Our tour of the East Midlands continues.....

First a visit to Aunty Dawn's Salon (http://montsho.com/)

Jasmine and Nathan

Where Ben gets a Haircut....

Then it was into town to explore the new Highcross Shopping Centre and have a spot of lunch....

Look at him, he was walking from 9 months you know!

Then it was time to visit my maternal grandmother - or 'mama' as she is better known

Then it was on to our next stop: Birmingham...... where we indulged in a spot of 'Wii-ing'

'When's it my turn dad?'

Boxing Day

So called because in England, Service staff (postal workers and tradesmen) were traditionally given Christmas boxes on this day. A bit of Christmas trivia for you. Anyway, today we travelled from Nottingham to Leicester to visit my side of the family. We all gathered at my Grandmother's and there was yet more food, drink and presents.

look at the size of that book! And it's about Ben's favourite subject - Dinosaurs!

My sister with the kids

The newest addition to the family, little Shola-Gail

Just look at all that hair!

Aaron couldn't keep his eyes open cause he was on the phone til 7am with his new girlfriend! Aaahh, first loves!

my grandmother loved her new hat and gloves!

Ben, Jas and granddad

Happy Christmas!!!

First things first, must wake up at the crack of dawn to see if Santa has been......cue opening of 'Santa sacks'.

what time is it???

Second, rush downstairs to see what presents have been left under the tree (Pippi has gone to Devon, but has dutifully left our gifts under the tree).

Third, go over to Granddad Allen's and run around screaming and shouting with Theo and Emile, whilst Granddad cooks up a feast and all the other adults (Mummy, Daddy, Karen, Andrea) drink lots of Bailey's, beer, wine and rum cocktails.......

check him out in his 'Le Manoir' apron!

Fourth, eat too much...

Instead of Theo, this Christmas Iron Man came to dinner

Fifth, open all of our presents - yay!

a true Gunner in the making

'who da man?!'

FINALLY.......fall asleep wherever you can find a space!

Though if you were one of the unlucky few, it was 'grab a dish towel and a pair of marigolds and report for dishwashing duty!'

The teenagers drew the short straw!

Miscellany

I took this picture as I arrived at work this morning.....

As Nick has two weeks holiday, he has been preparing the kids meals in the evenings. I think his efforts are quite sweet....

not sure what the fishfingers are meant to be....

Ben's Christmas Play

I didn't get to see Ben perform in his play this year (sob!), as I was really unwell the day of the afternoon performance. Then the next day Ben was sick for the evening performance! Luckily Nick managed to see the first performance during his lunch break so we got a few pics. My first ever blog post was of Ben taking part in his first ever Christmas play back at Glebelands Primary School in Leicester. Look at how he's grown!

Christmas Preparations Part II

We started off the day by going to the garden centre in the beautiful little village of Burford to buy a tree. It's a bit of an underestimation to call it just a garden centre. It's more like a complex with everything from a gorgeous gift shop, to a mini cinema for kids, as well as an adventure playground and local organic grocers with everything else you might need or want
in between. We then went for a wander around the main street and took the kids to the traditional sweet shop.

Cheese!

Oh, the choices......

'Carry me daddy', 'No, carry me!'

After finding the perfect tree, we went home to decorate it. Whilst Nick went searching for the pot to put the tree in, I baked the cookies, whilst Benjamin and Jasmine licked the bowl...yum!


Unable to find any Christmas songs to our liking (read 'cheesy' Christmas songs, choir carols were aplenty, but we wanted Slade, George Michael, Eartha Kitt and Aretha, NOT Winchester Cathedral Choir or the like!), we found a station playing caribbean calypso carols. The kids were so excited they roped us into doing the conga through the living room. admittedly, after some glasses of mulled wine, we didn't need much persuading ;-)

Christmas Preparations part I

Some dressing up.....

some card writing....

Jasmine meets Santa

The pre-school put on a lovely little Christmas party for the children and a special guest paid a vist. You should have seen their little faces when they heard the bells that announced Santa's arrival! Jasmine couldn't believe her ears when Santa actually called her name, and actually got a huuuge present out of his bag....for her. She was enthralled! Her emotions got the better of her though when mean mummy said she had to wait until Christmas day to open the present. Tears were next on the agenda. Real, heartbroken 'life-is-so-unfair' tears.

hanging on Santa's every word

'You mean me?'

'wow!'

'All mine! Get your own!'

'oh pleeease mummy! I want to open it NOW!'

A Winter Wonderland

The views from the office at work are always astounding, but never more so than in winter.....