Looking back ...

I've had a few tries at writing a jolly review of the past year, but gave up.

The downs outweighed the ups this year, so I've decided to just say....

You gave us some difficult challenges to deal with, 

but we've come through in one piece.

I hope it's a good one for every one of you!

Blowing away the cobwebs

 This morning's rain of biblical proportions finally dried up leaving us with a clear blue sky for the first time in days. We pulled on our warm coats and wellies and headed down to our favourite part of the Wirral Way at Calday Beach.

 The sun was going down over the Welsh Hills shining like gold on the River Dee.

 Inca was delighted to be out and ran like the wind along the sand.

 We had about half an hour of daylight left as we walked along quickly in the blustery wind.

 It was so good to be out and about after days trapped indoors by the stormy weather.
The cobwebs have been well and truly blown away!

Festive Highlights

Here we are in that strange time between Christmas and back to work, when it always feels like Sunday. I'm enjoying these days when we are all cosy inside away from the winter storms, eating far too much and just chilling. Christmas was good, with our house being 'home' again for a short time for our two children. It's been noisy and untidy again, and full of laughter.

 We giggled at the boy's attempts at wrapping our presents .....

We were all truly spoiled by Father Christmas, and there was lots of clearing up to do after the grand opening ceremony

There was lots of silliness at the Christmas lunch table

But, I think the highlight for all four of us was a trip to see the wonderful "War Horse" at the Lowry in on Christmas Eve. I've wanted to see this play for so long and it was well worth the wait.

We were all moved to tears at the end ... it was so emotional.
It is a 'must-see' if it comes near you!

Our Christmas was a quiet family time, spent with our children and parents .... that's all I need really.

And we get to do it all again, this time next year!!!!

Advent Calendar - Day 25

Advent Calendar - Day 24

Wishing everyone

a 

Merry Christmas 

and a very

Happy and Healthy 

New Year

(and a big wuff from Inca)

xxx

Advent Calendar - Day 23

A beautiful stained glass window in Chester Cathedral.

A Fourth Pause in Advent

It's time for my fourth and final pause in Advent, linking with Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup.

Today, I thought I would just show you our nativity set.

These little figures are called Santons, and were bought in the South of France on our holidays. More than twenty years ago, a little white van pulled up on our campsite and a guy set up a stall. 

I was intrigued to see a nativity set in the middle of a hot summer's day, and bought a few of the main characters. We found Mary, baby Jesus, the angel and the kings but no Joseph. So we bought the man with the rather fetching trilby hat as a 'stand in'.

In following years we added to the collection, we found a shepherd and the sheep and the ox and the ass in shops. It took us about ten years before we finally tracked down Joseph. 

More recent additions have been the hen and the goose, and the wonderful camel which is probably my favourite.

These sets are very popular in Provence, where local workers are added to the groups of characters visiting the stable, so you find the butcher, the baker, the seamstress, the farmer and so on all wearing traditional clothes. This is where our random guy with the hat came from I suppose, though I don't actually know who he represents. 

Our little set comes out of its bubble wrap every year, and is the oldest Christmas decoration we have in our house. Our children have grown up with it, and loved playing with it (carefully) when they were small. I also take it into school every year for an assembly as we retell the Christmas story.

For me, it's just a very simple reminder of what Christmas is really about.

Last night we lit the fourth candle on our Advent wreath. 

The fourth candle stands for love.

I thought I'd share something that made me smile a lot this week.

Its a card from one of the infant children in school.

I hope you are surrounded by love this Christmas.

xxx

Advent Calendar - Day 22

The shopping is done, the house is decorated 

and I'm just waiting now for our two children to arrive. 

One will come today, one tomorrow.

Then Christmas can begin!

Io Saturnalia

On Thursday evening we were in Chester to see the annual Saturnalia parade.
A legion of Roman soldiers march into the centre of town with torches lit to ward off the evil darkness.

"Saturnalia was a popular Roman midwinter festival celebrating the god Saturn, which lasted for several days. Saturn was the god of agriculture and worship of him hopefully encouraged prosperity to come. It was a time to eat,drink and be merry and there was a tradition of tomfoolery and role reversal, where masters became servants and vice versa in a  similar way to the Lord of Misrule of later Christmas celebrations. As Chester was a major Roman centre in the UK and the residents are proud of their heritage, it is celebrated here with a torch-lit parade of Roman Centurions to the beat of a drum with dancers and entertainers as well as rites to Saturn himself".

The rows were packed with people watching the parade, but we were too late to get a good vantage point up there. As we were racing along the city walls we could hear the chanting of the parade, and I thought we were going to miss it all.

