Sorry for the lack of posts since October – I think I was in the autumnal / early winter funk with the short days and never seemed to find the time or energy to post – I had the Halloween post open on my computer for over a month before closing it and only coming back to finish it today!

New year new beginnings! We are back from our Christmas trip to the UK and all excited about getting stuck in to the house and garden so watch out for lots of posts.

We had a fantastic festive season catching up with all the family in the UK. Sadly my dad was unwell and couldn’t make it to my sisters and we were out of time to go visit him but we can hopefully sort something soon.

I hope you all had wonderful Christmas and New Years and wishing you a happy, healthy and wonderful 2016!

This past year or so has just flown by. The end of November brought our babies 1st birthday – bitter-sweet as he is growing up so fast. He started walking a couple of weeks before the big day so we went and got his first shoes – so cute! He was so proud of his new red shoes!

The end of November saw a cold patch, with frosts and into the minuses over night so the birthday boy was all rugged up to go and get Louis from school on his beg day – bless him! Happy birthday little one xx

An update on the wreath project – you may remember this post where I made my vine wreath in the autumn: http://anotheryearinfrance.coolhippy.com/2015/10/home-made-vine-wreath/ I forgot to get a picture of the colourful leaves I added to the first decorations but they weren’t on long and I made a autumnal / Halloweeny / pumpkin wreath (again meant to get another set of photos as the light was very low so the pics aren’t great – sorry, I’ll learn!!):

The next theme was of course Christmas, I went for  a lovely simple red, white and wood scheme:

Now I just need to think of a decoration scheme for the rest of winter (at the moment a bucket of water would be appropriate!!) – any ideas anyone?

We had a great Halloween this year (except for the baby – I’ll explain in a moment!). Louis and I carved the pumpkin (a bit boring but we didn’t have any time – next year I want to try something much more elaborate!):

Josh spent the day at his youth club preparing for a big Halloween murder mystery / live Cludo party! We then were to join him, in costume for dinner before the party. Louis and I went to get dressed and our make-up on while the little one was with his daddy. We re-entered the kitchen and he saw Louis and absolutely panicked – full screaming and crying the poor darling (the baby not the hubby!). Needless to say we didn’t let Louis back in the room and decided it would be best if he stayed home.

We all took a plate to the meal which was a bit rushed and then we all headed to the chateau where lots of others from the village were waiting for us. As a big group we went around trick or treating, there were some fantastic decorations in some of the windows (excuse the poor picture quality I’d forgotten the flash for my big camera and my phone didn’t cope too well with the light either!):

After the trick or treating we returned to the Chateau where Josh and his youth group did a life size Cleudo murder mystery through the Chateau. Sadly I missed most of that bit as I had to go home and feed and put Rémy to bed but arrived in time to hear the results of who the murderer was!

It was a fantastic night, very well organised, atmospheric (our very own castle!!) well done by the kids and a real family community evening that we all enjoyed!

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