Earlier this week in a pique of motherly love, I bought my girls some treats from Noa Noa: some tights for Buffy, and a top for Katie. Katie has worn it every opportunity since. She even wore it today when she was colouring... and thinking... and itching... and scratching. She scratched that indelible black pen right on her brand-new, sky-blue, lace-edged top. I was livid. Absolutely through-the-roof angry. I was so angry, in fact, I had to walk around the block to cool down. I came back in to reassure her I really did love her more than the top. Then I ate some food to stabilise my blood sugar and everything was happy again.

This evening I was nit-combing my way through Buffy's now-luxurious locks (no nits, hooray!) when Katie stomped downstairs, "Buffy drew on my bed!" She could well have added, "Again!" Naughty Buffy, always drawing on things. I wish I could be like the Casson family and give her a wall to decorate, but I'm not. I prefer she colour on paper. So does Katie.

I half suspected something was up when she came down with both hands and one cheek tattooed in swirls and squiggles. She explained she had just found the pen and had done it just before coming downstairs. I confiscated the pen and told her to wash up. She'd only done it to herself, so that was that. I guess I was wrong. (Again!) I know realise she had been in bed covering herself in ink and had inadvertently made a mark on Katie's sheets. How do I know? It's all in what she wrote on Katie's bed:

"Sorry"

Two short mobile phone videos of Katie skating at Somerset House last weekend. I think it's pretty obvious which one is Katie!

They're very short and more than a little bit rubbish. But doesn't she look good?

"So, Daddy, it's like Isobel's birthday, which is the twenty-oneth of December."

"The twenty-first of December, Buffy?"

(big sigh)

"No, Daddy. The. Twenty. Oneth. Of. December."

Merry Christmas everyone! We are now in the playing with presents phase of the holiday. The girls are working together beautifully on a Doctor Who puzzle from Gramma, Andrew is trying his hand at some Chopin from Gramma, our bellies are all full of cinnamon rolls, and I am feeling reflective. Lest I start to forget our 2009 Christmas, I thought I might write down twelve treats of our family's holiday season. Part of me insists I won't forget, but that part of me didn't remember the presents hidden in the office until midnight last night. Silly that part of me. So, here they are: Our twelve treats of Christmas!

1. Katie focusing so carefully on her recorder playing at the Christmas concert and singing Santa Lucia in Swedish so very sweetly. My favourite of all was in the rehearsal in the weeks leading up to the concert in which Buffy would join Katie. I know the Swedish lyrics just strings of weird syllables to Buffy - as they are to me - but darn it if Katie didn't teach her every one of those syllables perfectly. Love it!

2. Buffy's nativity. She was a little angel and asked me with big eyes if I could make an angel costume for her. What sewing-mad mom could refuse? I modelled it off of the beautiful clothes of Eden's Bouquet and Sophie's wedding dress from Mamma Mia. Buffy wore it proudly on stage. She would have been happy in anything, though, once she got on stage. The girl adores an audience. As soon as her foot hit the stage, she spun around and grinned at the audience. Her audience. The angels were expected to stand during all of the songs and sit during the dialogue. One little angel didn't like sitting very much, so she stood far longer than any other angels. At some point someone must have said something to her, because she started instructing all of the other little angels when to sit and stand. She even pushed one angel on the head to get her to sit down. Then she stood back and grinned at her audience.

About halfway through, though, something changed. Our perky, proud little angel crumbled into a very sad little mess. She sniffled and cried through the rest of the show. We were worried what had happened. It turned out she had ripped her dress. Oops! Maybe we should have bought the cheap plastic Disney dress afterall.

