Snow in Sheffield

I'll  write  a lengthy  blog  post about  Christmas  in Ireland  soon,  but  in the  meantime,  here's  Vera  enjoying  the  snow  in Sheffield

Nativity

Vera's  nursery had  a  traditional  Nativity  on  Friday  at  3.30  and  both  Mark and I  was  lucky to be able to  attend.  Their  amazing  drama  teacher had  done a  great  job with  all the  costumes  and  planning and  practicing  songs.  They  sang a special  version of  twinkle  twinkle  special  star and  there  were  two  Marys  and  Vera was  one of them.  She  did a great  job  with  her  lines  and  acted  surprised  when  she  found  out that  she  was  carrying  baby  Jesus  ;-)
In  the  middle of the  performance  she  shouted  "I love you  Daddy !,  swiftly  followed by  "Mamma!  I'm  hungry! "
All in  all,  a great  performance  and  we were  very  proud of  her  and  all the  other  little  performers.

Writing Christmas Cards to my friends at nursery

Weekend

One weekend

This has been one busy weekend. On Friday after work I went to the hair dresser's. It's hard squeezing in hair appointments when working full time, so I'm pleased that they were open til 8pm so that I could have my roots done :-). It's hard to stay blonde I can tell you!

On Saturday morning Vera went to her ballet and tap as usual and Mark and I had a leisurely coffee next door. In the afternoon, Vera and I went to my friend Ulrica's for a Swedish lucia celebration. I brought the saffron buns I had baked and we had a great time drinking glogg and chatting. The children were decorating ginger bread and it was lovely to spend Lucia with fellow Swedes.

In the evening I was invited to my new company's Christmas party at Cutler's Hall
http://www.cutlershall.co.uk/
I was very apprehensive as I had only met the three people who interviewed me and as I arrived in the venue, I didn't actually know who I was waiting for! Luckily the lady who had organised the party spotted me and looked after me and I sat at a nice table during the dinner, chatting away to my future colleagues. I'm really glad I went and pleased to be invited, as it will make it less daunting on my first day. The venue was complete with a smooth DJ and we had a bit of a boogie, before I shared a taxi home with a (future) colleague who lives near me in Woodseats.

Today we spent the morning in a very chilly and blustery Millhouses Park, where Vera ran around in her waterproofs and the we went home to have some home made roast butternut squash soup followed by Vera's current favourite, hot chocolate with mini marshmallows.

I spent the afternoon with housework and wrapping all the Christmas gifts and then headed to Castleton to meet Jacquie to go to the Peak Cavern, also known as the Devil's Arse (it was apparently renamed to Peak Cavern so as not to offend Queen Victoria when she visited!) to sing along to Christmas Carols and listen to a brass band. It's a lovely thing today, albeit cold, and a bit of a tradition since we went last year with my parents.

All in all, a very busy weekend! One more week at work (yipee) before I finish up and we have our Christmas holidays.

The Dreams of a 3,5 Year Old

The other morning Vera said, “I was dreaming mamma when you woke me up” (yes I have to wake her every morning at 07:15, she’s a sleepy head like me!). “Oh” I said, “What were you dreaming about”.

“I was playing football with Isac at nursery. All the grown ups were watching. I was running so fast and jumping so high. And I didn’t fall over once! Everyone was so happy. I won”

Christmas build up

Sorrow

Where does one start. November was a month of utter sorrow, sadness and disbelief. We experienced the loss of Mark’s parents, within twelve days of each other and Mark spent most of November in Ireland, both at home, at the hospital in Sligo and at the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Vera and I flew over twice to attend two very sad, but beautiful funerals. It has been really hard to come to terms with it and there has been a lot of tears.

The only silver lining on this very black cloud has been family. Mark has a wonderful, caring and loving family and this has certainly brought all of us together.

Bereavement also allows you, or forces you to re-assess what is important in life. During the week after Mark’s dad’s funeral and when Mark’s mum was seriously ill, I had the worst week at work in my whole working life. I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to leave and go somewhere else, but this truly was the nail in the coffin. Luckily I had already started to pursue some new opportunities and had a few interviews and I was lucky to be offered two jobs. I have now accepted a role as a Sales Operations Manager, starting 5th January. Here's to a more successful and happier 2015

 

Vera is great and her language is coming on leaps and bounds. She is very affectionate these days, tells us she loves us at least five times every day and wants lots of hugs. I am enjoying this for as long as it lasts.

