Saturday, January 02, 2010

New Year's Day

Well, what did you do on New Year's Day? The snow's still lying deepish and crispish though a bit lumpy, so the cats did a lot of lying on blankets. Cassie left, Sirius right.


Sirius enjoys licking Cassie. Or possibly he just likes her to be clean before he lays his head down on her.


Most of the family came round for a meal, and afterwards Mr Life showed us that his electronic.. um.. whatever it is... can provide an octave of notes, whereupon our son-in-law played some creditably recognisable tunes on it. With both hands and much giggling.

Then Daughter 2 and Mr Life set up a game of Cranium. Clearly a serious matter.


In the course of the game, Daughter 1 uses Daughter 2 as a puppet - can't remember what she's supposed to be demonstrating.


Mr Life illustrates some phrase which Daughter 1, pausing from her knitting, identifies.

In a quiet moment, Son-in-Law models a hat he's made from Play Dough .
Next, however, he was given a card telling him to sculpt "a character" (from this Play Dough) and he merely waved the hat because it turned out that - though this was purely by chance - the character he was to illustrate was The Cat in the Hat. We knew he was a clever lad but we hadn't realised he was psychic...


Daughter 2 draws with her eyes shut and my mother and aunt have to guess what she's drawing.


They succeed because she manages rather a creditable roller skate. Not bad for blind drawing!

We had a good time. Even my confused aunt enjoyed it, though we all got slightly hysterical from time to time. For example, when she had to write down three words associated with "Paris", she wrote "Seine", "tourist" and ... "cat". Then three words associated with "cruise ship": "tourist", "boat" and ... "hunger".
However, one question was a "true or false": "Is it true that if you need to give an intravenous transfusion, if you have nothing more suitable you can use coconut water as liquid?" And she very confidently said this was true. And it was. (She's a retired doctor.)
I can't quite imagine being in that position: have needly thing, yes; tubey thing, yes; oh dear, I've forgotten the drippy stuff but hey, luckily I have a coconut here.

Daughter 1 finished her hat by the end of the game.










18 comments:

  1. "Whatever it is" = iPod Touch. Happy New Year from Mr Life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a really funny game, must try.

    Our cat claimed the bed all day, as well.

    I was hoping the musical thing was a theremin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You all look so happy together, and so creative too. Must try drawing with the eyes shut and see whether there is any improvement on drawing with the eyes open. One can hope.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Mum! {Waving Happily to Mum!} Looks like you guys had a great time -- it's been ages since we played Cranium -- we need to get it out again. We played a brief game of pictionary and then some card games. Lovely hat from DD1!

    Oh! and I just noticed Mr. Life's comment -- you guys are too funny. The iPod Touch will come in very handy on those walks to work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy to new year to the Life family - hope it's a good year and a few more of your dreams come true! Zxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've played Cranium before...it's a hoot.

    Happy New Year Isabelle!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's actually a good hat!! Perhaps I should ditch my overly complex jumper which will never be finished and go for hats and scarves instead??!

    Happy New Year!!

    Lesley x

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looks like a fun day. Marginally better than parts of today which involved being ganged up on by two small boys and having snow shovelled down my neck.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice to see a family making its own amusement these days. Looked like a lot of fun - apart from the licking, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, this post and the accompanying pictures make me yearn so terribly, for so many different things all at once. Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love those gatherings when the family comes and we play hilarious games :) Pictionary is a favourite of ours. I must try drawing with my eyes shut. Great job Daughter #1! (She's clever!) :)
    Our Daughter #1 is staying with us for 10 days and is quite the slave driver, but she's spending the weekend with her friends so we are having a small reprieve. This past week she's had me helping her finish insulating the attic (a job that's been pending for perhaps 2 years) and sorting the storeroom...my pet hate, but I did get a good start on it last August. So much for that quiet interim between Christmas and New Year :)
    But I'm not really complaining. We love having her around, and it's very good to get those odious jobs done. She's a good instigator!
    Wishing you and your family a wonderfully happy, healthy New Year, dear Isabelle.
    Please cuddle those sweet kitties for me. Ours wouldn't even venture out today.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Looks like you all had a lot of fun! Plus a very nice hat at the end of the evening! Happy new year to all the Lifes!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love Cranium, great pics, and I so wish my two cats would curl up together like that instead of chasing each other around the house and making surprise attacks from behind the curtains... sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Right! Tomorrow I shall add a coconut to my car's first aid kit.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds like you all had fun, which is a good thing to have, at any time of year. Love those 2 cats, they are such great friends.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'd have loved to share this happy family's festivities!

    Thank you for visiting; I too love English lit., reading, writing and gardening, obviously I like blogging; can't join in with the singing I'm afraid. My Beloved has (for money) been able to listen to the very best voices in the world for all of his professional life, I have never dared open my mouth even to hum,

    Happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is a delightful post, Isabelle. Your family is very generous, allowing you to post their photos on the internet for all to see. A lot of people object strongly, and I wonder what they want to hide...still, some just don't like being made public. But I'm glad your family are okay with it, except for one notable exception. You, of course. Party Pooper! But I remember the reasons you gave for not using your real name here, so I guess the same reasons apply for not publishing photos of yourself. Understandable!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm not sure whose hat is being admired - mine or SIL's?

    For those who have admired it - it was quite an easy hat, knitted on two needles in big chunky wool and then seamed up. The pattern is from the book "Knitting Without Tears".

    I don't at all mind my photo being online, though I'm not sure I look terribly good in some of those...

    ReplyDelete