12 photos of Christmas

It's time for some Christmas photos! Not the best photos in the world, it has to be said, and remarkably lacking in all the other people we saw over the season. We spent Christmas with Graham's family, getting very well cooked for by his sister, his parents, and his aunt and uncle. My parents came to stay the day after we got home, and left the morning of New Year's Day. A quick tidy-up and we were ready for our second annual New Year's Day party, catching up with friends from the village and from church. But here's some photos of other things...

Our treat before Christmas was a visit to Lichfield's A Cathedral Illuminated. Six projectors provided an awesome 20-minute light show on the west front of the cathedral, including giant rolling baubles and singing angels.

Inside were dozens of decorated Christmas trees (I liked the one with teabags), a nativity and hundreds of paper angels.

Look at all those presents! Toby especially was very excited for Christmas this year, and could hardly wait until everyone was up and ready to open presents. This is his and Theo's collection.

OK, so we were all a little excited.

The highlight of my Christmas - straws! The boys had been ~~fighting over~~ sharing one red twirly straw for weeks. Now they have two each, and I don't have to remember whose turn it is any more.

Toby's space station, which was the subject of several letters to Santa. It required more building than I expected, but at least it kept us awake after Christmas dinner.

Theo is all into his playdough, so he was pleased with some new moulding tools.

Party hats at Christmas dinner! Toby had fallen over in the playground just beforehand and felt a bit funny, but he'd definitely recovered by the time we got to the pudding stage.

More presents: we all rather enjoyed Theo's new marble run.

And one of Toby's favourites was a kitchen science set. Here's the classic vinegar-and-bicarb volcano.

And finally, a Christmas pie. We didn't have leftovers, of course, but minced beef together with some onions, carrots and parsnips which didn't get eaten before Christmas made a delicious pie. And I had to have some fun with the spare pastry!

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Making a mess

My friend Ellie writes a blog which I now shamelessly crib ideas from, when I am stuck for something new to do with Toby. Some time ago she wrote about a substance with the poetic moniker of cloud dough . It sounded simple to make and fun to play with, so I tucked it away in the back of my mind. The recipe is childishly simple: 8 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of vegetable oil, and mix. It comes out kind of sandy, although softer and more powdery. Now, Ellie has two gorgeous girls. Her blog entries were full of photos of them adding pretty objects and creating cute little landscapes. I, on the other hand, have a full-on hands-on get-stuck-in-as-far-as-possible boy. This is what happens when you let him loose on a scatterable substance. We make it and it all starts well. Notice I have prepared for mess with a large tarpaulin and lack of shorts. A few minutes in, and the mess is spreading up the T-shirt. It's still mostly in the t...

Not for the squeamish

Nor for those who have an irrational fear of snakes, or for that matter an irrational love of cute little bunny rabbits. But for those who are intrigued by the natural world and don't get too freaked out by the ickier bits of it, this was our David Attenborough moment. John and Kristal's dog Boudin spotted it first, and went bounding up before the rest of us had a chance to register any more than some kind of mound on the path. It was so interesting he resisted all Kristal's attempts to call him away for a while. Even though she quickly identified it as a non-poisonous black snake, and besides, its mouth was far too full of rabbit to bite anything else, we were glad when he was safely to heel. We stood and watched for a few minutes. The rabbit was clearly dead; whether the snake killed it or just found it, we don't know. It was eating in a leisurely fashion, which I suppose is fair enough when your dinner is actually wider than your body. Ev...

Highlights from the rest of the trip

1. Spending time with friends and family. As well as seeing my parents, grandparents and assorted other close relatives, we also visited some of my mum's brother's wife's family (got that?!) who live in an incredibly beautiful part of the world in the western Virginia mountains. John and I got to know them when we came to America by ourselves as children, and when I calculated how long it was since I'd last seen them I wished we'd planned a much longer stay. However, we were en route to see more friends whom I knew from Bristol, now residing near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We were greeted not only by the Ewings but also a couple more Bristolians, so it was a veritable reunion! I'm always touched by how warmly American families welcome you into their home, sit you down in front of a delicious meal, and offer to lend you anything and everything that might make your stay more pleasant. Thanks y'all! 2. Enjoying the James River via canoes,...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

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