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 
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 
) 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
We have had an excellent week – utterly utterly exhausted now though, and not sure I can actually remember anything anyone said, wore, ate, or thought!
A few highlights for me:
Evening and late night gatherings of friends, with music and frivolity of all sorts – the Oompa Loompa dancing will be particularly fondly remembered 
Food and kitchen stuff all being so stress free (or so it seemed to me), thank heaven for that dishwasher. Nic’s mince pies were a culinary highlight as she made the pastry from scratch without even using any scales!
The introduction to Geocaching was much appreciated – I really enjoyed it and we really must get into it ourselves.
Pennywell outing was fabulous – well, I thought so, anyway. I made a great shepherd 
As usual the children had a ball, too, and loved spending time with their friends. They are also completely and utterly exhausted – both Anna and Joe ended up having music lessons this afternoon as well!
A few more photos are in the usual place … look forward to seeing everyone else’s later as well. Thanks to all who were there for a great week Going to sort dinner and then take everyone off to bed! Very excited as AC:WW arrived this week so I’m off to play it
Have had a mooch around day today, Steve’s aunty came round to chop veggies again which is so great, then this afternoon Joe went for a nap, the girls played Monopoly together for a while, then went upstairs (supposedly to get costumes ready for the evening) and played for a couple of hours, leaving me with my book (and I confess, I napped too!), which was just ace! At four o’clock when Steve got home I called up to Anna to ask if she was ready (they went upstairs around half past one!) and her reply was “oh, I forgot all about that!”
This evening we had a Carol Service at church which was quite fun. The girls were being angels in their nativity which was quite fun, they were actually the stars of the show. Just imagine angels dressed in white tops, shorts and stripey tights, not to mention a fair amount of tinsel on their heads dancing around the stage to this. Abigail was quite hilarious, I was laughing so much and was really gutted I’d forgotten a camera! The other star of the evening was our little friend Billy who dressed as a Wise Man with his two older brothers – complete with hippy hair and an electric guitar. Not a serious 9 Lessons type service here!! Having said that, amongst the hilarity was a serious message about keeping Jesus at the centre of celebrations, which is a challenge, I think.
Friends came back for dinner, which someone else had kindly cooked for us today (how lucky am i?!!) so that was nice too. Abbie is showing Charlie off to anyone who’s interested and so she enjoyed having friends round!