Happy Christmas!!

Happy Christmas, one and all!

We survived the flight. Louise was a wonderful helper - she carried her booster seat, and pushed Claire in the stroller (to Claire's terror). Louise had a window seat. She loudly proclaimed "I see England!!!" after we began our descent.

It is beautiful and snowy here, and we're having a marvelous time. The girls have seen Father Christmas twice - once at Gulliver's Kingdom, and again on a train ("like Thomas!!"). Both times, he gave them early Christmas presents. The first time, he kindly gave Louise some magic dust to sprinkle outside Nana & Granddad and Pop & Granny's houses on Christmas Eve, so Rudolph will find her more easily. After the train ride, we saw the Pinxton Puppets perform Little Red Riding Hood. Louise has been talking about the puppet show ever since, and recreating it for parents, sisters, and any passerby. We've seen lots of wonderful people - our old church family in Arlesey, our friends the Foreys, and uncle Andy, auntie Leanne, and cousin Josh.

Charlotte & Claire continue to expand their vocabularies. Claire has finally learnt to say "yes" (though she still says "mommy" ("mine") to refer to either parent).

We've also ridden the bus and had a ball at TWO indoor play areas. We will post lots of photos later. Meanwhile...we hope everyone enjoys a safe holiday, full of the magic and miracle of Christmas!

xxx 000

Busy home days

"Now we're busy at home days, Mummy," Louise exclaimed yesterday. "We made cookies, AND we're delivering cookies, AND we're going to the library, AND we're having quiet time! Before home days weren't busy. And tomorrow we're buying wrapping paper AND wrapping presents AND delivering more cookies!" Louise was a great cook's helper - she made flourless peanut butter cookies (for our neighbours with Celiac disease), double chocolate cookies, and cutout sugar cookies with pink icing.

Christmas is almost here, and Louise is very excited. We received Christmas cards addressed to each child. Charlotte & Claire weren't interested in opening envelopes, but Louise kindly opened all the cards - and distributed the cards according to the names printed on the covers. (We know she can't read, but we think it's pretty exciting that she can recognize the names).

On Thursday, after we ate at the fine dining establishment of Louise's choice (Bojangles), we went to the North Pole, via the Santa Train. Louise helped make food for reindeer (glitter & oats), sat very patiently whilst a kind elf painted a picture of Santa on her face, and enjoyed the hot chocolate. She told Santa that she wanted a "dog that walks," and he promised to see what he could do. Charlotte was delighted by the lights, but Claire did not approve of the cold (it was around 0 C).

Louise and her preschool class have been learning about castles for the past few weeks. On Friday, they held a medieval-style feast at their castle, complete with princesses, jesters, and a puppet show featuring knights and dragons. (Louise was on the programme to be the dragon, but she had a fit of shyness and chose to stay on Mummy's lap).

In other news, Louise had a dental checkup this month. She was a model patient - she sat in the chair and followed all of the dentist's instructions. She is also wonderfully loving towards her sisters. One evening, Charlotte was screaming during the car ride home. "Go down that road, Mummy!" Louise cried. "It's quicker, and Charlotte needs to get home!"

Charlotte & Claire are starting to spend more time playing with each other. The downside of this: they also spend more time fighting with each other!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

December in NC kicked off with snow, to Louise's delight. "It's Christmas!" she declared. Then, after reflection, "it can't be Christmas yet. We're not in England."

A friend's church was having a 30 ft tree/computer light show/Christmas pageant extravaganza this afternoon, and she'd offered to meet us for the event & pay her teenage son to babysit our three kids and two of hers. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it, and Louise hit her head on a pew and split her ear open, so it wasn't quite the start of the holidays that we expected it to be. But we got a picture of the tree (without lights or people popping out of it)...

Louise is learning many things at preschool - some wonderful, some not so wonderful. "I'm shaking my booty!" she declared one day. Mummy asked if she knew what that meant. "It means shaking my butt," she explained with a tinge of exasperation to her rather dense mother.