Sous chef

Tom has recently got very into cooking. If he sees me working in the kitchen he comes rushing over and climbs onto a chair going 'I help, I help'. He insists on wearing an apron, and prefers Marisca's butterfly one - I must see if I have any of the material left to make him one of his own.

It isn't just cakes he likes helping with either - here he is having a good go at chopping a tomato. He is a pretty good sos chef and we have lots of fun together!

Decorating the tree

It must be the penultimate weekend before Christmas, so that's Christmas Tree time!  It was lovely having both children interested and involved and neither made much of a pig's ear out of anything, which is nice.

A Christmas Angel

With Marisca starting school there have been many firsts - this week she got to star in her first Christmas concert, and we got to see our first one! The reception and key stage 1 children did a combined performance of 'children of the world', looking at different Christmas traditions in different countries. Marisca has been singing the songs to us for weeks, so we were looking forward to hearing them in context.

As you can see from the photo, Marisca was an angel, along with most of her friends, and very sweet they were too. I (Elspeth) was in floods of tears from the moment she climbed on stage, I was so proud of her - she sang all the songs, watched the teacher and was generally lovely - as were all the children. My admiration for primary school teachers has increased no end, I can't imagine how they got 180 children to remember lines, sing songs, sit and stand in the right places and generally pay attention, but they did.

There is a repeat performance this evening, so Tim is heading along to support and generally enjoy himself. I suspect there will be fewer tears from him, but just as much pride in our schoolgirl daughter.

EDIT (Tim): yes that's right.