Solstice

As Chris can never get the actual day of the Solstice off work, we usually end up celebrating it on Christmas weekend...the lovely bonus to that being that we get to celebrate Solstice with family without it being odd!We have had a few inches of snow, which both were girls are not happy about. They enjoyed it when there was a sprinkling but didn't like it any deeper! We made time on the day of the Solstice to burn our Yule log on the stove. Fliss now considers me lighting the fire to be a good time to bring a blanket and settle in for a long feed, which probably means I need to slow down a bit.
On Saturday morning (it feels strange to call it Christmas morning as we're actually celebrating a delayed Solstice....) we began the day with apples and presents, then a walk to my Grandma and Grandad's house to see them and my Mum. We returned home to finish off our half of dinner preparations and so Fliss could nap then went off to dinner with Chris' parents and sister.Presents this year were very very pared down...woodland animals and a play scene for the littlies and a couple of stocking bits, books and a new purse for me, walking boots and an insulated mug for Chris. We usually go to my Mum's house for dinner but Chris' Nana is very ill and us being at his parents house cheers everyone up, well, Fliss and Leni do!

Sadly, Nana had fallen and he and his Dad spent a few hours at her house helping her and trying (unsucessfully) to get her to go in to hospital which obviously left us all sad and worried for the rest of the day and we are trying to care for her and enjoy Chris' time off...

Not the best of times as Nana comes to the end of her life, but I am thankful that she is here still and hopeful that we can ensure she feels the love of her family around her.

Clare xxx

DIY

Really, most jobs are more fun with little people involved (or prentending to be jack-in-the-boxes in the bookcase you're putting together) even if they do take me longer.

Just reminding myself.

Clare xxx

Raaaaaaaaah!

We spend a lot of time at the World Museum, they put on some amazing events from time to time. They totally outdid themselves this time though.

This is Rex, a 14 foot juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex. Leni was in love.

It was made even better by the fact that Rex was being led around by Charles Darwin, one of Leni's very favourite peopleHalf of Dan in this pic!

We also had the chance to go to a talk on Pterasaurs by the curator of Earth Sciences, which I found fascinating. Leni and friends enjoyed sitting up high and giggling...
Even more up Leni's street (she is endlessly fascinated by all things medical) the new special exhibition is on the Human Genome Project. A lot of it is over her head, but she loved comparing the Chimpanzee, Human and Neanderthal skeletons. Lici likes the revolving model of DNA :)
Clarexxx

Woodland Playgroup

The house move has rather got in the way of me blogging about this, but over the last couple of months a group of friends have been having a wander and pot luck picnic in the woods on a Thursday. Despite 'pram wars' it has been so much fun and I have loved it. Hopefully we can use our new house as a spring board for many more as we're now less than two minutes away from the Old Railway I've blogged about before.I wish I could share more pictures, but most of them have other children in!

We have found interesting mushrooms, Leni especially enjoyed poking the puffballs 'to make their seeds flyyyyyyyyyyy!' got very very very muddy (Lici had to come home naked in the sling as she had written off all three of her changes of clothes!), eaten lots of soup and hummus, sung to trees, chatted, poked things with sticks and generally loved the Autumn.

Clarexxx