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.

In other news – I didn’t get shortlisted for a job that I really wanted. Perfectly happy where I am though so no worries really, just marginally disappointing and very annoying to not even get an interview. Kids all fine; Anna went out busking with school/choir tonight and had a nice time, Abbie is planning birthday events despite the fact that she’s had a birthday treat already, Josiah’s just chugging along with choir and school. Steve’s thinking of new ways to make a million, as usual … and Suzie is enjoying having a new catflap to the big wide world outside. She still comes to give me a cuddle every morning though – and hasn’t brought me any special gifts yet thank goodness!

I played the piano for my school’s tree decorating assembly today which was fun as ever, and we went out for a team Christmas meal this evening; I love Christmas, I really do. People think I’m mean for not really doing decorating at home, or presents at home, but I don’t think my children are going to suffer that much, honestly

Saturday was workish – garage for Steve, choir/orchestra/Suzuki group/schoolwork/housework as appropriate for the children and me – but the sun came out so it’s all felt lovely. We ended the day with friends over for Abbie and Joe; Anna baked cakes, and we played Amy Grant loudly In the evening we went out for the last night of And The Beat Goes On. Great entertainment, nice to see Anna playing all night long. She’s talking about ‘next time’, I’m thinking that when it comes around again (they’re every other year) she’ll be in her GCSE year so perhaps not – but we’ll see …

Sunday has been another happy day – Steve went out hillclimbing. His goal was to take back the class record but he only came second in his class today. Apparently if he hadn’t run out of fuel on one of his timed runs he would have done it Joe had a day at the Cathedral, and I went to the morning service, which was a Jazz Mass – they’ve had jazz/gospel events on all weekend. It sounded amazing, the choristers really enjoyed themselves, and I did too. The girls have pottered, tidying their room and got homework and music practices done. Oh, and I went geocaching – found 25 today I think. A beautiful day for it, and we had dinner out as well which was an unexpected bonus

Anyway, he’d particularly mentioned that he liked the anthem today, and it is rare that he comments on things like that, so I was interested to hear it The hymn at the end of the service was Love Divine, which happens to be one of my all time favourite hymns, so that was good too – amazing to feel the vibrations of the organ through your feet while you’re singing the tune and the choir is singing a descant – just wow. There’s something incredibly special about the whole shebang and I love it.

Nose firmly back to the grindstone now though, the rest of the family are watching a film but I have made myself sit in the uncomfortable kitchen so that I don’t get distracted (ha, other than by blogging, of course!), and get on with some more work …

We went to the Cathedral for the Christmas Eve service yesterday, and popped in to see Joe at the boarding house afterwards. Traditionally choristers are allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve so we gave him that last night, and then waved him goodbye until today.

This morning was very peaceful at home – the girls were really pleased with their outfits in place of stockings today.

We had breakfast then opened the few presents that were here before setting off in time for matins at the Cathedral. Russ & Marg represented the family at the first morning service (not that Joe spotted them!) and we did the others!

After Matins we went over to the school for Christmas dinner. This was optional, of course, and we’d opted in, thinking we might as well just join in – then had second thoughts when we realised how big an event it was! Quite overwhelming really, as we don’t know anyone yet!

First came drinks and nibbles etc., then after that it was dinner time – 109 people seated in the school gym! It felt like a wedding … Steve and I both helped with serving/clearing away which at least gave us something to do, but otherwise we were quite glad we’d been seated at the end of a table so we didn’t have to do *too* much chatting.

This little clip from Josiah probably deserves a place here

After dinner there were a couple of short thank you speeches, and then what is apparently traditional entertainment, of any old choristers getting up to sing together! By the time that was over it was 3.40pm and time for the choristers to go back to the Cathedral, a quick tidy up in the gym, and then we joined them in time for evensong, which was lovely.

Phew.

Collected Josiah and all his clobber after the service, and I think he’s managed not to leave anything behind! Can’t say I wasn’t glad to leave after all that – it felt like a long day to me and I know we hadn’t done all of what some families had. That said, it was fun as well – very different to any Christmas day I’ve had before! Can safely say I’ve had my fix of Christmas music this year, too. Josiah looked exhausted, we’re not sure how much sleep the boarders got last night!

From there we went over to Grandma & Grandpa’s house for tea and presents. They had a houseful too, but it was relaxing and fab to exchange gifts with them all Didn’t think I’d particularly over-eaten during the day but I feel pretty stuffed now!

This photo was taken during the practice for Josiah’s chorister installation. He’s got a white pinny over his dress now as well

We were at the Cathedral early, having allowed ourselves time to drive round hunting for parking spaces, of course we found one immediately in exactly the right place. As it turned out, being there early was fab, as Aunty Mimi whipped her camera out while the boys were practising and snapped a few pics which otherwise I wouldn’t have got!

The installation itself was a simple little ceremony with the Dean in which Josiah and Alex (the other Y4 chorister) made a promise about being choristers, then the Dean gave them their surplices. The senior choristers then led them to the choir stalls and sat them down, with some words that I can’t remember now! That was basically it – oh, and they were prayed for during the service too.

After the service, we were invited over to the cathedral music director’s house for afternoon tea, along with the other new chorister’s family, plus the dean and his wife. Mr Millington lives in one of the houses around the cathedral green, houses that we’ve walked past a hundred times before, so it was really interesting to see inside. We were also treated to a bit of a history lesson about the house as he showed us how it had all been bombed during the war – most of the area surrounding the Cathedral was totally flattened and was rebuilt afterwards.

From there we dashed over to the evening concert venue (well, some of us did, while other family members ended up in Pizza Express!) to get ready. All went smoothly with loads of help from parents which was fantastic.

As committee chair I get the grand job of introducing this concert, and then following tradition, we award certificates to leavers with over 3 years’ service to the orchestra.
As well as this we had the obligatory Christmas presents for section tutors and other important people like our friendly tuck shop man, the van drivers, and of course Richard the musical director himself. Daft, I know, but I’d been a bit nervous about all this speaking, and sure enough I did forget to actually introduce Richard and Mark (the leader) properly at the beginning, but the rest of it went ok I think.

Most importantly, the music was great, as usual! Abbie did really well in her new found section – percussion. She had been due to join the flutes but decided not to as there are too many of them already, so she’s ended up in percussion, which she’s really enjoyed. Josiah plays in percussion too, although because of chorister rehearsals he misses the beginning of orchestra practices, so he’s not quite as involved. At one point in the concert Anna had a percussion part as well so all three of them were there on the back row! We laughed a lot at that point; Anna was sight reading the part and we could see her counting bars on her fingers to get the chimes in the right place!

Anyway. Having both events on the same day was a bit busy, but it did mean that family could be around for both things which was lovely

I had taken the wrong lens for indoor photography (doh) and Josiah was intent on following the leaflet he was given with numbered points of interest to look at in the Cathedral (in unswervingly numerical order and without looking at anything else, honestly, sometimes I worry about that boy), so we didn’t take many photos inside, and then it started drizzling, so our outdoor photos are a bit rubbish too, but we had fun anyway. I wished I had my f30 actually, but it is mysteriously broken and has been sent back to fuji to see what they can do with it.

Back home in time to meet the girls, then I helped them get their homework done and they had soup for tea before going out to Friday Fish (the church’s children’s group), which they really enjoyed. And tonight we have just crashed, as we have got a really early start tomorrow!