Christmas

. . . was a riot. 21 people in the house! Children, presents, food, and musical instruments were piled high. Jeremy and his two sisters, Stephanie and Fenella, took care of most of the cooking, the children laid the (very lo-oo-oong!) table, and I did the drinking! Everyone had brought a contribution to the day, and lunch was delicious.

Present opening was - hmm, I don't think maelstrom is too strong a word to use. The air was thick with scraps of wrapping paper and cries of 'Thank you!' Except for Kit, who, on unwrapping his present from Grandma Rose, hurled himself shrieking across the living room to hug his thanks. She had baked him a chocolate cake and decorated it with five £1 coins. His two favourite thing in the whole world - better even that Lego.

In the evening five of the cousins performed solos for us, Sam on trombone, Raul on sax, Mia on recorder, Kit on guitar and Emilio very creditably on trumpet.

Boxing Day was much quieter!


It was lovely to have with us my cousin Mark, his partner Felicity, and our friend Teresa, currently in her second year at university in Munich.

Everyone's been sick

No post for a while, as for over a week now Beri and Sid have been sick, so nothing has been happening, apart from much brow-soothing and medicine dosing. Beri started with a monstrous temperature, and spent three days alternately baking and freezing. Just as he got better Sid started. But just to be different, she added a little throwing up into the mix. But everyone is well now, and ready for their appearances this afternoon in the church nativity play. Kit is still playing Gabriel, Sid is now promoted to playing a sheep, And Beri will now be playing 'a member of the congregation'. Enjoy your Christmas Eves.

Kit's Panto

Kit was the prettiest Ugly Sister I have ever seen! Of course he was - they had cast the seven tallest children in the year group as Dwarves, and the tiniest girl as the Giant. He wore a very flouncy pink ballgown, a Diana Ross wig and large gold sequined stars for earrings. He modified his boysie demeanour not one jot, and had the best lines. For instance, to the other Ugly Sister, (you need to know that Argos is a warehouse retailer that sells all manner of homewares)

KIT: We must have new dresses! Let's look in the Argos catalogue.

CHARLIE: But there are no dresses in the Argos catalogue!

KIT: I know, but there are a pair of shower curtains I think would suit you!

Very sadly I don't have a picture right now, as I wasn't careful to make sure that the camera batteries were fully charged. We asked friends to take one for us, but it hasn't been developed yet.

Being in our church choir, Kit sang in Carols by Candlelight this evening. The service opened with 'Once in Royal David's City'. The thrill when those few small treble voices stopped the hubbub of a crowded church in an instant was electric.

Sid meets Santa

An excuse to post another picture of Sid, this time with the time-honoured 'But nobody told me Santa was scary!' look on her face. Why I don't know, as Santa is here being portrayed by Ray Stacey, whom Sid knows well from church practically every Sunday. Go figure.

Things are hotting up here for the Christmas celebrations. It looks now as if there will be 21 of us chez nous on the day. In addition to the immediate Valentines, 16 of us in all, Mother and Russell will be joining us. Our friend Theresa, in her second year at univerity in Munich, is coming for a few days, and my South African cousin Mark, in London for a few weeks, and his girlfriend Felicity will be here. Julia is leaving on Sunday for three weeks in Thailand! She won't be back until early in the new year.

Beri's Nativity Play

This time the hall was much larger and the stage much more crowded, making it difficult to get even an acceptable photo. And yup - I thought the sheep outfit looked like a radiation suit too. All the main groups of characters had a dance to do, and as soon as we get the DVD of the play, I will have a go at posting the Shepherds and Sheep dance - it's particulartly splendid. And because all my children are Autumns, the white was a bit tragic. But then he may look ill becasuse he was - by the end of the day he was running such a temperature. I think we'll all be glad when term is over.

An On-air Dedication

One of my current vices is online Scrabble. The site is well laid out, easy to use, provides a team of people online to answer anyone's questions, and also gives you a chat box so you can talk to your opponent if you want to.

Late last night I had a game of Scrabble with a woman born and raised in Wales, who currently lives in the Bahamas and owns the local radio station. She asked me to tune in over the internet, and what I wanted to hear, and blimey if a DJ half way across the world with the voice like chocolate didn't play It Never Rains in Southern California and dedicated it to li'l ol' ME! She also told me that, until he died, she was good friends with Count Basie who lived round the corner from her! COUNT BASIE! *lots of little squeeking noises!* I love the internet - please please shoot me the day that I start finding this ordinary.

Sid's Nativity Play

Aah! This time the wings are for real. She clearly had a lovely time and joined in all the singing. And being as how all my children are Autumns, how lucky that the tinsel was gold!

Beri Treasure (say that quickly to get the pun!)

Isn't he gorgeous! Everyone else we know declined to buy their photographs on account of the whole head-down slanty pose thing. But, for Beri, it works really well.

Copies if this and the one of Sid posted earlier mean that grandparents' Christmas presents are pretty much taken care of. For the rest, Amazon here I come.

Bah Humbug!

'Tis the season to be . . . inundated by nativity plays. For a ghastly couple of days I thought we were involved in five (count'em! FIVE!) of the beasties, but Beri had to cancel his appearance in one because of a previous engagement - namely, it was a school day!.

Nevertheless, four is more than enough. Each child has their own school's, and they are all taking part in the church one. That means, for me, six costumes to be arranged, six paper trails about ticket allocations and for which performance (and can / will Grandma or Aunt Julia or Daddy go) and when they regret sibling will not be accommodated, making arrangements for their care. Kit is playing, respectively, an Ugly Sister and the Angel Gabriel, Sid is playing an angel and a kitten, and Beri is playing a sheep and a sheep.

Tomorrow sees the switch-on of the village Christmas lights. Everybody flocks to the village green for a candlelight procession, barbeque food, funfare rides and Santa. What they actually do, the minute they get there, is lose their children in the melee and spend the next 45 minutes looking for them. As it's well after dark by then, Ha! No Chance! By the time the children are found, the parents are frazzled, furious and hungry, while the kids have had a whale of a time. They've found something to eat from goodness-knows-where, they've been partying with their friends, and happy? Larry isn't even close.

I've used the title of this of this post alarmingly early in the season!