Advent calendar

8th - Linnea got a dog and a barbecue, which I haven't been allowed to see, and donated a cat puppet (they seem to have two identical ones, so that was easy)
7th - Emer got a piano, donated Little Miss Tiny (hurrah! I hate the Little Miss books)
6th - Linnea got a little girl lego toy, donated a wooden xylophone which is very pretty but has only five notes
5th - Emer got a drum kit, donated a plush Disney frog
4th - Linnea got part of a crane, they donated a weird metal thingie we got given as an ornament years ago
3rd - Emer got a skateboard with ramp, both donated an alphabet thingie
2nd - Linnea got a sword-wielding person, donated a plush Rockit frog
1st - Emer got a snowman, Linnea donated a plush Disney frog

Day. Day day day. Over now. Urgh.

Why do my children hate getting dressed? Why why why?

Today we had cinnamon porridge with dried fruit and nuts and muscovado sugar for breakfast, and then we made Christmas cards and put ribbons on Christmas gifts ALL DAY (we stopped for bean casserole and scrambled eggs on toast, for lunch, and an afternoon snack of Jaffa cakes) until I persuaded - bullied? - them to get dressed and we went and posted the gifts, which cost an absolute fortune. The postage, not the gifts.

I washed nappies and baby sleeping bags and towels and white clothes, and didn't actually have SCREAMING rows with the children but did get closer than I like to it, and I am not at all sure whether I am paranoid or the older children have been manhandling Astrid like a doll in my absence; I'm not leaving her alone with them for a while just in case, which will make life interesting.

We played ring-a-ring-a-roses and did a huge number of action rhymes, me and the three girls, and made cards, so that was very togethernessy. Dinner was on schedule and they were in their pyjamas before Rob got home, so they watched the CBeebies Bedtime Hour. We seem, as a household, to be still on Illness Time, which is a couple of hours later than Real Time.

Also, Linnea keeps resetting her bedroom clock.

Astrid and I play a game I invented when Linnea was a bit older; bop bop bop boopsie. She's also enjoying peekaboo, though she can only uncover her eyes, not cover them up yet.