Plan for the day – updated! Updated even more, now with added bolding!

940am – waste precious moments of the day compiling a blog post about plan for the day while kids watch Brainiac – took longer than expected as, in my usual manner, I got carried away with how much I wrote!

950am wrap ebay parcels, there are only five and labels are already written so shouldn’t take long – did it, but we didn’t leave the house til about 1015am in the end.

1005am – leave the house. The Thank You Neighbours are bound to be outside (I swear we ‘bump into them’ at least 50% of the times we go out or arrive home) so there will be hellooooing and avoiding the cuddles of David Thank You who has crossed the to the wrong side of the friendly line since catching me half naked in the hall that time. They were curiously absent. If I were the paranoid sort I’d conclude from this that they’d read my blog and realised I was on to their sneaky ways, but then I’d also need to conclude they’d read this bit too and in writing it I’d be creating a situation where they knew that I knew that they knew that I knew that they were indeed professional stalkers masquerading as ordinary neighbours and I’m way too scared to admit to that suspicion so I’ll pretend it was all mere coincidence.

1015am – arrive at party hall to collect keys – did it and hurried on our way

1025am – drive to post office to post ebay parcels and Christmas card to NZ. Exchange banter about post office closing, selling on ebay, indulge the post office ‘girls’ (they are both well into their 40s) guesses about what each parcel contains and discuss the horrible weather (it’s raining). All done. Oh how we chuckled over her wrong guesses about the ab curl gizmo and laughed even more when I made a crack about how obviously I’d never used it gesturing at my untrained midriff and how it made sense to pass it on to someone else who could also never use it!

1035am – drive to Sainsburys while praying to the Lord of Petrol that we have enough fuel to make it. We’re playing end of the month petrol chicken today.

1040am – fill up with petrol. Or start walking along the side of the road with two small children in the pouring rain to buy a petrol can and walk back to the car along the side of the road with two small children in the pouring rain to put said petrol in car before driving back to the petrol station to fill up properly. All subsequent timings rely on the first scenario rather than the second.

1050am – Go to Sainsburys to buy potatoes, cream and cheese (FFS how did we run out of cheese? I don’t think we’ve ever run out of cheese before) for dinner tonight. Oh and garlic.

1105am – Go to Argos to collect black DS lite for Davies that I managed to reserve online last night. Hopefully the children will be distracted by Argos catalogues so I can be slightly discrete about it.

All done, the petrol held out, we got french bread as well for lunch which meant the children ate early and Davies was 100% aware of DS lite purchasing which I don’t have an issue with as I think once the belief in FC has passed there is as much fun knowing what you’re getting and anticipating having it to be had, which is were he is right now.

1115am – arrive home. Put chicken in slow cooker for dinner. Make biscuit dough and cake mix and start batch cooking before embarking on further battle with pink teddy icing. Swear, get impatient with inevitable interuptions from children at crucial moments. Either reach an appearance I can accept or give up on the whole thing.

Well the kitchen currently looks like this:

The cake looks like this:

and because I am still not entirely happy with it around the middle (maybe it could have done with that ab curl gizmo) I’m going to make a miniature birthday cake with five candles for it to be holding which solves the candle issue too. Tomorrow!

1pm – Lunch with children. In my happy place I like to imagine this takes place when the kitchen is filled with perfectly formed cakes and biscuits ready to be iced while the teddy cake sits looking like it is something I bought at The Bear Factory and draws gasps from all along the lines of ‘it’s edible!? I thought it was a toy!’. In my realistic thoughts it may well be 2pm before we eat, the children will be weak with hunger and sobbing at the swear words they have overheard me shrieking while the teddy sits no more than a pile of pink iced cake crumbs where I completely lost my temper with it and chucked the whole lot at the kitchen wall. I intend returning to update blog at this stage. I imagine you will all be waiting on tenterhooks. 😉

I’ve eaten lunch, the children are drawing and we’ve just stuck Elf on as a festive film to watch while we make the letters. I’m running just over half an hour late but I reckon that’s not bad at all. Cake is still in one piece and my patience, temper and sanity all remain surprisingly intact. So far…

145pm – get out coloured paper, glue and pens and start to create the Merry Christmas letters for work display. Happily allow children to give input and assistance and commend them on their use of large quantities of glitter while smiling indulgently and saying things like ‘oh doesn’t that make the carpet look pretty!’. By now it may well be 4pm though and we could actually be in Tescos buying a ready made Disney Princess cake and me saying things like ‘Fuck the library display, it’s not even bloody December yet anyway!’

There was a cake related incident when Scarlett drew my attention to the fact it had slumped. It is now pushed against a box of rice crispies with more buttercream and a couple of extra cocktail sticks and I’m hoping for the best tomorrow when I take the box of rice crispies away in the style of someone whipping away the tablecloth while the fully laid out crockery remains in place.