She has been absolutely brilliant with all the recent travelling and constant change of scenery.

She was  so good and mature in the airport, with all the queuing, security checks, car rentals etc. I was very proud of her.

I'm just back this evening from a parent's evening with her key worker Tracey. Everything was absolutely fine. She is very sociable, loves arts and crafts and helping out. She has a good group of friends and talks a lot about home life, her cousins in Sweden and her cousins in Ireland.

 

Christmas is coming faster than we know it. When we came back from Ireland we went straight into Christmas mode, bought and decorated our Christmas tree, decorated the tree and I've gone all out with Swedish Christmas baking. We're very much looking forward to our Christmas in Ireland, which will be full of family, memories as well as sadness for two dearly loved people who are not going to be there.

On a different note, I am thinking of password protecting this blog, so for those of you out there who may read from time to time, and would like to continue reading my ramblings, drop me a line!

Brrrr!

After a very warm autumn which peaked on Halloween with 20 degrees, winter is now upon us with temperatures just over zero. Our olive tree "Oliver" has had to move indoors into the dining room!

Vera is doing very well, is very sociable and chats non stop. As she is now a pre-schooler, they work a lot on letter recognition at nursery and the children have to sign themselves in at nursery in the morning. Vera manages the "V" and "e" and then a scribble and something resembling an "a". But she's only 3,5! I don't agree with the early school start here in the UK, but I understand why in a way (the sky high child care fees), and it's surreal in a way that she will start school next year. But needs must and all that, so like any parent you try and do your best for your child so that they are prepared.

We're hoping that Vera will go to our local school, Dobcroft Infant School
http://www.dobcroft-inf.sheffield.sch.uk/, which is a very good school and we live in the catchment area. However, when we apply in a few weeks, we also have to put down our 2nd and 3rd choice of two more local schools.

We've had a busy few weeks, with a lovely family visit from Ireland. Vera's Nana Olivia, auntie Pat and cousins Sarah and Ciara came over and we spent a lovely weekend catching up, shopping, eating and laughing! Vera was in great form and "read" stories and entertained everyone and was pampered by her cousins!

A weekend goes so quickly, so it's great to know that we'll see them all at Christmas for some more quality time!

The next highlight was Halloween. Vera wore her spiderwitch dress all day at nursery and all evening. We had a few decorations and we had stocked up on sweets. Vera and I went over to our neighbors Ann and Godfrey and gave them some sweets and then Vera was in charge of opening the door to all the trick or treaters!
On the Saturday, it was a Halloween theme at ballet so the dress made another appearance!

Visitors from Ireland and Halloween

Recent

Long time...

...no speak. Again. And no real reason apart from me being lazy!
We had a fantastic, relaxing family holiday in Nerja in Spain. We rented a car and I drove on the right-hand side for the first time in many years, but it's amazing how much comes back to you! Apart from that it was very chilled, lots of pool time, sand castles at the beach, trips to mountain villages and the famous Nerja Caves.
During the time we were away Sweden held its General Election and whereas I'm pleased that there has been a change in the ruling party but sad and angry that the racist party the Swedish Democrats got an astonishing 12 % of the votes and with that a lot of political representation and power. History repeating itself, tougher economic climates and the extreme right wing parties gather momentum. The same is happening here in Britain with UKIP and BNP. Sad to say the least.
Scotland also held its referendum vote on Independence and it was so close, I really thought it was going to be an "aye" so disappointed on behalf of my many friends who voted Yes. On a much more positive note, Earth has seen the arrival of two more gorgeous babies! Fiona and Dan welcomed their son Leo and a day after Ana and Mark welcomed their Nathaniel to the world! Happy news and can't wait to meet them both and get some cuddles!

