Category Archives: vivien

christmas wasn’t at ours this year, it was at mum and dads. we haven’t done that for 4 years! and there were no other family members. mum and dad and us. can’t remember that ever! so it was quieter, easier, more relaxed and worked. we missed my sister in florida, and toasted for her health at every opportunity [there were quite a few!]

we got there christmas eve in just over 2 hours, having expected the journey to take wayyyyy longer due to the inclement driving conditions! i think because we took a route completely avoiding m25, even though longer and wigglier it was far better. so we surprised mum by earliness – she was relying on us being far later – you just can’t win

anyway, got children off to bed *eventually* with BB having the most trouble falling asleep, we went to bed 2-ish, and they then woke up to do father christmas stuff at 3!!! aaarghhh. we did manage to settle them back down eventually, but were lucky i think that christmas day went so well!! the girls got sylvanians stuff, and few crafts and making things, games, a dvd, cd and ds thing. i got gloves, sweeties, biscuits and lots of love! and some slate, which we are going to get in the spring! chris got a wii! [v lucky!]. we were all v happy and had a lovely day. equally happy for the other days. we played games – board, card, ds and wii [my parents on the last 2 made me giggle!! - mum has been a resolute 8th in all mariokart races].

on monday, we had a visit my cousin martin and wife jaimie, and then a suprise by my sis and family on way back from florida. think they had a good time, but she was rather traumatised by death of cat [peacefully from old age] so didn’t get to do much more than hug. kids and martin all rather wild…

so here we are, back to work for me tomorrow, and i think chris and girls have some wii planned…

we seem to be having multiple christmasses this year. after all, we had one with friends at the beginning of the month at sussex camp, and then this last weekend we went to parents for a pre christmas christmas as my sis and family are on a well deserved once in a lifetime holiday to florida and the disney resorts for a fortnight [i so hope they are having a fabulous time]. We went down fri eve, and had the standard rather stressful journey down! however, the girls plugged into their dvd’s and we had our carols, so the fog, roadworks etc couldn’t get us down!

saturday was not-quite-christmas day! my sis and family came round early, we unwrapped presents for each other, b-I-L amd M certainly v happy with theirs, not sure about sis and E, but i tried hard. SB and BB were happy with theirs too, as got one of those ds thingies to download to and bb also a sylvanians bakery and watermill – which i found rather cool! i got a dsi – which was a surprise, and a downloadable thingy too, so have the prof laytons to start when i get a chance, as michelle has raved about number 1! we all played games – i felt particularly travel sick after prolonged mario karting! yummy lunch, playing other games, kids all had a ball etc etc! sis and B-I-L left and left the children behind for crazy high jinks! finally all settled.

Sunday SB and M had a clarinet session with mum, which was great to here, more playing games. we bought m

and all 4 kids loved playing it! grandad played it too. so def a good present! well recommended from here! after a quick lunch we went off to the panto – oh no you didn’t – oh yes we did! it was expensive, there were car parking traumas, but it was fabulous! we all laughed, the children really really enjoyed it. the 3d bit was ace rather than just being a poor gimick! do you know, i would recommend it to anyone not that distant! since chris and dad were left parking cars still when it started, we never got a programme [or any tat] so hadn’t realised they were shane ritchies sons. he was *very* funny, and although we missed a lot of the ‘popular references’ i loved the policeman pong – particularly his faultless john cleese impression! i wish my sis and bil had come too, but it was his 40th birthday, and i think they were going out instead! unfortunately they went to pick kids up from my parents house way before we all got back… had a snack tea, gave my sister loads of hugs and love, as will miss her so very much this christmas, but think she is doing the right thing to have this holiday. [emoticon for big sigh, and put on outward face!]

so a lovely weekend with family, and hard as well. losing little nanny this year, and the storms that are ahead of us next year makes all this time so much more precious. feels sometimes as if we are counting grains of sand through a timer, and hard to be spontaneously joyous. something perhaps i am going to put on my new years resolution list. we really can only live for the day, honour the past, hope for the future, but live in the day.

due to various wider family things, i have insomnia at the moment, well i am not sleeping, spending my nights torturing my imagination etc etc, so stroppier than usual. dropped a bombshell on my children about a member of my families health, and both of them not sleeping quite as well as normal, and SB had ‘an accident’ last night – first in approx 4 years! not a ‘complete’ as she realised, but i think we are under strain. so i am shouty, and v sorry about this. we are actually doing fun things as well, but i think we are all a little fragile. so…

i am hoping chris blogs, cos actually he and SB spent most of thurs constructing an absolutely fabulous motte and bailey castle whilst bb raptured over her ds, playing pictochat. if he doesn’t, i will ad a pic! [or a few!]

and then i am hoping he will say that she did a fab presentation at the not so local history group – which was v much enjoyed!

