DWZI / this week I saw...

my kids climb into bed with me on Christmas day morning

i had expected them to rush straight downstairs and rip the paper off of all their presents – but no. they climbed in, on either side of me, and started chatting, cuddling, giggling, just as they always do on our days off.

then yes – by 8am, one of them asked ‘please can we go downstairs to see whether Father Christmas has been mama?’

can you believe it - that clearly had been brewing for at least half an hour – i’m sure i was never this good!

so downstairs we went; they were amazed: Rudolph had drunk all the water and Father Christmas had eaten his mince pie and taken his beer! only the empty plates and bowls remained... how exciting!

the unwrapping began. Eldest was super chuffed (although not at all surprised, she had asked for it after all) with her Father Christmas hat (obviously she was entirely unaware of my panic as to where on earth i'd get one of those - and then thankfully a lovely colleague came to the rescue)

the response to Mary Poppins was interesting... she literally took one look at it - not disappointed, just totally uninterested - and said, very matter-of-factly: 'this one is for you mama'

ouch

yes - i know it is - but can we please pretend it is for you?? 

well - at least they, too, seemed to enjoy watching it!


youngest was even more excited & excitable... hurrah - Peter Pan!!

and thankfully he still cannot get enough of collecting the kisses that are rightfully his by standing under the mistletoe... i think i might keep it hanging there all year

band member & groupie

sushi for two

DWZI / this week i saw...

our christmas tree appear - finally!

the kids & i bought it at a farm nearby, where they charge you a fortune

but that doesn't matter

they serve a cup of mulled wine with it........ just the ticket!

we took it home & decorated it

i know these things are kitsch, of course

but for some reason i like to do this sort of thing in style

at the very least there has to be a colour theme

this year i decided on blue, purple & silver

hmm. last year i managed

but try that with a 4- and a 5- year old

how could i possibly refuse when they looked at me with those big blue eyes, pleading to add:

eldest's art work from her birthday party;

youngest's art work from his little school

oma's hand made bauble

my own oma's tiny little magic neverending book, which she went out & bought for us herself, despite her age and immobility, at a christmas market

and best of all, the tractor and blocks

oh well - it's christmas, after all

the nice thing was - i also came across this in my box with christmas decorations:

a little angel

a present from her

she bought it for me when we were in paris last year

this angel has a brother or sister

who i suspect lives in her tree at present

so now our christmas tree is ready

look at those presents - not everything is quite there yet
the postie cannot get to our house because of the snow
he has about 80% of all the christmas presents i bought
(i do this sort of thing online)

but at least here there is no premature unwrapping of gifts! yes you know who i mean!

finally the stockings needed to go up - oma made them - and lists needed to be written for Father Christmas

my girl would really like a Father Christmas hat

my boy saw me gift-wrapping a book for his cousin

'sharing' and 'generosity' don't really feature in his vocabulary

so now he's asking for

the same book

oh well. at least they've both written 'please'!

i saw SUCH a fun movie last night!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas.....

DWZI / this week i saw...

22 children at my eldest's birthday party!

first they painted crockery, 

then they ran around, played with the marble run and on the slide and painted their faces

then they had lunch

then their parents picked them up 

phew

so then i was grateful for an excuse to sit down

when eldest had ripped open all her presents 

and 22 thank you cards needed to be written

(yes - that's what they do in this country: 

a thank you card for every occasion!)

"that's easy - i can do that!"

klikkerdeklik

and 'no, i was not picking my nose mama, honestly!'

this weekend

robbie & gary saw me through. she alerted me to their existence and then i came across more of this on her blog. yes- i live in the stone age and i will confess this was just what was needed to lift the spirits. just about managed to refrain from buying an ipod - but the cds are on their way.......

DWZI / this week i saw

the remains of my son's sheep costume, after 3 performances:

oh dear! and i also saw him wearing it....

none of the other mothers had worked with cotton wool!

all of them had either bought a costume or managed to get hold of sheepskinny material!

aaarrggghhhhhhh how embarrassing.

my poor little boy

with his horrid mother

who just squirts a load of glue on a pillow case

and chucks on the cotton balls

the night before the show....

thankfully all the mothers (about 300 of them)
are soooooooo much nicer than your usual 'school playground' mothers
they were saying
'gosh, that must have taken ages to sew on all those cotton balls'
(as my son kept picking at each one that dropped off)
and 'how incredibly creative'
:-)
that's the English for you
actually sometimes that is really nice
when they only talk behind your back!

projectje

zo moeder, zo.....

biefstuk wil ik graag nog loeiend op mijn bordje geserveerd hebben.
zag ik bij de slager een waanzinnig mooi stukje rosbief, denk ik watertandend van jammie.... en stik maar, ik ga dat serveren en als de kids het niet motten dat zien we dan wel weer.
ze zijn i.h.a. redelijk braaf met eten wat de pot schaft, vooral als ze weten dat er aardbeien toe zijn. de oudste vraagt zowaar af en toe om een tweede portie koolhydraten. verder komen 'tweede porties' in het vocabulaire niet voor.

ik serveerde ze dit:

en het enige wat ik de hele avond hoorde was 'more please!' - met een big smile. 0.7 kg rosbief als sneeuw voor de zon. (ja ik serveerde er ook heus gepofte aardappel bij en spinazie en komkommersla, maar dat was al op toen ik dacht van dit moet op de foto)

kijk. dat zijn nou nog eens kinderen naar mijn hart.

Bad Mother's Dilemma...

1) daughter-dear has been ill for a week. surprise surprise, now it's her brother's turn.

2) i'm a Bad Mother because i had completely forgotten to have his sheep costume ready for the nativity play dress rehearsal last thursday.

so i've quickly cut some extra holes in a pillow case, found a shower cap, ordered 3 bags of cotton wool with the grocery delivery tomorrow, got some spray glue - all set to have him in a sheep costume by sunday night. the nativity play will be performed monday - thursday.

he'll be ill.

but no one would notice.

whereas my daughter is always really poorly, my son is just tired at 5 instead of 8 o'clock. who would bother taking his temperature? and also i can keep that down until about midday with ibuprofen.

AND i've missed 4 days at work last week already because of daughter-dear

aarrghhhhhhhh

of course, i'll keep him at home.

will make the flppn sheep costume just in case

i like winter - but why o why does it have to bring us so many bugs?!