Tuesday

Final Christmas play rehearsals were not going well, three people were off school so their places needed to be filled.  Added to that everyone was stood in the wrong places at the wrong times during the show and strees leveles were rising!  And all this in front of the lower school. Still, as they say, it'll be alright on the night.It was a pleasant enough afternoon so took the pavement with my scoooter and cones and then the skateboard for a bit, I haven't lost it!  Despite not using it since we were on holiday.  I don't think Mum and Dad were too pleased with my choice of footwear though....my nice leather, lace up school shoes.

In other wheel based news, I sold my old 16" wheeled bike!  I hadn't used it in over a year and Dad had cleaned it up really nicely.  The lady that came round took one look and said she would take it there and then.  Easy sale.  She paid on her phone and Mum saw the money ping into her account on the Ipad.  How very modern.  The downside was that I couldn't get my hands on the cold, hard cash and blitz it on TY toys....

Wednesday

No team Kennet this week, as it was time to perfomr the school play, in the evnings for the Mums and Dads.  I wasn't particulalrly nervous and skipped off down the school after tea to get into my costume.  It went okay on the whole, even if someone did speak over my lines when they got their timing all wrong.  I was buzzing when Mum, Dad and Ned came to pick me up afterwards.

Thursday
Christmas lunch day at school, so it was on with the Christmas jumper, Christmas tights (that I got told off for wearing last week as they aren't strictly uniform) and on with the hats we make every year.

So that was all great, shame about the meal though, it wasn't very nice at all.....
The last performance of our Christmas play, The tale of La Befana, based on a traditional Italian folk story. Mum, Dad and Ned were coming toinght so we all walked in together.  Well, Mum and Dad walked, Ned and I heelied!
The show went much better than the first night so that was a relief.  It was cool seeing Mum, Dad and Ned there, especially as they sat at the end of the centre aisle so I got to pass by them very closely during the bits where we wandered around the audience, they loved our candlelit procession around while singing silent night in Italian!!  I got a candle to carry both nights too (not a real one sadly, one of those flickery battery ones which was still seriously cool).  There were plenty of comedy moments in the script and plenty of adaptations of welll known songs (Lady Madonna and the Proclaimers 500 miles being the real highlight).
I got to deliver my lines without any interruptions too tonight which was a relief.

The feedback was good, especially for our singing which was so clear, lous and even in tune!
We stayed on afterwards to help tidy up all the chairs, a task made much easier in Heely's. We thanked Mr Percy and Miss Newman for all their efforts on the way out, I think it had been quite a challenge for them.

Friday
My school photo finally came home, despite me losing it between being given it at the end of the day and meeting Dad in the playground.  We retraced my steps but couldn't see it anywhere.  It had already been handed into the office, after a positive ID check we took it home:

Ned had done food tech, Macaroni Cheese!  So we had said we would go and collect hime rather than him riding home with a large pyrex dish full of dinner on his back.  The problem was that Mum still had the car!  We offered to walk up and meet him, so I donned my Heely's and engaged talk mode all the way up the hill.  Somehow, we managed to miss him as we took his usual route round the back of Sainsburys rather then the other way past Budgens.  He did the opposite.  We couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone as usual.  He did finally ring, by which point he was already half way down the hill.  Heelying back down the hill was a lot better than up it but he still beat us home.

It was film night at school, Minions, which i've already seen, but you know, it's film night isn't it?  It was a good night, Andy came to pick me up as Mum and Dad had gone out Mums work christmas party.  We had a great night, if maybe a little late to bed......

Saturday
Christmas Tree day!  Leaving the house was an emotional experience, lots of whingeing and moaning and not doing anything that was requested of us.  By the time we had got to fifth road in the car we had escalated to arguing and fighting so Dad decided he wasn't prepared to get the tree at all.  We went back home, with much more wailing and protestation.  Ned went off to bed and I sulked on the sofa.
Things cooled down a bit, we had a civilised lunch together so tree shopping was back on, much to our relief.  We went to Yattendon and even though it was pretty busy there were loads of trees on offer once we had negotiated the wealth of decorations and trinkets on sale.  We had been a little disappointed with the size of trees on offer for the last few years as we hadn't got the cherub on top even close to the cieling.  With this in mind we were on a mission to get the biggest one Dad would agree too:

We did very well on that front, it was massive.  Even the man that worked there that helped us bag it commented on what a lovely tree it was and how we would be back tomorrow for a refund and a smaller one.  We got it home and cleared a space for it, took another look and then cleared even more space for it.  It went in the bucket easily enough and we pulled it into place.  It needed some more space, so the sofa got pulled right up to the door into the hallway, taking that out of comission for the next few weeks...oh well, a small price to pay if you ask me.  We set about decorating it and for the first time I can remember we didn't have any decorations left in the box to speak of in the end:

it was my turn to put the cherub on top, which was not the easiest operation it has to be said.  Eventually Dad hoisted me up while stood on a chair and held me aloft like superman.  I was not at all happy with this We sat back and enjoyed the warm glow of the fairty lights, very happy with our efforts.

