Week 51 - The last week before Christmas

This week was very busy. I finally finished all the work I had to deliver before Christmas - what a relief! Sofia trained for the last show jumping competitions of this year. Didn't make it to go to the hairdresser's with Carlotta, so I cut her fringe myself. This week I did all my Christmas shopping.
Friday on our way home from the horse stables we had an aperitif with our friends and on Sunday evening we invited them to our house. Carlotta had decorated a wine bottle at school and we opened it and had dinner and pandoro (an Italian Christmas cake) and exchanged Christmas gifts with them. In the morning we had our jumping competition and then we packed because the next day we were going to fly to Finland.

Follow with bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Just testing how bloglovin works and trying to add my blogs there. It's a new world for me, so let's see if I can get it work :). I guess I succeeded for this blog, now I'll try with my horse blog.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Finland!

Week 50 - Mulled wine after a stressful week

It's getting late, but at least I have managed to catch up with the week posts!
Carlotta making hot chocolate - Carlotta got a nail file in the advent calender and was very happy - The last leave on the apricot tree - The dark afternoons make it difficult to get good photos of the riding lessons. I want a brighter camera lens! - A new horse that I have been riding - On Saturday I made the dough for ginger breads - And on Sunday Sofia had her riding lesson, we baked ginger breads and had a very nice afternoon with our friends with warm mulled wine (glögg) and Christmas pastries and sweets.
What you don't see on the photos is that I was really, really tired this week working late every night, going to talk with Carlotta's and Sofia's teachers (it's a time taking project here) and that I had problems with my car again - this time the friction broke. Everything fixed now and our Sunday with mulled wine was very relaxing and I really needed it!

Week 49 - First week of December and Christmas is approaching

The first week of December. Our apricot tree was all yellow before the leaves fell.
Christmas letters and drawings started to show up at home. One afternoon as we went to buy something in Casalpalocco there was a nice Christmas market. Unfortunately I didn't have time to enjoy more Christmas markets as I was so busy working these days. On Saturday we made a cake and took it to the riding school. In some riding schools you bring a cake or something to drink if you fall off the horse. Carlotta had fallen off a pony quite a few times here and Sofia once, so we introduced this tradition here, too. Hopefully the others will continue it, it's always nice to have a reason to eat and drink something together.

Week 48 - Cold, but sunny days

On Monday I didn't have any car, so I made a cake instead. On Tuesday I found a very nice caffee here near a supermarket and had my morning cappuccino there. The evenings have started to get cold and we lit the fire in our fireplace many times this week. So nice when you come home and it's so humid outside that no clothes are warm enough. On Friday I fetched the girls earlier from school and we went to see show jumping at Piazza di Siena in the centre of Rome. A beautiful place and the weather was lovely.
On Saturday we spent all day at the riding school. First I had my riding lesson in the morning. Then there was a birthday party and the gilrs had lunch at the club house. In the afternoon Sofia had her riding lesson together with the other girls and when we went home it was dark already.

Week 47 - Car problems

The week started with a good cappuccino and cornetto. Tuesday morning didn't start quite so well, I was woken up with the notice that I had a flat tyre. Fortunately Armando was at home and could fix it together with his car mechanic and in the afternoon I got back my car with the new tyre.
On Wednesday we went to Decathlon, a big shop selling sports things, also lots of nice things for horse riding.
Then it started raining and it rained I think for two or three days. The roads were we live were full of water. On Sunday we took the car and drove to another riding stable at the north side of Rome where a girl who had sold her pony had some pony things to sell. Bu as we were driving there I got problems with the car again. Fortunately we hadn't driven far. My car stopped, but I managed to start it again and drive home and take Armando's car. We found out I had tanked dirty fuel with water in it.

Week 46 - Show jumping and marathon chocolates

I managed to fill my days before Christmas with too much work, so I haven't had time for almost anything else. I have had too little sleep and have spent too many hours in front of the computer. Now I'm finally ready and am not going to work anymore before Christmas. I have very little time left to buy all Christmas presents and prepare everything before we go to Finland. But I will make it this year too and I will try not to feel too stressed and instead enjoy it all. Tomorrow I'll go off to the shops and hope to get as much done as possible.
It's also time to update with the weekly photos and try to catch up with the 52 weeks project. This year has almost come to an end already!
Week 46 was the second week of November.
Carlotta doing her homework eating a carrot. So nice that she wants to eat a healthy snack sometimes!
The sky showed lovely colours while I was watching Sofia's riding lesson.
Carlotta in her new room with all her stuffies.
In the week-end there were jumping competitions at the riding school. When they were over Sofia and her friends relaxed and had fun jumping without the horses.
Me and Perla at the competition.
On Sunday Armando came home from Turin where he ran the marathon. We went out for a pizza and for dessert we had chocolate he brought from Turin.

Week 45 - Switching rooms

At the riding school Sofia is trying a pony for hire. That would mean to have it together with the owner, pay half of the expences and ride it half of the time, be able to go on competitions with it. Carlotta keeps riding once a week and quite often she rides Amarena, quite a wild little pony that always manages to have her fall off. Fortunately she's not too afraid, so I'm sure she will become a good pony rider. The weather has been nice and the skies sometimes very beautiful.
At home the children wanted to switch rooms, so now the girls sleep in Daniele's former room and he moved to their room. Carlotta was quite excited about it.

Week 44 - Halloween

The week postings continue. Week 44 was the Halloween week. Sofia and Carlotta went out trick-or-treating with some friends and afterwards Sofia went to a party home to her classmate and I went out for dinner with Carlotta, her friend Irene and Irene's mum.
It was a long week-end because the 1:st of November is a Holiday here in Italy. Carlotta and Sofia slept over at a friend's house and I had lunch with two ladies from the riding stables and our former riding teacher.
At the riding school there was a little Halloween competition on Sunday and we spent a nice day there.

December Daily

I love my December Daily albums. I have done one every year since 2009, but as I seem to have less and less time and inspiration for paper scrapbooking and still haven't finished my last year's album, I decided to go digital this year. I will then print it and I promise I will also finish my album from last year!

I have a digital kit from Ali Edwards that I bought quite a few years ago, but I think I will use it for my project because it's from Ali's blog that I got the idea for the December Daily album.