Christmas 2017

We went across to visit my parents on the 23rd, had a buffet lunch and swapped presents.

I had a long walk and some visitors stopped by for a few hours. They brought their dogs, two more Tamaskans, one Shadows cousin and his sister. They enjoyed a walk together.

We watched the Masterchef final and the boys were delighted that their favourite chef Craig won.

On Christmas Eve we gave the children some toys and a book each, it's became a bit of a family thing and helps them keep calm and settle on the night. Sam enjoyed trying the daft pictures out.

On Christmas morning I made pastries to eat as we opened our gifts.

It was all pretty chilled out and peaceful .

Sam double checked his sack to make sure he hadn't left anything at the bottom.

We enjoyed a huge Christmas dinner, with crackers and the chocolate Yule log went down a treat.

Afterwards we played board games.

We took a trip to the shops and Owen spent some of his Christmas money. We played games and ate a huge amount of food, watched films and the boys played with friends.

Blokey was at work between Christmas and New year, so much of our time was spent at home just chilling out and playing with our new things. Owen enjoyed playing with his new driving kit and game. Sam alternated playing at the park and online with his mates.

The week before XMyth

Blokey is back at work for 4 days, then he's off for Christmas. Sam has been battling one illness or another for weeks. This last week it's been a nasty dose of conjunctivitis, thankfully, today it's starting to improve. Trying to keep his eyes ( and hands) clean, putting antibiotic drops in his eyes regularly and keeping him calm whilst I did these things has been 'interesting'.

He's up early Monday morning firing loads of questions at me. I escaped for a run before Blokey went to work, and thankfully his meds have settled him down by the time I returned. As Owen has now got up, they both decide that they don't want to 'do ANY learning today'. I had planned on winding things down anyway so just asked if I could watch Blue Planet after my breakfast. The children had already started watching Vincent and the Dr. We love this episode, and they keep pausing it to ask me questions about Vincent Van Gogh, the Impressionists, mental health, synesthiesia, Paris and Art.

We look at some of Van Goghs paintings.

I explained how clever this particular episode is, many of the scenes are reconstructed using Vincent's paintings and sketches, we laugh at his Scottish accent and the anomalies that are woven into the script.

Starry night sparks a theory on this and we had a long debate.

And I did my usual embarrassing Mum thing where I cried at the final scenes.

Next we watched Blue Planet - Coasts.

Again pausing the programme and talking through some of the filming that intruded the children. So yeah...no learning going on here at all 😱🤔

There then followed a lengthy discussion about a Minecraft and the new features recently added. You can now collect fish and marine life in a bucket. There are also blocky Dolphins, sunfish, swordfish and coral now on the servers. 

Sam: I can see a large aquarium coming to our server in the very near future.

Owen was up first today, looked after his pet snail, without being reminded and also showered and brushed his teeth without incident!

After breakfast he built a fabby rollercoaster in Minecraft.

Sam slept in and was rather interesting to pin down for the first hour an a half he's trying to speak to me in a mishmash of broken German and Dutch. As I speak neither, and he's got a very faint grasp on both, it makes for much frustration. I made 'chocolate bread', which thankfully seemed to help proceedings along. 

We then went through the resources cupboard and played Wildcraft. Always a fav game with Peanut, although he still can't look at the hornet or wasp sting hazard cards, they scare him still.

Sam also worked on his English.

Sam and I chatted about his plans regarding marine biology and I reminded him that next year he will be old enough to try scuba diving. He's been thinking a lot about the wildlife camera documentary, he thinks he would like to be an underwater cameraman

It was the last Jujitsu of the year...so that means games and Christmas hats are in order.

On Wednesday, a friends illness means a change of plans, so we all spend time giving the house a spruce up. The boys are getting so much better at this and I can leave them to certain tasks with confidence now.

After we had done our jobs we water the first of the Masterchef finals ..final week! Exciting.

Later they played with with their local and non local mates ( online )  and we had a quick visit from some of our home ed friends.

The following day we watched another of the Masterchef professionals.