And somewhere down the line she got her BAGA 5 award at gym – i think that might have been last week! She has read a variety of fact books, and we had read the cortes and montezuma part of story of the world in advance of next weeks trip to the british museum. however, tbh, we have done v little formal home ed this week. there has been lots of out and abouting, and lots of emotional things to sort out!

and BB turned 5 – shame i had lost her sylvanian present but i have been a bit distracted! she loved the ds from my sis, and the games from us [club penguin a bit difficult, disney princesses fine, and diego dinosaurs fine, but not that much of it!], the dinosaurs and bits and pieces from my mum. she is really a gorgeous girl, and def the girl with the curl! we are luckly that the when she is bad is usually about 10% – though seems abit 50/50 this week – sigh.

SB is being v gentle, generous and generally 100% fantastic. bless! today was judo grading, and she has missed the last 2 for a variety of reasons not in her control. we explained to her sensei who was understanding, and i think gave her a bit of leeway in her grading. it was lovely to see her really enjoying the judo [tho bb being somewhat determined to take my attention at the time also] and we are really proud of her and her new orange and white belt! so we gave her a treat of going to see fantastic mr fox. obviously we did take bb too!! [though a close thing!] i think i am just a bit emotionally stressed to be a parent today. but i think i praised sb enough for being great! we did enjoy the film, it was worth seeing, and both girls absolutely loved it. BB wants to see a christmas carol, and we have all decided to see the where the wild things are following the trailer – both girls enjoy the book [which is chris's, as he is my wild thing!]. oh, i guess we did do some french in the car on the way there and back – the fab salut serge! we have in no way done the 20 items on the list this week, but luckilly i am not worried about this! the list was for sb to see what was there, and she chose what to do, but actually they have had a v busy week of socialising, seeing friends and family and she did an amazing 12 hour shift of castle making as well! this, to me, is the joy of HE, the flexibility to organise time according to what suits the current needs of child and family. i would hate to timetable this flexibility out of existance!

SB and BB also having great fun dsing together. SB says bb having a ds has been a great present for her [aw] as they have been mario 64-ing etc. think i might need to find a mario kart as an xmas present! [bb is getting a nintendogs for her bday so they will love doing that together too] any other suggestions that things that 1 excellent reader and 1 non-reader would enjoy together? [dinosaurs a bonus!!]. The girls are , on the whole, playing beautifully together and it is really lovely to see that they have regained that rhythm, tho a bit of encouragement is still required to keep things running smoothly!

we have watched the library 2 parter in doctor who, which we both enjoyed, and generally cuddled and tickled loads and snuggled with books.

i am going to start with 3 cheers for my dad. Despite not entirely approving of home education, he is going all guns against eh Badman report and writing to everyone possibile about it. go dad! also to my inlaws, who also completed the review.

And my sis, who i love dearly for just being here. We went and visited today and had a lovely time. we talked about lots of things, resolved lots of things, sat companionably and loved lots. mum was there too for part of the day, so felt v lovely. the kids all played beautifully together, including hysterically on mariokart, as bB is just wild, and sb kamakazi! BB got her birthday present of a ds early, and was absolutely overjoyed. further comedy moments with her arguing with brain training over the colours!

so a relaxing and connecting family day. just what the doctor ordered! we watched the doctor btw – weird wasp one!

still hoping for a daddybean blog of the trips out and about…

my sis and family came for the weekend – woohooo!! it was v spur of the moment, but so much wanted, so cancelled all other plans. was lovely to see them all. children, however, all had their odd moments. well, actually not so much SB and E, but M was quite moochy, and BB didn’t ever want to play outside, so not giving me and sis quite as much time as we would have liked to to chat! SB and M played a great game of ticket to ride though! weekend seemed to scud past v quickly. after they had left, SB, Chris and I played some more ticket to ride and BB ‘watched something’