Marksmess

tooth fairy

2009-06-27T23:08:00.004+01:00

Charlotte had a fancy dress day at school. It was decided that a prncess or fairy was too common, so she went as a tooth fairy.

The toothbrush as my idea.

Also this week, a new cliche is born: "He was the Elvis of our generation." Count how many time you hear this.

Birthday (cake)

2009-06-19T22:35:00.009+01:00

This is really getting to be a stresful month for Julie. Last weekend we went to Sprinhill for a teddybears' picknck, as a birthday treat for Katherine. Sunday was Childrens day, and both girls and parents wee involved. Charlotte sang very well and Katherine nerly fell over when there was a 'touch your toes' action. The church picknick was a washout though.

This week was both Katehrines and my birthday, on the same day. So poor Julie had to make two cakes, wrap two lots of presents etc.

My day was good. I was able to amble around the house for an extra hour and a half in the morning before i went to client work. Roger, I didn't answer the mobile because i was too busy appologising to a client for not turing the mobile off.

katherine was at a Mother and toddler trp to a ball pool, and then had granny and grandad to play with all after noon.

For those who want to know, my cake was home made strawbery shortbread, whilst Katherine went for a rainbow cake (without blue).

More cake (ok, I'm obsessed)

2009-05-03T22:38:00.006+01:00

I am snowed under with course work. This is the big push at the end of term, with essays, exams, journals and supervised practice to get to in the next week or so. That means that my time is tight for everything, and i just cannot get motivated to work.

But...

In the class there are two people getting married in June. We had a bit of a do in tech to celebrate. I offered to make two cakes. Julie and I did well.

The first is a traditional chocolate cake to julies recipie. Really moist.

The second is a rainbow cake, and I was surprised how easy it was to make.

People clambered for the chocolate cake, and then someone braved the other, and a real buzz went round the room at the sight of the colours inside. Really nice to see people surprised at a cake i made.

Happy birthcake

2009-04-02T22:39:00.004+01:00

Julies Birthday is here and as usual I made the birthday cake. So inspired by ruth's kitchen experiments, I give you the birthday cake.

The cake is a standard cake mix. I made it into a marble cake, with one part a chocolate with chocolate buttons in it. the other part was ment to be pink, (but I was unsure of how much food colouring so it ended out a bit more peach colour), with hundreds and thousands mixed in. The iceing was melted mars bars with icing and, because it was hard to spread, a nob of butter. I had help from Charlotte and Katherine helping with the decoration (and they managed to put more smarties and choco buttons on the cake than in themselves).

Nice and moist, while also not too sweet. Julie really enjoyed it.

Tribute to Bee Adams by Howard Gilpin

2009-03-12T22:12:00.001Z

(tribute paid by Howard at my Mum's funeral)

