P & I have been having a bit of a debate as Becky is having a little New Year party & has invited us & also J to sleepover with Tim. I think it would be really nice to go but P doesn't like staying up late & doesn't see the point of New Year's parties so wants to stay at home & go to bed. We've come to conclusion that J & I will go without him & he says he'd be fine with that. Trouble is I'm feeling a bit under the weather (in a different way to normal) so I'm hoping I'm not getting one of the bugs & if I am I'd better not go & give it to everyone else. Just have to wait & see.
Sometimes I just feel I want to scream.
In fact right now I think I am going to scream because I'm trying to get J to get on with his school project & he's doing incredibly little work. He got this library book on ADD written for kids which is actually very helpful but it says kids with ADD should work for 15 or 20 minutes then have a 5 minute break. Trouble is it seems more like work for 5 minutes than have a 30 minute break.

We had a lovely time with my brother & his two daughters on Monday. P's Dad was over as well. His carer came in at lunchtime & gave an impromptu concert on the piano. P cooked what was basically another Christmas dinner & very nice. The girls are getting so grown up it's amazing. My oldest niece had made us a beautiful cross stitch card. I just gave her money for Christmas which she seemed very pleased with. She's very into clothes but is probably at an age now (12) where it's better if she chooses her own. It's quite hard choosing presents for the younger one as she has Down's syndrome so I can't just go by the age on toys but I got her a doll sitting in a carriage with horses with purple flowing manes (makes me glad I've got a boy!) & she seemed to like it.
Sadly my brother phoned last night & said his father in law has taken a major turn for the worse so they're going to stay on there & the rest of the family are coming to be with him. It's very sad but at least, as he says, they managed to get through Christmas.

I have been noticing recently that my husband has been smelling a bit mouldy. The other day I realised the reason. Our house has a front and back porch which is supposed to help retain the heat as you try & shut the outer door before you open the inner door. What we have found though is that the back porch especially gets very cold as the wall is so well insulated it doesn't get any heat from the rest of the house. As well as this the washing machine is in there which must generate a bit of moisture into the air & the ventilation system isn't yet working. As a result it's got damp & our coats which are hanging in there have got mildew. A couple are so bad we'll just have to throw them out & I'm washing all the others. P's bodywarmer was quite musty but he was wearing it without noticing. I keep my favourite coat in the bedroom so at least that was alright. I think we'll just have to keep the door to the porch open until the ventilation system is working even though it makes the house a bit cooler. Just like being in the caravan again where everything got damp. (One day I was even putting on my eyeshadow & realised it was mouldy!)

I hope you've had a nice Christmas. I have had a good one, I've so much to be thankful for, I've got a loving family, we had some nice church services, some good food, nice presents, I'm not living in the caravan any more... and yet I'm feeling really low at the moment. I keep thinking 'This is good, I should be enjoying it,' and yet I'm not.
Had a good church service this morning, J went up with some of the other children to help assemble a nativity scene. Sadly J & Adam had a bit of a falling out as Adam had been given 'Brain Training' for Christmas & J wanted him to let him download the demo & he said no. I've just been talking to J about forgiveness, he says he knows he should forgive Adam but he wants to wait until tomorrow. Becky & Tim came in at the end of the service as her husband & older daughter came to our church service. I feel really sorry for her because she's always gone to an Anglican church but her 2 older children decided they prefer our church as it's more lively & then her husband decided to come here as well. On Christmas day the younger two also wanted to come so she decided to come too so the family would be altogether. It's hard on her though as she's very involved in the Anglican church so it wouldn't be easy for her to just come to ours instead.
Yesterday went into town to go to second hand model railway shop to get some bits for J's train set. On way back stopped at Sainsburys, bought two pairs of trousers, a skirt & a cardigan all half price - my Christmas present from P. I resisted the temptation to buy a third brown hooded top. There were long queues of traffic going into town, everybody else after the bargains as well. We didn't go right into the town centre, can't imagine what that would have been like.
Tomorrow my brother & his children are coming to visit which will be good. His girlfriend won't be coming as her father is very seriously ill. He has had complications following his heart surgery & things aren't very good at the moment. Her mum is doing very well following her operation though.
P & J have just come back from a long walk, J's fingers got really cold as we can't find his gloves! They're probably too small now anyway, have to buy him some new ones on Tuesday.
Just trying to get J to do some piano practice. He's getting a bit frustrated as he wants to progress faster than his teacher is letting him, he's been told to stick to the pieces he's meant to be learning & not rush ahead in the book playing all the other pieces. He's having to wait until the new term to learn quavers but really he already knows how to do them. I've downloaded some simple carol music to give him something different to play (one's got quavers in it but don't tell anyone). I can see us having to pay for private piano lessons before long.
J's just asked 'What's the point of B flat?'
I can't think of an answer to that.

