Bunting, visits and other pre-Christmas ramblings

Yesterday felt like one of those calm days when everything goes to plan. For a few hours anyway.

Then Martin shouted at the girls for pouring smoothie onto their crackers and cheese, and I shouted at Martin for sending them upstairs and threatening never to give them smoothie again (ah the ridiculous threats, a sure sign that everyone is tired and poorly) and then we all pretty much cried. All fine again now, of course. These are the times that remind me we are not always the people we would like to think ourselves.We had friends round after everything had calmed down, just for a while, and played Wii and drank tea and ate the entire batch of fudge which was too sticky to give as Christmas gifts (!) and generally enjoyed the afternoon. The girls and their two little friends emptied out the entire contents of Jenna and Morgan's wardrobes and tried everything on, and then we all helped put away. Waving goodbye was yet more magic, because the path was slippery enough to delight the children and terrify mama.Chris text asking if we'd like tea with them because he'd made too much chilli, and I'm never one to turn down good company and free food, so we went there next. The chilli was gorgeous. Emma made bunting for a little girl's birthday, and Morgan held the pins for her.I am so ridiculously excited about Christmas. And feeling great about taking positive action after our ridiculous and astonishing contact with the LEA. And I am just so much more positive than I felt even a few months ago. (Sleep will do that to you, I hear!) Discipline and calm and connection are getting easier again, after quite a few spells of poor communication recently (mostly Jenna speaking really rudely, and us hearing suddenly how disrespectful our own words have been).

This morning, lovely parcels arrived from Clare and Joxy. Thankyou both so much, everything is so perfect - from Christmas tea, to candles and sparkles, notes and cards and kind thoughts. In a shared bath, we sang carols and played word games and made up stories. Jenna invented a new game, where she comes up with a really hard word and I have to find a synonym. I tried it on her, and was astounded when she correctly defined "aware" followed by "honour", "patient", and "conscious"! That was the highlight of my day actually, apart from perhaps when Jenna and Morgan were bickering outside and a nice lady came and told Jenna that "Santa won't like it if you cry" until Jenna was embarrassed into smiling. We all had a warm laugh about it once the poor wellmeaning dear had gone. Adults are weird, I tell her, and she grins up at me and says, "I know mummy, but I like weird."And on that note... I am aiming to avoid the computer for a couple of days for obvious reasons, haha, though don't hold me to that! Have a wonderful Christmas, folks. xxx