Tribute to Bee Adams (1933-2009) on occasion of Service of Thanksgiving
at Druminnis Presbyterian Church on Wednesday 11th March 2009.
I want to say a word of sincere thanks to Rev. Sam Finlay, minister of Druminnis Presbyterian Church for the opportunity to take part in this Service today and pay a tribute to Bee Adams. Our family (Anne, my wife and Jennifer, our daughter are here today along with Anne’s father John) count it a privilege to be here to thank God for the life and witness of a lady who has meant so much to us over the last number of years but especially during our time here in Co. Armagh. I’m also grateful to John, Roger and Mark for the invitation to give this précis of Bee’s life and for all their help in furnishing me with various facts from Bee’s life. Our heartfelt sympathy today is with John and Jacqueline, Roger and Ruth, Mark and Julie as well as Caitlin, Riona, Charlotte and Katherine, Bee’s grandchildren whom she loved so much. We remember also Bee’s sisters Isa, Eva, Faye and brother Cecil and their families today on their loss.
Olive Beatrice (Bee) Thompson was born in Larne in 1933, youngest of five children of Mary and William Thompson. They moved to Markethill where William was a police sergeant at Markethill RUC station. Bee always remembered her father sounding the air raid siren on top of the police station, and how Gosford was used to house German prisoners and American GIs. While attending Armagh Girls High School, she first met John Adams, a pupil at the Royal School. John knew Bee’s brother Cecil. She finished her schooling in Ballyclare, and enrolled as a trainee teacher in Stranmillis College. She met John Adams again there, and also met her lifelong friends Rita and Laura. After Stranmillis, Bee started teaching in Ballyclare. She married John on 3rd July 1958 in St. John’s Parish Church in Ballyclare and moved to Hamiltonsbawn. She took up a teaching post at Salter’s Grange Primary School where John also worked.
John Junior duly arrived in 1961, followed by Derek in 1964. Derek had Downs Syndrome and sadly died at 18 months. This was a body-blow to Bee and John, a deep sadness that she never lost. Roger was born in 1968, shortly after Bee and John moved to their present house opposite John Senior at the (then) green field site at the top of Hamiltonsbawn. Mark followed in 1971.
The Troubles started in 1968, and were to dominate John and Bee’s life for the next 30 years. John was an officer in the Ulster Defence Regiment and worked in one of the most volatile parts of Northern Ireland, operating out of Glenanne Barracks. Although many friends and colleagues were killed, the UDR also offered new horizons and opportunities, and the chance to meet many people from outside Northern Ireland. Bee was a member of the Wives Club [amazingly un-PC, isn’t it] providing social events and support. It is difficult to imagine the stress of those years, particularly for Bee who was affected by the uncertainty of waiting, wondering and worrying whether her ` husband was safe and secure from the threat of terrorism. However, one of Bee’s proudest moments was attending Buckingham Palace in 1977 where John received his MBE.
Bee spent most of her teaching life in Salter’s Grange, and saw several generations of children through their primary education. She retired in 1985 after approximately 30 years. Unfortunately around this time John was diagnosed with cancer, but thankfully had successful treatment. Bee was a wonderful support to John through all his years of illness, a constant encouragement and companion by his side. Unfortunately John died suddenly in 1997. This brought great sadness to Bee and I’ll never forget that morning in late September of that year when the ‘phone rang in the manse. It was Bee informing me that John had passed away. Earlier that very year Anne’s mother had passed away and it was Bee who had come over without hesitation to the manse to offer her support to us as a grieving family. We will never ever forget her kindness to us through all our years here on Co. Armagh but especially then at a time of great loss to our family.
Bee was like a ‘second mother’ and garndmother to our family. Our children literally adored her and spent many happy hours with her in her home in Hamiltonsbawn. On the very day of my mother-in –law’s funeral it was Bee who looked after our then very young son David for the day. To her it was a joy to do so for that was the kind of person she was. She put herself last and always seemed to put the interests of others before herself.
To me she was someone I could turn to and know I would receive a sympathetic ear. We will forever be grateful to God that He brought Bee Adams into our lives - her deep and solid friendship, her gentle words of mature advice and above all her encouragement especially in times of difficulty were of inestimable and I believe eternal value and cannot merely be put into words. Neither will we as a family forget all her practical help when we moved to Moira in 2001. She came to our new home and literally did a mountain of work helping us in so many ways as we settled into new surroundings. This and in a multitude of other ways, including all her unrecorded acts of love and thoughtfulness we are thankful to Almighty God for today.
Bee was actively involved in Druminnis church life. She had been a member of the choir since 1958, a Sunday School teacher for 20 years, a Committee Member and Church Secretary, and a President of the PWA. I had the wonderful privilege as her pastor and minister here for some 12 years of seeing her grow spiritually. I knew first hand of her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as her own and personal Saviour, her deep desire to ‘know Him more and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of her own’ as the hymnwriter puts it.
She often spoke to me about spiritual matters and it was always a great joy to see the radiance in her face that was the outward indication of her inward relationship with Christ. Like Ruth in the Old Testament who said to Naomi ‘’Your God shall be my God’ and so embraced the covenant God in that wonderful affirmation in Ruth 1 vs16, so Bee had come to embrace this same God in Jesus Christ as He was offered in the Gospels and experienced personally His life and power for everyday living. What Beatrice Cleland wrote in her poem ‘Portrait of A Christian’ could be said of Beatrice (Bee) Adams also:
Not only in the words you sayNot only in your deeds confessedBut in the most unconscious wayIs Christ expressed.For me 'twas not the truth you taught,To you so clear, to me so dim,But when you came to me,You brought a sense of Him.And from your eyes He beckons meand from your heart His love is shed,'Till I lose sight of youAnd see the living Christ instead.
Bee became ill in April 2004 and spent several months in hospital and Roxborough House, Moy. With the help of Premier Care, and particularly her carers Jennifer and Caroline, she was able to continue to live independently at home for over four years. She took seriously ill around 2 weeks ago and was admitted to Craigavon Hospital. God called her home last Sunday. Someone once said ‘Christians don’t leave home, they go home.’ Bee last Sunday ‘went home’ to be ‘with Christ which is better by far.’

