A Humdrum Mum

What a pledge that was, posting a letter every day! F is for Fake Father Christmases. Elf has seen a couple this year, the first was at the school party. He said afterwards "He was fake, I could tell cos his beard was rubbish". The same day we saw the second, at a garden centre where you can have tea with Santa . The Big FC spends about 5 minutes with each child chatting about their year, and what they want for Christmas. He really is a good one.  Elf said afterwards "I could tell he was real as his beard was real. But the only reason he looked fake was his white gloves." I said  that he needed to keep his hands clean. He didn't focus on the fact that the school FC said he was off to New Zealand - how did he make such a quick trip? I think next year I'm going to have to explain that Santa needs helpers as he's too busy making toys and reading lists. How he's growing up. And that second beard wasn't real...

On Friday, I was at a spa day with my best friend and Mr Humdrum took Elf to the pub to meet up with the gang. We meet our old nursery group every Friday for Beer O'Clock.  I met them there, and found that the evening's activity was to write a letter to Santa. (They used to play outside but it is rather cold now so we take entertainment as they are too young for the pool table.) Elf's letter said: Meriy Chrismas HO HO HO  To Santer meriy Chrismas luf "Elf".  I woold lick wich docter thanck you from "Elf". Witch Doctor is from Lego Hero Factory - click here to see him.  Anyway I digress. E is for Eavesdropping . As Nana has already got Witch Doctor for him, and he's only put one toy on the list (so polite), how do we explain that Nana has it for him instead of Santa? If we let him think Santa has it, he will think Nana has nothing for him. I suggested in the kitchen this morning to Mr Humdrum that we say that Santa had already bought som...

Well I haven't been doing very well in my attempt to post in this A-Z every day! Oh well. D is for Dancing . Firstly we went to see Adam Ant last weekend, for the second time this year, and he was, again, amazing. After the gig, we went dancing in our local cool club  Scandals . What has this got to do with Christmas? Um not much. Which leads me to my second post on Dancing. Ballet dancing - The Nutcracker . What a magical Christmassy thing to do ... trip up to London by train, walking through Covent Garden at night, and the ballet at the Royal Opera House. We had an amazing time, thank you to my friend who got us the tickets (she used to work there in the marketing department). I can't wait to go again!

Oops well I haven't kept my promise to blog every day!  C is for Charity . Charity begins at school for Elf, he had a visit from the Portsmouth Foodbank  at his Harvest assembly. This is an organisation providing three days' emergency food to local people in crisis. A member of their staff gave a talk to the whole school, and even now, Elf asks when are we going to give food to the bank again. I think we are doing Christmas presents for local children through them as well. They had a stand outside my local Waitrose yesterday and we were able to pick up a little shopping list to help with donating. I donated tinned potatoes, minced meat in gravy and fruit salad. They really are a worthwhile charity and when I told him how good his colleague's talk was at the school, he said he'd had another little boy from the school recognise him! This shows that the personal touch works to show charity in context in your community to youngsters. With all the consumerism (anoth...

Bad Mum didn't get around to sorting out the advent calendar for Elf. Oops. I knew it was the 1st of December today, I just didn't get my act together! Elf woke up this morning and the first thing he said was "Can I open my calendar?" I thought as I hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't remember.  However tonight I have sorted it out. Mr Humdrum got the two Christmas bits'n'pieces boxes out of the garage and I found the Christmas truck with little boxes in that is Elf's advent calendar.  Mr Humdrum had bought mini choc bars to put in, but they don't fit! Instead I filled them with the leftover eye chocolate from Hallowe'en, and added a little note in tomorrow's drawer. A sort of riddle: My first is in mum's name My second is in not right, but .... My third is in an orange coloured fruit My fourth is in something you eat to make you see in the dark My fifth is in something you fly high in the sky Of course, this riddle w...