Where to start?

As I sit in my living room, surrounded by parts of the dismantled Christmas tree, boxes usefully marked 'Xmas Stuff' and decorations which have not yet made it to the living room floor, but still hang from the ceiling by the same precarious strip of tape they were attached by in December, I don't really know where to start. Being a teacher, I often have this problem; there is so much to do, how do I know which to do first?

Yes, I know the decorations should have been down by the 6th and that it is bad luck if they are still up after that. Actually, I have a theory about that...

The start of the year is an opportunity for a fresh start. In fact every day is an opportunity for a fresh start, but this seems to escape many people's notice, as they prefer only to do the 'fresh start' when it is marked on the calendar, which sort of defeats the object of starting fresh and being motivated, if you are waiting for someone else to tell you when to do it, but that aside, Many people like to start afresh on 1st January and so, I think the 'get your decorations down by the 6th' superstition is linked to that, the idea being that to move forward in the right frame of mind, you must pack away the Christmas paraphernalia. It's a way of accepting that Christmas is over for this year.

I, you will be unsurprised to hear, think differently. It is good to keep the decorations up, because those first few days back to work in January can be gloomy. We feel tired after the excitement and hustle and bustle of Christmas and could do with another week off. The house looks bare after the tinsel and garland are packed away. It is somewhat depressing putting all those little tree ornaments back into tissue line shoe boxes. I hate that feeling. Keeping the house looking sparkly lets us hold on to that feeling of fun for a little while longer. We have had a great couple of weeks, putting the Christmas lights on when we know it is not really Christmas any more.

Unfortunately, Larry decided it was time to put it all away. He got the boxes out of the loft and deposited them in the middle of the living room. Now, that I can't live with. I tried to ignore them, but after a week, they are really in the way, so I'm afraid, Christmas really is over in our house now.

Will it still feel so depressing after taking the remaining decorations down and packing them all away? Who knows. It will feel tidy again, though, which I guess is something. Now, where shall I start...?

My Bruver Got a Bike an I Dint

I have much better things to do than this, but Seany started "the bike thing" again so I have to have my say!

For further clarification on what the bike thing is all about, you might want to read point ten of 30 Things about Seany.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, unless it's a bike and then it will come in a box with a big shiny bow on it.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. Real trees are too wide and would get knocked over by the bike as it goes past.

3. When do you put up the tree? As early as I can get away with it. I like hearing people complain to me that it's too early.

4. When do you take the tree down? One of my kids usually knocks it down with their new bike as they ride around (if one gets one, they both get one!!). Failing that, I take it down before I go back to work in January.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but I don't really agree with stealing eggs out of nog's nests.

6. Favourite gift received as a child? I don't remember. Did I get a bike? No, I don't think so. My brother did though.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, and every year a bit more of it gets broken. The shepherd now has a shorter crook (ooh!).

8. Hardest person to buy for? Secret Santa presents when you don't know who you are buying for.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Seany. I can just buy him a bike every year as he keeps losing or breaking them. (Never taught the value of money!)

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Decorative teapot. What is the point of that?
"I have bought you a teapot",
"Oh Thank you!",
"But don't use it, will you?",
"Why not?",
"It's for decoration only",
"Right, so you have bought me a teapot, but I can't use it as a teapot.",
"That's right."
"What the F*&K am I supposed to do with it then?!"

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. We get 50 free stamps because Larry is a postie.

12. Favourite Christmas movie? Love Actually

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? July. Yeah, so what! Shut up!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, every year. The kids have so many things that they don't realise I keep taking their toys and wrapping them up for them again the next year. At least they get something they really want!

15. Favorite thing to eat/drink at Christmas? Clotted cream, Brandy Butter, Port, guinness (wow, now I see why I am having to diet!)

16. Clear lights or coloured on the tree? coloured and flashing

17. Favourite Christmas song? I want to ride my bicycle

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Christmas day in Bethlehem was great, but I love being home with the family for Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes. Frank, Pat, Ricky, Bianca...erm... I can't remember the others.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A Fairy.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Open them Christmas day. Shake, prod, sniff & squish them as soon as they arrive!

Anyone else want to have a go? Let me know so I can have a read.

Oh, and don't worry, I bought myself a bike!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2007 brings you everything you wish for.

We had a great family evening for New Year's Eve. PP had been shopping and bought lots of nice Christmassy food to eat, as we had been away for Christmas and not bought any food in for Christmas yet. He was surprised to find that Tesco was almost out of all their Christmas food already, but he still managed to get some treats for us to enjoy on New Year's Eve and found quite a few bargains where items such as Tesco's Finest mince pies had been reduced to half price (making them just about affordable!). I guess we will see the seasonal aisle filled with Easter eggs next week!

We decided to have a family games night and spent a few hours playing Elefun, Jitterbugs and Hungry Frogs (cheapy version of Hungry Hippos). We have lots of family games, but choosing ones which are suitable for Big J to play is difficult. He is not very good at turn taking yet, which rules out most games. We had a lot of fun though, got the children very excited and hyper and then spent the next couple of hours trying to calm them down so that we could watch the TV and see the new year in before all going to bed at about 12.30.

While Seany and I both stayed in, our mum was at her local pub having a few(?) drinks and seeing the new year in with her friends. Somehow this seems the wrong way around, but I hope I have a social life as good as my mum has when I am her age.

