God bless us, every one!

Christmas starts here 🙂 I have no further issues with blow up Pooh Bears in Santa hats; Max finishes work in 1 hour and then we are into full on Xmas mode. 😆

Today we have been for our habitual trip to Tesco’s santa, and very lovely and twinkly he was too. he’s been traditional for several years now, since i got officially annoyed with the queuing in town for a Santa that tries to milk you for an extra £15 worth of photograph in a keyring 😯 We like the Tesco one; he looks like Santa should, talks like him, has time for you- and you never have to queue!

This morning i read the Usborne version of A Christmas Carol to Fran. Good job i didn’t try the real one, even the simple version seemed to go right over her head! It occured to me as i was listening to it on the iPod the other night that i can only visualise it with Donald Duck as Scrooge, Mickey as Bob and Pluto (or maybe Goofy?) as Marley… i think Dickens would rotate swiftly in his grave!!!!! I was listening to something the other day which was remarking on the fact that the word Scrooge has been absorbed into the English language to mean miser, but that isn’t it odd that we use it to mean “mean” rather than focussing on the end meaning of the story, which is that he changes and reforms. We never think of Scrooge as meaning anything positive at all. So does this mean we are doomed to be remembered for your worst attributes for all eternity? It’s an odd thing we’ve done with Scrooge, given that most people are remembered fondly as a rule, their bum scratching habits being smoothed away while we remember a cheerful smile or a good sense of humour. We don’t remember the moral or the story, just the negative.

Conversational ed has today included acting out what Fair Trade is (and it was only as we played it that i really realised the impact on commerce that an honourable trade agreement really has, if i’m honest), after a parcel of present arrived from them, a discussion on Suffragettes, the great War, conscription, Christmas in the trenches, the punishments for “cowardice” and desertion and how our daddy, who would probably have been an officer given his abilities (i guess) would have felt ordering people to be shot for cowardice or indeed just ordering them to go over the top. Interesting and thought provoking stuff. Included in all that was a brief description of parliamentary voting (managed to reduce political system to voting for Blue, Red, Green or Yellow in that one, which on reflection is probably as useful a description of the differences between Parties as anything else these days) and also on the word surrender, the meaning of a white flag and the uses of the word victim. (The latter bits mainly coming from their tuneful singing along to Dido in the car 😉 )

The girls have each been given a “chore” to do (Anne Shirley here we come) each day; Fran unloads the dishwasher, Maddy has to tidy the bathroom and Amelie has to tidy the shoe corner and hang the coats up properly, rather than the odd, “make them into a hanging shapes and prop them up among the other hanging things” routine they all seem to indulge in. They are being very good about them, long may it continue. 😉

Just a last few bits of wrapping to do, the cards went this morning. We’ve opened the box of mince pies that was in the yearly hamper from my aunt (what an excellent present arrangement that is!) and we’re off to see Peter Pan in an hour. Maddy and Amelie have never been to a Panto before so i’ve been training them all afternoon. 😆

Booooooooo! Hisssssssssssssss……. 😆