just another morning here

Not only did my Secret Santa this year create a unique and personal gift (which we all LOVED), they also arranged for Christmas Day delivery!!!

To anyone who knows all the participants in the blogring secret santa, it won’t exactly be a big secret who this came from, so I don’t feel at all bad in thanking Merry publically.

What might not be that obvious to the average reader of this blog is that this is no ordinary wintery scene with our family in it - oh no, it’s all Animal Crossing themed - the Nintendo game that I (and Merry!) have been addicted to all year long - so a very fitting tribute The details are fabulous (right down to Steve being on the phone in the background), the floor, the snow, the flowers - everything!

Just love it. Thank you again

Happy Christmas from all of us

I’m going on a blog-break until some time in the New Year, hope everyone has a wonderful festive time. I’ll leave you with a round-up of the year, because I did them for the last three years so I figured I might as well do one this year as well - I was going to put it in Christmas cards but then I didn’t get round to it (or send very many!), so here it is instead.

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Laura our music teacher is having a fancy dress Christmas party for all her students this evening … this is Anna’s outfit

added later: she won! yippee, the prize was one free piano lesson!

blog-break? yeah, what a stupid idea, I can’t do it!

Not quite sure how we manage it but even with an excellent camera we still manage to take completely duff photos. Had a family gathering with Steve’s Dad’s side of the family on Sunday and I took loads of shots but not a single one was worth keeping

Got home and put our tree up, followed by a carol playtogether which was sort of tongue in cheek as it’s something we (my older two siblings and I, as teenagers) always used to take the mickey out of when my parents and younger siblings got into the habit But the kids loved it and it was great, actually. The photos from that looked okay on our screens but when Steve got to work and looked on the pc they were really dark - so I assume most other people thought they were awful too. Have doctored them a bit now so I hope they’re a bit better Honestly though, one of these days *I* really must get to grips with camera settings!

Finally got round to making that Chocolate Christmas cake yesterday and it smelled absolutely heavenly in the process, I am very much looking forward to eating it!

Wrapped presents yesterday too

The kids are just enjoying being on holiday together, lots of playmobil play going on. Oh, and Anna is madly practising her piano accordion today as she is going carol singing with her friends this evening

Pennywell Nativities are fast becoming a tradition with us! We first went on Abbie’s 5th birthday with a friend, skipped a year, then went again last year with MuddlePuddle friends, and this year I booked it again for Abbie’s birthday. Had a fantastic moment when we told her the plans and she nearly cried she was so pleased and excited to be going again!

We were supposed to be having a visit from Ros & children but that fell through at the last minute (an occupational hazard at this time of year when you live 4 hours’ drive away from one another), so we were all a little sad that they couldn’t make it, but then we found more friends to come with us - Rog, Caitlin & Riona along with Robyn and Becca & Josh

Abbie walked into the barn and announced that it was her birthday, so got to be Mary - which, of course, she loved … and she looked gorgeous Caitlin and Anna were innkeepers, and Riona, Joe, Robyn (and I :roll:) were shepherds - didn’t get to hold a lamb this year though! Enjoyed that part of the event despite some truly appalling singing!

Then went on to the drinks, mince pies (very nice ones too), and visiting Santa, which we did en masse! He was a most excellent version of Santa, and everyone was pleased with their little presents. Even baby Josh (11 weeks old!) got one

All in all very relaxed and enjoyable; we came home and had dinner and a film, now looking forward to a week with all the children around before Christmas

Oooh, much learning has happened this morning, and it’s amused me greatly

Aunty Heidi sent us a lovely kit [thank you very much!!] for baking Christmas tree cookies with stained glass (boiled sweet) middles, so we did that this morning. I love baking, you can tick reading/following instructions, science, maths, etc., it’s great

All was going well until the last bake - so after we’d added the boiled sweets right at the end. The pinger went after what should have been the last 2 minutes, and I opened the oven to find a cloud of smoke and mainly blackened cookies.

I wailed ‘oh no’, at which point Josiah inspected the tray and looked guiltily at me, then confessed that he’d added 2 more minutes to the timer. And yes, at 200 degrees, that’s enough to blacken a few cookies! Ah well. The ones at the front of the tray weren’t too badly burned so they’re rescuable, and we still have the cutter so we can do it again if we want to (with smaller sweets as well because it annoyed me that they were too big and spread out over the top of the cookies). He looked at me rather sheepishly and admitted that he should have left the timer where I’d set it! A nice learning curve there, I feel

We are having a good morning here though, despite burnt cookies - have done some maths together successfully, and violin practice with no problems. The girls both went off to school happily as well, without too much morning stress for once, thankfully. Anna was still feeling the after-effects of the weekend’s sleepover though! Think I might drag the boy out for a walk in the woods before lunch, we need some fresh air before it starts raining again!

Life going on at relatively high speed here - well, Anna’s is, at least. This week she has had a dress rehearsal for Vigo the Viking (that was after a weekend sleepover at which I don’t think much sleep was had!), two days of school - tomorrow she has her Grade 2 piano exam (which if she passes I will be amazed), school in the middle, and then the first performance of Vigo, then two more days of school (and a ballet lesson) before another performance of Vigo and another sleepover. Honestly, she is going to need the Christmas holidays, if she makes it there in one piece! Cello lessons are carrying on but she really hasn’t had time or energy for much practice recently - must slow her down a bit next term I think. We had a little altercation yesterday over a b flat, in one of her piano exam pieces no less - she’s been playing a b natural - nightmare to try and fix that with only two days to go! Trouble is she does actually *want* to do all this stuff!

Abbie is taking life at a much more sane pace, just pootling along with school, swimming & music lessons and the appropriate practice inbetween. Likewise Josiah is really happy at home - I think he ought to be getting bored but he doesn’t seem to be! We’re doing some MEP maths and some reading/writing each day, and then just taking things as they come. Oh, and the music theory stuff is ongoing as well, he’s been doing about time signatures recently - just 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 so far, but he’s got the hang of those pretty well I think. Lots of gaming going on as well, as usual.

Think I’ve almost done the Christmas shopping pretty much online (damn but I love the internet), just the tricky people to finish off now Hmm, actually looking at the list there are a few too many tricky people on there!

Cards - I really object to Christmas cards. In particular I object to sending them to people that I keep in regular contact with, as it just seems pointless - pointless to buy them in the first place, supporting the card economy which is hardly environmentally friendly, even if they do get recycled afterwards, which isn’t a given. Pointless to spend huge amounts of time making or writing them when they only get chucked out afterwards! [Please don't tell me there is anyone out there who *keeps* them for anything other than making next year's tags with?] And pointless to send news to people who know it anyway!

So if you’re reading this, don’t expect a Christmas card from us! There are a few people with whom a card/letter at Christmas is the main way of keeping in touch, so rather than writing hundreds of pointless ‘just-saying-happy-christmas-and-here’s-a-blanket-round-robin-newsletter’ cards I’ve decided I’d rather write 20 meaningful cards with a more personal letter in them. I suppose, if you’re reading this and you desperately want a card to clutter up your house with, then you can ask, but you still might not get one Likewise, please don’t send me one!! I’m just as happy with Merry Christmas wishes in my comments box at some point over the festive period