Watching

2009-03-08T00:04:00.002Z

More distractions in lue of a real blog. A near perfect parody of the movie of the graphic novel. Ever so cool. Alan Moore, look away now.

Blueberry Girl

2009-03-05T20:06:00.003Z

With the cahos in my life, it is nice to be diverted by a poem. Neil Gaiman is someone of whom I have heard stories and read the odd comic, but never read a book. Must do something about that this summer.

Hope

2009-02-22T20:18:00.002Z

I am still stressed about my course, and specifically getting enough hours for my supervised practice. I have to date contacted 35 different school, health centres and organisations with little results. The one ray of hope is a high school about an hour away. I went to a meeting with the pastoral care teacher on Friday and they were lovely. They took the time to talk to me and they seem to have a good pastoral care programme and a positive atmosphere comes out from that. The school did have a bad reputation in Julies day, but they seem to have out grown that over the past 20 years. I met with both pastoral teachers and even got to sit down with the head. There is a strong possibility that I will get enough hours there.
The only problem is that they might require a fresh police check. I had one done for the course in December, but the school may need one specific to them. They will let me know, so I am still waiting and worrying.

02:30

2009-02-22T20:08:00.005Z

After the excitement of last weekend with Roger, Ruth, Caitlin and Riona over, Charlotte had more excitement this week.

This was the first time she lost a milk tooth. She was proud and then a bit queasy. She was excited about the tooth fairy coming, and Julie had a book about it stored away just for that cause.

Katherine could not be left out so she got a token payment from the Tooth fairy. And there were poems left.

Dear Charlotte
Underneath your pillow tonight
I found a tooth so clean and bright
I left instead a coin for you
And a little bit for Katherine too!
Love,
The Tooth Fairy

Dear Katherine
You’re only 2 so no wobbly teeth yet
But do not cry and do not fret
I left a little coin for you
So you can spend or save it too!
Love,
The Tooth Fairy

Wet nose

2009-02-11T23:17:00.003Z

I have started the supervised practice in the counselling course. That means that I am out in the world counselling people. Very scary, and probably more so for the clients. The main problem is that I need to do 25 client hours by May, but I am only getting one hours worth a week at the moment. I need to find other placements or this term will be for nothing (over dramatic, but I may have to retake that module). I have called all the schools in the area, and will now be calling GP practices. It is leaving me unsettled in the course this term, and I have moments of doubt about being on the course. I enjoy the class times, but the stress about the placement is taking a tole. This could be why we were taught CBT before we go on placement.

In work I tend to see how far I can get the boys to believe me. The other night there was a conversation about what frogs get you high if you lick them (they were watching something on TV the night before). They had very little knowledge about it and one of them asked me if you could get high from licking a frog. I tried to explain that it was true but only with a certain type of frog, and didn't know what one. Then I said you can get the same effect from licking a dogs nose. I got a moments silence then someone asked "really?" They know my humour. If I hadn't told them the truth, I just wonder how many would try it.

Funny face

2009-02-01T21:55:00.005Z

We did have a good time yesterday which included:-

Irish dancing class (with Julie joining in at the end)
Face painting
Balloon modeling
Buying dancing pumps
Nice Ulster grill for tea

Charlotte declared it a good day.

On the edge

2009-01-31T00:12:00.003Z

I have two great uncertainties in my life at the moment: My mums health and my supervised practice.
My mum is in hospital at the moment and not too well with what the nurses diagnose as being 'comfortable'. Old age and lorry loads of cigarettes have caught up with her in the lottery that theses things seem to be. What we are waiting for is a bit uncertain. I think her health improving so much that she can go home is not an option now.
The supervised practice is for the course. I need to do 25 hours of counselling before May. I have been talking to two local (for Garvagh) schools that agreed last year to give me a placement. Now some doubt has crept in. If I have not started a placement in the next week, I may have to defer for a year on the course. There is a good chance that this will all work out, and there will be lots of calls on Monday, but that nagging doubt is there, and it tends to grow with attention.
Both uncertainties have both Julie and I on edge. I am not alone, as I know both John and Roger are unsure about Mum, and others on the course are stressed about placement. They both are not far from my mind and it makes settling down to do any studying near impossible, with any distraction becoming irresistible (now you know why I am back writing the blog).
We are trying to have good Saturdays to de-stress. Charlotte has her Irish dancing in the morning (just learnt her '1,2,3' and '7's') and having a family activity. last week we got bird feeders for the back garden, borrowed books on birds from the library, and got very excited at one black bird in the back garden (last one we saw). Katherine had to get her step out to see out the window.

