Hurrah!  In this mornings' post, I recieved a competition win which I entered into last month!  Great thing is it's something that the girls will enjoy, downside is it wasn't one of the many, many spa breaks I'd entered hoping to win for myself and Jan!

 

The girls have been giddy, naughty, cheeky, etc the last few days and I've had my patience stretched to breaking point (again!).  I think that they might have a touch of sickness so am giving them a little bit of leeway.  Peter is away until Christmas Eve, he's been away a lot this month (or so it seems), and I've really missed him.

 

Tonight I'm expecting the arrival of Laura and Kev on their Southward journey to Julie tomorrow - I'm looking forward to seeing them and hope my frangipan topped mince pies will be ready in time!   These pies are wonderful, at least the ones I tasted were, and I give my great thanks to Lucy for sharing the recipe with me! If mine turn out anywhere near as nice I'll be happy and very full!

 

 

This week has been an action packed one so far in terms of the girls playgroup.  Peter was called out to Scotland which turned into a happy accident for me as it meant he could take the "gift box" to my sister instead of me posting it, which would probably be extortionate!

 

I baked all Monday from 1500 through until gone 0100, with a short dinner break with the girls in the middle.   It was all in aid of a cake stall at the girls playgroup on Tuesday.  I made tiny banana muffins, Christmassy decorated ginger biscuits and packed up some shop bought mini smartie cookies into press seal food bags and labelled them with nice festive labels I  made.  Therefore, you can imagine I was a little bit upset when I brought possibly at least 50% of the muffins and ginger biscuits back home!!  They people were crowding the cake stall like vultures and the good thing was it made £60 which considered most items were charged at 10p and 20p so the children could buy them themselves was really good, although in turn in makes it more annoying/upsetting that mine were left - what's wrong with them?!?  Lesson learnt??  Don't spend time, effort making things yourself buy them, repackage them as homemade and have a good sleep (ALL the shop bought crappy cookies sold!)!

 

Today the girls, together with the rest of their playgroup performed their first ever nativity service at the local Church.  It's not something the playgroup has done before, they've had the children sing the parents carols and festive songs but never the first Christmas story.  It was wonderful to watch them all get dressed up and was pleased that Peter's mum came along to see them too.  To the astonishment of many of my friends around here and whom I know through playgroup, I do not possess a homevideo camera, handycam, dv camera or whatever they're called nowadays.  I did however try my very best to record using Peter's XDA video function, but the quality is pretty poor and the sound even worse.  I will try to upload it below (Lauren and Martha as to the left of centre as you look at the stage - told you it was bad!).  It lasts 12 minutes so if you are planning to watch it, get yourself a coffee first!!

 

 

Well my blogging seems to have worked!  Seriously I don't exactly know what happened, although I suspect a number of positive factors came together with an overall positive end result! 

 

Lauren's behaviour has, apart from the little, manageable blip, has turned right around and she is being polite, helpful, kind to both Martha and myself and best of all no tantrums!  Martha has improved also, however less dramatically, although I do suspect that Lauren egged Martha on quite a bit when it was very bad!  I can now deal with Martha's issues with more ease now I have more focus and more patience thanks again to Lauren's improvement!

 

I have been getting the house straightened for Christmas visitors (if we actually get any unexpected, but very welcome guests) and it really works wonders for my mental health to have things in their proper places and going to bed with a tidy living room and kitchen.  I have even managed to tackle the girls room which I had left for as long as possible, and despite several nags, pleads, threats was never tidied by the girls.  The big news this week is that Martha is now sleeping in her bed without the bed guard on, we're all very proud of her and it certainly makes bedtime story more comfortable for Peter and I!  The girls have also slept fully through for the past few nights, which again makes me feel so much better!

 

We had snow again last night, it was very odd.  It was incredibly foggy but snowing as well, I don't think I've seen that before.  Anyway the girls and I cosy inside and didn't have to leave the house today so spent it wrapping presents!

The last few days (and today) have been awful.  I feel at the end of my rope with the girls.  Typically we are embarking on a week off playgroup due to the Village Hall being used for the Christmas play by the local amateur dramatic group.

 

I can just about cope with having toys strewn around the house, it's the wanton disregard for property, mine, Peter's, theirs, the house you name I cannot cope with.  Lauren has been pushing boundaries far too much recently and I just don't have the energy or skill it feels to deal with her.  The worst part is when they fight each other and Lauren can really hurt Martha (don't get me wrong, Martha can hurt back pretty well) - I just don't know how to stop them doing it. 

 

If my attention is taken off them for a millisecond (as in just now) they're in the bathroom filling things with water, splashing water around, breaking into biscuit tins, bread bins, fridges.  They are like wild children - they can't be hungry as I've just given them lunch, which they've eaten.

 

Last night I put the Christmas tree up and decorating not only the living room but also crept into their bedroom and put up a tree there too complete with fairy lights and another set around the wardrobe.  I thought they'd be happy to see it but Lauren's response was "I wanted THAT one in my room!".  I packed up the decoration boxes ready to return to the attic this morning only to go into the living room this morning to see them scattered. some broken too around the room.

 

I try to do activities with them but as soon as we stop, they misbehave again so I think "why bother?".  I really hope that this is just a stage, a short one preferably, as I don't know how much longer I can cope.

 

I've had them outside today as well which normally they enjoy but the misbehaviour just returned when we came indoors.

 

On a postive note, last night I worked out how to get photos from my mobile onto the PC so have now got some good ones which I've uploaded into the December album.

Yipeee!!  We have snow, and proper snow at long last!  I have posted just a couple of photos, we were too busy either playing, helping neighbours off the lane, or grocery shopping (bizarre I know, Peter thought it would be a good opportunity and he was correct, it was deserted!).

 

The girls and I took an impromptu trip with Peter on Monday afternoon/evening to Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway.  We actually stayed in the Premier Travel Inn at Dumfries which was really nice.  I changed the booking from a single to a family room with both girls in beds rather than a bed for Lauren and travelcot for Martha.  They were very accomdating at short notice so a big "Thank you" to them.  Martha slept wonderfully and far better than previously, I think she really has outgrown it now!  We awoke the next morning to a carpark that, without any exaggeration I promise, resembled an ice-rink and we literally slid our way across to Peter's van.  The girls and I had a lovely breakfast in a coffee shop whilst Peter worked, went to the library (a free and warm way to spend an hour!), visited the playpark and finally the pharmacy to get some cough relief for Lauren.  We then started off home, where we learnt that it had already snowed and there was about 6 inches.