Sam baked some more of his 'chocolate breadzzzz'.

Advent

The mood is still low at Whitzend. The boys are picking up but I am still finding some things very difficult. Owen has been having many outbursts and poor old Sam has been the target in the main. I find myself constantly running between them to sort arguments out. Owen is also being incredibly more demand avoidant because his anxiety is high. So Blokey and I decide to implement our strategies to smooth things over. 

We work on some maths first thing first Owen. We have got him up earlier than Sam, thus ensuring he has done his structured activities/self care/pet care, without disruptions. This means that by the time I get Sam up, Owen is working on his own self led interests and calm. 

Sam was up for a couple of hours in the night, but seems a little brighter and *fingers crossed*, his cough isn't  sounding as bad. I am more hopeful we can keep off the antibiotics and steroids as long as he doesn't relapse again.

He manages to shower and complete his structured tasks reasonably well, with minimum fussing.

I explain about Advent and give the children a few choices of activities. They decide to visit the Grotto and pick an ornament each  for our tree. I give them a budget to work from.

There were so many interesting items we liked.

Sam really loved these snow globe type lights but we didn't have enough money in our budget for one.

We looked at ALL THE THINGS at least three times before choices were made. The boys were so taken with some of the ornaments they bough extra with their pocket money too.

Owen and I looked at old photos of our dear old girl. We are really missing her today.

Sam had a bad night with his asthma and getting him engaged was very difficult. He decided to do some writing but really struggled. In the end we had a little play conversation on paper, which he enjoyed.

Owen worked hard on his maths.

And we gave our floofy dog extra cuddles because he is missing his best friend too.

The following morning Owen got up early and we made some cinnamon salt dough. Owen really enjoys these types of activity and the whole house smelt of cinnamon.

He made a face with the left over bit at the end.

A tray full of tree ornements to bake. We liked the Dr Who, love and dog theme.

Sam slept late, which is very unusual and shows how exhausting this virus is. He just can't seem to shake it off.

When he got up, he looked a little better than he has for weeks. We made some choc au pain.

Then the boys both decorated the tree, it's the first time they have managed to do it together and without my input..I had to sit on my hands..and accept the fact that the tree is only decorated from the middle upwards.

They saved their new ornements till last, so they had prime position. We always enjoy looking at the old things the boys or family have made over the years. 

Later the children attended their ju jitsu class and Sam managed well, I hope he's finally shaking this bug off.

Wednesday saw Sam out of bed super early..no one knows how early and Sam's not telling. Both children shower, get their own breakfast and get dressed whilst I work out. Once I have my breakfast we watch the latest episode of Masterchef the Professionals episode 13. We are pleased that our favourite chefs make it through to the the next round.

There follows a long debate about what to do next. Neither boy is in the mood for maths or English today. Finally we settle on a documentary about wildlife cameramen. It's a good choice and we all find it facinating. We are pleased to learn that it's a series and will no doubt watch the rest later.

We had a marathon of Mythbusters in the afternoon.

Owen worked on order of operations and extended notation.

Sam wrote a story about a potato ...

We caught up with Masterchef...it's very exciting, so I had to keep rewinding it because of the excited chatter from Sam's corner. I think he's starting to feel better but is still in that annoying post viral stage where he's crabby too.

One of our favs is Craig.

We are winding things up here and just doing what we fancy leading up to Christmas. Blokey is using up the last of his holidays, so it's a mixed bag.

We do some Christmas shopping, visit the paternal Grandparents and go to the cinema...the new Star Wars film. I stayed home and caught up with some jobs.

Maths was completed some mornings and not others.

We had a meal out.

Tired the dog out.

And stayed warm  keeping up with Masterchef and seeing who reached the semifinals and finals week.

Watched some history..

Attended a family do in Blackpool and saw the 'loominations'..

We played in the snow and as the schools were closed the children got a couple of extra days with their local friends.

Thawed out and went into town....there were much comings and goings. My blogging, no doubt, will get hit and miss till after the festive period.