just another morning here

And so another Christmas is over, and it was a lovely one.

On Christmas day itself we started here with stockings, which just had a few small things in them, and then went downstairs for a few more presents. The girls didn’t have much as they’d had Heelys not long ago on the understanding that they were an early Christmas present, but they were both really happy with the books and craft kits they had. Josiah stole the show with a Scalextrix set (we are benefiting greatly from Steve’s mechanic whose youngest son is Abbie’s age so his well-kept cast-offs seem to suit Joe perfectly!) which we got out and played with straight away.

Dragged ourselves away from that to go over to Steve’s parents for the day, which was lovely. Steve’s grandad now lives with them too, so he was around, and Adam, Em, Robyn and Lola were there too, so it was a full house. Now that we’ve given it to them, I must also add a picture of Russ & Marg’s christmas present, because I rather liked it

I took veg for Christmas dinner and had every intention of preparing it all, but I got caught up in a game of Cluedo and Steve’s mum did it all before I could extract myself! The children had a game each from them, and we had some chutney and wine, but our main present was tickets to the pantomime next week, so we have that still to look forward to. I don’t think I’ve ever been to the panto, so I’m very excited! We are planning to go by taxi so that we can have a few drinks as well and really enjoy ourselves! Only a few other gifts, which were either edible, drinkable, or spendable, so honestly nothing to be submitted for Tim’s annual contest!

I even had to eat my words over the crackers (my other pet hate, as they just generate mess, rubbish, and tatty toys)! We forgot to put the crackers on the table, so Steve’s mum came out with them mid afternoon, and very sarcastically I said ‘oh never mind, they’re only crappy things anyway, save them for another time’, or words to that effect. She insisted that we pull them and I had to take it all back, as she’d bought charity ones, in the style of WorldVision/Oxfam Unwrapped - so rather than a tacky plastic toy each one contained a note saying what the money would be used for, can’t remember them all now but they were fab - even with good jokes and suggestions for charades as well!

Had a delicious roast turkey, did presents in the afternoon, played with games and toys along with Robyn, and then came home before the lunchtime dose of Calpol wore off! Watched Dr Who and then the kids went to bed. Can’t remember what we did in the evening, watched more rubbish on tv - tv this year really seems appalling, even more so than usual.

Boxing day and the girls still seemed to need drugs to help them face the day. In fact by the end of the day I was beginning to hate coughs as much as I hate sniffing and hiccups, but there we go!

We left fairly early to get up to my parents’ new house (they moved in October), which is in the village where I spent my childhood, so I got all nostalgic, and am looking forward to more trips down memory lane in the future, too! So we had a guided tour of the house, hid a present or two, then sat around chatting while all my siblings and their families turned up - another full house, and another lovely roast dinner where I didn’t do anything!

After dinner came what was a moment of truth for me particularly. Back at Easter when we were all on holiday together, I suggested to everyone that we try doing Christmas presents between us a little differently. After calling me bossy rather a lot (qui, moi?), people were cautiously positive, and said they’d try it this year and see how it went. So we sat round and pulled names out of a hat, giving us each one gift to buy for another member of the group.

There were moments, throughout October and November, when most of us thought it was a bad idea, as we felt the weight of responsibility for getting the one present for that person, that it had to be a good thing, the right thing, etc., but I think everyone managed it!

Certainly it was absolutely lovely to have the time to watch each member of the family open just one present. And it was great to be able to spend a little more money on the one present you had to buy, and to really think about that person while you planned what to get. Even better was just receiving one lovely present, rather than a pile of cheap rubbish! (so this is the other reason I have nothing for Tim’s contest!). And after all those good reasons why it was great, it was also fab to have time to actually use/play with what we’d been given, because the present exchanging hadn’t taken so long.

I got a watch, Steve got a game, Anna had a HSM2 DVD + DVD game (had to laugh at my Dad who admitted he hadn’t even heard of HSM until I said she’d like it!), Abbie got a chromatography art kit, and Joe got a fab Cars & Boats electronics kit. I was particularly pleased that all the presents I’d chosen went down well, too

Anyway the real proof that it had worked was that everyone wanted to do it again next year, so we pulled names there and then, as none of us were sure if we’d all be together again between now and next Christmas - not even sure we’ll all be together next Christmas but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!

We had a cup of tea and then left, as we had made arrangements to meet Bible College friends further up the country; Anna renewed friendship with their daughter over the summer, and they’d invited her to stay - having failed at half term we re-arranged the get-together for this week. So we met in a MacDonalds car park on the A43 between their house and Oxford, and waved Anna off for a few days.

And after that we popped in to show our car to Toni & Chris, who despite having been blog-acquaintances for a few years now I don’t think we’d ever met them properly, so that was nice. I think Steve spent longer admiring Toni’s guitars than the time spent out in the dark and cold with the car though!

