later!
Anyway. As is traditional, my sister and I exchanged advent calenders filled with tea and not-tea, and here it is with pocketses full of surprises for me:
And today's surprise... jigsaw pieces, Star Wars stickers, and interesting tea.
Disappointingly the tea doesn't actually glow, but that's probably for the best. Glowing tea would be rather worrying!
As is also traditional, my parents sent me a Jacquie Lawson digital advent calendar - this year it's the Christmas Village, and I've decorated the tree in it. I'll put the actual tree up later!
Advent 2020, Christmas day!
Dec. 25th, 2020 09:43 pmMerry Christmas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pWTlN15bc
Right, now I've got that out of my system, let's see what was in pocket number 25...
Interesting tea, a final origami sheet (for yet another pinwheel star), two chocolate coins and a caramel chocolate. And while the Lindt calendar finished yesterday, the Thorntons one had one final chocolate in the form of an alpini praline bar! Om nom nom...
Oh, and the snowman is complete!
As is traditional, that is not the end of my Christmas chocolate - each year I buy chocolates to hang on the tree and eat over the 12 days of Christmas 😋
Christmas itself was somewhat scrambled, but after zoom church (wherein our vicar had updated his cracker jokes for 2020 - "What's Dominic Cummings' favourite song? Driving Home For Christmas") I managed to meet up with my sister for lunch (yay support bubbles!). Because neither of us fancied cooking a complete roast we shared a Chinese meal from Sainsburys as our Christmas feast, and afterwards video called our parents while we opened our presents (who'd already opened theirs at 9am!). I got a good haul of presents, including a substantial Lego kit to put together, a Garth Nix book I hadn't realised was out, a magnetic hourglass (thanks Craig!), and a lovely Zelda-themed pin badge my sister found at the delightfully named Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes. All in all, Christmas worked out surprisingly well this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pWTlN15bc
Right, now I've got that out of my system, let's see what was in pocket number 25...
Interesting tea, a final origami sheet (for yet another pinwheel star), two chocolate coins and a caramel chocolate. And while the Lindt calendar finished yesterday, the Thorntons one had one final chocolate in the form of an alpini praline bar! Om nom nom...
Oh, and the snowman is complete!
As is traditional, that is not the end of my Christmas chocolate - each year I buy chocolates to hang on the tree and eat over the 12 days of Christmas 😋
Christmas itself was somewhat scrambled, but after zoom church (wherein our vicar had updated his cracker jokes for 2020 - "What's Dominic Cummings' favourite song? Driving Home For Christmas") I managed to meet up with my sister for lunch (yay support bubbles!). Because neither of us fancied cooking a complete roast we shared a Chinese meal from Sainsburys as our Christmas feast, and afterwards video called our parents while we opened our presents (who'd already opened theirs at 9am!). I got a good haul of presents, including a substantial Lego kit to put together, a Garth Nix book I hadn't realised was out, a magnetic hourglass (thanks Craig!), and a lovely Zelda-themed pin badge my sister found at the delightfully named Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes. All in all, Christmas worked out surprisingly well this year.
Advent 2020, day 24
Dec. 24th, 2020 11:59 pmFinally caught up just in time!
So here I am at long last at Christmas Eve. All the presents are wrapped, all the cards have been delivered - or at least posted - and the Christmas meal has been bought.
And the advent calendars are almost over. One is - today's the final day for the Lindt calendar - but the mystery and Thorntons calendars still have another day to go.
Today's origami: a rabbit!
The snowman is almost completed as well - it just wants one more piece from tomorrow:
That's all, until Christmas Day!
So here I am at long last at Christmas Eve. All the presents are wrapped, all the cards have been delivered - or at least posted - and the Christmas meal has been bought.
And the advent calendars are almost over. One is - today's the final day for the Lindt calendar - but the mystery and Thorntons calendars still have another day to go.
Today's origami: a rabbit!
The snowman is almost completed as well - it just wants one more piece from tomorrow:
That's all, until Christmas Day!
Advent 2020, day 23
Dec. 23rd, 2020 11:54 pmAlmost up-to-date!
The mystery calendar was a little light today: just a toffee penny, and the buttons from the snowman.
But that's not all! Today was our annual housegroup secret santa! Now we couldn't meet up in person (because Covid), so instead the D's kindly ordered pizza to be delivered to everyone and we'd even arranged a socially distanced secret santa - we all dropped off presents at someone's house, and then picked up our presents a day or two later (I wonder what their neighbours made of us all raiding their porch?).
Whoever got me as their secret santa knows me well, as I got this...
Yes, that's a small pillow/cushion with the Legend of Zelda crest on it! Thankyou, mystery secret santa!
The mystery calendar was a little light today: just a toffee penny, and the buttons from the snowman.
But that's not all! Today was our annual housegroup secret santa! Now we couldn't meet up in person (because Covid), so instead the D's kindly ordered pizza to be delivered to everyone and we'd even arranged a socially distanced secret santa - we all dropped off presents at someone's house, and then picked up our presents a day or two later (I wonder what their neighbours made of us all raiding their porch?).
Whoever got me as their secret santa knows me well, as I got this...
