Christmas 2014

Well we've had a very nice Christmas.  It's heading towards being over - we're home from our New Year travels - although there's still cheese and chestnuts to be eaten and the tree will remain up for a day or two yet.

This Christmas was spent at home - my first as churchwarden so I was on duty.  We got up to some traditional and untraditional things, as illustrated below.

Untraditional: pretending to be an elf and a snowman after going up the tramway to see Santa.  Also untraditional, not bursting into tears at the sight of Santa.

Traditional: looking for presents at the bottom of a stocking.  Both children were heavily into presents this year - actually, Marisca was remarkably even tempered about it but Tom was mad keen for presents.  His, anyone else's, he didn't really mind.

Traditional: Redcurrant jelly with Christmas dinner.  Untraditional: only eating the redcurrant jelly.

Traditional: hats.

Traditional: Christmas film (room on the broom I think).

Traditional: a bit of a walk and a cafe.  Tom enjoying playing with the Curl Originator.

Careless: taking a nice photo of the children with the sun behind me.  Even the curls couldn't shield Tom from its glare.

Traditional: posed family shot.

Untraditional: a stop on the trip down to Bristol to Do Engineering

Untraditional: Doing Science involving dancing raisins.

Traditional: pottering around town on New Year's Eve

Traditional: getting home to realise that this is the only photo I took of the cousins who all had such a lovely time playing together.  And none of the siblings.  Oh well, next year.

Sous chef

Tom has recently got very into cooking. If he sees me working in the kitchen he comes rushing over and climbs onto a chair going 'I help, I help'. He insists on wearing an apron, and prefers Marisca's butterfly one - I must see if I have any of the material left to make him one of his own.

It isn't just cakes he likes helping with either - here he is having a good go at chopping a tomato. He is a pretty good sos chef and we have lots of fun together!

Decorating the tree

It must be the penultimate weekend before Christmas, so that's Christmas Tree time!  It was lovely having both children interested and involved and neither made much of a pig's ear out of anything, which is nice.

A Christmas Angel

With Marisca starting school there have been many firsts - this week she got to star in her first Christmas concert, and we got to see our first one! The reception and key stage 1 children did a combined performance of 'children of the world', looking at different Christmas traditions in different countries. Marisca has been singing the songs to us for weeks, so we were looking forward to hearing them in context.

As you can see from the photo, Marisca was an angel, along with most of her friends, and very sweet they were too. I (Elspeth) was in floods of tears from the moment she climbed on stage, I was so proud of her - she sang all the songs, watched the teacher and was generally lovely - as were all the children. My admiration for primary school teachers has increased no end, I can't imagine how they got 180 children to remember lines, sing songs, sit and stand in the right places and generally pay attention, but they did.

There is a repeat performance this evening, so Tim is heading along to support and generally enjoy himself. I suspect there will be fewer tears from him, but just as much pride in our schoolgirl daughter.

EDIT (Tim): yes that's right.

Birthday fun

I suppose Tom had two birthday parties.  The main event was the weekend before he turned two,but we also had a little birthday tea and present session on his birthday.  Pizza and party rings, very popular.

Of course the problem with presents on your birthday after tea when you're two is that you are generally not very fast at opening presents, and far too excited with the contents to be bothered about the next present for quite some time.  This, in turn, means you're quite excited come bed time, and refuse to consider being in your cot until Mummy comes home at about 10 o clock.  Still, we enjoyed the first evening of Tom being a terrible two sitting together on the settee watching crime drama.

The main event was a shared party between Thomas, Lewis, and Penny, which we had in the narthex at church.  Plenty of space, plenty of toys, meant for plenty of children and plenty of noise.  They had a whole lot of fun, as you might imagine.  

This is the closest we got to all three sitting down together.  Note the snazzy matching outfits sewn by mums.

This is probably the time to point out that the party was circus themed.

So, yes, ridealong toys were involved and a firm favourite.  Here's Tom playing with Adair, and then trying to drive through the tunnel.  Unsuccessfully, although that didn't stop him trying multiple times.

Having the party at church meant that we could use the toddlers' play equipment, such as the ever enjoyable slide, and the parachute.  Tom loved the later although only to watch really, and he certainly helped others to vacate the slide as soon as possible for him to have another go.

Then we finished off with a birthday tea, a big top cake, and a lot of tidying up.  Thanks go to Kirsty, Jayne and Elspeth who did all of the organising, and to the various grandmas who commandeered the kitchen.  Thomas had a great time.

Happy birthday Thomas

So our little boy is two.  His birthday has snuck up on me in the same way that Tom does - he quietly gets on with his own business and suddenly you turn around and he's two.  He's a lovely two too; he's giggly, he's affectionate, he's curious, he's independent, and he's a charmer.  He's my little boy.

Half term holidays

With Marisca starting school, we've started having school holidays.  I took the week off and had the first two days with the children while Elspeth worked, and we then did our tour of the South for the rest of the week.

Monday and Tuesday were mostly hanging around at home and doing various bits and pieces.  Including the ice cream farm in non-ice cream weather...

And here's Marisca in a characteristically eclectic set of patterned clothing!

On the drive south we stopped at Bolsover Castle, making use of our English Heritage membership.  Since we were here last, they've built a very cool playground, featuring a long wooden wall walk which both children rather enjoyed.

And we had a bit of a walk around the grounds too, including this lovely tree.

We then popped into the main castley bit and I found a couple of statues in alcoves.

Yesterday, after finishing the visitations, we went on the train into London from where we were staying in Richmond.  Both children loves the trains, of course.  And Marisca looks all set for the big city in her new hat, appropriated from Karen earlier in the week, and not since relinquished.

In London we made a point of visiting Big Ben where the real life bongs are that we hear at 6pm on the radio quite a lot.  That was quite exciting.

And the last photo is of Tom, enjoying a cake while London hustles and bustles around him, at the Natural History Museum.

It's been a good half term holiday, finished off before driving home with a Personal Best in the 5k parkrun at Bushy Park.  Convenient timing and location to be there on Saturday morning, wasn't it?!