Tag Archives: christmas

The Best Christmas Ever!

Posted in Life and Stuff by

Well it was! Other than those magical ones when I was a child, waiting for Father Christmas, listening for sleigh bells and praying for snow, this year was pretty much Christmas perfection. Why you ask? What made this year so especially special? Well I will tell you!

  1.  We got sickness bug during the final week of term.

 Hello, your thinking – that doesn’t sound so especially special! However, early contagion meant that everyone was better by Christmas itself and for once no Christmassy bits of loveliness had to be cancelled! There was a worrying moment, when it looked as if I was going down too but general consensus is that a careless nibble on a bit of pork pie which had sat in Rosie’s sweaty lunchbox all day led to my downfall – the shame of it!

 2.  The Pre-Christmas Christmassy bits of loveliness…

 Whilst I do love Christmas Day and the wonder of seeing the little girls faces when they see that Santa has been, I have to admit for me the bit before, the build up throughout December, is my favorite part. The Christmas music on the radio, picking the presents, planning the menus, the school plays and church events leave me with a warm glow of festive cheer from fingers to toes. And this year a couple of bits really stood out:

  •  Lily’s school nativity play: – always a winner and this year a heartwarming rendition of the nativity tale entitled “Are We Nearly There Yet”. Anything which includes a song with the lines “Don’t know when the journey will end. I’m needing the toilet again!” gets my vote.
  • Rosie’s school carol concert at St Peter’s and St Paul’s church in Bromley which, with a theme of hope and peace, had me in tears. Nice work Mr J.
  • Christmas Carol Sing-along at The Royal Albert Hall. Christmas in a bowl – literally! I defy anyone to leave an event with 5,000 people, bedecked with Christmas hats and lights, singing their hearts out without feeling the Christmas magic. Book your tickets now!
  • The Nutcracker at the Coliseum. Some questioned whether my little girls were too small. But seeing my 5 year old daughter on the edge of her seat, transfixed, was simply amazing. Will be booking again next year.
  • Church Knitivity, A knitted (see what they’ve done there) version of the key players in the nativity that moves from house to house during Advent. We had room at our Inn as you can see below!

P1010746 P1010744

  • Church Crib service. Can there be a better to remember the true meaning of Christmas than to be in Church on Christmas Eve and see all the children from Sunday school act out the nativity story and sing carols?

Indeed, the only thing which could have possibly made this Christmas even better, would have been a light dusting of snow as we had wound our way home from Church on Christmas Eve. Never mind, there’s always next year – only 11 months to go!

Arghhhhhhhhhh…

PTA Christmas Fair

Posted in PTA and all that by

Which bright spark first came up with idea of PTA’s holding Christmas Fairs?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m their biggest fan, once they’re in full flow, but really? Just before Christmas?

I can’t argue that the Festive Fair is a lovely money spinner for the school, I appreciate it is wonderful way to bring some Christmas cheer and make the families feel enfranchised with their school, and thus, more likely to support the learning experience.  However, for some reason, at this time of year, simple conundrums, which you would usually brush off with a gay laugh and a quick solution, become like trying to broker piece in the Middle East. I just don’t know…

1. How you collect the free Starbucks coffee from Bromley, when it:

Weighs a ton so you need to park nearby

  1. You can’t park nearby because you can’t get into the INTU car park because… it’s December
  2. You can’t pick it up early because it will go cold
  3. You can’t really afford the time to pick it up anyhow because you are so blooming short of volunteers to help… at the aforementioned Christmas fair!

Which brings me nicely onto the eternal PTA problem of an overall shortfall in the “volunteers to help” category.

2. How the dickens do we get more people to lend a willing helping hand ?

 Who can imagine the chances of such a vast proportion of the teaching staff all having major personal life events happening of that date of the Christmas Fair. Moving house, Dec 6th. Kids birthday, Dec 6th. Root canal surgery, Dec 6th. I’m surprised the world hasn’t ended with the probability paradox of it all.

The most common excuse from parents not to help is that they will be going around the fair with their kids. Clearly, we do need some people going around the fair with their kids or the whole thing is pointless, but could they not spare one hour of the three? I don’t think I’ve ever actually taken my girls to a PTA event and actually just enjoyed it with them and they don’t appear to be psychologically damaged. Although, I have a suspicion the leading man might have been by three hours and three girls in a packed Christmas fair!

  1. Santa’s CRB – or as it is called now DAB – who knew he needed one?

But then again, any chap who is sauntering down chimneys into houses with kids, should probably have all the appropriate police checks!

  1. What can we do with 500 free Selfridge baubles?

baubles

Dilemmas, dilemmas… of which I must now try to resolve… arghhhh!