Decks the Halls..

Phew - over 5 hours spent on Christmas decorations, and there are still lights left in the box! I don't really go for tinsel, but somehow having 3 children seems to have led to us having a plethora of lights! No large plastic snowmen (ok, so we have five small robins outside in the tree!) just a lot of twinkling lights. I guess it looks kinda pretty..

I know I'm sounding a bit like Scrooge, but I do tend to get unreasonably stressed at this season. I find the commercialism so "in your face" and find so much of what we do so far removed from the real Christmas message. However, I find myself giving in to pressures (plastic robins in particular) and then trying to justify them ("it's for the kids").

I also feel frustrated that today we didn't do any "learning". Yes, I know they learn all the time, despite us (we follow the autonomous learning route - I think in America it is called child directed?) but I still feel somewhat guilty at a totally "free" day.

Silly really - when they were at school they had two "free" days every week and I didn't feel guilty!

Today was the Dickensian Christmas Festival in Rochester (near to me), so the local traffic was very busy. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to go. However, if you are in the UK in June next year, you could make the Dickens Festival!

I also made my third Christmas cake today. No, not because we have a large family, but because my husband always eats the first one I make each year! This year I managed to get the first one iced before he got to it, but he still insisted I made another. That has nearly gone, so I made a third one today! It is a lovely recipe - if you want to see it, have a look at the bottom of my cakes page on our family site.

Still, it has been a lovely family day, for which I am grateful. Now, I'm going to put the kids to bed and settle down with a book to relax!