"Who would win in a battle between...?"

2009-01-30T09:32:00.002Z

One of the hardest things about working with teen boys is getting them talking. Some are very hard to engage in any type of conversation is usually met with a grunt or two. Remembering what was taught to me by the great Linda Gould, that conversations have different levels, getting the boys to talk about anything is a start, and can lead to deeper conversations as a relationship grows.
So I sometimes come up with stupid questions. The most recent began with the question "who would win in a battle between King Kong and Godzilla?" and between Batman and Spiderman (that would depend on whose comic it was in but would have them fight each other until they discovered that they were being manipulated by the Penguin and the Vulture in an evil avian plot).I then started to ask more obscure versions of the questions, which ended up last night with "Who would win in a battle between Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle and Pop?" It was interesting to see them actually debate it for a moment.
I know two things about this. It would not work if they did not know my humour and it is only a starting point for getting them talking.

MP3 dilema

2008-10-19T22:50:00.002+01:00

My trusty MP3 player ended up untrusty by breaking, so I am not on the search of a new one, and cannot decide. On the plus side it gives me a chance to upgrade from 500MB, but it means learning a new control system and how to put the stuff on the player properly.
I have narrowed it down, with a £30ish budget.

Play.com Micro 8GB MP3 Player is a new product from play.com. The pro is that it is 8GB, 16 times the capacity of my old one, but it has not yet got any reviews, so is an unknown as far as reliability and ease of use go.
Creative ZEN Stone with Speaker 2 GB looks good and has the benefit of having an external speaker, an attractive feature for using on my own. At 2GB it is 4 times less capacity of the play.com, but still 4 times what i am used to. It also has no display, and I wonder if that would be a problem.
Creative Zen Stone Plus 2GB MP3 has the display and a FM radio (would I use it?), but is £7 more than the previous. Not sure a screen is worth that.
Creative Muvo T100 4GB MP3 Player is my last choice. If a speaker and display are not needed, then this could be it with a larger capacity and good reviews. The only major down side is that you can only skip folders in one direction.

I have still no idea, but it is amazing how these small inconveniences can take over.

Firsts

2008-09-20T00:01:00.002+01:00

A week of firsts:-

Katherine has a bed. She got it last saturday and has done well. She really enjoys the grown upness of it, and usually stays in bed, apart from halfa dozen potty runs before she goes to sleep.
Sunday School new term. Julie and I are helping as class room assistants, week about, but we both went to the first day, and I was to bring Katehrine down for coffee in teh church, but when we took our eyes off her for a second she had joined a class. Charlottes class of pre-school and P1 had over 16 children. A huge Sunday School for the size of the congregation.
Monday had Charlottes first day at school. She loves it! She woke up on that morning and ran around getting ready. She has really enjoyed it and we have tried to walk to or from school when we can.
Tuesday was my first day back at the course. A lot of hard work this year with Ethics and CBT this term and Supervised practice starting after Christmas.
Today I gave my first Police statement. We had our telephone wire pulled down from the outside of teh Cornerstone last week and we are hoping that the town CCTV picked up the perp. It was shear vandelism and we don't want to let the person(s) away with it if we can.

There you go.

Embrace change

2008-09-17T20:03:00.001+01:00

I think this is something we should all think about.
www.embracechange.org

Even more MP3

2008-09-09T20:47:00.004+01:00

Haven't blogged in a long time mainly due to laziness, so I will jump right in with my MP3 listening.
I am still listening to escapepod and that has brought me to Podcastle and Clonepod, both of which dish out a weekly short story. The best storeys to come out of these are the Union Dues storeys.
I have also been listening to podcast books. Christina Ellis podcast two of her books, the fantasy Nina Kimberly the Merciless, and the sci-fi Space Casey. These are funny and light, and i enjoyed them both, but Space Casey had better pace. For a full on adult (as in violence and language) story i spent the best part of a month listening to J C Hutchins read his thriller trilogy 7th Son. Brilliant writing that kept me on the edge of my driving seat. One part I even slowed down in the car so i wouldn't get home before the scene was over.
For more intellectual stimulus I have Podquiz, a weekly 20 question quiz. If i get 10 out of 20 I am doing well. Karl Kruszelnicki is a bit of a smarty pants and I tend to get my pop science from three of his podcast. BBC Science with Dr Karl, Science on Mornings on triple j and Great Moments in Science. In the first two of theses he takes live questions from Joe public. I find him both entertaining and informative. And the automotive wizards at Car Talk. An American podcast that has Tom and Ray diagnose car trouble for callers, who usually have to make the relevant noises. It is a lot of fun and can get annoying if you listen to too many at one time. Not sure how much I am learning about car maintenance.
For comedy i did listen to BBC Ulsters Funny Stuff, but it became dull rather quickly and the only bright spot was the bits from Gerry Anderson, so i now listen to his best bits instead. And the BBC Friday night comedy is good fro a laugh. I did find a gem of a site with great MP3 down loads. Internet archive:audio archive has a huge selection of old radio shows. What makes this site different is that it contains classic BBC radio comedies such as I'm sorry i haven't a clue. It is well worth roaming the site for other shows. Enjoy!
I love the fact that all this is free, given to us by companies, individuals and nutters, it makes my journeys from work more relaxing after young people are skiving school, drinking with guys in their 40's and tearing out our phone wires from the outside of the building (it was a BAD day).

