All Age Service

Both Rose and Josh were reading a prayer in the service this morning and they did a brilliant job.  The whole service was well planned and executed with "readings" from the Lion's Storyteller Bible (which we love) interspersed with carols and the kids all taking part by playing instruments or doing readings or prayers.  We had a good puppet story that gave good insight into the meaning of Christmas.
In the evening we took the children to the Carols by Candlelight Service.  There was a good number there.   

Nativity Trail

Our friend Jean asked to take the children on the Nativity Trail at our local arboretum. As Joshua's football matches were cancelled due to frozen field and Jean can't drive I took the 3 kids and Jean.  It was really fun and towards the end of the trail they had tableaux from the Christmas story with readings from the Bible and questions to answer.  It was interesting to be in a real stable thinking about the reality of the birth of Jesus.  The most exciting and memorable moment for the children, though, was when the goat jumped over the fence and escaped while we were in the stable!!  It was close to the end so we made sure we told the lady in the centre so they could track it down.

Stroking the donkey

The shepherd tableau

Getting it Done

Rose's performance today.  Key Stage 2 were doing a musical with a nativity story at the end.  Rose was Mary and very proud of her part.  Both Key Stages have done 3 performances - morning, afternoon and evening spread out over the week so we have been busy this week ferrying children and collecting them at different times. There are times life would be so much simpler if all our children were in the same Key Stage but I guess this is something I need to get used to until all our kids are in high school!
Amazingly we managed to get extra tickets for my mum and dad to be able to go this evening - each family was only entitled to two tickets.  I'm not sure if Rose or my mum was more excited!
We had to squeeze in haircuts between finishing school, eating dinner and getting Rose back to school but we managed - just about.
When Rose got home and climbed into bed she said, "Thank goodness the plays are all done!".  I agree.
Oh, but my favourite part of today was the sign we passed: Christmas reafs [for sale].  I'm impressed the writer realised it was ea, not ee; but really?  My English teacher hackles rose.

Stuffed Up

In the literal sense.  I sensed the beginnings of a cold Saturday night and on Sunday stayed in bed all morning as I felt dreadful.  I even fell asleep in front of the fire Sunday afternoon.  Today feels a little better but apart from going to watch Josh and Naomi's Christmas Play I stayed inside and Steve went and did the shopping.
Joshua was a sheep and his big line was a joke: Where do sheep have their hair cut?  At a baa-bers!  Naomi was an angel.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos or video so I cannot provide evidence.
I am glad that there was an actual Nativity story in the play (as well as Santa's grotto) but I have been reflecting on what Tim was telling us about their sermon at Church last week:  How we can bear the story of baby Jesus but not the reality of God in man and His ultimate purpose of death and resurrection.  I think it's probably true for most of the people watching these plays that they are not really challenged by the story of Jesus in a manger and do not want to look much further than that.

Santa Special

This morning the girls had their Super Saturday [children's club at church that meets monthly] Christmas party and they thrilled my heart with their eagerness to invite their friends to come.  It reminded me how as adults we often invent obstacles to inviting people instead of remembering why we want to invite people.  Anyway, they had little response - probably because I forgot to put our pone number on the invites for parents to check out what this thing was.  But I spoke to the mum of one of Rose's classmates at the Christmas lunch and explained what it was and Rose was chuffed when her friend came.  They had a blast - they made Christmas tree decorations and chocolate sweets.
And then this afternoon we had a grand Guille clan outing on the Severn Valley Railway "Santa Special".  Sam was feeling poorly but dragged himself out and we all had fun.  Sam even snagged himself a present from Santa so we had little sympathy for him after that!

Click here for other photos.
We finished the evening with an amazing Chinese take-away which ended the fun day perfectly.

Christmas Lunches

These have been very controversial amongst the parents as the school opted to buy fish and chips for each student rather than provide a proper Christmas dinner.  The argument is that it is less waste but it does seem a little odd to call them "Christmas" dinners!  I don't feel strongly either way.  The school pays for it as a treat so it doesn't worry me.  I went up on both Thursday and Friday to help with setting up, handing out and cleaning up.  My son was only one of three (boys!) who did not have the Christmas dinner out of all the children in the school!  I did get a large dose of the school politics as well.  It has been quite interesting being "only" a parent this year but also having a little inside knowledge as a teacher.

Nursery Play

This morning we began our Christmas performances with Esther and Ioan's Nursery play.  Ioan was a gorgeous star and Esther was a monkey.  When Naomi was looking through the programme and realised Esther was a star she said, "There are no monkeys in the Christmas Story".  Good to know she has the basics down!
Esther got stage-fright and wouldn't go up on the stage with her group but Ioan happily grinned and waved at mum and dad and clapped along with the song.  Esther finally went up but only because Sam went up with her!  The things we bear for our children.