Auntie Trish came round to babysit in the evning, yeah, Mum and Dad going out wo nights running, outrageous!!

We had a lovely evening, she loved our mega tree!

Sunday
Up after a modest lay on for the Berkshire under 11 sportshall athletics competition.  Our team of little 8 year olds against them big old 11 yrpear olds....i did okay on the while, my running is still a bit lacking in terms of outright speed but I doubled my distance for the foam javelin compared to our last competition.  Looking at Dad here you would think he was the on putting in the effort rather than just being a convenient, portable sofa:

Our little team came, ummmm, last on the day.  Hey ho, we've got another two years before it really counts.

We were all a bit tired and irritable on Sunday night, so there were early nights all round.

Monday
It was the week of our Christmas dance routine,the highlight of which. According to Mum was our human sleigh arrangement.

After tea it was a surprise visit (for us anyway) to see Hayley.  A most fortunate forgetting of Hayley's birthday present by Mum and Dad when they went out on Saturday night for her birthday lead to a Nate visit!  He was of course super cute and we got him laughing away as he laid on his mat!

Tuesday

It was badge week at gymnastics and I achieved bronze status for apparatus!  Get me, another one for my cool file I keep them in.

Wednesday

Neds last rugby match of the season was a rather spirited affair. Nhe mad a fantastic run the whole length of the pitch to score a fantastic try, only for it to be disallowed by the ref who was so far away he couldn't see that he touched the ball down over the line.  He was devastated.  There were like loads of high tackles from Trinity which is against the rules by all accounts? This riled the Park House lot up rather so the tackles inreased in ferocity, ultimatlely ending up in one of Neds team who is pretty much as tall as Dad getting high tackled and what can only be described as a fight breaking out.  I thought it was seriously exciting stuff, even if Ned wasn't involved.

Straight from the rugby club to Team Kennet again for me......I'm glad the rugby season has finished.

Thursday

Another day rehearsing the play, adding to Mr Percy's stress levels.  After school Mum and I went to Best One to get ourselves some sweets for tomorrows Panto trip.....

Friday

Panto trip with the school, Mum got an invite too as she's been a reading helper.  Fortunatley I didn't have to sit with her, she sat with the other invited grown ups.  I sat with Harrison, like it was the back row of the cinema, all cuddled up.  It was great fun, the loud thing i've ever been involved in...so much shouting and screaming and when we all had to stamp it was like an earthquake!  Mr Percy got a lot of stick from the Dame character too.

In the evening we went with the Halfords for a meal at the newish pub up by Tesco.  Sadly the lovely Hartley wasn't allowed to come with us.  We walked from their house all the way along Monks Lane which gave plenty of oppurtunity for larking about with the boys, it was great fun, we all know how much I like a walk!  The meal took a little while to arrive which was a shame as we were starving, but we filled the time with plenty of fun and I enjoyed it when it dida rrive.  I love a kids menu when you can put your own bits together, chicken nuggets, mash and salad sticks...perfect for me.
The walk home was just as much fun too, I even managed to get Dad to sit me on his shoulders for a bit which was quite an achievement as he had banned me from this earlier in the year on the grounds that I was way too big.

Saturday

A very rare event took place this morning, we washed the car!  The poor thing was filthy.  I love car washing, well, I love getting the water everywhere, getting soaked then clearing off indoors before it's finished anyway.
It may be a few years since we left, but the Infant school Christmas fete is still one of the highlights of our Christmas preparations, Ned included!

There were all the usual attractions, Miss Stricklands face painting is still brilliant and I was thrilled she still remembered me:

I still love the biscuit decorating stall, I think you can see the benefit of my exeprience now, i'm not so prone to throwing as much decoration at it as I can manage anymore and take the less is more approach:

It didn't last long though.....

Even I can't resist a decorated biscuit:

And in a drastic upturn in fortunes, I won things on the tombolas!  It was a remarkable upturn over previous years where i's spend all my money and not win a thing and have to envy Ned's bagfull sof prizes.  It must be said, he did pretty well again this year and came home with a whole lot of edible goodies.

Sunday

I got another trip to the Panto with Sasha (who's Mum had aquired some free tickets apparently) and Jess.  It was ace going out with them and we loved the panto still, even if it wasn't quite as raucous as the full school trip.