Who’s Normal Anyway?

M and I are up bright and early, but waiting for A and L to join us before we investigate what Santa has left under the tree. Happy Christmas everyone, hope you’re having a good one.

Yesterday we had a lovely day with preparations all under control, A in charge of cooking the turkey and accompaniments. We went to out favourite garden centre and bought some new Flame Tetras for our tropical fish tank. We got some lunch there and looked at the pets (L is especially fascinated by the hamsters, guinea pigs and birds).

At 4 o’clock we went out to our Church’s crib service and sang carols and listened to the nativity story being told. The altar was turned around to show the wooden frame construction of it, which had been filled with straw and lit with tiny white lights as stars. Some of the children joined in by bringing up figures to add to the nativity scene. M brought up Joseph and looked very self concious. L decided it was time he got a chair to sit on at church and played musical chairs and had to have his own carol sheet to hold during the singing LOL.

When we came home A put the veg on and then we had our Christmas dinner. We started last year with having Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. We usually eat in the evening plus on Christmas Day all that faffing wih the turkey and stuffing interferes with relaxing and having a special breakfast and opening some presents before going out to Church. We will have a turkey dinner with trimmings at lunch time but on a smaller scale (may even have room to eat some Christmas pud afterwards today!) and we only need to cook the veggies today.

When food had gone down somewhat the boys had a bath and put on their new Christmas PJs. I read M lots of his Jotham’s Journey Advent story book. Because yesterday was the 4th Sunday in Advent, we had 7 sections to read (split up so that in years where there are 7 days after the 4th Sunday in Advent there’s a bit to read each night). Eventually the boys nodded off so that Santa could come.

This morning I’ve cuddled up with M and read the last part of his story and now he’s watching Christmas morning TV and being surprisingly patient waiting for his brother to wake up!

I’ve been distracted from blogging this week by playing a new game when I have time to get on the computer. M’s been playing Runescape alot and persuaded his auntie and some friends to go on at the same time as him and travel round together. Runescape is starting to annoy me now though with the quests all being to do with killing higher level monsters. I can’t be bothered going around killing things just for the sake of it. But I think I have a short attention span or something and don’t like sticking with one thing for ages LOL. So anyway I went off and Googled for non violent role play games and found A Tale in the Desert 3 so I’ve been trialling that this week. It’s set in Ancient Egypt and is a co-operative game where you chat to people and share skills to benefit the whole of Egyptian society and work your way through tests. Don’t know how long I’ll stick with it, but it’s distracting me from Christmas preparations for the time being LOL.

Apart from computer games, this week we’ve been writing Christmas cards, making decorations and starting decorating the house. On Wednesday we read about St Lucia and made St Lucia buns and I tried making those Swedish paper hearts but they were so fiddly I only made one and gave up on the idea of doing some with M.

We put the tree up last night but only got half the lights on. We’ve finished it off this evening.

We’ve also been into Norwich today to a Christmas through the ages thing in the cathedral, followed by a candlelit procession round the cathedral telling the nativity story and singing carols. I think we’ve got presents all bought now, though not wrapped yet. The food shopping is going to have to be done late this week so I hope the supermarket is not too heaving. We’ve at least got a turkey and a Christmas pud in the house now though, so doesn’t matter if they sell out of those LOL.

This morning we unpacked the keyboard that my sister has loaned us and both M and L had a play with it. It has different drum and rhythm and whathaveyou settings that they fiddled with for ages and they both played some “tunes”. Then we went out to Church.

This afternoon we’ve all been making Christmas cards, even L joined in for a little bit. The rest of the time he made a big mess on the dining room floor but he was sat behind A so I tried not to notice what he was doing and threw myself into card making instead. I think we made 16 between us.

Once we’d tidied up we did some baking. M made double choc chip cookies and I made a kind of giant bakewell mince pie tart thingie with a bit of “help” from L.

We ate up lasagne, courgette curry and bombay potato from the freezer along with some chips for tea - need to make some space for things like a turkey. It went surprisingly well together really LOL. Afterwards M and I played Runescape at the same time as my sister so we could coach her through some of the game - M spent ages talking her into having a go with it while we were up north.

