Thames Valley Mums Blog

Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve

Finally, Christmas Eve arrives and to encourage children to go to bed there is a website that tracks Santa's journey.  Noradsanta.org tracks Santa's journey with video clips featuring Mount Fuji, Sydney Australia and Egyption pyramids. 

 

There is an official time and very official sounding newsclips with some NASA styled commentary with beeps that give weight to its credibility.  Perfect for the doubters.  Apparently, the tracking of Santa has gone on for over 50 years and started by accident.  

 

It's very fun to prove that Santa is on his way.

On a less official website, emailsanta.com there is a naughty and nice list.  Answering a few questions helps the elves to determine what list you may be on for Christmas.  Lighthearted fun but the kiddies have taken to it and are quite concerned where they are listed.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

This post written by Charlene, a Thames Valley Mums founding contributor.

Swap Party anyone?

I hosted my first Swap Party on Wednesday evening.

Nothing to do with keys in a bowl or naked people in hot tubs, my Swap Party involved myself and ten lovely ladies who had been exhorted through email, Facebook and face-to-face invitations to:

"Bring any unwanted clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery, accessories, books, CDs etc. A great excuse for a girlie gathering - and a chance for us all to update our wardrobes and keep a tight hold on our purse strings.

Do you have any help?

I was asked this question twice last week. Firstly by my GP at my ante-natal check-up and secondly by the staff at pre-school as I waddled in with an excitable toddler to pick up vomiting Podge.

"Er, no," was my reply. Because I don't. Lots of us don't. I'm not pleading hardship or asking for sympathy, it's something I'm used to and don't think about very much. By 'help' I'm assuming people mean a set of retired, helpful parents living round the corner who regularly do some babysitting, DIY and housework for you. I'm envious of anyone who has this arrangement as it would obviously make life a lot easier.

Lots of us don't have help like this because we've had to move around the country for jobs, our family have had to move or sadly our family aren't around any more. My Mum moves about quite a bit. She recently returned to the UK after living abroad and is an hour's drive from us. My Dad and in-laws are 3-4 hours drive away. My sister is an hour and a half away and my brother currently about 45 minutes away. He rarely stays in one place for long because he's in the armed forces.