Jolly Hollidays

Saturday morning started with an early morning dash for piano lessons - the girls are practising Christmas carols! Candice and I worked on a verse for Standon Bowers, the Outdoor Education Centre that Tilly visited for our book "Tilly Smiles" whilst Tilly was tinkling away (we actually sit in the van during Tilly's lesson, ready with the suction unit in case it is needed).

The rest of Saturday morning the girls watched the premiere of The Wizards of Waverley Place whilst Rolf and I caught up with the jobs. Tilly thinks this is the best film she has ever seen, and I must say that the bits I caught looked gripping, a bit like Indiana Jones meets The Chronicles of Narnia!

We watched the final of Masterchef with lunch and all agreed that Steve was the worthy winner. We've all really enjoyed this series and Tilly does seem to have developed a taste for cooking. I've really enjoyed Rolf's impressions of Michel and Greg!

Saturday afternoon was topped off with all of us playing The Great Game of Britain (Steam Trains) which might sound rather heavy but was hilarious, and very exciting, and we kindly let Daddy win!

Tilly and Daddy cooked up a delicious salmon pasta and we watched "Strictly". Tilly used her 'arm-slings' to cook this time and was able to be even more involved.

Sunday morning saw a busy breakfast service. Two of our guests are the grand-parents of a local young child with a special needs. I passed on the Special Matters Newsletter and hope that we'll be able to welcome them along soon. It does take time, when you join this 'world of additonal needs' to be able to embrace it - for a long time we stayed outside of all the clubs, groups, organisations, etc, just wanting to stay in the world "BD" (Before Diagnosis).

Probably one of the only Sundays of the year that us girls are early for Church - when the clocks go back! May be this shows that families with 'extra jobs' could probably do with an extra hour to arrive at the same time as those who do not? However,we all enjoyed celebrating the Baptism of a beautiful baby boy, and the Church was comfortably full. There's talk of the girls helping to set up a Sunday School which should be interesting.

Big treat from The Mothers' Union on Sunday afternoon. They had paid for the members of Special Matters to go swimming in the gloriously warm waters of Shelton Pool. We were welcomed and helped by the Special Matters' Team and the staff at the pool were ace. The pool was filled with floats and inflatibles and the air was filled with shrieks of joy and laughter. We all agreed that we felt like we'd spent the afternoon in a tropical beach resort!

We returned home not only to find the house filled with the aromas of a delicious roast meal, but the fact that Rolf had managed to scale and conquer the mountain of ironing! (I must check him for wings)!

Our meal was divine, followed by us all collapsed on the settee for "X" Factor. This half term has certainly got us off to a very fine start to the jolly holidays!