aaaahhhhh, Christmas {and a brand new year......}

the beginning of the Christmas holidays was rather lovely

here in our little corner of the world.....

we had two different lots of friends from 'down south' come to stay

with us and it was so lovely to catch up with them and just 

listen to their lovely aussie accents for a while.......

 then, within the blink of an eye, Christmas morning was 

upon us with early wake up calls from the children 

{though they are getting a little later these days than they used to be.......}

however, some things don't change

e.g. lego for the teenage boy......

books for the bookworm girl......

{evie had requested the final book in the Pegasus 

series from father Christmas.....}

and within no time at all the playmobil sabre tooth 

tiger was biting the caveman's head off..... 

what a way to start Christmas morning........

then we went to a Christmas morning service at church

which was completely bonkers and led by a pirate

playing a banjo.......

this was swiftly followed by a jaunt down to my sisters' 

house where we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together,

whilst wearing our homemade hats {made from the cast off

wrapping paper and packaging from the Christmas gifts.....}

let's just say there was an ecclectic range of  hats on

display - some more elaborate than others.......

here's a little photo of them stolen from my sister.....
 

 they're rather fabby for having been made with a
load of old tat don't you think?......

this trip was followed by a quick visit 'up, up north' to
catch up with Brian's family and then we were back home......

phew......

time to ease into the new year now.....

and so to work........

 and so it was, that as soon as isaac's birthday was over

we 'got back to it'.....

the kids find this a challenge sometimes

after an eight week summer break

but we ease ourselves in with shorter times

'at the table' and the adjustment doesn't seem

so bad after all......

 

i even found this 3D jigsaw in an op shop*, something which isaac 

had been hankering after for quite some time 

{the 3D jigsaw that is, not the op shop.....

just wanted to make myself clear.......}

 so he was able to complete a whole week's worth of geography 

just by putting together a jigsaw..... smashing.....

{* you'll be glad to know that all the pieces were there, I just 

took the photo before he had actually finished putting it together......}

here's evie, giving me her best, 'I really don't mind sitting here doing this

maths work when I could be outside playing in the sunshine' smile.....

 and let me tell you, this little chap, along with his scrummy brother,

have been distracting the children tremendously when they should be 

'getting on', but then who can blame them, they are rather

squeeze worthy....

a few weeks into our term and it was time for the students

of Bristol University to arrive back for their new term, so the kids and I

 took a jaunt up to Bristol to help out at our annual church 

'let's feed the 5,000' burger event.....

during freshers week the church give away 1,000 burger every day to

 students who have arrived in Bristol to study......

it's great to be able to meet so many interesting people from all

over the world and be a friendly face for them when perhaps they

don't know anyone......

i knabbed the best jobs for my two......

evie was on candy floss duty.......

which included quite a lots of  'quality control'

taste testing......

 and isaac was on ice cream machine duty......

which seemed to include quite a bit of 'quality control'

taste testing too......

 

I, as their mother, also felt it my duty to make sure that the

quality of the food being consumed was 'up to scratch'......

it was......

the new foyer at church was packed out for the

entire 2 hour lunch period every day and so was the inside of the building.....

both the kids loved helping out during the week

and I don't think it was just because it meant they didn't have

to do any 'school work' at home and

eat ice cream and candy floss in abundance.....

but then again, maybe it was......