Christmas in the summertime

I love looking at posts showing Christmas in the northern hemisphere but for me Christmas happens in the summer. So I thought I would show you some pictures from a summer 

Christmas Day past.

One year we kitten sat for our daughter, summer is kitten time, and she ended up decorating our tree. She loved the fact that we had put  a tree in the lounge for her and covered it with all sorts of shiny toys. She gave us a lot of laughs as she climbed from bottom to top and back again.

Of course there is always heaps of food and even with summer salads and cold meats it is easy to over eat if you're not careful.

And if you manage to behave with the salads 

maybe you won't be so good with the summer desserts.

Naturally there are delicious sweet and savoury nibbles 

scattered around in strategic places as well.

Afterwards there's always time to sit around out of the sun 

and just relax and socialise, have a long cool drink or two

 and wash all that party food down.

Or join the kids for a game of backyard cricket and maybe lose some of those calories you just piled on over lunch. Or what's more likely, lose the ball, probably on a neighbours roof :)

But before any of this happens there is the opportunity to attend a Christmas church service and celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is after all, the reason for the season.

Just a little glimpse of a 

summertime Christmas, 

I hope you enjoyed it.

joining Amy and friends for:

five on Friday

Diana

Introducing 'Her'

Do you remember 'Missy the Manx minx'?

We looked after her for a couple of weeks at Christmas

 a year or two back, just after she came to live with our daughter.

Well she is now a mama herself and below is one of her offspring.

Meet 'Her', one of three kittens.

She has a lovely long tail.

Her brother has half a tail and her sister has no tail!

We can only assume the daddy was not a Manx, 

which means Missy is still a little minx :)

It surely is the silly season

This is a lazy post really. I was playing with some of the editing effects on one of the computer programmes and thinking about Christmas so decided to post one or two of the photos. Or four or five of them. 

home nativity

I seem to be very busy at the moment trying to get ready for Christmas, which is coming all too quickly, but I'm sure I'll be ready on time.

Hand crafted nativity set

Tonight I've been back to my old work place, the rest home, to watch my youngest grandson take part in putting on a few Christmas items with his scout troop. He was surprised to see me but also pleased when they were told to go and talk to some of the residents. He made a beeline for me, haha, so I took him in hand and went with him while he spoke with a couple of the old ladies. He's 8 and found it just a little daunting I think.

Christmas tree in hotel foyer

I've also been helping make props for our church Christmas outreach, Wednesday mornings spent painting and cutting and fitting and everything else that goes with putting displays together. A lot of fun really with people just turning up randomly to help. I have some sheep at home now waiting to be cut out and have legs attached, the Sunday School kids drew and painted them. Cute.

Santa in the city

This week my daughter and I spent the morning in town, mostly window shopping while we waited for my GKB who was at an appointment. We found some shops we never knew about and had a good old time poking around - and I got some great ideas for Christmas presents. My mind had been blank up till then. When we had finished we had to have coffee of course. I love going into town with my girls, I always enjoy it.

Missy climbing the Christmas tree

I'm looking at my diary, *retired and needing a diary*, and next week is filling up fast. But I love Christmas so I don't mind really

It surely is the silly season. 

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All of the photo's have been cropped and sharpened apart from the top one and the bottom one. The one at the top has been localised. Photos all taken using a Canon PowerShot A540.

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Missy the manx minx

We have been kitten sitting for a few days. 

Missy is an 8 week old manx kitten
 and she had fun trying to demolish the Christmas tree.

When that didn't work she decided to climb to the top,
 but couldn't quite get to replace the star.
She did manage to dislodge 
several decorations  on her way up though.

And after swinging on tinsel and lights for a while

she collapsed in a heap on the back of the couch and slept.

Oh, Claude was not impressed 
that we had a kitten in the house, 
even a female one.

Keep well as you prepare

for the new year

Diana