On Sunday we went to Church in the morning for the Christingle service and then in the afternoon we went to the Gressenhall Christmas fair. I was expecting it to be very busy since it was heaving at their Apple Day, but it wasn’t bad at all. We met up with some friends there and had a play in the adventure playground. We all got a mince pie and glass of fruit punch with our entrance ticket, which helped warm us up. We walked down to the farm but there wasn’t much there except for Christmas biscuit baking in the farmhouse. In the main buildings there were some craft stalls and I tasted some strawberry wine which was very drinkable! We finished off by listening to a group of singers doing Christmas songs and poems in the chapel.

On Monday we had a day at home and made some sequined bauble Christmas decorations. They were a bit fiddly to start with, especially glueing on the ribbons, but once we got the hang of fastening on the sequins it was quite therapeutic. Even L had a go with stabbing the pins into the polystyrene balls. M sewed his latest badge onto his Cubs uniform ready for Cubs in the evening. They made Christmas cards I think, but I’m not allowed to look!

We had a fairly busy morning on Tuesday and I put a stew on in the slow cooker ready for tea time. M did some multiplication and some Christmas themed spelling words and we listened to Words Alive from BBC Schools Radio about the story of A Christmas Carol.

We had an early lunch before going out to the music class. This week the teacher brought in lots of brass instruments and a digeridoo and they talked about size changes and lower and higher notes and about sounds being due to vibrations. L fell asleep at tea time and slept for a couple of hours, then didn’t want to go to bed until 10.30. It seemed a bit mean to wake him up though - he really can’t quite make a full day awake every day yet.

We didn’t get around to reading the story of St Nicholas on Tuesday evening and when M and L came down on Wednesday morning they didn’t notice their chocolate Santas in their shoes. I think they were undisturbed til about mid morning. L seemed uninterested so we put his away. He had a bit of an upset tummy anyway with frequent sudden dark and runny poos (TMI?) so avoiding more chocolate was a good idea. We read the St Nick story in While the Bear Sleeps and did various crafts from both the St Nick site and from craft kits we got from Yellow Moon (and if you decide to buy please email me or leave a comment for the code if you’d like M’s charity of choice to benefit).

Late in the afternoon we went out to our local Christmas tree lights switch on and sang some carols and ate mince pies and drank gluwein. L fell asleep in the carrier and remained out of it even when we came home LOL.

Yesterday we were supposed to be out to a day of workshops about “A Tudor Christmas” but M woke up feeling very under the weather so we cancelled and stayed home and took it easy for the day.

I put up an “Advent calendar” of Christmas activities on the living room wall on Thursday night. There is a star for every day and on the back I’ve printed something Christmas related to do that day. L noticed the stars as soon as he came downstairs and M wanted to know what they were alll about.

He looked under number 1 and yesterday’s activity was making Christmas pillow cases. It’s probably as well we weren’t out all day because they took a lot longer than I anticipated. We used fabric paint in gold and pearlescent white to make foot and handprint angels on the pillowcases. M helped me alot with painting L’s hands and feet and positioning them on the pillowcase. We painted over the shapes to get a thicker colour and fill in the prints and then dried them on the radiator. Then I ironed them to fix the paint, but still alot came off in the wash afterwards.

In the evening A went out to his work’s Christmas do and then stayed in bed all this morning recovering! So we did stuff around the house and were very lazy til A surfaced at lunchtime. Then we had a drive out to look at the Christmas decorations and the pets at the garden centre, where we also got some lunch. On the way there we listened to a CD of advent music I downloaded mostly from here. We usually listen to something like the Best Christmas Album in the World Ever during December but by Christmas we are usually sick of the songs and in any case I think the CD is in the loft somewhere. Advent songs instead of Christmas ones seems to set the tone better somehow. When we find the other CDs we’ll probably swap them around through the month.

Today’s Advent idea was making the Advent wreath for tomorrow, so when we got back A and I sorted out the candles and stuck them into the oasis and then dismantled a small wreath I bought to use to decorate ours. After tea and Strictly Come Dancing we decorated around the candles and finally fastened some ribbon around to neaten it all up.