Happy Christmas!

Here I am after Christmas dinner just tucking into the chocolate mints & thinking the dishwasher's the best invention ever. Had a very nice service in a packed church this morning where J's friend Tim stole the show. The children all bring one present up to the front to show. Tim took up a toy lizard and said:
'This is Froggy the Ibizan lizard. He does everything I say.'
At this point he put him on the lectern & said 'Stay!'
Everyone just fell about laughing.
It's probably funnier seeing it in real life.

Just wish we'd had 'Hark the Herald Angels' at church cos it's my favourite carol of all time.

Have just had a really nice meal cooked by P (I did the sprouts). P's Dad with us for dinner. J didn't wake us up until 7 am (might have had something to do with me playing loud music after he went to bed so he couldn't get to sleep, just didn't fancy being woken at 4 am). J liked his presents especially the walkie talkie, Hornby train & Lego set. J gave me a lovely green scarf & P gave me 'The Priests' CD but we haven't had a chance to get each other our main presents.

Worst cracker joke of Christmas so far:

'Doctor, Doctor I keep seeing an insect rotating in front of my eyes.'
'Don't worry, it's just a bug that's going round.'

I'm all shopped out! Did nearly all my Christmas shopping in just over 2 hours today. In fact did it all in just 2 shops & the market. This was achieved by buying what are probably the most unoriginal presents ever but they'll just have to do. Went into Woolworths just to say goodbye, nothing left worth buying in there now anyway. Hard to believe it's closing down. Have these childhood memories of going in there on a Saturday morning to spend my pocket money on some pick n mix & stamps for my stamp collection. Did some tidying this morning until feet & rib got too painful. Becky brought Tim round to play at 10.30 then we just sat & talked for an hour. Then later I took both boys round her house while I went shopping. Then met P & went to Somerfields then picked up J who is now sitting watching 'Chicken run'. Tomorrow just need to finish tidying (which may involve putting all paperwork in carrier bag & hiding it), pick up turkey (with J's help), wrap & deliver presents, get J to put up decorations. So we're almost ready for Christmas. What I actually feel like doing tomorrow is having a nice long sleep.
P is back at work now & quite a lot better (except at the moment he's having a coughing fit).
Have made things up with 'chief person concerned' which is good, very good in fact.

Brother in law from Norfolk & his stepson unexpectedly turned up at 9.50, just as we were having our traditional Sunday morning 'hurry up it's your fault we're late for church' conversation. He said he would still be here when we got back from church so that was ok. Felt bad as they'd brought our presents & we haven't got theirs as we haven't been able to go shopping due to our various ailments.
The nativity went really, really well. Children were all so sweet & everyone said their words nice & clearly including my little narrator. They did the nativity story in the form of songs set to nursery rhyme tunes eg 'Old King Herod was a mean old king, a mean old king was he' to tune of Old King Cole.
Back to church for carol service at 5 pm, have to get there early as will probably be packed.
I'm going to have to come off as both P & J nagging me as they both say they want computer.
-_- smerth (message from J)