On the last day of term I sent in my usual teacher Christmas presents of peppermint bark

we made some cakes for a charity fundraiser, and went a bit mad with the edible glitter

H assembled our Christmas tree (with much cursing at the fact that all the colour coded stickers had dropped off the branches but I think the random branch lengths add to the ‘realness’)

and the lovely miss Amy decorated it.

I smile every time I walk past the tree because it is dotted with my growing collection of treasured handmade decorations from bloggy friends: the beautiful stained glass bird from Kristen, The sweet Christmas angel from Dottycookie and the lovely Miss Ivy Pecker from Jooles.

Anyway, we’ve had a relatively good Christmas and the day itself was quite peaceful. As usual the excitement and magic of the festivities passed Toby by completely but on Christmas morning, for the first time ever, he showed some interest in opening his pressies. It was lovely to see him working out how to get the paper off and being interested in what was inside. Even though it was a fleeting moment it brought a tear to my eye, in a good way – the perfect Christmas present for me.

I hope your Christmas was a good one and I just wanted to pop in and wish you a very happy New Year.

See you in 2013!

Well, we're in the last few days before the school Christmas holidays start so I wanted to wish you all happy holidays before I disappear for a week or so. Our tree will go up once the children are home from the last school day and then we'll start our celebrations. I hope that you all have a very merry week whatever you are celebrating and a happy start to the new year.

Amy helped me put together this little video – she has provided the lovely singing on the backing track.

Keep warm, keep safe and enjoy your week, see you soon xxx