It's snowing. it must be practising for Christmas

The snow at the beginning of the week was very excited. Patrick was sure that it meant it was Christmas day. Both children were upset that nothing much came of the snow and there wasn't enough to have snowball fights. Anya wasn't worried too much though as it's nearly Christmas day and they'll be able to do that then - think there may be a splash of disappointment there!
Anya was very very happy to have moved up a level on the reading scheme and is now on the big books. I think of it as a mixed blessing as the books are now really long and take about half an hour to read all the way through. She likes to read them all so she can change it the next day - she's trying to catch up with her friend who's on the mystical turquoise level (dreading the length of those books!).
Patrick was a complete star on Friday - he had his Christmas play at nursery. When we were putting his costume on I asked him if he knew what shepherds did - "just stand there" - hmm. The room was completely packed with parents so I was a bit worried about stage fright but he said his two words very clearly (even over the top of a screaming Euan who was fighting to get to the goldfish).


Saturday I had all to myself - I did a massive amount of shopping, getting into Birmingham at just after 9am. Have just about sorted all the presents. Then a quick change at the hotel and out for a fab Chinese with far too much wine and onto a bit of a manky bar but it had a dance floor (well a tiny space in the corner) and was playing early 90s Indie music. Spot the off duty over excited mums! - Thank goodness for Auntie Jax who was responsible enough to look after us. We had breakfast (some people did anyway!) and headed back.
The kids had been completely spoilt by Tim - The Animal Farm (McDonalds) for lunch, then they made and ate two lots of cake. I was also given a pirates treasure map that they had made discovered! Euan had slept in until 8.30am (why does he never ever do this for me?).
After sneaking back to bed for an hour we went to Cannock Chase to see Father Christmas and get some decorations. Unfortunately it was heaving and the queue to see him was over an hour (sure Father C must be getting work related stress) - so we had doughnuts and a bit of a walk around the forest trail instead - great cure for a bad head!
Quote of the week - Tim "In the olden days all cartoons were drawn by hand not on a computer" Anya "By hand? Didn't they have pencils?"
Thought of the week - People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. - Leo J. Burke