just another morning here

I decided to give myself this first week of the holidays ‘off’. After Christmas I will have to work pretty hard, as I’d let things slide towards the end of last term. Anyway, we’ve had a lovely time.

Monday was a snow day, documented in the post below – great fun In the evening, Steve and Josiah stayed at home and I braved driving in the ice and snow down to Broadclyst for their Carol Service. This was supposed to be accompanied by Exeter Youth Orchestra, but in the event, because of the snow and the fact that it really was quite treacherous out, only 6 members of EYO made it! They sounded pretty good considering! We slithered home after that – very hairy driving up our close but kind of fun I suppose.

On Tuesday we did very little – we considered going busking but decided not to in the end; Abbie was unwell and spent half of the day in bed. The kids watched George of the Jungle, and we caught up with the first couple of episodes of The Nativity – really enjoying that this week, some angles included that you don’t often consider when thinking about the story.

Wednesday was Josiah’s day for going back to school; he was up early packing his bag for the boarding house – he really thinks it is a huge treat to stay there! We dropped him off at mid-day for a trip to the pantomime, then he has various rehearsals and services between now and Christmas day itself. Wrapped presents in the afternoon

On Thursday we had Abbie’s birthday treat: a trip to the cinema to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Thought it was much better than the last two, actually, really enjoyed it even though it wasn’t quite true to the book – but I haven’t read it for ages so I’d forgotten until Anna reminded me! Abbie’s favourites for dinner – lasagne followed by mini pavlovas
After that we went out carol singing with friends from Pinhoe Church – freezing but very festive-feeling We watched the last part of the Nativity together – it failed tonight, I thought Mary made far too much fuss giving birth! Anyway, girly sleepovers happened in various places after that.

Friday – Christmas Eve
I decided to go out and make deliveries – the girls hadn’t surfaced by 9.30am! Later on I met Emma, Nick, Robyn & Lola for the Cathedral Crib Service – hadn’t been to it before- it was fun. Robyn particularly enjoyed looking out for Josiah in his dress
Home for lunch, then we packed up and got ready to take all our stuff over to Steve’s parents since we decided to stay there for two nights! Saves driving
As I write, we are sitting in the Cathedral waiting for the Grandisson Service to start- the poshest service of the year perhaps? One has to be seated at least an hour in advance!
After this we’ll have a quick visit with Josiah before going back to drink, nibble, play games, and wait for Christmas

The children decided not to go busking as planned today – I’ve been watching this Exeter webcam and there hasn’t been more than two or three people in the shot all day so I reckon that was a wise decision!!
Instead, as the garage wasn’t open (don’t think we’d have seen many customers ), Steve decided that it would be fun to go out and decorate the Christmas tree with his parents and even more fun to drive there … well, it was adventurous!

This photo was taken just after we’d pushed the car to the top of Pennsylvania Road, which local friends will know is a rather steep hill.
I have never known snow like this in Exeter in all the years I’ve lived here, it’s quite incredible. We are simply not geared up for it so the whole city ground to a halt! The girls and I are preparing to go out to a carol concert now, which should be interesting too …

More pics here, only fairly rubbish iphone ones as unfortunately I managed to leave my big camera on the settings for the ECO Christmas Concert last night, so none of the snow pics I took on that came out. Silly.

A quick word about the orchestra concert while I’m here though, it was fab as usual. I don’t think I will ever tire of it! Abbie in particular did really well with her glock parts, and both girls played throughout as they are also part of the Wind Group that were sharing our concert. Sad to say goodbye to leavers, and a number of people didn’t make it because of the weather, but most people did, and we managed to re-sell most of the tickets (we’d been sold out but then there were some cancellations), so it was a success all round I think. Glad that concert was last night before the heavy snow though, I must confess!

Not a terribly interesting weekend in our house, really.

Orchestra doesn’t start until next Saturday, so I took the opportunity to go to the meeting of the chorister parents’ association on Saturday morning while Josiah was at rehearsals.

After that we came home to find that Steve and the girls had only just surfaced, lazy things! Joe did some piano and tidied his room before his friend came round to play. The girls took practically all day to tidy their room!

Music practices were noisy … Abbie drumming along to Greenday upstairs while Anna accompanied Josiah downstairs, then Anna went up to accompany Abbie’s flute … and that was only before the outing to the sweet shop! They finished off afterwards, and had tea, before settling down to an evening of crafty stuff while Steve and I went out for our anniversary dinner at the Conservatory

On Sunday we woke to more snow falling, and had to be up early for Josiah to go and sing. The girls thought they had a sound rehearsal at Panto but in fact it was just a setting up day and they didn’t have to be there, so they went over to visit Grandma and Grandpa instead. Anna wanted to discuss Professor Layton puzzles with Grandma!

Steve and I decided to go out for a walk in the snow, geocache involved of course! We popped in for coffee with Neil & Ivonne, which was lovely. Then picked the boys up from the Cathedral (we share lifts with another family!), back home to drop one boy off and let the other one get changed, then back to Grandma & Grandpa’s for lunch. Stew and dumplings – the perfect cold day dinner! The kids had a fab time in the snow in their garden, too

Home for music practices (all three children are trying to do 100 days of practise on all instruments, which *is* a bit of a logistical nightmare at times!); Abbie played with Mollie and another panto friend who was round, the girls shopped on the Boden sale website, and then later on we snuggled up with nibbly pic’n'mix tea in front of a film.

Somehow the snow just makes being inside together feel lovelier than usual, it’s been fab

Finally. Wintery or Wintry? Which is correct and why?! Been dithering between which to title the post with and now they both look odd …

Had loads of fun out with Abbie’s panto friends this morning. Poor old Anna had to go to school, but she had Bugsy rehearsals all day so she didn’t mind too much. Her music audition was cancelled but has been re-scheduled for tomorrow … and we’re all back to school tomorrow, too. Could be fun on the lane that leads to my school but I’ll be walking so I’ll be fine!