This weekend I have been thinking a lot about my family. When we lost my Granny, 12 years after my Grandpa died, we all wanted her funeral to be a celebration of her life, albeit with unstoppable tears but with laughter and sentimental anecdotes as well. You know the old saying one makes room for another. I was actually just pregnant when she died although I didn't know it. My cousin Simon read a letter she had written him whilst at University featuring her shopping list and the bargains she had found in a DIY store. We set up a projector screen and a beautiful collection of photographs streamed silently whilst we all watched them. Except there wasn't silence there was laughter and giggles from everyone as we looked through the photographs of her life.

Granny's Collage

I have a number of her old memory boxes bursting with cards and letters, scrapbooks and albums. I made up two huge collages and left them for the guests to ponder.

Granny's Collage

Granny's Collage

My favourite bits was their original engagement announcement from 1949, their wedding invitation (I'm saving that for later in the week as it is so delicate it deserves a post of it's own) and a letter from her mother congratulating her on the birth of my Auntie "Thank God it is all over & the baby isn't called John... What a clever girl you were to get it over so quick & not keep us all in suspense. We are so thrilled... I bet Geoffrey is as pleased as a dog with two tails & Mamma doesn't know whether she is on her head or her heels with pride & joy."

Granny's Letter

Granny's Letter

I hope you can make it all out!

Granny's Collage

Granny's Collage

I feel so lucky to have this treasure chest of memories and I hope my own grandchildren one day will adore pouring over our old love letters from university days and thousands of photographs! I wonder what that future generation will think of snail mail! With email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs as the modern way to record and document your life, I treasure my things like the shoe box of old champagne corks we have written the date and occasion on.

This week a very brave family said goodbye to a beloved mother and wife. It inspired me to write this post. You can read a touching account of the celebration of her life here. Please take a moment to read it.

Do you keep memory boxes, are you a sentimental hoarder like me?!

My Cousins and Cousin in Law are off to work in Kenya in the Spring so a Safari Family Christmas was the perfect send off!

I made crackers from toilet rolls, animal print tissue paper and ribbon with Kenyan phrases instead of jokes and a packet of animal print tissues inside!

We used felt rectangle sheets from Hobby Craft as place mats and strips of silver birch as mats for the curry, tagine, rice and cous cous. I used little plastic animals on top of strips of animal print card for table names and a large sheet of hessian burlap material for a rustic table cloth.

My Granny's silver cutlery and mis matched crystal glasses finished the table off beautifully. We toasted to absent friends and had a riot in the make shift photo booth complete with a leopard print duvet cover as a back drop and my charity shop haul of props.

I found this great site which sells all animal print decorations and couldn't resist the paper pompoms which would have taken me hours to make!

We have two new arrivals coming in 2013 ...

The boys were a scream and totally bought into the Safari experience! My two little tigers were terrific!

Of course we just had to have an animal wreath at the door and a tiger door man ready to greet the guests!

A wonderful family time. Of course it wasn't quite complete we were missing the American contingent! It is times like this that my heart aches for my brother.

Have you had an alternative Christmas this year?! We are having a traditional Christmas with my in laws later today and tomorrow so we won't miss out on a turkey!

Merry Christmas everyone! It's finally Christmas Eve!

I adore my childhood holiday home in Southbourne. My Grandpa bought it long before I was born and now a new generation of children are creating childhood memories on the same stretch of sand. I realised that for the last year we have developed a blue print for our time down there. A glorious weekend, come rain or shine. A play on the beach, drinks at the beach hut, a boat ride at Christchurch and an adventure at Moors Valley Country Park.

We are so lucky that our closest friends adore it too.

Every year at Christmas we sit down as a family (Cousins, Auntie, Sister, Mum) and put in for the dates we would like. We have 3 sets of friends that we love to go there with and we always have a week in the summer. This year our summer week will be even more special as I will be sharing it with my new niece or nephew! Wow I almost can't believe it!

Here's a snapshot of our last weekend in sunny Southbourne last month! I MUST start to print some of my mobile photos, it's easy to forget just how much we rely on our phones to take pictures but how often do we back them up onto laptops or PCs? Off to save all mine now!