December

On Wednesday 8th December, I should have been at Harry's school, watching him in his play - only I totally forgot to go! (loving Mother that I am...) Luckily one of my friends had spare tickets for the other performance they were doing, the next day. Here's Harry as a spider... (promotion from last year, when he was 'Herod's Helper' - yes, the Herod who killed all the babies...)

On Thursday 8th of December, Jack turned 12, and the next day he and Lucy had a day off school (teacher training or something). Harry and Tom still had school though, so it worked out well to have Jack's birthday party that day. After dropping off Hary and Tom, Jack and I drove round and picked up a couple of his school friends and then went back to ours. The boys played for a bit, then Jack's friends saw my 'The Cuter Book':

and asked if they could make felt creatures... they then spent an hour or two sewing and chattering away to me as I helped them, and I genuinely don't think I have seen happier, more enthusiastic boys anywhere! Jack looked slightly bemused that his friends were enjoying sewing so much! They didn't want to leave when I said it was time to go out for lunch (we had arranged to meet Scott), so I made up little packs with all the bits they'd need to finish off at home, and said they could always come round after school some time to make more stuff. We then met up with Scott for lunch, and afterwards dropped the boys back home.

The next day (Saturday 10th December) we had Tom's birthday party. Scott took him and some friends to the cinema and McDonalds, then they came to ours to play for a while. They were all a bit silly, and thankfully Jack took them in the garden to play football. 

In the evening, we went up to the village hall next to church, for the ward Christmas party. It was nice just hanging out and chatting with people - I was feeling a bit brain dead.

On Sunday 11th December, straight after church, Ben Conway and Scott ordained Jack as a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a short and sweet blessing, and I felt so proud of Jack living his life right and being worthy to receive it. 

Our children are growing up around us, and there are many pleasures which I had never really given a lot of thought to beforehand.

Jack helped to pass the sacrament for the first time on Sunday 18th, though Scott and I managed to miss seeing him doing it, because we were in the over-flow room!

In the week before the kids broke up from school, I did my Visiting Teaching, got my hair cut, babysat for the Conway's two youngest, and also went as a last minute thing to Cambridge with my friend Jo. We went on the guided bus, and had a very pleasant time shopping for a few little bits, and having lunch in a cafe. 

On Friday 16th, Tom turned 9. He always finds it hard to 'wait the longest' for his birthday to come around!
In the evening, I went ice skating with about 40 of the youth and leaders from church. I took a car full of kids. We had a great time (me pretty rubbish as usual, Lucy not too bad, and Jack clinging to the edge for most of it!), but about 15 minutes before the end, one of our boys tripped badly, and cut his face and knocked himself out. He came round, but had lost his short-term memory. Bishop Wade and I waited with him in the first aid room for an hour or two, while a paramedic arrived, and thoroughly checked him out. His memory gradually started to return, but they took him to the hospital to keep an eye on him, and I took back the kids I was taking home. He went home the next day, and all was fine, thankfully.
That weekend we also finally got round to putting up the Christmas decorations - me reluctantly. Once the Christmas tree was all pretty though, it made me happy every time I saw it, and Lucy felt the same too!

We had a full week before Christmas then, with the kids off school, and it was lovely. We gradually cleared up the whole house (though I never did get round to getting all the ironing done before Christmas), and we were in a real making mood, and also baking mood. We did a menu for the week, and ate well.

Here is our pudding one day - chocolate cake drizzled with condensed milk and fudge sauce, then covered with creamy stuff, and topped with home made cinder toffee.

Scott also did his first ever baking! (since I have known him, anyway) - he and his able assistant Lucy made two gingerbread London Temples, to give to Anna Conway and Nikki Flinn, for a Facebook handmade-pay-it-forward thing. They were complete with green spires, golden Angel Moronis (Lindor chocolate teddies), and pond, with kids paddling in it (gummy bears.) I think he was quite proud of them, and I was quite happy because he made enough Royal Icing to ice a shed, so there was plenty left for me to freeze in little tubs and make stuff with later.

We also built into our menu for the week, some smoothies. This was one of our less successful ones... beetroot (straight from the garden), carrots, apples and possibly celery. No one could drink it. Even I who pride myself on not being fussy, could only manage a third of a glass before spitting a load out in the sink. RE-VOLT-ING...

On Friday 23rd, we had been invited to a Christmas party at a friend from school's house - Holly in Harry's class. There were a few of us 'Ladies who Lunch' there with our families. The kids all disappeared, the men all talked, the women all talked, and we had a lovely and very civilised time!