Well, it' s all done and dusted here, as they say (not literally, of course - the dusting won't be done until the Xmas decorations come down on New Year's Day...). I was going to put up a photo, but didn't get any taken on Christmas except one video of Alex playing with his train - just too much going on and too many children trying to capture my attention all at the same time. Maybe some more will get taken in the next few days. We've had a lovely Christmas with Geoff's mum visiting - she goes home tomorrow - Geoff will take her to the train station and then go on in to work - he's been off today and yesterday as they are bank holidays, due to the actual holidays falling on the weekend. It's confusing, frankly. But anyway, he's working Wednesday & Thursday & then has Friday off on leave and next Monday is another bank holiday. Very useful having a couple of extra grownups around to help entertain the kids. Hope everyone else had a lovely holiday.

Happy Christmas! Here's our tree - with our car in the background, which is a really welcome sight to me, as they've been replacing the gas mains in our street over the past few weeks, and the entire side of the road in front of our house has been torn up and there's been nowhere to park. It was a real relief for them to finish! 

Advent calendar update from a few days ago 

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...

This is the week for watching kids be in things. First there was a ballet show on Sunday, then one Christmas play and a Rainbows enrollment on Monday, and today, the other Christmas play. All very cute, of course. This is Olivia with her friend Isabella after being enrolled at Rainbows. 

This is my advent calendar - each day has a little mini quilt, you add one each day. Exciting! 

Been ages since I posted, I know. I'm feeling guilty as I just (finally) wrote the Christmas letter, and mentioned in it that I try to update my blog regularly (oops). But it's been the week running up to the Christmas fair at school, so extra busy. But at least that's all over now - went ok, not as big a turnout as some years, but a lot of people were away or ill - Olivia's now got this bug that was going around (not a throwing up one, thank goodness), so I think she'll be off school tomorrow - Sarah had it last week. So far, no grownups have got it, but I guess it's early days yet. And soon it will be Christmas - wow, where did the year go?