t'was a few nights before Christmas

The dreaded Tesco shop was done. The children all excited & the parents were hung-over - not a good combination!

Our friend Fly came to visit yesterday. We've known him since we started Uni (he lived downstairs from me in first year halls, then we shared a house with him & his girlfriend for a year too), but as he now lives in Aberdeen, we don't get to see him that often. I've called him fly here because the first time Aggie & I saw the video for "pretty fly for a white guy" we both looked at each other & said "that's fly!!" It was him to a T - both in the way he looked, thought and acted:-)

Of course, that was 14 years ago now! We've all moved on quite a lot since our uni days. He's a pilot now, engaged to be married next year, but in many ways he seemed exactly the same as when we were still teenagers:-) We chatted a bit & played with the kids durng the day - he happily settled down to Nintendo games with Mstr A, then once the kids were in bed, P & V came round and we all settled down with a yule-log (it being the shortest night, even though it was the 22nd not the 21st - apparently it's something that happens occasionally), a few bottles of home-made ciser, some wine & an assortment of ciders, beers and spirits to play a game of Talisman. P & V come round to play this irregularly, but Fly had never played before, but soon got the hang of it (it's not dificult - when sober!). He did make it the longest game ever - but that just gave us more drinking (and eating of christmas sweeties) time. We finally packed up about 1am, and all ambled of to bed.

LMB woke at 3.20 missing her toys - which i told her I would find if she went back to sleep & went back to bed. She screamed again at 3.40, as I hadn't returned with said toys. I explained that i meant I would find them in the morning, and tried again to get some sleep.

LMD woke at 4.30. It was her first night in a real grown up bed (I know, bad timing, but it's part of her Xmas pressie and we don't have any storage space!), and she fused to go back to sleep whatever I did. i tried leaving her, I tried staying with her. I tried bringing her into our bed. I tried cuddling her, snoring at her, souting and cajoling! She finally passed out at about 6.15.

Mstr A came bouncing in at 7am yelling "Good morning mummy!". I tried sending him downstairs on his own and grabbing a few more minutes sleep, but LMB was up soon after, so i gave up & came downstairs too!

I've had better days - especially as they're all getting pretty excited now. And today was tidying day - we have managed to clear out all the toys from the front room, and Aggie made it over to CQ's to drop off RCA's and her partners presents, as they can't make the Crazie party this year:-( But there's still lots to do! At least Chunnukah is out the way now - the kids have loved lighting the candle each night - and doughnuts are good at any time;-) I don't think the calendars match up so much next year - maybe I'll look up another festival to secularise - any ideas?