It's that time of year again!

If you've been reading the blog for a while you may remember that this time last year we had a little visitor come to stay- Chipper Twinkletoes, one of Santa's elves. No I've not gone mad- you can read about it here. Anyway today we got a letter from Santa to say he's coming back - yipee!!!

Dear Joe and Maisie,

I can’t believe it’s December again already, where does the time go? So it’s a year since my little friend Chipper came to stay with you, you know he still talks about all the fun he had at your house.. I’ve been trying to work out which elves to send to which children this year, and Chipper is very very very keen to come back and stay with you both- infact he’s driving me nuts going on about it. I hope that it will be Ok with you if he returns again this year.

I will tell him to get his things together for the journey and then I’ll send him on his way in the next day or so. I know he has a little surprise he wants to bring for you both,. I don’t think it will take him too long to pack, as he’s very keen to get going on his journey.

Please be patient as it might take a few days for him to reach you- it’s a long way after all. Enjoy your time together.

Santa

Who knows what he'll get up to this time...

A big sigh of relief

After the big shock of my brother-in -law having a stroke last week,I am extremely pleased to be able to say it looks like he's going to be OK. He still has to have a brain ultra sound, and has been told he can't drive for a month, the doctor's don't know what caused it and want to try and find out. But the great news is that the brain scans showed there were no blood clots in the brain or neck, and he's been told it's highly unlikely to happen again.He said it was a big wake-up call for him, it made him realise that his job, that he's been very unhappy with and stressing about for some time, isn't that important. A terrible thing to go through, but I do believe things happen for a reason, and maybe it was necessary to enable him to re-evaluate what's really important.

Gratitude

Yesterday I read an interesting post about gratitude at pepper stitches it just reminded me how important it is to focus on the positive. She links to someone else's blog who writes thank-you notes to the things/ people etc that she is grateful for - could be an interesting idea to try. Having the thoughts in writing could be a really good thing to look back at on those grey days.

Today I am feeling very lucky that I am in good health. We had a phone call this afternoon to say that Andy's brother has had a mini stroke- he's 36! He's been sent home from hospital this evening with medication having had a brain scan and has to return tomorrow to speak with the consultants about the prognosis. His wife is 7 months pregnant with their first child, and had to stop working at least for the time being because of her blood pressure. Neil was due to start a new job next Monday. Now everything is up in the air for them.I have everything crossed that things work out ok for them.

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't believe it another of the little toys i left out with the toy society has been adopted. Fantastic! You can read about it here

This has made my day

One of my toy drops has been found and the findee has sent a message to the toy society, you can read it here. It is a lovely message and made my day. I'm all fired up to create some more. I guess I better finish the cuddlies I'm making for Joe and Maisie for Christmas first, though I might be able to squeeze a couple in at the same time.

I think this is getting a bit addictive

Ok this is drop number 3. I think I'm addicted!, This little fellow was left on a shelf outside the toilets in Dartington, not a particularly picturesque location but hopefully he will be found soon.
I got a message via flickr to say someone found the 2nd toy I dropped which was very exciting.

toy society drop number 2

This drop was a family affair, and Andy as a toy releasing virgin was particularly excited.

We were going into town to get a few things so it was the ideal opportunity- or so we thought. Actually it proved more difficult because it was so busy. Initially we left the little fellow on a bench then retreated to a safe distance to watch, we didn't tie him down and a gust of wind blew him off so we had to move in to rescue him. We chose a bike rack as the place to leave him, we did a little circuit around and came back but he was still hanging around- hopefully he was found before dark!