The week before Christmas is obviously taken up with wrapping presents and writing cards. It is inevitable that there is a breakage along the way! Sorry Alexei’s godmother. Oops. Hope the others got to their destination safely!

I also had an opportunity to take some photos of my husband posing for a book he has written for a friend. They want to demonstrate some stretches I think. I turned it into a pencil sketch and he and his friend are pleased with the result, so another session has to be booked in soon.

This week saw the turn of Felix to perform his nativity to the proud parents and grandparents of the pre school children. Felix had the honour of playing Joseph, I suspect due to him being the oldest boy in his year, and he performed his duties well, though he did get a bit distracted by his baby sister and the singing sometimes seemed to bore him. Though other times he was belting the tunes out! Well done for such a beautiful production!

With Christmas just round the corner, Alexei has taken to wearing his Santa hat non stop.

And Willow needs a bit of persuasion to pose by the tree.

Here is our tree. Not the best technical photo (hmm) but you get the idea anyway of our decorating style!

And the reindeer and sleigh that took me ages to make – the first attempt was gingerbread that went horribly wrong, so good old chocolate came to the rescue!The run up to Christmas is obviously a time to celebrate with family and friends and we have done a lot with the latter! A Christmas carol sing-song arranged by myself had a last minute change of venue to cope with the sheer number of people (all these families with three or four children). We are lucky that some friends have the perfect house for entertaining!!

Poor Willow wasn’t so well, but she soldiered on, and even managed a little sleep whilst daddy played the guitar!  

This is what a poorly girl looks like

And this is what a poor mum looks like with a baby laid across her chest ALL night long, for three nights in a row!!Thankfully she has perked up now, and has become slightly less clingy, allowing me to tidy up in preparation for the big day. Well, it’s sort of tidying up and yes, the door closed on it all!!

Next week is Christmas week and the final week of this year’s project. Phew, it looks as though I might actually complete it!