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.

Calling all children: Put on a Panto!

Panto season has started and to celebrate Robinson's has created Put On A Panto -- a cute web site that gives children all the tools they need to stage their very own Pantomime -- from planning, to practising to performing. It even includes invitations, posters and suggestions on making costumes.

Come on, I know you want to try it.

And if you'd like to win tickets to a local pantomime of your choice (for a family of five, worth up to £250) please visit A Modern Mother, Violet Posy or The Potty Diaries for a chance to win a fun night out!

Photo credit

Flying High

I love flying. I love everything about it; people-watching at the airport, shopping for duty-free, running to the gate in response to the last call for boarding...

Once in my seat I trawl through the in-flight literature, tossing aside the safety instructions and devouring the pages of still more duty-free shopping that I have no intention of buying. I search for the menu to make my choices; the in-flight meal being the highlight of my trip. I've never flown business class, but whilst I would undoubtedly appreciate the luxury, I think the experience would lack the quintessential allure of flying for me. I can eat my dinner from a china plate at home; I use real cutlery, real glasses at home...

It's all over...

Thank God that is all over. Is that a terrible thing to say? I think just about every day over the past two weeks has felt like it lasted forever.

For this is what happens in our household. We all get up late relatively late as there is no school. This is good. What’s not good is that a) the baby has turned in to a wailing machine which means I have been up and down with her every night for what seems like weeks. I hear her at about midnight, then 2am, then 4am. She has a hacking cough which wakes her up and then she starts wailing.

‘Mama, mulk,’ she says.

I then get up and stumble trip downstairs and find her and find her a clean bottle and then warm up some milk and try to force cough mixture down her. Then I put her back in her cot with her warm bottle.

Post Christmas analysis

Well, it's over. Again.

Whew!

Here are my Christmas 2008 highs and lows:

Top Ten Highs:

1. My six year old's glee on Christmas Eve when our friends arrived for a drink. It signified for her the start of the actual festivities.

2. Our Christmas goose. I love goose and there is nothing better for Christmas dinner. Nothing.

3. Making homemade mince pies a la Nigella. It took me three days to actually complete the mission but I did it. Yippee!

A week of children's pantomine -- am I nuts?!

OHMYGOD. What was I thinking? Three girls in a traditional children's Christmas pantomime. For four shows. Plus a five-hour dress rehearsal. In the week between Christmas and New Year. Am I nuts?!

I have a feeling that Post Nativity Play Syndrome was easy peasy compared to dealing with the inevitable Post Pantomime Syndrome.

Now of course this isn't any old Pantomime, this is Muffin Hurst's Henley Children's Theatre Group Pantomime. Muffin's dad (as in the 70s music producer Mike Hurst) writes the Pantos and they are genuinely funny and appeal to all age levels.

Who wants to go for a walk?

"But I don't want to go on a boooring old walk mummy,"  whined Emily, our six-year-old, when I announced we were going down to the river for our Boxing Day stroll.

We had to move fast, the sun had popped it's head out and the sky was a beautiful shade of turquoise blue, a change from the grey skies we've had the last couple of days. If I blinked it could go cloudy again.

"I want to do SOMETHING," she said still dazed and drugged by the previous day's activities and still surrounded by a mountain of boxes and wrapping paper.

Er, maybe it was my approach. I tried again. "Who wants to feed the ducks their Boxing Day Dinner?!"

Seven FAB activites for children during the Christmas holidays

My daughter has four weeks of Christmas holidays.  Every year I’ve worked the holidays, so I’ve never really had to deal with keeping her entertained.  However as I’m only working two days a week now and hubby’s just been made redundant we aren’t for one minute going to spend £45 a day on holiday club - no matter how much she begs to go - LOL!

So being a good thrifty mummy I’ve scoped out the local bowling alley, it turns out you can bowl for £1.95 if you go between 10am and 12pm. An ice rink opened locally for the holidays but it’s quite expensive so we might have to give that a miss or see if they have a reduced rate time.

All Aboard! Try the IMAX with children

We took the Boys to the Imax on Southbank yesterday, to see the wonderful movie, 'The Polar Express'. 
 
This is not a review of the film, however; it's been out for long enough (five years) that there's a pretty good chance you'll already have seen it, and if you haven't, I suggest you rush down to Sainsbury's where the dvd is usually on special offer at Christmas for around £5.  Then settle down for an afternoon of escapism with your children - I defy you not to be swept up in the story...

Christmas cheer!

The nativity play is most definitely over, only it wasn’t so much of a play as a sing-along-a-Christmas. There were lots and lots of wise men and kings and shepherds at the inn and my MS played an irascible traveller – smiling his way throughout – and my youngest one a sheep.

He was so loathe to do it, I am amazed he got up on stage but he did. He stood there, wiping snot on his woolen outfit and staring in to space while everyone else sang. Then he tripped going off the stage and fell over and burst in to howls of tears which made everyone else look concerned and horrified bar my MS who thought it was hysterical.

Ten things to do in Oxford with children this Christmas

Wondering what to do with the kids this Christmas?

Oxford is just a hop, skip and a jump away and it's a great place for kids. You just need to know where to go and what to do.

Check out these insider tips by Kelli Terrington, an Oxford mum and founder of Ox and Cross Publishing, publisher of the Oxford Colouring Book, where all proceeds go to charities that help children.

1. The Botanic Garden near Magdalen Bridge has an inspiring Christmas tree decorated with things found in the garden.  If you are worried about being out in the cold, there are several glasshouses where you can keep warm and admire many interesting plants despite the outside temperatures.

London's most spectacular winter attraction -- ice skating at the Natural History Museum

The Ice Rink and the Christmas Fair at the Natural History Museum are billed as 'London's most spectacular winter attraction'.
 
Well, what could be better for a cold November afternoon when the nights are drawing in and the park is out of the question?  We took our two boys (five and three years old) and a couple of visiting family members to see if it lived up to the hype.
 
To a certain extent, it does.  It's in a fabulous location right in front of the beautiful Victorian façade of the museum, and is prettily lit by twinkling white lights in the surrounding trees, so it certainly looked festive enough.

Dear Santer ...

Dear Santer (my six-year-old's creative spelling interpretation), Santa, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or whatever you want to call yourself,

This year is going to be different. Just you wait.

I will keep accurate lists of what I've bought for whom and where that stash may be hiding in my house. I will not forget relatives and God children. Not even the ones that live far away. Or are babies. And especially babies that live far away. I will cross reference lists with other relatives and God children's parents just to make sure there is no repetition. As God as my witness...