We seem to have the season well sorted. I have to admit I am not a Christmas lover, my parents made sure of that in my childhood. I always tried hard with my children and now my grandchildren to make sure despite my feelings I never make them feel that way.
Firstly I do a collection for a local food bank and managed to get well over £200 worth to hand it this year. From food to toiletries to nappies and baby milk.
Pre Christmas as part of their budget I take the older two to a pantomime, experiences are better than presents in my book. I won tickets to a stage show and took the five year old twins and one of their friends to see that and their first trip to McD's as for her own reasons my daughter does not take them there and now they are at school and their friends talk about it I thought I would add to their afternoon out.
We do a family and friends get together where we invade a local eating place and have a great time catching up and we all sit and colour a Christmas themed picture and get a staff member to pick a winner.
On the big day itself hubby and I walk the dog and then go and help out as volunteers at a local church hall serving meals to people who would spend Christmas alone and joining in with the festivities that are provided after the meal. Well I do anyway, hubby spends three or four hours washing dishes and getting exasperated when other people come near "his" sink and mess up his order of doing things, he can be a bit OCD and I find it hilarious.
Take the dog a walk down to see the local grandchildren when we get back for fifteen minutes.
On Boxing day we have the grandchildren here and do what we call second Christmas, a day where they get all their presents from our side of the family, we eat junk snack food, have lots of laughs and play lots of games. The first part of the day is with the younger children then when they begin to weary they get returned to their parents and we then play with the older children. Exploding kittens, bears vs babies and a new one Beano The Sculpturades game where you have to do a charade in Plasticine, hilarious and nearly impossible with an autistic child who views the world so differently than the rest of us, but lots of laughs and fun.
This day gives the parents a much needed break and allows us to enjoy watching the children opening and interacting with what we buy them. It also spreads out the fun for the children and this is a much loved tradition. Sadly one of the two year old's was missing this year due to family circumstances but she is not old enough to know she is missing out.
The dog is not overly keen on a bunch of excited arm flapping noisy toddlers, and to be honest neither is hubby, so he takes the dog for a 3 hr walk until the toddlers are ready for home.
A fab win win season for everybody.
Frank Field, Labour Peer has died, aged 81y.
