The Nordic Tearoom (Number 31)

[beanandspud]

We have moored the barge for the winter and have moved to a beautiful, cosy log cabin in deepest Scandinavia overlooking a frozen lake and surrounded by pine trees.

Mellors has lit the log fires and candles, it is snowing outside and there are comfortable seats for everyone and fleecy blankets to snuggle up in. For the more active tearoomers there are skis and sledges outside as well as a steaming hot tub for winding down after a busy day.

So pull up a chair. The kettle is on for and there is always plenty of depending on your mood and time zone. (Alternatively there is schnapps, smorgasbord and smoked fish).

Everybody is welcome ? share as much or as little as you like ? but no fisticuffs please!

I have Christmas chocolate balls wrapped in foil -- how about picking one up using toothpicks as chopsticks?

If you don't know how to play Beetle, I can tell you - but you might already know :)

Blind Man's Buff with sleigh bells - although you might not have several sets of sleigh bells hanging around so that could be tricky!
I remember the chocolate game, that was good

Well, fairy wings would be a new element to the game for us, so I've already emailed the Rainbow leader to see if she has any we can borrow.

We did the cupcake race and made cupcake aliens. Sadly I forgot my camera that night.

Yeah, why not? Or (if they're not too heavy) picking them up by sucking through a straw and moving them from one pot to another?

Don't know Beetle.

I have Toddler's shaker-bells which would could work....

Toothpicks wouldn't hold them, too fiddly.

The memory game - have a tray of festive bits and bobs, covered with a Christmas towel - take the towel away, let them see everything for a bit, then cover it again and they have to write down everything they remember. If the Rainbows are too young to write, they could have an allocated senior to write for them.

The feeling game - blindfold the person and they have to feel something and say what they think it is (stick their finger into a mince pie, for e.g.; or feel a Christmas bauble, or a fuzzy reindeer - you get the idea)

Let's face it, anything with a chocolate theme will be popular!

Right. Someone tell me to get out of the house to go and buy light bulbs.

::Ugh, must I? emoticon::

The memory game is Kim's game, Thumb.

Beetle is a game played with drawing stuff and dice. You throw the dice - you need 1 for a head, 2 for a body, 3 for eyes, 4 for feelers, 5 for wings (draw a line down the middle of the body) and 6 for legs. You can adapt it for a snowman - 1 for a body, 2 for a head, 3 for a nose, 4 for eyes, 5 for a hat, 6 for a scarf.
Whoever draws a whole snowman first wins a chocolate. (you can have as many half-drawn snowmen on the go as you want - to make it a little harder, you have to throw e.g. 4 for eyes twice, once for each eye)

Sadly I must get Toddler up from his slumber to go swimming. We have his girlfriend's birthday present to give her so want to be early enough to give it to her before they get wet.

Will pull more game supplies while TS is having his dinner (pasta so very self-feeding -- he's gotten lazy lately and wants me to spear his food for him (I think he realizes it gets into his mouth quicker that way)).

Toddler was given his Duckling 1 certficate at swimming today. I didn't even know we had worked towards a Duckling let alone have done enough to earn one.

Okay, I know it's for the parents but I'm excited that he can do the things listed like enter the water safely, blow bubbles, lay/float/swim (forget the term the paper uses) on his back aided by an adult, etc. And I like that he still knows to wait until he's told before entering the pool.

Well done, Toddler (and Scout too)!

3 cheers for the amazing duckling toddler. long may he float. Is that the first badge he has "learnt" for his camp blanket?

As I have permission May I share a story

I signed up to be a sender of a MN secret santa parcel, just stocking fillers. feeling hopeful that I would be sending said parcel to some one with a similar age child I bought doubles when getting tat plastic items of joy for boys stocking. then I was sent an address and the info that this person has a DS of 4. The address seemed vaguely familiar, I wasn't sure, but thought it might be one of you lot. Sent parcel off . A few days later one of the tea room and I were on the same think on FB, I worked out that she lived in the correct country for this parcel... and the familiar address seemed even more familiar. Yep- one Tea roomer has sent another a secret santa. If I'd twigged earlier there would have been more a besopke TR patch and maybe an aspidistra card. So , sorry those things got left out, I just wasn't sure enough. at time of posting.

What's this about MN Secret Santa? Sounds like fun!

'evening all. Only 11 more ruddy radiotherapy thingies to go. Hurrah.
I shall leave out for those in need.

Senior Section good fun tonight. AND Toddler went home early -- Hurrah! Last meeting of term and feel vaguely flat and uninspired.

Not sure if it's his first earned badge. He has an Adventure 100 one which I added up his points for (points for going to County events, going in a tunnel, on a new mode of transport, climbing a tower, etc) and he has the Duck Challenge from camp since he did a lot of the activities like play Duck, Duck Goose, paint an egg, eat a duck meal (he tried the duck in the stir-fry dinner), and do an egg-and-spoon race. Neither badge earned the full required points for (Rainbow points totals, not Seniors) but close enough I thought. He has a certificate for Duckling and you can order a badge for £2 -- it would be extremely PFB to order one for his blanket, wouldn't it?

Do it, Scout! I need to buy a blanket and then ::cough:: years too late, I'm going to start my camp blanket!

Maud, I've only just started one since moving to the UK. I thought it would be nice to have one of just my British earned/acquired badges. Toddler will have one with all of his Guiding and other things on it until he starts Scouts then will get a new one (I'm not sure he'll want Guiding badges when he's older but it's nice to have a collection of what he's done until he's a big boy earning his own Scouting ones).

pfb be dammed, buy the boy the badge, you need not buy another swimming badge till he starts doing ASA levels proper or distances if you don't wish to. UniBoy has a blanket, with about 10 badges on so far, some for swimming, some for letterboxing, some souvenirs from trips. My blanket is very heavy, I lost count long ago, something over 300 I believe.

::Unis spirals some fairy lights up and over the plant that must not named. and artisticly drapes tinsel round the george cluny cut out:: Do people still like George, or can we change him for a cut out Steve Backsall ? in a half removed wet suit??

bottoms up.

::Unis and Amber sing slightly drunkenly ::

11 radiotherapies hanging on teh wall
11 radiotherapies hanging on teh wall, and if 1 radiotherapy should accidentally falllllllllllll.
There'll be 10 radiotherapies hanging on the wall......

at radiotherapists hanging on the wall :o

Just wanted to pop in, was at a seminar all weekend, work today... gah. Where's that wine???

Yeah, I'm all for blankets and badges. I think Oxeye and I would be upset if George departed these shores, but couldn't we make space for Mr Backshall as well? He could stand beside Wesley Snipes, Cameron Diaz and whoever the third one was.

Maud, does Girl have a blanket?

She has the Brownie blanket but all her badges go onto her badge sashes (Brown Owl's daughter = too many badges to fit on one sash). When she leaves Brownies I intend to transfer them onto a camp blanket - the top tip I heard was to cut the badge sash in half and sew it onto the blanket, rather than unpick a zillion badges! Our new assistant leader has pointed out that it's possible to position the badge sash so that, if you wear the blanket like a poncho, the badge sash still runs over your shoulder, but as we'll have two badge sashes to fit on I think it might work better along the four edges. Decisions, decisions!

JM - have it will probably help...

Why take one badge sash in to the shower when you could take two...

She's a pretty keen brownie then maud?