oddness and stupidness

2008-05-26T23:31:00.002+01:00

I was woken at 1.30am today by Julie kicking and telling me that there was somebody at our front door, ringing the bell. Being just woke up i headed to the door to open it up only to be stopped. We had three choices.

answer the door. But who knows who it might be, i mean are axe wielding murderers polite enough to ring the door bell?
Call the police and have that embarrassing situation where you go "there is someone ringing my door bell, what should i do?"
Hide. I have seen too many bad movies to do anything else.

We have no idea who it was, or what they wanted.

In work tonight we had one of our boys who joined the army (the one who stayed more than a week) on leave. He was boasting about how much he drinks (seemingly spending up to £1000 on booze a month, and i don't think it's because of his expensive taste in wine) and he was asked about pay. He explained that the higher the rank the more pay. One bright spark asked :

Mathematical idiot: "How much does a Sargent earn? I suppose around £50,000."

Army drunk: "About £2000 a month."

Mathematical idiot: "Wow, as much as that!!!"

Freedom

2008-05-16T19:45:00.002+01:00

I have now finished the first year of my course. I Had an exam on Tuesday night, and it went really well. All the information i tried to cram into my diminutive mind actually went in and stuck, until I sat infront of the paper and it flooded out. Of course, i may have finished the year, but I don't know if I have passed it yet!
This now give me more free time. I have been revising, writing, journaling and compiling in most of my free moments over the past while, and it is now like being on holiday. But i am still working a full time job, and a family. I have started to read a book that is not about counselling (The Scarlet Pimpernel) and watch lots of TV. OK not so constructive but I have the time to do the garden and relax a bit more.
I will miss the class over the summer for the stretching it has been doing to me both mentally and emotionally, but I will also miss the comradely of my class mates.
But i don't have to think SO much now, he he.

Bad cook book and stupid shop.

2008-04-07T22:49:00.002+01:00

Two links.
Worst. Book. Name. Ever.

This is just plain funny. I wonder how many they sold before they were with-drawn.

Easter break

2008-04-05T22:38:00.009+01:00

We headed down to Enniskillen for three nights over Easter.

It didn't start too well. Going through Cookstown the car started to chug and a warning light went on. Julie looked at the book to see what it meant and it said to consult the local renault dealer. Fortunatly we came to one on the way into Omagh. The man in the service desk said we shouldn't drive the car, and, being Easter, they had no mechanics to fix it. This is the point Julie came in with screaming kids, and the man took pity (and the keys) and fixed the car himself. The rest of the break was great.

I read, the girls played in various styles of parks, fed ducks etc,

and Julie knitted. The cottage was very good.

Warm, clean and comfortable. The owners had left us a large basket with loads of goodies, including bread and milk. Really nice of them.

The weather was good, as it raind at night and (mostly) dry during the day. But Katherine wasn't convinced...

