ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 52ND OF 2023

Morning all, well tis the very last Rocking post of 2023 

Well since last week's post and this weeks we've obviously had Christmas I hope yours has been beautiful and blessed. 

Last Friday was our Christmas food shop day, a day later than we normally do it if I'm honest and we were stuck with all the other food shoppers, so much so we couldn't get parked at the first Aldi, so we headed to one slightly further afield and got parked, into the shop, wandered, bought and back out without too much hassle so my first grateful is that the food shopping whilst a stressful task in itself pre-Christmas actually went quite well. 

The 23rd was spent preparing things in readiness for the big day, we set the main table on the 23rd which we were really pleased with and finished off a couple of homemade gifts with hubby.

I made some pretty labels for his Limoncello.  

The table on the 23rd

Then finished off with the crockery etc on the 24th

Christmas Eve is always my favourite day of the year if I'm honest but usually it is spent sorting things to the wire, this year not so much if I'm honest and all the food preparation was all done by lunch time, so we got ready and popped over to said 23 year old's and his wife for a lovely afternoon, catching up with them and her Mum and step Dad, and my sister and my niece. 

The big day arrived and for the first time in 23 years it was just the two of us as our only son woke up in his own home.  

We had a leisurely hour gift opening which was lovely before we headed into the kitchen to make a start. 

Not long after said 23 year old and his wife arrived so another batch of gift opening, they had got hubby this gift which is rather apt for him! 

and we enjoyed watching them open their gifts. 

which included one of their wedding photos blown up to poster size and framed. 

We took a before the chaos began photo. 

Said 23 year old and his missus really blew me away with my main gift, a genuine Mister Finch moth, I was utterly gobsmacked

The rest of Christmas day tripped along at a merry old pace as normal, family descended, we fed the world, Christmas lunch pretty much went without a hitch which was good and everyone enjoyed the food, I was complimented on my Yorkshire puddings, which was nice given that I'm a Yorkshire lass born and bred. 

Said 23 year old and his wife had lunch at home but arrived for more gift opening and time with extended family later in the day which was brilliant, we managed to get a photo of most of us at the last minute, my sister genuinely enjoying her pudding in this photo, has had us giggling since Christmas day. 

Boxing day this year was a quiet affair and we spent it chilling and relaxing in front of the wood-burning stove and reading all the wonderful books we got for Christmas. 

The 27th was pig table day at my Mum's house, so named because firstly we genuinely make a pig of ourselves because my Mum has always been an amazing cook and secondly the majority of the items on the table are made from some sort of pork product - roast pork sandwiches, hot sausage rolls, pork pie etc.  

She also made the world's best trifle genuinely it is absolutely stunning, apparently it is the Jubilee trifle that she doctored to strawberry rather than lemon and both me and hubby had third helpings, needless to say we didn't need any more food for the rest of the day!  

Later in the afternoon my sister found the karaoke - always dangerous! 

Overall Christmas has been an absolute delight if I'm honest and catching up with family has made me feel incredibly blessed. 

I hope you too have had a beautiful and blessed Christmas and enjoyed the festivities in whatever way suits you. 

This being the last of the Rocking posts for 2023, may I thank you for being around this year and commenting it's nice to know I'm not talking to myself if I'm honest.  

I hope you have a wonderful new year and I will see you with the clean sheet that is 2023.   

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 51ST OF 2023

 Good morning can you believe we are on our 51st Rocking post of 2023, tempus fugit 

Thursday night last week we went to the local college restaurant for a Christmas meal with my Mum and sister and had a lovely evening catching up, the food was beautiful and we were mighty full when we left, despite the portion sizes being tiny.

Friday and we headed to Sheffield for the panto with my Mum, it was Beauty and the Beast and Damian Williams the dame was fantastic as always.

Saturday morning and we headed up to National Trust property - Nostell Priory to wander their pretty Christmas rooms, the queue for Santa were extensive, last year he just wandered around saying hello and waited for people to show an interest, this year he had an extensive queue of young people to chat to, but that will happen when he happens to be 'free'.  Anyway I'm sure the young people will have enjoyed their chat and we enjoyed walking the house, the gingerbread room was wonderful, the aromas spectacular. 

If you look closely you can see the man himself. 

The rest of the day was spent getting on with jobs that we needed to do, similarly on Sunday morning, getting things done. 

Sunday evening we headed to Wentworth Woodhouse for 'The tale as old as time itself' a story set in a deserted mansion, very apt for the building, but with a group of 4 of us it was difficult to keep up with the story if truth be told, we probably needed a written leaflet to aid us. 

We headed outside for a wonderful lights trail in the garden and enjoyed a very festive hot chocolate together and to be honest it was definitely time that we needed together. 

Monday and we had a meeting in work to try and get things resolved, Tuesday whilst things had techncially resolved this wasn't tested, so another sleepless nights.  On Wednesday the world realigned, we had a chat and things are back on an even keel again and so we set too as a team and packed 50 Christmas hampers and got them distributed to families in need, whilst tiring it was just what we needed to remind ourselves of the season and what it really means. 

Thursday and the hampers were finished, the last of the reports was written and at two minutes past four I said goodbye to the work place for the last time this year, we've got a single day in over Christmas to cover foodbank but that is technically in the new year, so I'm going to down tools and enjoy family and friends and all things festive. 

I hope everyone else is fairing OK in this run up to Christmas, I hope you have a beautiful and blessed Christmas.

Much love 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 50TH OF 2023

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well it has been the weirdest of weeks but I'm going to focus on the positives, so last Friday we took my car in for some repair, we found the problem but not the repair method which is a bit of a bugger if I'm honest, so that is still to be resolved.  We also had a dental appointment, but it was good to realign all of our appointments as they'd ended up out of synch.  In the evening we went to Sheffield Cathedral for their illuminations in the church, it really was wonderful and we went with my sister which was good too as we had time to have a good catch up. 

These are a few of the photos that we took

there was also a Christmas tree festival in the church and I found my favourite decorations

Saturday and we were in work for Santa boat trips, it was a good day and in between trips we had time to sort out the activity cupboards which was great.  I found out later that one of the children who couldn't make it for the trip due to coming down with chicken pox got a special video message from Santa as well as his Christmas gift, our volunteers are genuinely fantastic. 

Sunday and I had a Christmas wreath class, my niece came down from Leeds and we went to my Mums to have a good catch up which was brilliant, we all enjoyed doing the wreaths as well, we'd also chosen red as our key colour.

Monday and it was back to work and to be honest it has been another difficult week, I can't tell if my gut is telling me to persevere or move to pastures new if truth be told, but at the moment I'm just going to enjoy my weekend and let me see how the land lies next week. 

I hope you've had a positive week. 

Hugs