Taste of Christmas

We are busy getting ready for Christmas as I am sure a lot of people are at the moment! I bought all the presents a while ago, and have wrapped about 1/2 of them. Its one part of Christmas I detest. I don't know why, I just find it tedious! But will finish the rest this week and put them under the tree. I know all the presents I posted overseas and to Cornwall have arrived safely.


Hubby bought the tree last weekend. Isabella is not really that impressed! I wonder what she will make of the wrapped presents though! I cant wait for Christmas day for her to open her presents from us, our friends and relatives and from Santa! But it will really be next year that she appreciates them. She has also got both hubby and me a present as well! How sweet! Ma Ma has a new pair of running trainers and Ba Ba has a lovely pop art canvas print of 4 images of her done in an Andy Warhol style. He loves modern art and will love it. Ma Ma also bought herself a present! A pair of Uggs, I was jealous of Gail and ordered myself a pair of the classic type in Chocolate brown. I cant wait for them to arrive!

I also bought Isabella a ticket to see Aladdin at our health club. I adored Pantomimes as a child and is probably why I love the theatre. We decided not to take her to a theatre version as she is still too young. Hubby took her as his 1:1 bonding outing ( Ma Ma bought the ticket!). He says she was memorised and was clapping and laughing for about 40 minutes and then got bored. But so were a lot of other children ( and hubby! ).As he says it was quite an amateur performance! But what do you expect from a health club and for £7.50! This is a picture of her after with her balloon and gift (Chocolates!)



On Saturday I made Isabella some chicken egg noodles which she loves. But she wouldn't eat them, and I was really puzzled as I knew she was hungry. She has progressed so much over the last couple of weeks with her feeding skills she can now fed herself all dinners with a spoon really well. I them remembered one of the other Baise Ma Ma's telling me that her gorgeous daughter would only eat noodles when fed with chopsticks and remembered that is how we have fed these to Isabella either in China or when we go out to eat. Until recently she would of just fed these herself using her fingers.

So Ma Ma fed her with chopsticks and she ate them! But then wanted to feed herself and to our amazement could pick up food competently with chopsticks. So I changed them to the children's trainer chopsticks we bought in China and she continued quite happily to feed herself. She is only 18 months old!


My book queries are now all sorted which will give me some free time to start cooking in advance for Christmas and boxing day ( things I can freeze) and turn the dining room from a sewing/store room back into a dinning room again!

If you have noticed changes in my blog, I decided it needed an update again. I have decided this time to try to do it myself. But its still in progress! I will spend some time over the Christmas period trying to update the header to reflect the new blog colours and how Isabella now looks! The current picture is now 11 months old and she has a changed so much and has a lot more hair now!
Marathon update

Last week we ran 2 mid week runs each of 4.5 km and one long weekend run of 14 miles. But I have been getting niggling pains in my hip and knee and last week around 7 miles started to get quite a lot of pain. I know what is causing it, and just need to rest a little and do lots of stretching. I looked at my trainers as this is normally the cause and yep, the tread has completely worn away, I hadnt even noticed so they hadnt been giving me much support ( luckily Isabella bought me a new pair!), but until Christmas I have another pair I can use!

So I didnt do any mid week runs this week, and today Hubby, Isabella (sitting happily in her pram) and I ran 15 miles. So even thought it really hurt at the end, I am glad we can run this far 4 months away from the marathon. You normally only train up to 20 miles anyway but we will train to 22-24 miles this year. If I make it sound easy, believe me its not! But its just a combination of fitness and a strong mental attitude. I was so upset that I injured myself 1/2 way round the course last time, I so want to just run it again and run the entire 26.2 miles.

If you wish to sponsor us here is the link to our just giving webpage. All fundraising is for Hope4China