Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

Or so the song goes...This has been in my head all day since watching the sound of music at the weekend, and it led me to think, what are my favourite things?  This is going to be a frivolous, self-indulgent post, but I hope that you join in the spirit of this!

Here are my favourite things (in no particular order but as they appear in my head) or things that make me happy:

The smell of my utterly adorable kids when they first wake up, all sleepy and warm
Being snuggled up in bed reading a good book and listening to the sound of the rain on my attic window.
The smell of my Christmas cake baking (guess what I have been doing)
A crisp Autumn day with a slight chill in the air but with a warm sun
The smell of rain and freshly cut grass
The tradition of Christmas - I am sure every family has their own traditions, some of ours are putting new PJ's on the doorstep on Xmas Eve to wear that night, the kids coming in all excited, shouting "he's been, he's been" and the sitting on our bed to open their stockings,  Going to church en famille (usually about 20 of us, even those that don't bother the rest of the year make the effort) followed by champagne in the village pub.  The opening of tree presents - taking it in turns.
When my DH comes home from work with a bunch of flowers...just because.
Seeing my parents with my children - the bond is fantastic and makes me realise how lucky we all are
Sitting in a chuch just being with the sun streaming through a stained glass window
Watching my children sleeping, the little baby breaths and sighs make my heart melt
Eating chocolate mousse (nom nom)
When the kids cuddle you for no reason other than to say "I love you"
When all of the children are playing nicely and laughing at each other - I love seeing how their relationships are developing and growing with each other.
Going for a run in my favourite park on a cold day,beautifully crisp and clear with the mist rising of the lowland grass
Flying over London into Heathrow at night and seeing London lit up
Standing on the top of a mountain, getting ready to ski down and not quite knowing what to expect.
The hazy lazy summer days of just "being" in the garden, kids playing in the paddling pool, DH and I listening to the Ipod and watching the clouds and listening to the bees and talking nonsense
A clean house with the lingering smell of beeswax
The smell in the air that lingers after fireworks...

What things are special to you and tickle your fancy?

What happened to my drinking boots??

Many a moon ago, I used to work in TV advertising.  It was a career I fell into after telling the careers advisor I "wanted to be in TV".  This was at a time when the Dani Behr fronted programme "The Word" was the epitome of cool and I wanted Dani Behr's job.   They somehow wangled me an interview at a Pan-European TV sports station and despite not knowing how to turn a computer on, I managed to blag my way into the job.  It was quite simply, the best move I could have done.

Whilst my friends were getting largered up at Uni's across the Country, I was swanning business class across Europe and dining in London's finest restaurants on never ending expense accounts.  I had a good thing going, I was earning a decent salary doing a job I loved and it seemed to love me as I progressed up the career ladder like a ferret up a pair of trousers - quickly.

We became known as the IPG's and several of us would stay out drinking to 4am - champagne, cocktails, shots, you name it, we would drink it.  We would then crash at someone's pad and get up and go to work the next day on nothing but a bacon sarnie and a builders cup of tea, feeling slightly jaded but ready to go out again in a few hours time.  I quite literally lived on champagne and canapes for a decade.

Since having the kids I have had to become more focussed on nutrition which I have embraced and the girl who lived on canapes is now not bad in the kitchen - I LOVE cooking from scratch and am self taught.  As anyone with children knows, hangovers and kids are not a good combination and so, for the last 7 years, I have gotten to the stage where I rarely drink.  

We probably share a bottle of wine a few times a week and I am usually tucked up in bed by 11pm (oh so rock and roll).  The thing I have noticed though is my tolerance to alcphol is absolutely pants.  I quite literally have 1 glass of wine and it goes to my head.  3 and I am legless....so, what I want to know is, do we all lose our drinking boots as we get older???

Please vote for an ex IPG here!

What ever happened to MY weekends?!

Ok, this is going to sound incredibly selfish but what on earth happened to my weekends?  You know the sort, a long lazy lie-in with the one you love, followed by a jaunt through the more eclectic areas of London, stopping for a long, alcoholic, lazy lunch whilst poring over Time Out trying to decide what to do or who to see?

Then a nice supper in front of a roaring fire before having a long, luxurious bath and maybe popping out to the cinema.  Or deciding on a Friday morning to go away for the weekend and that hurried scramble to find somewhere (I always loved Bath)

I tell you what happened - The Kids came along!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I adore my kids, they have made me such a better person and I wouldn't change anything, but by heck what I wouldn't give to have a time travel machine to be able to go back and appreciate what I had before my weekends were spent watching football, driving around here there and everywhere, the whole "routine" of being a parent.  I guess what I am trying to say is, will I ever get that spontaneity back in my life???