Anyway, Anna managed to find something that means far more to me than a CD – she decided to get baptised. Actually she’d wanted to get baptised for quite some time but I think I put her off when she was really little, wanting her to be a bit older and wiser … and she put herself off at some point too, I think! Her trip to Romania over the summer was formative in the decision making process coming round again, and she has decided for sure this time. By chance it was planned to happen on a weekend close to my birthday, so we had a lovely family celebration day with my parents and Steve’s parents.

Baptisms are one of those things that invariably make me cry (along with nativity plays and the opening music to Fly Away Home), and over the past few weeks I haven’t even been able to think about Anna’s baptism without getting emotional, so I’m writing here what I couldn’t quite say today, for fear of embarrassing her (and myself!).

I can’t actually think of many things that I would value more, or be more proud of, than one of my children choosing to make a commitment of their own to the faith that means so much to me. I often worry that we’re doing a rubbish job with parenting, muddling through and making the best decisions we can, but not necessarily being sure about very much. But this has reassured me that despite my failures as a parent, God has a plan for my children, He wants to know them individually and personally, and that is something I am incredibly grateful for. The emotional occasion was probably made all the more moving for me by the fact that she asked my Dad to baptise her, along with Andy our own church leader, and that was very special.

We followed the baptism with lunch at ASK; we picked it because it’s cunningly situated on the Cathedral Green so that Josiah could down his dinner and then run back across in time for Evensong. We went to the service as well, after a slightly more leisurely dessert. After that followed some furniture removal (come on, what celebratory day is complete without it?!) then a cup of tea and some cake

The reality has sunk in over the past few days at my current school and I am genuinely sad to be leaving friends, colleagues, and the children – especially the children and their families – it will be a huge wrench, after four years there in various capacities. Still, a permanent contract is fairly rare these days so it’s a good achievement, and I am looking forward to being part of a new team and being able to put all the stuff I’ve learned over the past 2 years of teaching into practice in a different school. There are a few more weeks to go yet though … with residentials and reports to fit in before I leave.

Her present from us was a set of tickets to see One Direction in Plymouth two days later – so she already knew about that too, obviously. At this point I need to back track and tell the whole story of the One Direction tickets …

Back in October we found out about the concert and she said she’d like to go as a birthday present, but I realised that I wasn’t going to be near a computer or phone when the tickets went on sale. So, I enlisted two kind people to both try and get a set of 4 for us – and they both managed it (I had no problem selling on the 4 I didn’t need!).

Then, to cut a long story short – I have two girls in my class who are also One Direction fans and had got tickets, so I cooked up an idea whereby we could all go to the concert together. Anna was up for sharing her birthday party, so I carried on planning.

Just after half term (in the second week of their half term), Anna and her friends came into my class to meet the other two girls, and they spent an afternoon decorating a banner together for the concert and generally getting to know one another. Then on Thursday we all bundled into one of the school minibuses, along with an extra mum and an enabler, to go down to the concert.

When we arrived they did the whole screaming fan thing together outside the back of the Pavilions, then came back in dribs and drabs to hurriedly eat a packed tea on the bus before heading off again. At this point the groups split up with Anna and her friends going off together and the other two with their carers – they were gutted when their banner was deemed ‘too big’ and not allowed in!

While I was dropping them all off I was given a flier for a free coffee in a cafe opposite, so I sat there with my book for the evening, and was joined by the girls from my class when they came out of the gig a bit early – I was very impressed they made it through as far as they did given how exceedingly loud it was! We waited for the other gang of girls to extract themselves and then drove on home, getting back around 11.30 – not too bad really.

We then had 6 teenagers upstairs while Abbie slept on the sofa They were all asleep by 1am which wasn’t too bad really. The next day was a bit of a blur all round though!

This weekend has been our last ‘holiday’ weekend, with no orchestra or choir commitments, and it has been quite lovely … Steve and I worked a bit in the morning, Anna had a piano masterclass at SWMS, Abbie did homework, Josiah had a Suzuki group lesson, then Steve and I went out to the cinema at teatime to celebrate our anniversary (more chance of me staying awake but I still didn’t quite manage it!). Got the ironing done for the weekend during the evening, so today was quite relaxed too – church for Anna and I, then I went out caching while she finished off her homework; Abbie had a friend round, and Josiah went on a choristers’ panto trip. Not entirely sure what Steve has been up to all day other than trying to plan a summer holiday and getting depressed about how expensive it will be …

Abbie chose a horseriding lesson – she loved this as she got to canter and do a small jump as well, things she hadn’t attempted before. Having had horse riding lessons for birthday and Christmas, she is hooked (and I am very worried about this!).