Drove home from there, with Abbie’s cough getting more and more irritating, finally getting back around 11pm so it was a long day, but now we have a quiet couple of days before going away to the Isle of Wight with friends for New Year.

Happy Christmas one and all. And for anyone desperate to read yet another Christmas newsletter (although I think Steve could be right about them going out of fashion, I only got a couple this year), ours is here.

Since Saturday the girls have been plagued off and on with really high temperatures, coughing, and general illness, so we’ve been taking it very easy. In fact the only things we’ve done over the past couple of days have been a carol service at church last night, hair cuts this morning for the two children who were well enough (then a round trip to stock up on Calpol etc. and fill the car with fuel), and then they all mustered the energy (with the help of calpol) for a trip to the cinema this afternoon - that was a treat, but despite the cinematic excellence of the Golden Compass we were all very disappointed in it generally, because so much was left out of the story, so we think we will stick to the books.

Still, the general state of health here means that everyone was perfectly happy to go to bed for a story at 7pm, and they will all be asleep shortly afterwards I’m sure, leaving us to have a nice relaxing Christmas Eve.

Sleep well and enjoy tomorrow

Or - Wonderful Fings are happening in Beflehem - which did make me smile - lots of Y2s have lost their front teeth so there are even more Fs in place of THs than usual!

I love nativity plays, they make me cry without fail, I know I’m soppy but I just can’t help it. It was Josiah’s turn today, and along with his classmates and the other Y2 class, they did a great job

Today I opened a parcel and on spotting that the contents were for me, I couldn’t resist opening it further. I know I should have waited until Christmas, but hey, you know I am the most impatient person in the world. The present inside was far too nice to be used as a teatowel so I have blu-tacked it up on my kitchen door instead

Thank you, Alison

p.s. it made Steve smile too!

I think I like this theme. And I think that most things I’m bothered about having working are working now, so that’s enough tinkering for the moment anyway.

We finally got our new shelves up in the lounge yesterday so I have my work cut out in sorting the resultant changes out through the rest of the house. The shelves are fantastic, they look great, and have given us loads more storage space in the front room. We still have some space left to fill with something pretty, haven’t decided what yet though.

I think everyone has had an ok week in their various places. Probably just ok and not great, but there we go. The younger two children in particular have seemed quite tired at times, and therefore not coping brilliantly with life in general, but hopefully a good weekend will sort them out.

The girls both had parents’ evenings at school this week; I went to Abbie’s with her, and Steve took Anna to hers. Josiah escaped due to having not been at school long enough to make it worthwhile. He’s settled in well though, according to his teacher, and he seems really happy and talkative when he comes home, so that’s good. They’ve all started learning Christmas songs so that’s adding to the musical melee in our household

Can’t think what else there is to report, other than all the usual stuff. We didn’t do anything for Bonfire night, other than watch a few fireworks from the window. I’ve not done very much at all - no nursery work, very little garage work, the bare minimum of housework … but I have completed Sonic Rush Adventure, done some Christmas shopping, and - there must be something else nope - that’s about it. Next week will be more productive though, I promise.

nb: I HATE these things usually, but I’m giving in as (a) it was Jo who tagged me and I like her ;), and (b) I haven’t blogged much over Christmas!

Name three things:

that you had hanging on your tree:
• baubles - red, gold and silver only!
• hama decorations made by the kids & I a couple of years ago
• salt dough decorations that Abbie made at school this year

that you’ve eaten / drunk lots of:
• Bristol Cream sherry! But which bottle bank do you put blue bottles into?
• chocolate
• um … cranberry sauce? No-one else liked my home-made one! Haven’t really been too excessive with anything this year!

that you didn’t do this year but hope to do next year:
• break with tradition somehow
• have a real Christmas tree - or at least a new fake one!
• something thoughtful for Steve

favourite presents this year:
• New Madeleine Peyroux CD
• New Covent Garden Soup Recipe Books - 2 different ones from 2 different people - do I talk about soup too much or something?! Made the first one the other day - Beetroot and Rhubarb - it was yummy
• Apple Chilli Jelly from Joe
• this list is obviously excluding anything already blogged about, or anything that was a joint present with anyone else - our Wii has been a pretty cool family pressy even though I haven’t really had a look-in!

that you’re glad you didn’t get for Christmas:
• books I’d already read
• books I didn’t want to read
• too much stuff generally

Name 3 people to tag:
• Alison - because she hasn’t blogged about Christmas either and I know she hates these things too …
• Neil - because I’m tired of his other lists
• Miriam - because it’s been too long since her last post!

While I’m here I’ll post a few of my favourite photos from Christmas this year, and then I must go, as we have a New Year’s Eve / Anna & Abbie’s joint birthday party going on tonight (whose daft idea was that?!) and I need to get back to organising the chaos!