just another morning here

As a chorister, Josiah had commitments at the Cathedral over the past few days, and will have at Christmas time for the next four years too, so we thought we’d better join in! Actually Joe decided to board, which he thought was a huge treat. We missed him here, as it was very quiet indeed, but he had a ball.

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.

The girls were really good, especially as Joe abandoned them to go and play with his friends in the playground; they spent the mealtime planning our family day that we’re looking forward to on Sunday!

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!

We left there around 8pm and came home – had to watch Doctor Who before anyone went to bed though – some things are Very Important, you know. We have another long day tomorrow so we’ll be following the kids to bed shortly, I imagine

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

Sunday afternoon and evening can’t go by without a blog post in their honour, and as I’ve been woken up by Prince Caspian (the children put it on as they go to sleep and then fall asleep leaving it to blast through the floor for hours on end!), here we go.

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

Joe spent this morning at Steve’s office using Education City to educate himself, as I was driving around with Russ doing last minute errands for the Motor Show this weekend. Oh, and having coffee with a friend! We ate fish & chips for lunch in the office before heading back into town to meet our home ed photography group at the Cathedral.

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!