Hello Autumn! Hello 'Mucky Overnighter'...

Well, Mr G and I really are getting around of late.  Tomorrow sees the North Wales Crusaders End of Season Awards.  I would have wanted to go anyway.  But our Manager has left.  Several high profile players won't be with us next season.  The mascot has hung up his inflatable daffodil.  And it seems the Racecourse has priced us out of a ground.  I'm really proud of our team and what we have achieved this season, considering we didn't even have a full squad at the start of it.  Muzza has had a job and a half of it, but has built a decent team, who have done us proud considering the problems off the field.  The dual registration players from Salford have helped out too.  Ryan has had a lot to contend with for such a young lad, being constantly bombarded with questions from fans that there are no answers to, yet.  So, I have cast my votes, it was a hard choice as so many players have influenced games, but for me it had to be Robbie Massam for Player of the Year, they'll be lost without him next season.  For Try of the Year, it had to be Jack Hansen against Gloucester at our last league home match at Queensway.  Such a cheeky try, and when he looked at us fans just before grounding the ball, we were all screaming and cheering him on.  I barely had a voice left leaving that day.  So yes, more than ever, I wanted to go and support the team and show my appreciation.  It will be a good night, if a tad poignant.  Hopefully it looks like our new home next season will be Queensway, which isn't a bad little ground, if the stands are a bit far away from the field, a track coming in between.  But still, beggars can't be choosers, and it makes financial sense.  The applicants for the manager's position will be interviewed soon.  It's going to be interesting to see what happens now, and how the team moves forward in 2017. 

So, tomorrow afternoon, we are off to Holt Lodge Hotel in Wrexham for the EOSA night.  I don't know how posh it is, anywhere with the word 'Lodge' in sounds posh, doesn't it?  There is a two course meal too, Roast Beef Dinner and Apple Pie for dessert.  The most exciting part of it is that my brother said he will have the children overnight so thought we'd book a room and stay over too... as you do... well, it is the year of my 40th after all (yes, I am still milking that one, and will continue to do so until the 9th May 2017, thank you very much!).  If the weather isn't too bad, we're hopefully going to get an early start and go to the car boot sale in Chirk Airfield before we head home.  There's a woman there who sells free range eggs, they are like dinosaur eggs and every one we bought the last time we went were double yolkers.  The kids went mad for them.  Especially when I made homemade scotch eggs with them!  They also made the most divine omelettes too.  So we're hoping to catch her there and get a few trays.

Autumn is finally here.  We didn't really get much of a Summer, did we?  The heating has already been on in the mornings, and in the evenings we're now sat with the curtains drawn, lamps glowing and tea lights flickering from every direction.  Really cosy, really hygge.  I'm tempted to get my knitting box out and start knitting some mini tree decorations.  Christmas shopping is making headway, a few people are done already!  But that's going too far forward in time.  For first...

My eldest turns 21 on Wednesday.  It doesn't seem like yesterday he hit 18.  He's back in Uni now, in his second year, and to his delight he is living above a Dominos and next to a Lidl.  We are all going out for a meal on Wednesday night, I have ordered a cake from a local cakemaker, and we are going to photobomb the village as was done to me.  I think he will be going to see his father the weekend after his birthday, and so the weekend after that, we will be having a party in the house.  I have bought all six expansion packs for Cards Against Humanity.  And that is the plan.  A cracking buffet, plenty of homemade dessert, crateloads of beers and mixed age teams of CAH.  That should be such a laugh. 

In my infinite wisdom, I have decided to resurrect the annual Hallowee'n party this year.  I think the last one we had here was 2010 or 2011, so it's long overdue.  We're off on a week's holiday in December to a little village near Corwen, and we will do our Christmas shopping in Chester and Wrexham over that week, as we have saved for High Street, Primark and Amazon gift vouchers over the course of the year.  We're all really looking forward to that, it's another old mill, but not the one we have stayed in twice before.  There's room for eight of us so we're hoping my parents and Dan can join us, even if only for the weekend.  I think I've picked another cracker of a place to stay (I'm bloody good, me) and it even has a games room, so we won't see the children for playing pool or XBox.  Mr G said that if we were all there, maybe we could buy a small turkey and have a Christmas dinner together, which would be nice, but what he actually means is, he wants one of my Mum's Christmas dinners.  I don't know whether to be offended or agree with him.  It will be nice to get away at that time of year, we haven't done that before.  I will have no choice but to relax, at a time of year that I'm usually like a headless chicken!   Wrap the presents that I've bought, in the dark windy evenings, in front of the log burner, glass of red wine to hand, Dean Martin on in the background... sounds like my idea of wintry bliss anyway.  Mr G has declared that 'this Christmas we are going all out'.  Whatever that means.  Probably means expense for me, it usually does.  He's made a start by buying us new Christmas jumpers in our new smaller sizes!  He's hankered after an elf one for years now, the little sad case, and he now has one!  I wouldn't let him buy the elf hat to go with it though.  I have my limits.  Especially when I told him he'd be too hot inside with it on, and he said it would be to go out in.  Er, no...