Yes, that's a small pillow/cushion with the Legend of Zelda crest on it! Thankyou, mystery secret santa!
Advent 2020, day 20
Dec. 20th, 2020 11:42 pm
No origami for a change today, but instead a lemon, ginger & honey tea to go with a toffee finger and a piece of the snowman's scarf.
As I've tried to do most weekends I headed out for a randomish walk - well, this was less random than usual as I had a selection of Christmas cards to deliver locally, a few more to post (some internationally which have epically missed the last posting date - so
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omgimsuchadork, rustica and crazyscot you're probably getting New Year's cards instead :P) and a handful of parcels to drop off (which are just in time for the last 1st class post). And on the way I spotted this wrapped around a streetlamp:
To the NHS and all key workers: We are with you
Advent 2020, day 18
Dec. 18th, 2020 11:32 pmOnly one week left until Christmas Day! Again, no photo of today's haul, which contained origami for yet another sheep (where did my sister find them all?) and a selection of chocolate.
There's another blog post incoming for today - I discovered that at Mottisfont they actually had the main house partly open as they'd decorated it for Christmas. So I took the day off work (partly because good luck getting a booking slot at the weekend, and partly because unsurprisingly I've got plenty of holiday left what with Covid cancelling everything) and meandered up there to have a look and enjoy a day of not doing much. I unfortunately picked a fairly wet day to visit, but I managed to dodge the worst of the showers and while it's not as impressive as past years it's still worth a visit. Photos to follow!
There's another blog post incoming for today - I discovered that at Mottisfont they actually had the main house partly open as they'd decorated it for Christmas. So I took the day off work (partly because good luck getting a booking slot at the weekend, and partly because unsurprisingly I've got plenty of holiday left what with Covid cancelling everything) and meandered up there to have a look and enjoy a day of not doing much. I unfortunately picked a fairly wet day to visit, but I managed to dodge the worst of the showers and while it's not as impressive as past years it's still worth a visit. Photos to follow!
Advent 2020, day 15
Dec. 15th, 2020 10:56 pmI've got a whole ten days worth of these to post!
Day 15!
No puzzle piece today, but instead another origami sheet (for some sort of hanging star decoration? I need to find time to actually make all these!) and whatever the green triangle is. The other calenders contained another Lindt napolitain and this time an alpini praline
Day 15!
No puzzle piece today, but instead another origami sheet (for some sort of hanging star decoration? I need to find time to actually make all these!) and whatever the green triangle is. The other calenders contained another Lindt napolitain and this time an alpini praline
Advent 2020, day 14
Dec. 14th, 2020 07:24 pmWhat was in there at the start of the week, anyway?
Slightly more today: a puzzle piece, night time tea, and a fudge chocolate, to go with the Lindt napolitain and a Thorntons Viennese deluxe. The jigsaw is taking shape...
But that's not all - this arrived from work as well:
So, a few weeks ago work messaged everyone saying that the usual Christmas meal wasn't going to be a thing this year (because Covid), and that they were exploring alternative ideas. And they asked everyone for a preference for sweet or savoury. I picked sweet.
I wasn't expecting this much chocolatey goodness...
Slightly more today: a puzzle piece, night time tea, and a fudge chocolate, to go with the Lindt napolitain and a Thorntons Viennese deluxe. The jigsaw is taking shape...
But that's not all - this arrived from work as well:
So, a few weeks ago work messaged everyone saying that the usual Christmas meal wasn't going to be a thing this year (because Covid), and that they were exploring alternative ideas. And they asked everyone for a preference for sweet or savoury. I picked sweet.
I wasn't expecting this much chocolatey goodness...
Advent 2020, day 13
Dec. 13th, 2020 09:00 amOver half-way towards Christmas! Nope, I'm nowhere near organised enough for Christmas yet :P
A lighter haul today: just a puzzle piece, a chocolate coin, a mini Lindt chocolate, and a Thorntons Espresso chocolate. I'm still not convinced by coffee in chocolate - though the parents have a Nespresso machine and I do like the Ciocattino chocolately coffee.
A lighter haul today: just a puzzle piece, a chocolate coin, a mini Lindt chocolate, and a Thorntons Espresso chocolate. I'm still not convinced by coffee in chocolate - though the parents have a Nespresso machine and I do like the Ciocattino chocolately coffee.
Advent 2020, day 12
Dec. 12th, 2020 09:00 amA bumper haul from the mystery calendar at the weekend!
The origami instructions are for a sheep! Now where did I put the pad of origami paper.
In the other calendars were another mini Lindt and a Thorntons Gianduiot cocoa hazelnut chocolate. And over in my Nordic e-calendar, the tale of Gryla & the Yule Lads which reminds me a bit of the sort of tales in Grimm's Fairy Tales...
The origami instructions are for a sheep! Now where did I put the pad of origami paper.
In the other calendars were another mini Lindt and a Thorntons Gianduiot cocoa hazelnut chocolate. And over in my Nordic e-calendar, the tale of Gryla & the Yule Lads which reminds me a bit of the sort of tales in Grimm's Fairy Tales...