Joe chose laser combat – so Steve HAD to go with him This actually looked like loads of fun and I wished we’d all gone!

Anna chose to come to the spa with me – I don’t usually go in for that sort of thing but it was quite relaxing I suppose … and very lovely to spend the time with Anna She will kill me for posting a pic but she did love the waterbed

We didn’t go out to the New Year’s Eve party (bah humbug) but cooked enchiladas at home, did our jigsaw, and then sat in bed listening to the fireworks. Instead we celebrated New Year’s Day in style – the kids all had a session aqua-jetting before a champagne buffet brunch with live jazz band. In fact we had live music twice as there was a classical guitarist playing in the restaurant where we had dinner in the evening, which was great too. During the afternoon Steve had booked pool tables so we enjoyed chilling out there.

Lots of swimming, sauna, and relaxation in-between all the activity.

Very much enjoyed the weekend Having said that, even though we all enjoyed it, I’m not sure we’ll go back in a hurry – it’s fantastic, but as we are limited to peak times these days, it is very expensive! I missed exploring the countryside and seeing something new of the world, something we usually do wherever we are on holiday, even just in the UK … we are trying to decide what sort of holiday to have in the summer but perhaps, having read the offer in the comments on the post below, we won’t need to book a holiday for the summer at all

We even ended up talking about going on holiday in a big house together again … who knows if/when that will happen but it is just lovely that everyone would want to – we are very blessed

When we got home we had to blow up Josiah’s inflatable dalek, and he ended up ‘sleeping with the enemy’ all night long

Today we had always planned to go sales shopping – something we NEVER normally do, but I confess now, I had planned to buy presents for my family (who we are seeing tomorrow) after Christmas. Well – you get more for your money! We’d already bought a few, but found the last few successfully today. We should have our Christmas celebrations later on every year!

The children spent a bit of their Christmas money too, so they were very happy – Josiah bought the last Harry Potter film on DVD so we came home and watched that, closely followed by Senna (one of Steve’s presents). Looking forward to going over to friends’ tonight … and Steve’s off for the whole week between Christmas and New Year, so it does feel as though the holiday is stretching out nicely

Once home Josiah opened a couple of presents, the cat opened hers (!!), and we all loafed around enjoying presents, eating rubbish food, then eventually watching Dr Who.

We came to the conclusion that when one’s birthday is so close to Christmas that there’s hardly any time to do any treat-type thing at the time, it doesn’t really matter if you have your birthday present a bit early. Abbie’s just done 3 days on a riding/stable management course (ie riding and about the same amount of mucking out!) as her birthday present this year. She’s had a wonderful time

He really wanted to go out to the woods, build a den, and sleep in it – but this was a little outside of Steve and my comfort zone! Instead we found this National Trust Wild Tribe event going on which was about as close as we could get, so we booked places for two carfuls of boys!

They had a wonderful time in the woods, once they stopped being over-excited and actually managed to get on with building a den. Their shelter turned out rather well, complete with bracken waterproofing on roof and walls. They managed to get all seven of them plus an extra friend that they made on the day into the den for lunch

Anyway, after that fantastic day, we headed back towards home to Pizza Hut for tea, meeting the girls there so that they could join us for something to eat. The boys were very excitable all the way through the meal which made it marginally stressful but the waiter was very good with them and didn’t seem to mind too much.

A while ago, I wrote about how much I love Exeter Children’s Orchestra … it’s been a fabulous place for my kids to play their instruments, develop musically, and make friends. It’s also been a place where I have made some wonderful friends too, through being involved as a parent and working on the committee.

A number of years ago, someone nominated the orchestra for The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. We didn’t win it immediately, in fact we have been ‘pooled’ before and not made it through for selection, but the nomination is carried forward each year.

So, in the Autumn of 2010, we had a visit from one of Devon’s Deputy Lord Lieutenants to re-assess us, and I am pleased to announce that this year we were successful. I had the letter almost a month ago and have had to keep it a secret until the official lists were published today (that has been incredibly difficult, given how excited I’ve been about it!).

In a couple of weeks time some of us are off to County Hall for the presentation of the award by Devon’s Lord Lieutenant, Martyn Lewis CBE is going to be there too in his capacity as chair of the QAVS committee. Then in July, a few of us are going to Buckingham Palace for one of the Royal Garden Parties. To say I am excited about all of this is an understatement – it is an amazing honour for ECO and I’m so proud to be part of it