Spent a big chunk of the day today making CDs with digital images - HP Slide Show Memory Disc or something like that, which came with my digital camera. And just sticking videos onto disc to send to relatives, etc. Amazing how much time you can eat up just burning discs, but at least it's amusing. More or less. Beats yesterday, when I spent several hours in one of those indoor play places. Sarah had a birthday party, and as the place was quite a ways from the house, it made sense to just take Olivia and Alex along and let them play while Sarah was at the party. It was nice, but very very loud & I came away with a somewhat persistent headache. Oh well.

OK, so I'm a slacker. But I sometimes it's just really busy and I haven't got the energy - if you can't have that in January, when can you? At least I finally updated my website, though :)

Well, if it's not one thing, it's another. Today, in addition to having very little sleep thanks to children being awake on and off all night, we had Sarah throwing up this morning (at least 7.30 is better than 4.30) and washing machine outflow pipe being clogged up. I should have been a plumber!

I'm feeling very proud of myself as I've just done an entire stack of mending (I hate mending). Mostly trouser knees and whatnot, but some holes in tights, and a few hemming projects - one still waiting to do, granted, but it's certainly a start. Which means I met get to do a bit of quilting at some point without feeling guilty at the sight of the mending pile (this hasn't stopped me from quilting in the past, mind you, but at least I can ditch the guilt now). What an exciting life I lead. Who knows, I might even get my website updated at some point!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Lovely time here, if somewhat frantic. All the presents are now opened, finally, except some of Alex's, but then again, I think he prefers them with the paper on anyway, so that's ok. We're greatly enjoying the digital camera - do expect to see lots of photos on the website, for those of you who follow such things. Haven't put any up yet, though, so don't go rushing off to check things out.

Olivia's quietly in the other room enjoying Wizard of Oz & we've got a friend coming around to supper, so it really feels like Boxing Day...

Today was the first of the Christmas shows - Olivia's. Actually, Sarah has two performances, yesterday afternoon and tomorrow morning - we're going to tomorrow's one as yesterday clashed with Olivia's swimming lesson. Anyway, it was very cute - lots of sweet angels and stars and shepherds and stuff like that. I think probably if you put a 4 year old in a costume, it's pretty cute even before they speak or sing, but they did a great job & we were all really entertained. Tomorrow morning is Sarah's show, which should also be great fun. I've heard good things from those who have seen the Monday pm show.

Also got a digital camera today (hoorah!) so we'll soon be drowning in pictures of kids, even more than we already are. But it will be so fast and easy - and video, too!

Made some Christmas cookies - well, not really that Christmassy in themselves, but most of them I wouldn't make at other times of the year - on the weekend. The hard part will be in not eating them all up right away. I'd like to have a nice variety to take to people's houses when we go around, etc. Always nice to have half a dozen different kinds. Truffles, too (the chocolate kind, not the funghi), which are a snap to make and much cheaper than to buy them. They make great gifts.

Well, Grandma Kathy (my mom) is here now and we put the tree up today, so it's really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. So far, so good. Next week is full of Christmas plays and whatnot, so that will be busy. Can't even begin to count the number of times I need to be at school. But it's fun, too. And my mother will enjoy being able to go along and see things, which normally she misses, of course. Geoff's mother is with us as well, but not until the 23rd.

School fayre yesterday (why do they always spell it that way for school fairs, I wonder?), which went well. Sarah and I went over in the morning to help set up, and then I worked in the Santa's grotto (lots of elf jokes) for the first hour - it was quite fun, actually. And a lot of people showed up to help set up, so we were actually ready on time, which was super.

It's amazing how much work it takes for something like a school fair, though. If every parent in the school gave an hour of time, it would be nothing, but as it's a very small percentage helping out, those who do help, end up doing a lot. I don't mind that, in principle, what bothers me is the attitude some parents (admittedly, not many of them; most are fine) have of doing everyone a favour if they do deign to work for an hour at some game or stall. OK, yes, I also only worked one hour on a stall on the day, but I also showed up at 9 in the morning to set up. Not to mention 2 hours on Friday evening. And 2.5 hours every Friday since October. And stuff at home. So there. Not that I said this to anyone, mind you, but sometimes you're tempted!

nits.

ick.

Busy busy busy. I know it's this time of year, and the Christmas fair at school and all that kind of stuff, but I barely have time to sit down these days, or so it seems. Am looking forward to my mother's visit for a chance to relax a bit while someone else helps entertain the kids!

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...

Whew. Survived the birthday party, which went fairly well, with a minimum of tempers (mostly my kids, but that's often the case as guests are usually well behaved away from home). Also survived Olivia falling off the stool in the kitchen and biting practically through her tongue on both sides (from a distance, it's not too bad an injury, but at the moment the child is gushing blood from the mouth, well, it's a different story, isn't it!). Luckily, we decided we did not need a trip to casualty, which would have been a truly lovely way to round off the evening. Poor thing. Poor Mummy. But on the whole, it's been a good day, though tiring - I may go to bed very soon! We did get to see the fireworks from the back garden though - the local Bonfire Night celebrations seem to range across a wide variety of weekends, rather than the ones closest to Guy Fawkes night (which would be either next weekend or the one after, logically, as Guy Fawkes day is the 5th). Too tired to go in person, and frankly, it's very cold, but as it's just down the road, we can see it from upstairs or the back garden...

Not that much to say at the moment, just trying to get back into the habbit of blogging frequently, even if there's not much to say. We had a nice weekend; Sarah and I went to the Polka Theatre (children's theatre in Wimbledon) on Saturday and saw a piece that was quite experimental, including some trapeze work/rope climbing and lots of other fun stuff. The audience sort of sat in the middle of the stage space & the actors did everything around them. The kids loved it. As did the grownups. :) Geoff and I usually argue over who gets to go to the Polka with the kids - I won this time as it clashed with the rugby (World Cup, England v South Africa). And it was his birthday as well, so he was very pleased that England won. Now if only they can beat the All Blacks...

Still not crawling, just the weird swimming thing. When he's left alone long enough to do anything, that is. His main problem is far too much help from sisters...

Coming up to a busy time here - a couple of birthdays very soon - Geoff's on Saturday, then Olivia's is the 24th. Obviously, hers will require a bit more planning & effort, but I do have to wrap Geoff's presents. And I'll probably have a lot of help doing it, which means it will take much longer than otherwise. Hmm, I sense a theme here!