if father christmas......

was a millionaire or a miracle worker, i would ask him for these christmas presents:

1. every pair of shoes that christian louboutin has ever designed
2. a brand new laptop that doesn't take a lifetime to connect to the internet and can cope with photoshop, so i don't have to keep 'borrowing' m.r.'s
3. a sewing machine and every sewing accessory i can think of to make pretty, pretty things
4. a blackberry. i am not interested in the iphone. i need functionality, not apps.
5. a winning lottery ticket
6. my grandad back - if only for my wedding day

not that i'm asking for much....

in reality, christmas this year will be all about family for me and m.r. - his and mine, that is "ours". (i still love saying that!)
it will be a first christmas for my new nephew and niece and my eldest nephew actually understands whats going on for the first time.
i'm so ridiculously excited.
even if the babies enjoy the wrapping paper more than the things inside it, i can't think of a better christmas present than watching them smile all day.
their laughs are contagious.
no other present will beat it.

saved from the monday blues

i had the monday blues today.

no special reason. although, i guess i'm so ready to be at my new job now, the last few days here are passing slowly.

but then i received this wonderfully cheerful email from my mum and my blues faded away:

Just had another look at the photos of your wedding dress and it is absolutely beautiful.

Luv MUM xx

isn't it lovely how the little things can make all the difference!

p.s. sorry i can't post any photos of wedding dress in question - i'm being very secretive about the dress and don't want the wrong people to catch sight of it!!

party season

christmas party season kicked off last night with a 'razzle dazzle' 20s event.

m.r. freelances for the company my dad started earlier this year, looking after their i.t., so we were technically invited as employee and partner, but i was just pleased to be there, supporting my dad at his first company 'do'.

we all had so much fun.....

we were treated to a fabulous cabaret show

we spun the wheel and played some roulette

 

and we ate a delicious meal
(please note-glasses here are m.r.'s and i am borrowing them to watch the cabaret! saying that, i'm strangly tempted to get a pair...)

in addition to all of this, there were dodgems!!!!!!

this photo was taken a moment before we hit my brother and sister-in-law, in car number 3, straight up the bum.

as far as i'm concerned, any party that has dodgems, is undeniably awesome.

so thanks mum and dad - we had the best time! xx

my wonderful sister

i've always wanted a sister.

my brother, as brothers go, is pretty great (forgetting the 'smacking me over the head with a spade' incident when we were young). but it was never going to be the same as having a sister

i dreamt of having someone to share secrets with, someone to take shopping to help me find that perfect dress, someone to call me just to tell me the latest celeb gossip they'd heard.

until now, friends have always been a substitute. but as a result of an extremely intelligent decision made by my brother (see, good points!), i now have my very own, fabulous sister.

she's awesome. and yesterday, she was offered a new job! whoop whoop!

congratulations sis - we're all very proud of you! xx

christmas excitement (in november)

i realise it's only the beginning of november, but i love christmas and i'm already so excited about it. it's the one time in the year that you're officially allowed to be a kid again!

my parents have always made the biggest effort when it comes to the little things - when we were younger, my dad would dress up in my mum's red coat and white scarf on christmas eve so that if we woke whilst he was putting our sacks of pressies out, we would think he was santa!

and my mum would leave sprinklings of tinsel around the house during the lead up to christmas, telling us that they were threads from the fairys' dresses who had been to visit and check we were behaving.

plus, we used to get our 'big' present left for us downstairs in the lounge and dad would always tease us that he didn't think santa had brought us one this year. i say 'used' to - this tradition is still in full force in our househould, despite the fact that we're hitting our 30s.

christmas is a truely magical time and we feel so lucky to have 3 fabulous niece and nephews to shower with christmas fantasies and pressies this year.

bring on santa!

the beginning

my very first post........esk!

so i guess this all started 6 months ago, when my gorgeous boyfriend proposed to me, in my most favourite place in the city, with the most beautiful ring i've ever seen.

not only did he manage to surprise me (which is difficult as i organise both of our diaries!), he had also asked my dad's permission AND he proposed on one knee. what more could a girl ask for?!

since that night, our lives have been fairly hectic:
our beautiful little niece was born,
our youngest nephew has perfected his disney-esq smile that would melt anybody's heart,
and our eldest nephew has become a toddler, with huge adorable eyes that make you want to give him anything he asks for.
my parents threw us an incredibly fun (if not fairly drunken) engagement party.
so many of our family travelled up to celebrate with us, which we hugely appreciated.
my brother and his wife were married in a fabulous english manor house.
i was, very proudly, one of their bridesmaids.
we visited the parents in law-to-be in france and stayed in their beautiful 18th century farmhouse.
we attended 3 of our friends weddings and loved each and everyone of them.
my best friend (who also happens to be my maid of honour) accepted a marriage proposal from her lovely boyfriend.
the whole family embarked on a whistlestop tour of brazil.
my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary (how inspiring!)
and during all of this, we've also been trying to plan our own wedding............

so our blog is about all of these wonderful times and wonderful people.