Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks out there. Not celebrating here, though my one concession is that I'm doing a pumpkin pie for dessert for friends who are coming to dinner on the weekend. They aren't American, but when Caroline and I were talking about what we'd eat, it occurred to me that pumpkin pie was both easy and seasonal. Not to mention yummy - it's probably my favourite part of the meal, anyway. I'm not a huge turkey fan, so it's mostly the trimmings I miss. Lots of people in the UK do turkey for Christmas, but we all prefer roast beef. With all the trimmings that entails (Yorkshire pudding - yum!)

Sarah's class had a pirate party today - they had to bring in "simple pirate costumes" (which mostly involved headscarves & swords, from the look of the kids after school - and of course, trousers instead of uniform dresses for the girls) and some snacks, and got to play pirate themed games. Wish I remember having had that much fun when I was in school. Perhaps I did, but it doesn't seem that way...

Alex has started pulling himself up on the furniture - and anything else he can. He's not very good at it yet, but he's very interesting in doing it. Only a matter of time, I guess.

Good week last week, with my friend Jen here. Didn't see much of her during the day, as she touristed and I dealt with kids & school, but we did spend far too much time in the evening/night drinking, chatting & playing Trivial Pursuit. I think I'm too old to stay up past midnight 4 or 5 nights running. Sigh.

I keep meaning to write more but somehow, the time just goes. Who knows where, but if anyone finds out, please drop me a line and let me know, so that I can go there and get some of it back!

We're all well again, luckily no one even has a cold at the moment, though I'm sure we'll get another batch of them before the winter's through. Inevitable!

I spent the morning doing some Christmas (and other) shopping in Kingston, before the crowds get too bad. I think I'm mostly done now, though. A few more things for Geoff, though as some of those may be of the edible variety, those will have to be last minute purchases. And no doubt a few more for myself, as I usually seem to end up buying most of my own presents (at least I get things I want!) - however, as it's not yet my birthday (tomorrow), I haven't bought those -- I refuse to buy any Christmas presents for myself until after my birthday. I do have a list of stuff I want, so it won't be that hard to do. And my mom has offered to take the girls out to buy their Christmas presents from me, which will save Geoff having to do it.

Great time Saturday night, as we went down to some friends who live in Haslemere (in Surrey). As it was near Guy Fawkes, we went to a bonfire at a local village to them (Chillingfold) which has a huge bonfire celebration & fireworks. The best fireworks I've seen in ages, possibly ever - who'd have expected it from this little village. But it was a huge turnout, so it's obviously something they're noted for locally. The girls enjoyed it, too. To quote Sarah "I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life". If she's lucky, she will.

I had a virus over the past few days (me, not the computer) - or possibly a bacterial infection, as the sore throat seemed to vanish overnight after the first dose of antibiotics from the doctor & the one skanky, enlarged tonsil (not a pretty sight, I assure you) shrunk back to almost normal size, or at least to the point where I can not only swallow, but do so with relatively little pain. Gosh I love being sick. Not. And it's sure fun to deal with small children when you have virtually no voice - luckily, that was Sunday, when Geoff was there, too. And they were very well behaved, bless them.

Was talking to a friend of mine this afternoon about squandering time in our youths & how nice it would be to get back all that time. Then I spent an hour this evening trying to get the blasted scanner to work & thought about how nice it would be to get back all the time one has spent messing with the computer trying to get it to do what it's supposed to do. If I just had back all the time I'd sat there waiting for a computer to reboot, I reckon I could at least go out for a nice meal or something...

OK, just a quick note to have said something lately. Halloween was fun, a little trick or treating. Did lots of other stuff over half term, including a trip to the British Museum, where we looked at Mummies and Treasure (and lots of other stuff, but those were what Olivia kept telling me she wanted to see). Culminated with a trip to Daddy's office & thankfully, home on the train with Daddy. A bit easier with an extra grownup in tow, though the kids were all very good, considering their ages.

Glad for school to be back on Monday, though. Today, finally got around to repainting the toilet room, which has been on my list for months. And laid new flooring, too. Olivia "helped" with the painting. And then she had a bath...