3pm – take photo of Merry Christmas letters and pack them up ready to take to work with me. Go and make rice crispie cakes and depending on time maybe start icing cakes and biscuits. Make potato gratin for dinner and put it in fridge ready to go in oven later.

The letters got finished. Davies helped with some suggestions of ideas for letters and did some glueing together of a couple – one of the ‘M’s is his. Scarlett did lots of cutting, glueing and glittering and made something that she insisted be part of the display, and infact, because she is my daughter and I can get away with it, despite the fact it is neither a letter nor particularly relevant to the display it is now part of it and she got to stick it on herself :).

I decided to postpone rice crispie cake making until tomorrow on the basis that it is not very time consuming but does require lots of kitchen space which I am lacking in even more than usual just now. I did ice and decorate the cakes and biscuits though and Davies and Scarlett appeared midway and helped too:

430pm – get changed ready for work including Santa hairslides and Christmas tree earrings purchased last week to add to my air of festivity. Ady should be home by 5pm so I can head off to work. If the rain stops Ady and the children are planning to walk round the shops, see the lights switched on and come into the library for the crafts and games we’re laying on.
Ady was running late so he didn’t arrive home until 530pm. I got changed, did indeed adorn myself with santa hairslides and Christmas tree earrrings, fed the children toast and they dropped me at work at 550pm and went off to look around the town before returning to spend the evening in the library. It was me, the senior library assistant, the library supervisor, the country area librarian and a librarian so I was in good company :). I quickly stuck up my letters and was commended on them lots and asked if I’d like to get more involved in the displays (well, yes! And furthermore mwah ha ha ha!) and then I mostly manned the drinks table. There was cheery banter aplenty and it all lived up to it’s name of ‘Festive Fun at the Library’ what with it being both festive and fun. I made everyone a tea or coffee towards the end which they all were most effusive about (library folk seem easily pleased round our way ;)) and I said ‘well I’m an asset to this library is what I am!’ and they all agreed with head nodding aplenty, so that was heartwarming. :). The children had a great time; Scarlett sat with Abi, the librarian and did endless cutting and sticking craft activities. She sat there for the best part of two hours making owls, robins and chattering away to Abi, I could hear her voice as she gave a running commentary on what she was doing. She’s funny like that, Scarlett, she takes to some people so completely with no real obvious reason whereas other people she is so rarely herself with I think they probably don’t know her at all despite having met her countless times. She was on top, charming, form with Abi though and said to me on the way home ‘I liked her, I got used to her very quickly’ which is probably her little way of saying she felt comfortable with her quickly which sort of makes sense for that early feeling of deciding you like someone, I can think of friends I ‘got used to very quickly’ and others it’s taken far longer with. 🙂 Davies did a bit of crafty stuff but I think it was a bit too directed for him with no real room for his own stamp so he and Ady cuddled up on the bench seat and read stories – about ten of them apparently. And various other small children crept closer to listen too. Louise (country librarian top woman) asked if she could take some photos of D & S which made everyone else laugh uproariously and point out the picture of them on the wall posing with their pots from the Green Diggers event and explain that they are indeed the poster children for all West Sussex County Council Events 😆 So she got pics of Scarlett and studiously doing crafts, Ady and Davies sitting under my Christmas display reading stories and later pictures of Davies and Scarlett standing infront of the giant tree which was supplied by Breathing Places and decorated with the owls and robins. Not sure where it is due to be used but they did us proud with their eager Festive Fun expressions ;). Davies also came over to the refreshments table and talked to me about recycling the rubbish. I showed him we had stashed a recycling box and a bin under the table to seperate different rubbish into but he kept coming over to monitor it. He’s learnt about recycling at both Beavers and Badgers and is very consciencious about it, bless him. It did make me laugh seeing him rummage in the rubbish pulling out disposable cups and holding them up saying ‘are you sure this polystyrene isn’t recyclable?’ infront of all the old dears come in from the cold for their free cup of coffee and mince pie though :lol:.

840pm – get home, bung potato gratin in oven to cook, have bath, drink some fizzy wine, but not too much. Eat dinner, update blog and flickr with evidence of Happy Successful Day.
We did indeed come home, I did indeed bung the potato gratin in the oven, have a bath, drink fizzy wine, eat dinner and am currently doing the blogging and flickring as promised. It’s been a good day I reckon. I’ve spent a large amount of it kitchen-bound but have also managed some baking and some crafting with the children and Scarlett has kept coming out into the kitchen and gasping with delight and saying things like ‘Oh Mummy! I just love everything you are making for my party!’ with such genuine thrilled-ness that it’s been well worth every moment. Tomorrow is looking to be just as busy with party games preparation, a trip into town, a spot more baking (rice crispie cakes and cheese scones), shopping for sandwich fillings, bread and drinks followed by my Big Night Out which I am giddily excited about :).

Already running late – it’s 10am. Arse!