The weekend we arrived back from Spain Joe and Barry came to visit from Edinburgh! It was so great to see them and we spent Saturday in the Botanics and Ecclessall Road and Sunday in Castleton. They were even subjected to sit through Frozen to which Vera now knows most of the words and all the songs...

Joe and Barry brought a gorgeous soft toy for Vera, a giraffe that she's named Gerald (after the character in "Giraffes can't dance). He's now a steady companion and even came along to Ballet yesterday morning!

Last weekend we went down to London to see Terese and drove down after work. We got there at 9pm and Vera went to bed after a little catch up with Terese. On Saturday morning, the weather was miserable so we did some errands with Terese and then Vera let off some steam at a play centre called Clowntown. As it was a Saturday and raining it was mobbed!  In the afternoon we met Cathy, Martyn and Chris in a lovely family friendly pub called the Ranelagh in Bounds Green for a catch up! Great to see them all again!

On Sunday we rushed back for Vera's friend Rosa's birthday party! Rosa's parents had rented a Frozen themed bouncy castle and it was optional fancy dress.Luckily the weather was great so there were a bunch of very happy girls bouncing around in Princess dresses.

The weeks are ticking on, Mark's doing a  a bit of DIY, Vera's enjoying nursery and a few new friends there. She's also enjoying her dancing on Saturday mornings and has decided that she wants to continue. I didn't want to put pressure on her and "force" her to do activities that she doesn't enjoy, but she seems to really enjoy her dance school and moving around to music. It's also a nice 45 minutes for me in the hotel next door where I can drink a coffee and read a book :-)

Overall, I and and we are feeling very settled here, just over a year since we moved up here. I've met some lovely friends and last night Ulrica drove us to Bradwell where we had dinner at the lovely Samuel Fox Inn. Gorgeous food and stunning setting. Quite amazing, a 20 minute drive and we're in the middle of a quaint village in a National Park.

Anyhow, hopefully it won't be such a long time until my next update!

Holiday

catch up

We've been so lucky to have family visiting from Sweden and Ireland in the last couple of weeks. Catrine, Magnus, Åke and Folke came over from Sweden on the 5th August and we spent a wonderful week together. With three very active children, we spent a lot of time in the playground in Millhouses Park, in the woods and Graves Park. We took the bus down to Chatsworth through the Peaks and had a great day in the Adventure Playground. On the Saturday Magnus and I went to see Sheffield United play the first game of the season at Brammal Lane. We sat amongst the home supporters and it was a great atmosphere despite Sheffield United losing the game. In the evening we enjoyed the last BBQ of the summer, which was lovely!
On the Sunday, the weather changed and it was chucking it down with rain, so I took the Skoglund family to Meadowhall. This is a huge shopping centre and Åke and Folke were so good in there, and got to pick a present each. On the Monday I had to go back to work so Catrine and Magnus took the children to the someewhat odd Police and Emergency Museum in the city centre. We had such a great time together and enjoyed some great meals out in various local pubs and lots of ice cream for the kids!

On the Tuesday morning, Magnus, Catrine and the boys took the train to Manchester, where they stayed one night before heading home.

A few days later, on the Thursday, Joe, Claire, Grace, Luke and Lily came to see us, on their way back to LIverpool and the ferry back home to Ireland. We had a great time catching up and on the Friday we headed to Ecclessal Woods, followed by the Park and lunch in the sun.
 I had to work in the aftenoon so left everyone to it in the park and joined everyone at 4:30 for home made pizza. The Collins set off around 5:45 and shortly after Mark got a taxi to the station where he headed down to London.

So from having a full house, Vera and I were all of a sudden home alone, while Mark was in San Francisco at a conference for a week.

After a busy week, we welcomed Mark home on Friday night and enjoyed a long weekend. True to form the weather was pretty bad, but on Sunday we managed a long walk at the Derwent Reservoir and a visit to our friend Jacquie in her new house in Bamford.

Yesterday, Vera and I went to buy a bird feeder and some bird food and then we spent the rest of day indoors, watching the movie Frozen, making soup and baking cheese scones.

And today it's back to work again, but luckily it's a four-day week so not too bad!

Hair cut- before and after

Family

Weekend: visitors and Whirlow Farm