Today we have had a fairly quiet day. I have done some sorting out to make room for the new presents and have managed to clear a lot of space in Big J's room. I can't help wondering if I have gone too far by getting rid of his bed!

Joking aside, I have taken Big J's bed out of his room as he doesn't sleep on it. Since he went up to "Toddlers" at nursery he has had his midday nap there on a crash mat on the floor. This seems to have discouraged him from sleeping in his bed at home at night. We often find him asleep on the floor in his room and no matter how many times we tuck him back into his bed, we invariably find him back on the floor again in the morning. After trying many different things to encourage him to sleep in his bed, we have finally given in and taken his bed away, leaving him with a mattress on the floor to sleep on. I think it is better for him to sleep on a mattress on the floor rather than just sleeping on the carpet or on his rug as he was before. At least now I won't have to keep getting down on my hands and knees to clear out the toys from under his bed!

Charity begins at home

I like to think of this time after Christmas as a time to think of others less fortunate than ourselves (really, there are people in worse debt than me!!) and so we take the time to carefully choose some of the children's toys to give to charity. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that they get far too much for Christmas each year and without a massive sort out we would not have room for all of their new stuff, I think there is a valuable lesson for the children to learn about children who do not get presents at Christmas. Maybe I could kill two birds (not literally, Sarah!) with one stone next year and not buy them any presents. The problem with that is, I like shopping as much as (probably more than) they like receiving the presents.

We do have a problem though of where to store all the new presents. Our house is not tiny, but it's full already and we don't have a spare room. Having had Christmas at Seany's this year, we came back and literally dumped everything into the conservatory, where it has stayed. I am gradually filtering some of the gifts into the children's rooms but they simply do not have anywhere left to put things unless we get rid of something. Little Z has very conveniently decided she no longer wants to keep her huge Sindy doll's house or the furniture. It is a bit easier with Little Z as she has a lot more stuff which she is growing out of or doesn't play with any more. Big J on the other hand, has the smallest room in the house and does not seem to have grown out of any of his toys yet. We were given several big boxes of boys' toys by a neighbour last year and although we passed some of it on at the time, we kept a lot of it and the storage space in his room is full to the brim not to mention the big tub and 2 boxes and a small tub of toys he has downstairs in the living room. I go through phases of ruthlessly getting rid of lots of stuff, but even that's not working at the moment. The minute I put things into a bag for the charity shop, Little Z finds the bag and gives Big J all his stuff back. I heard her telling him this evening, "Mum wants to give this to the charity shop" (passing him a Bob the Builder phone.) I would have been really cross, except Big J is only 2 and has no idea what a charity shop is because it is not something he can eat.

I need someone to give me some good ideas on how to get rid of the children's toys. Otherwise I will have to do it during the night and tell them santa came back and he was very cross!

Thank you!

This post is dedicated to my Big Bruv, Seany, who made sure our Christmas this year was one of the best ever (and who is probably going to kill me for the awfull attempt at the picture above, which I really ought to have blamed on Little Z!)

We planned to leave Southampton on Saturday 23rd December after PP had finished work and had come home for a few hours sleep. However, it didn't quite go as planned. In the 3 weeks running up to Christmas, I had a bad cold then Big J had his chest infection and then poor Little Z had a bad cold which kept her off school for the last few days of school (the only days when they get to play all day and not do any work!) and which meant that the few days we had together after she finished school and before Big J's nursery closed for Christmas were spent mooching around the house instead of having fun "girls' shopping trips" which I had planned for us. PP had got away with a mild cold in all of this, but we thought we had at least got all of the germs out of the way before Christmas. So, we were not very impressed when PP started coughing & sneezing around Wednesday of the week before Christmas as we knew it was unlikely he would be able to get rid of it before Christmas. I was even less impressed when, on the Friday night before we were hoping to travel on the Saturday, I felt the beginnings of another cold. Surely I have had my quota for this year, or maybe it's like holiday, maybe I still had some to use up before the end of the year and it could not be carried over. With all the hours he had been doing, PP had not really had a chance to let his body recover from the cold and so it had just got worse and worse, so I thought he needed the opportunity to sleep non-stop for what most of us consider and take for granted as a full night.

Anyhow, the point is (oh yes, the point, I had almost forgotten!!) we finally decided to leave the 4-5 hour journey until early the following morning (Sunday 24th) as neither PP nor I were feeling like driving. We arrived at Seany's around mid day on Christmas Eve after a very smooth journey. Not only had Seany given up his bedroom for us, he also had bought lots of extra things in that the children needed and had also made sure that he had bought the children's favourite breakfast cereals. In fact, during the four days we were there, he spent a lot of the time running around after us and my parents. The Christmas dinner was excellent, one of the best I have ever had, and the buffet he did for Boxing Day was so good, we had more on Wednesday before we left for home.

What also made it a great Christmas this year for me, was the Children. It is always difficult when you go to someone else's house to stay, as you rely on the host having a lot of patience with your children or you rely on your children to behave themselves. In my experience, you can never rely on either of these for any significant length of time, but I am very proud of both Little Z and Big J. They were not perfect, but then who is? But they were well behaved and I don't have any complaints about the way either of them behaved while we were at Seany's house or on the journeys there and back.

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.