We were still by the city clock when the legion marched right underneath us.

Luckily, we managed to get really close up to the soldiers by just following them as they marched up the main street.

We were all encouraged to join in with the chanting to chase away the darkness of winter. As the winter solstice was fast approaching it couldn't come at a better time.
By this time we were freezing, and a meal in a restaurant round the corner was a great way to warm up.
It was our special little way of celebrating the last day of term, and the beginning of the Christmas holidays!

Advent Calendar - Day 21

Christmas lights in the Grosvenor Precinct in Chester

Advent Calendar - Day 20

                                     An illuminated snowflake at our local garden centre.

Advent Calendar - Day 19

A Christmas Film

We had a last day of term treat today. 

We took all the junior department to the cinema to see Frozen.

What an enchanting film .... and stunningly beautiful to look at too.
We all sighed and laughed and cried in the right places
and the children broke out into a round of spontaneous applause at the end.

It's a Blue Christmas ....

Last week our school entered a competition to win a special visit from Santa and a premiership player from our local football team .....

and we won!!!!

So Santa came along this afternoon ......

all dressed in blue ..... no reds allowed here! ( Our rival team play in red)

 Leon Osman was so lovely with the children. He spent ages chatting with them and signed so many autographs his hand must have been aching.

Santa brought lots of goody bags for everyone, full of hats, badges and

these masks of our new manager. They were really funny, but just a little bit spooky too.

I don't know who was more excited - the children or the staff.

This is our headteacher, (who also happens to be my husband), arm in arm with one of his heroes.

He had a big smile all afternoon!

I know I'm biased because we all support Everton in our house, but they really are a smashing club and do such a lot of good work in the community, especially with local schools and youth organisations. 

Well done Everton - you were amazing!

Advent Calendar - Day18

'Deep and crisp and even' .... snow in Betws y Coed on Christmas Eve 2010

Advent Calendar - Day17

My snowman tea cosy makes me smile every time I catch sight of it on the kitchen shelf.

Advent Calendar - Day 16

Meet Rudolph, having a quick snack before the heavy work starts on Christmas Eve.
We saw him at Erddig a few years ago.

Third Pause in Advent

It's time for the third pause in Advent linking up with Floss at Troc. Broc and Recup.

I've been thinking about expectations at this time of year.

I'm constantly amazed these days about the long list of presents that some of our children in school expect on Christmas morning .... and the object of most longing is an i-phone or i-pad, or the latest games console. I don't know how Father Christmas can afford to keep up at times.

And 'keeping up' is part of the problem .... because children learn to expect what everyone else is getting as Christmas is sold to them by the media for months and months. It becomes normal to expect everything they see on the screens.

And as adults we are sold the Christmas Dream too, and we fall into the trap of expecting a "Perfect Christmas" .... all cosy like the ones on the adverts.

We are expected to cook the perfect meal ... with a new twist on cooking the turkey because that's what the TV chefs are doing.

Our homes are expected to look like the pages of the stylish magazines.

We are expected to have cupboards overflowing with food and drink to serve up to the hordes of guests who will arrive on our perfect doorsteps, wearing red cashmere scarves, and carrying perfectly wrapped presents to add to the piles under our perfectly decorated trees.

We are expected to have a range of sparkling cocktail dresses to wear to all the glittering parties we will be attending.

We expect it to snow, and the sky to be swirling with glitter and magic!!!!

As I've got older and hopefully wiser, I've learned that those dreams of the "Perfect Christmas" are so unrealistic and can leave you feeling disappointed if yours doesn't quite match up.  I've had times in the past when I've been so exhausted and stressed when the big day comes that I haven't been able to enjoy it at all.

So now I try not to be sucked in to the lure of the "Perfect Christmas" and we do it our own way. Our Christmas is more about taking time to enjoy the experience rather than having expensive presents. This afternoon, for example, we've been to a carol service in Chester Cathedral

Our turkey will be cooked the way we always do it, no fancy twists,  and our dog will be sitting by the oven checking it all out. Everyone will say it was lovely, because they always do.

Our decorations are the ones we get out every year, with a home made fairy on top of the tree.

Yes, we've got presents under the tree ... but they're all lumpy and the bows keep falling off.

I'm not going to any parties and I don't have a cocktail dress.

And I would be very, very surprised if it was snowing on Christmas morning!

But ...... I am expecting my Christmas to be wonderful because our children will be coming home soon, and there will be four places around the table again. That will make a "Perfect Christmas' for me!

Nothing else matters.

Tonight we will light the third candle on our Advent wreath.

It symbolises .....

Wishing you lots of simple joys this Christmas xxx