Mwah, rapunzel and 2013 approaches

1. We make it to the park in the drizzle. I spend a very enjoyable 15 mins with Isla on the swings. As she comes towards me I lean forward and steal a kiss. ‘Mwah!’ I say and she laughs.
2. The Southborough panto is streets ahead of the assembly halls one and half the price. Funny, good songs, good lines, good dancing and a beer at the interval. Brilliant.
3. Kids finally in bed, Fiona, Angus, Mat and i settle down to homemade fajitas, cava and refried beans and the conversation twists and turns. Mat tells his excruciating GCSE music composition performance story and before we know it, it’s midnight. I miss the moment as I’m upstairs cleaning my teeth, trying to beat the queue for the bathroom. Rock n roll…happy new year.

Windy walk, picnic and pre NYE drinks

1. A windswept walk on the beach at Seaford. Isla looks so shocked and surprised at the strength of the wind, which nearly blows her little frame right over.
2. A hardcore winter picnic in seven sisters country park.
3. Pre New Year’s Eve drinks at the Trading Post that turn into a good old sing song around the old joanna at Lizz and Rob’s with some furious bongo playing.

Seal skate, giant scone and tv catch-up

1. More skating, this time of the ‘toddler skating’ variety. Doris isn’t sure and mostly sits on the plastic seal while I push her around.
2. Mat makes a Mary Berry cheese scone round, which is essentially a giant cheese scone and tastes amazing warm with butter and a cup of tea.
3. A night in, drinking Christmas present beer, eating homemade pie and watching various bits of Christmas comedy on catch-up.

Burgerlicious catch up, TV and Torvill and Dean

1. Meeting old friends Carrie and Shari for the first time in 20 months at the Diner in Soho. Good to catch up and the burger and milkshake is delicious.
2. A new telly.
3. Evening ice skating with Mat. It’s been damp so there only about twenty people on the ice and they are belting out eighties tunes on the sound system. Brilliant.

Curry club, pantastic and dreaming of Scotland

1. The final round of gift swapping of the season with Mike and Jo who pop in for coffee and to pick up the inlaws. Pressies include a 3 month subscription to a curry club which posts you spices for a curry feast once a month.
2. The girls (and mat and I) love the Panto. Front row seats mean we don’t miss a thing, including spotting the lip-syncing to the songs by the wicked stepmother. Doris is very taken with the dwarves and Isla loves grooving to old McDonald at the end and washing her hands in the sink at the interval.
3. Enjoying a quiet night in, reading one man and his bike and contemplating going to northwest Scotland for a trip.

Porridge n panto, Runnymede and bed

1. Boxing day porridge chez Grandad Duggerly followed by the Cbeebies Panto.

2. We get out into the fresh air alongside the Thames at Runnymede.  It’s soggy underfoot but we spot a metal fence that has been ‘incorporated’ into a tree and run the gauntlet of a large roadside puddle (dignity remained intact).

3. It’s good to go away but it’s good to come back to your own bed.

He’s been, prayers and Father ‘Andrew’ Christmas

1. The scrunching of paper as Doris finds her full stocking hanging on the back of her door. She then collects mine, and Isla’s, and Mat’s and we all sit on the bed and open them.

2. The girls are impeccably behaved at church, although Doris is most perturbed she’s not allowed the wafers and wine at communion. We say a prayer for Granny M who loved this time of year.

3. Top quality food, top quality company and top quality presents in Ashford with the Fletchers and Farooquis.  Plus a visit from Father Christmas for the Secret Santa who had ‘Uncle Andrew’s eyes’ according to Doris.  You can’t fool that one.

Lie-in, crib children and day ready for FC

1. Mat takes the girls downstairs for beebies and breakfast and I get an hour’s lie-in – lovely.
2. The st Luke’s crib service is a riot of children, all dressed in nativity costumes and banging or shaking musical instruments. Doris makes a good shepherd and Isla looks on with great interest.
3. Some neighbours come back to ours for sausage rolls and mulled wine and it’s soon time for doris to put out the mince pie and wine for Father Christmas and a, ahem, parsnip for Rudolph. she hang her stocking on her door with great care.

Out, Christingle crackers and Skype n scoff

1. After the deluge of the past few days, it’s good to blow the cobwebs away and enjoy the blue sky in Kings Heath park. Although the swings make me feel a little dizzy.
2. Isla is on cracking form. She romps her way round Stirchley Church’s Christingle and stuffs her face with a cake bar post service until she has a comedy chocolate-smeared mush. Doris helps the vicar fill the stable with the pottery nativity set, holds a toy boat aloft when promoted in the sermon and can’t quite believe her luck when the Christingles are handed out and there is practically a whole packet of sweets on each orange. The most pimped-up Christingles I have ever seen and knock the Tunbridge wells ones into a cocked hat. (Is that really the expression?
3. Skyping with Oz-dwelling mates for the first time in ages. Oh and the Heston figgy pudding with hidden sauce…

Sedate breakfast, peachy and cheesy

1. breakfast at Hazelhurst road is always a much more sedate affair than at home, involving posh juice, fried sausages and some good coffee.
2. The first of our Christmas theatre outings. To the Old Rep to see James and the giant peach. Despite not quite having got to the end of the book yet, doris, and all of us, really enjoy it.
3. Another Christmas Day, another aperitif and canapé combo. This time a Bombay Sapphire G&T and some of Mat’s homemade blue cheese sesame biscuits…