Quiet on the blog for a few days, as we immersed ourselves in all things Xmas! ''Twas the night before Christmas... Christmas Eve we let the kids have a quiet day mucking about at home, and then we walked to the village for a late lunch with a group of school parents. The pub had never been so busy! "The Bear" is a traditional English pub, with the low ceilings and roaring fireplaces...a great atmosphere. Things were set up as I remember them as a child, with a kids table and a grown ups table. The kids had some awesome dress ups and crackers etc, and busied themselves playing games. After eating we all (that's everyone in the pub) went down to the local carol service. Clearly the word had got out that we were coming, as it was standing room only in the lovely old church...I think the pastor couldn't believe his eyes! The service was lovely and family friendly. Then it was a night walk back home, for hanging stockings, Xmas movies and early nights in eager anticipation of Santa. The kids went to bed easily and were quick to sleep...which does make me wonder what was in the hot chocolate they had before bed!!! Robyn We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. With lunch at the Bear,which is an old English pub . We meet up with a group of Paul and Mandy's school parent friends . After a few drinks we staggered off down stock high st to the 13 th century All saints church for carol singing and service. A stunning church with high ceilings and exposed hewn sawn timbers with stained glass windows,was a real heritage building. Everyone received a real treat when I sang with a voice like Angel... it was a sight/soundto behold. It was dark when we finished , But with a full moon walked back to Paul and Mandy's place with the children. A lovely mild evening it was quite pleasant. Glen. Santa's been!!! We'll let the kids fill you in on Xmas day... In Lapland Santa told mum I had been good and was going to get my Wishlist and he was true to his word. I got jelly tots, drumstick lollies, mini Santa's and chocolate coins. And loads of games. My stocking was full to bursting! In my big present I got Rocky from paw patrol, a timber jack dragon that I didn't even know existed, and Ric***********d's "Great Mysteries of the World" book. As a shared present, Daniel and I got the playmobil cable car! We got to eat lots of sweets and puddings and even had a Xmas pudding that was on fire! We went out for a walk and we saw someone riding an Arab horse, and it was wearing a raincoat! We played at the park and I got very muddy because the ground is sodden after lots of rain. The dog , Poppy, was disappointed because she forgot to bring one of her new toys to play with! We came home and ate more candy but were too full to eat tea. At the end of the night the grown ups had to round up a bunch of hypo kids to get us to bed. They said they wished we had an off button! All in all it was a great day and full of cheer. Gemma When I woke up crackle... crackle, Santa had put lots of presents in my stocking, to be exact it was 23 presents! That is a serious lot of presents. My favourite thing in my stocking was the Lego deep sea starter set. Gemma also got Lego but she gave it to me and that was kind. Baby jaguar was excited to see a box of refreshers (candy) that was bigger than She was! Then we looked under the tree and wowsers there were lots of presents! One of them I got was a Lego technic pull back racer, a hideous zippleback dragon that lights up with orange flame and rolls along and I also got robo dog from paw patrol that I didn't know you could get so Santa must have made it. We ate chocolate fingers for breakfast. Opening presents lasted all day and we played with everything as we got it and saw what everyone else got too so that was cool. We played a game of rugby at the common with Oliver's new ball and it was really fun and muddy. Then we came back and played some more and ate some more until we were stuffed. After that I slept like a log! It was an EPIC Christmas! Daniel