Only a week to go until the big day, and it's calmed down here a bit. School is finished, and all the other attendant things - Brownies, Rainbows, swimming, clubs, yoga, toddler group, whatever. Nativty plays done, carol concerts done, school and activity parties done. So now we get a few days' rest before we have to start cooking for Christmas, which is great. Lana and I have sorted out our menu for Christmas (turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry relish, roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts with bacon, red cabbage, baby carrots - pretty traditional this year) - a big meal this year, as we have 7 adults and 6 kids (our family, Geoff's mum, Lana & co (which is 2 adults and 2 kids) and her new neighbours, who are Russian and at loose ends - they don't really celebrate English Christmas normally - they tend to do New Year's instead - anyway, there are 2 of them, and one kid - Dascha, who is 6 - perfect age to fit in with the other girls!), so we can handle it. Tania (the new neighbour) may contribute something traditionally Russian for a starter. For dessert, we are only doing sorbets and Christmas cookies, because we won't want anything heavy after everything else. Should be good fun. Oh, forgot the gravy - gravy of course!

We also sorted the menu for Lana'a annual Christmas Eve do - they always have a drinks party on Christmas Eve - they used to do it anyway, and then when Keir was born conveniently (ha) on 24 December, they carried on with the tradition partly as a birthday celebration for Keir. That's not a full meal, just lots of munchies, but I always help with the preparation. Lots of good stuff there - sausage and chutney pinwheels, mini gruyere croissants, mini turkey sandwiches, cocktail sausages, roast spicy potatoes, artichoke and parma ham wraps, parmesan curls, hummous & bread, smoked salmon and cream cheese pancakes and at least 2-3 other things I've forgotten. Yum. Food is on my mind a lot at the moment, you can tell...