Car troubles

2008-02-27T21:07:00.003Z

I was driving home from my course in Antrim last night in the Cleo. I was happily listening to a Dr Who book when I lost power to the engine. I pulled over to the side of the road and tried unsuccessfully to start the engine. I hate that feeling when you know you can do nothing, but phone for the RAC (which we are members).
A very nice lady tried to find me on the map, being well aware that we in Northern Ireland give roads names, not numbers. While i was on the phone, a break down man came, and offered me help. I told him I was calling the RAC, and he said "I'm an RAC contractor, let me speak to them." In stead of a 30 minute wait, I was on the back of his lorry within minutes. It did mean trying to find a way out of a homophobic rant, as i didn't want to challenge his view and walk home pushing the car.
The car has a broken timing belt, which means that the engine is probably badly damaged. Our friendly car fixer man tells us anything between £300 and £600 to fix. The car is 10 years old, and we have been humming and ha-ing about getting it replaced, so this brings that forward.
Today i went out to see the price range. A lot of garages didn't have people to come and talk to me, but a couple did, and we are in a good position without a trade-in. It can knock up to £1000 off the seen price. Also went to Peugeot, who, when I told him i was replacing a Cleo, asked if it was for my son or daughter. How posh.
It means that we now only have one car to get me to work, Charlotte to Nursery, and Julie to her groups (and take the kids out to stop them going ga ga). It will be fun until we get a replacement.

tell me why (I don't like Mondays)

2008-01-21T22:52:00.000Z

In work we have a porch light. It costs £10.50 to replace. I know this because that's how much it cost to replace 6 months ago when someone put a lighter to the cover and blew the bulb. It has happened once since until today. To day it was smashed twice. Of course no-one saw it, but i persisted in investigating. Th three main suspects were C, G and J.
I waited for each to cone in again. The first was C and he had an air tight alibi, his mother.
J was the main suspect, he has been a lot of trouble to us and it is his style. But some one came in and was an alibi for him. This younger YP told us that they were sailing around a car together, and he noticed that the light was on when J got in the car, and the light was off when J got out of the car. That struck me as unusual. You do not notice the usual (the light being on) but the unusual (the light being off). I needed more info.
I did get to talk to J and he confirmed he was not there, but that he got in the car just before G hit the light. This was confirmed by others, and G never came back into the drop-in all night.
I am really disappointed it G, a good kid, but is easy to be talked into bad stuff. It pains me to loose confidence in the honesty of him.
The question now is what do we do about it. Of course he will have to pay for the bulbs, and he will be barred for a time, but that is just part of it, the punishment,; but what about the rehabilitation?

Scenic, done it.

2008-01-08T23:49:00.000Z

Over the week end i had to change a break light in the Scenic. This is the first time i have had to change any of the bulbs in the car, and i found it a bit complicated. You need a screwdriver and a bit of force. The Astra just had a hand turned plastic nut. But there you go.
Today, Julie noticed a front bulb gone. So i looked at the book to see how to change it. Then I looked under the bonnet, then I looked in the book again. I went on line. I looked at the car again. The problem is that the recommended way of changing a head light is to drop the wheel arch, which involves putting the car on a ramp. The odd person has taken the battery out. You basically have to put the car into the dealers and get them to do it. What was the design team doing the day that they thought that would be a good idea. It is only one wee bulb, and it is costing me £20 and half a morning. And i know that another bulb will go in a short time...

Christmas '07

2007-12-25T16:23:00.001Z

It's been a long road to Christmas the past couple of weeks. Last week saw the finish of my course for this term, and the completion of the first sixth of it. Two projects, two Journals and a presentation and we are stopped. It is emotionally draining.
In work we made a behavioural contract with a young person, who then broke it the second time he was in after it. We did the high school assembly and i spoke at the staff lunch. We finished with our now annual challenge night. We were under staffed for it so decided that if there was any trouble down stars, we would ignore it (unless anyone was getting hurt). The challenges went well with a different young person winning each challenge, and we were rewarded with the main door down stars having chewing gum over the handle, chewed chocolate over the door and in the lock with added 5p's. Glad of the time off.
Sunday was the nativity play in church, and Charlotte as a sheep. Monday we went car-less and I walked into town for the turkey and we all walked round to the corner shop. We had the treat of the Rountrees round for some festive cheer (i don't know either) and we cut the christmas cake wot we baked. Pretty good stuff.

Today it was Julie that woke excitedly and had to wake everyone else. Charlotte enjoyed the unwrapping, and Katherine just wanted to connect with one or two things. We went to Church and Charlotte was able to show off some stuff to her friends, and Katherine was able to show how much she can squirm.

Just for John, lunch was:-

Turkey and stuffing
wee sausages
Boiled potatoes
boiled sprouts
mashed carrots and parsnips
roast potatoes
roast parsnip
Yorkshire pudding (for Charlotte)

and for pudding', Julies microwave chocolate sponge. We did go for a walk after lunch. it was nice to See the girls enjoy Christmas, and Charlotte understood it better now. They did play nice together most of the time.

After the girls went to bed we enjoyed Dr Who (loved the queen) and Harry hill. As well as a few snacks.