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

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!

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

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 …

Most of us are off again tomorrow, despite the fact that roads in the city seem mainly ok! Having said that, I didn’t go to housegroup tonight because I didn’t want to drive on the icy roads in the dark at night. Anyway, we’ll see what another day off brings …

Home and warming up again by 10am, watching the snow fall outside, but it’s not settling any more. Having caused havoc around here overnight, it’s now just wet and slushy.

So rarely do we ever get snow here, I can’t remember the last time we had even this much!

I got home from school early as all of our children got sent home soon after 2pm; many of them live in outlying areas where the snow was worse than in the city. The cycle ride home was not fun, it was a total blizzard and I could hardly see in front of me, snow kept going in my eyes. Luckily it’s only a short ride!

I went round to meet the kids from school and we decided to abandon all thought of swimming lessons and go out to play in the snow instead. Snow is a rarity and swimming lessons happen every week!

Our school has been closed for tomorrow; will have to listen to the radio in the morning to find out about the kids’ (kind of hoping I’ll get a day off to myself though!).

Really nice to just have some fun together. Josiah has been lovely all day, in fact, which is so unusual at the moment that it’s worth blogging!