Late to the Party!

I'm so behind with blogging these days; there just doesn't seem to be the time to get to the computer any more. And then, when I am at the computer, I'm either busy doing other things (compiling an allergen list for the tea room menu, for example - gaaah) or I'm tired or I have no inspiration.

Anyhoo, it was my birthday at the end of November, so here's a little round up of what I did: The day before my birthday I took myself off to the mall at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol (my fave 'high street' shopping destination); I managed to spend 7 hours there, and could quite easily have managed another one or two, but I wanted to get home to see DC before he went to bed. I did a fair bit of shopping, picked up a few Christmas presents and a couple of things for myself, so all was good.

My actual birthday was somewhat hijacked by the school Christmas fete; hubby, DC, my Mum & I had volunteered to run the Home Produce/Cake stall for the morning, which wasn't so bad as it gave us first dibs on the lovely cakes!

Father Christmas and his helper arrived by helicopter, like you do!

And best of all, when it was all over we went back home and indulged in this fantastic giant Peanut Butter Cup that hubby had made me for my birthday cake. And once again (see last year's Red Velvet cake), it was really only me who liked it so not too much sharing to be done; several weeks on and I'm still making my way through it...

In the evening DC went for a sleepover at Granny's while hubby and I enjoyed dinner at our village pub. Hubby's wearing a neck brace because he had an operation for a slipped disc at the beginning of November.

Fish and chips for me, belly of pork for hubby. YUM!

The birthday celebrations continued apace as the next day we went to the Mount Somerset hotel for afternoon tea.

DC took the photo below, which helps to explain the angle.

And I forgot to take a photo of the food until we'd pretty much finished - so here's a delightful photo of the detritus. You can see there really wasn't much left, which clearly suggests we enjoyed it very much!

As per tradition, I took some photos of my birthday gifts for posterity.

Quite a eclectic mix this year, including a hot glue gun ('does it shoot glue?' asked DC), some antlers, a Christmas jigsaw tree decoration, a vintage tin featuring the name of my old school, a Streamline pot and a Starbucks Christmas mug to add to the collections

 money, vouchers, coffee, chocolate and a cheese-making kit which my dear friend Liz believes will add another facet to my 'country wife' lifestyle

and lots of smellies (is someone trying to tell me something?!)

 And that was the end of my birthday weekend!