I thought I would just take a moment to share just our
Christmas as it has been such a magnificent time. You may ask why magnificent?
My answer being: I took the opportunity to have a nice
lengthy space of time off over the Christmas period, as one work contract ended and the next one starts tomorrow, that’s how lucky I have been!
I have been part of Dylan’s end of term activities. The
greatest highlight being his performance as the lead singer in his rock band
‘The Rocking Flossers’. This is an activity led by Rock Steady Music School, supported
by the school, when children sign up to learn an instrument with the expectation
to perform altogether as a band at the end of the term. Dylan was
astoundingly brave as he stood in front of the whole school and was the only
singer of his five piece band, as the band banged, strummed and tinkled their
way through their rendition of ‘The Eye of the Tiger’. The impact on Dylan
since is he has been in awe of singers when seen live, I shared with him you
know where they started at Rock Steady Music School – publicly he isn’t convinced!
Next term he wants to be signed up for keyboards NOT singing as it is his
private pleasure.
Homemade gifts has always been an important part of our
Christmas routine so to have the time to indulge, was exhausting, as whatever
we do has to be done on an industrial scale. So we went into mass production of
shortbread stars, testing our skills and mastered on Dylan’s teachers, to all
of Dylan’s adult cousins their partners with aunts, uncles, grandparents and of
course tester biscuits. In total Dylan partook in the creation of about 40
stars including the gluten-free option too. My goodness we were both fed up
with shortbread once we were done although Dylan was delighted to be able to
give a gift to everyone in his family. Reviews were "premier biscuits ever!"
We also made specifically for Dylan to give to his elder
brother, a ‘light-catcher’ from acorn cups, marbles and crystal. This became a
mass production of cleaning the collected acorn cups, drilling two holes per
cup, paint spraying each cup and then construction. Of course the gift never
stays at just one so this fiddly, finger crippling dialogue became more than
one evening Jerry and I either end of the sofa messing around with acorns.
Dylan assembled each light-catcher made and relished the giving, just need the
sun to enjoy their beauty.
Thankfully visiting Santa is still an expected pursuit to
be undertaken and timely as going too early in December was not acceptable. So
far the most convincing Santa is when he visits Wicklewood. Santa enjoys a
boy’s conversation without rushing him, accepting a star shortbread biscuit
too.
We have had a pleasurable mix of time between catching up
with the wider family and enjoying our own peaceful family time at home, either
playing together or being in our own corners doing our own individual thing but
together. The ‘Stones’ meet up at Stonebarn for a delightful breakfast hosted by
Vanessa and Steven where we caught up with respective sisters, parents and
mainly adult children, a bit subdued due to the lack of small children this
year which we were all saddened by! Whereas the ‘Steggles’ gathered for an
evening meal with respective brothers, we had a relaxed natter slipping into a
mellow blather. Certainly savored the opportunity to get together with our much
loved wider families at Christmas. We also ventured to our local church, St Andrews in Hingham, partaking in an evening Carol Service attended by all of the Hingham churches. The service, attended by approx 100 people, started with a Youtube recording of the Muppet rendition of the Nativity called 'Bethlehemian Rhapsody', brilliant and set the scene for an interesting service ending with a glass of the scummiest mulled wine.
 |
| Roger, Jerry, Glenn |
 |
| 'Better halves' - Jenny, ME, Rachel |
This has been our first Christmas in our home in Hingham.
Adorned with a real tree with a beautiful shape and the whole room lit-up with
many twinkling lights of multiple colours. All our collected (over the years)
familiar decorations hung on the tree, Dylan took charge of the chocolates
hence Milo struggled to find them!
Our Christmas Eve preparations continue to be around
Santa coming to our home as he is still a real phenomenon and we regale as
such, without doubt keeps Christmas sentiment perfect but we are all on our
guard to make sure nothing slips to disenchant the illusion. Dylan shared his
usual tray of Santa/Rudolph snacks and picture with a pleasurable Santa response.
Dylan’s interests are history and has asked for gifts reflecting this interest,
so Santa assembled Dylan’s prime gift to be a Playmobil castle. Fabulous idea
but needed significant Christmas Eve preparation by Santa’s helper being 4+
hours of construction, getting to bed at 3am!! Worth every moment with the
response Dylan conveyed.
Stone tradition is going to the panto on Sandra &
Kevin’s wedding anniversary, this year being their 55th, they have
been going to the panto for almost as many years, WOW! We savored Peter Pan at
Lowestoft Theatre, really marvelous show making a first-rate afternoon
together celebrating Ma & Pa’s day.
It felt privileged to get the young Steggles men and
their ladies together in the same room for a couple hours over the duration
too.
 |
| Brett & Milly, Rebecca & Milo, Fraser & Rosie |
New Year’s Eve at Rocklands White Hart, bit different
this year, was great pleasure with Roger & Rachel with Ness and Steven joining
us in between Steven playing in the band Jacksback.
Wishing you a Happy New Year, make 2019 your own
enjoying all that comes your way!
WE WILL :)