Tomorrow we’re going to a Christingle service our Church is having for the first Sunday in Advent and then in the afternoon Gressenhall has a Christmas event on we’re planning on going to.

Advent is a preparation for Christmas and this year I wanted us to do more to remember Advent and incorporate lots of Advent and Christmas related stuff through December, so I’ve been preparing for preparing. I’m pleased with and looking forward to the things we have planned, I hope they work out and don’t feel like a let down when we get to them.

So far for Advent this is what we’ve got planned.

First of all, the children have 2 advent calendars each and an extra one - arghh…! I bought really nice chocolate ones in Thorntons with their names on ages ago. Then this week Grandma and Grandad have sent a chocolate calendar for each of the boys (I think it’s something they enjoy doing every year, but I wanted to get them one too!). And then BIL has sent a Kinder advent calendar from Germany. So we’ve got chocolate overload for December. I think we might leave the chocs upstairs and open one when we get up and one at bathtime. If they are downstairs I think they might cause trouble and lots of nagging to eat all the chocolate immediately LOL.

On a bit more of a spiritual level and remembering what Advent is actually about, we have a devotional book to read each evening. I first bought Jotham’s Journey and began reading it to M a couple of year’s ago. Each day of Advent (starting 3rd December this year - the readings tie in with the Church calendar e.g. labelled Monday after 1st Sunday in Advent, and so on) there is a section of story to read and then a thought for the day and a prayer. Last time we tried reading it the sections seemed very long and a bit intense in story content for M. The story is about a shepherd boy who gets separated from his family and how he travels to find them and it’s set around Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth. M is enthusiastic about the idea of reading it this year, so we’ll give it another try. He wants to read it at bedtime by candlelight, which might be interesting with L about. We have a ceramic candleholder we can put on the side out of L’s reach, so as long as L can sit still or at least mostly quiet we should do OK.

We also plan to make an Advent wreath on Saturday ready for Sunday. We’ve got a ring of oasis to stick everything in to and the right colour candles (3 purple, a pink and a white - though they need chopping to the same size) and some artificial greenery. In previous years we’ve done variations on a wreath and lit the candle every Sunday during our main meal. This year we might light it every evening during tea, not sure yet.

In addition I’ve tried to plan an Advent or Christmas related activity to do every day up until Christmas Day. A has printed out some stars in pink and purple and I’ve glitter glued the numbers 1 to 24 on and typed up one activity per sticker on 24 stickers to stick on the back of the stars. We’re going to put them up around the front room and get down one a day and do the activity on it. I’ve read of people doing similar with paper chains and picking activities randomly, but I’ve fixed it to do certain things certain days bearing in mind when we are at home and fixing things like St Lucia’s Day on 13th. We’ve a few days when we’re away from home and I’m still uninspired about those - might leave them blank as we won’t be here to get them off the wall anyway.

I’ve been getting lots of new Advent ideas from Advent 4 Evangelicals. I’ve too many ideas to use for this year now and I know trying to do too much will just get all of us stressed out. I’m saving my favourite ideas and websites for next year and the year after. I like to do some things every year (like the advent wreath) to keep traditions in the family but it’s also fun to focus on different aspects of Advent and Christmas each year. There are so many different and creative ideas for marking Advent and I’m learning about traditions from other branches of Christianity that are quite new to me.

Loved the idea of doing a Jesse Tree when Barabara posted about hers last year, but didn’t get anywhere in planning for doing one. I had got the idea that we needed an actual tree and the right kind of ornaments for hanging on it, and it would take some planning. Then Sarah posted about doing a Jesse Tree this year and included some links to the readings and some clipart, and it occurred to me that I was making it much more complicated than it need be and we could just do it all on paper. So on Sunday we got the paper and sellotape out and then M and I painted a tree trunk and branches.

He’s been enjoying colouring in the symbol each day while I read to him and then he asks me difficult questions that go around in circles. I love his colouring - he adds quirky little details and then tells me all about them. He’s hated colouring in for so long I’m really surprised how enthusiastic he is about doing these.

We’re a day behind at the moment because we were out all day yesterday, but we may catch up tomorrow, you never know!

Btw, if you want the password to the post below, send me an email and I’ll email it back to you.