3. C's Christmas party. Andrew was supposed to go, but Buffy got an earache, so Katie and I went on our own. It was wonderful. A grown-up centric party for once. Everyone looked glamourous and told witty stories. It was a proper evening, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

4. Ballet! Sweet Granny always gets a pair of tickets for Katie and Daddy to go to the ballet together. This was their third year watching The Nutcracker, which they always enjoy. I think Katie really benefits from hearing the same music from year to year. I know I did as a child, and I know the music from that ballet better than any other by far. It's lovely music. Katie came home dancing around, which I remember doing too. I take it as a sign that the ballet really touched her.

5. Les Miserables with Katie. In the past few months I have been slowly introducing Katie to the music of Les Mis. She asked if we could ever go see the show. Well, yes, it's easy enough to do in London, but I warned her it's not a happy story. Some people are mean, then some people die, then things get much worse, more people die, then it ends. She assured me she was okay with the sadness, afterall Harry Potter has sad parts and she loves that. Good point, I thought. I idly looked for tickets online, but my credit card wouldn't go through. I did notice that there were lots of available seats on the 23rd, so I hatched a plan. Katie and I would go to the TKTS book in Leicester Square and try to get half price tickets on the day. I wouldn't tell her very much about it, in case I couldn't deliver.

Fortunately, they had seats available, and amazing seats at that. We were bang in the middle of the front section of Dress Circle. Our view was perfect. The show was amazing with brilliant performances from all, notably Javert and Gavroche. Little Cosette was nervous and her voice cracked, but that only added to her charm. It was sweeping and wonderful, and my sweet Katie loved it. A fan is born.

6. Mince pies and mulled wine. It is tempting to have these out of season, because they're so delicious. I think that might detract from their specialness, though, which is not worth the risk.

More in another post.

The girls and I have had nits. I just found out last night that I've got them too. It really was only a matter of time in our cuddly/hairy household. I guess I'm surprised it took that long, and that I only found one. Still, ew. This all has led to some sweet moments, though. Last night the girls were entwined on the rocking chair, Buffy sprawled over Katie. Katie then idly started nit-picking through Buffy's hair. It was such a sweet moment. They didn't need me or Andrew. Just each other. I hope they always have that.

Today we decided to stick to Greenwich, and I am so glad we did! What a lovely day. We walked into the centre of town, stopping by La Salumeria, the great Italian deli along the way. We bought some freshly made paninis to order and some juice boxes. Now these are not ordinary juice boxes, they are just pureed juice - peach or pear. So delicious I can barely stand it.

After shelling out just over £10 for the three of us including marinated olives and some pasta for later, we walked towards the Market. We were headed straight for Mr Humbug, but got sidelined by a couple of run-ins with teachers from Halstow, which was really nice. Finally at Mr Humbug, the olde timey sweet shoppe in the market, we filled our boots. On a mission for gift bag fodder, we sampled several brightly coloured sweets and bought an awful lot of candy. No worries though, we're still spending far less than going a traditional gift bag route.

Bags filled with sweet treats, we headed towards the Maritime Museum. We stopped along the way to eat our panini, which were amazing. I love La Salumeria! Katie managed to spill blood all over hers, but we didn't mind: She'd lost a tooth! She celebrated by calling Daddy at work. He was very proud of her. Within moments Buffy notified us the heavens were opening, so we dashed inside the museum.

The National Maritime Museum is always awesome. They have a brilliant children's "Hands On" section, which was mercifully uncrowded. This meant the girls got to do everything they wanted to without dealing with queues. Just as we were thinking of heading out, the rain really started bucketing down. We found distraction in their activity room. Our mission was to go round the museum again and draw pictures of three displays, then return to the activity room and recreate the displays in our very own 3D gallery. The girls drew brilliant pictures of a stained glass window, a bunk bed and a WWI women's navy (W.R.N.S) uniform.

Back in the activity room, we drew, cut, pasted and toiled until we had something we were justifiable proud to bring home. It's in front of me now, and it looks pretty good! Katie did a brilliant WRNS uniform complete with it's own wardrobe with peephole. Buffy decorated the walls and made a sign for our gallery. I did the stained glass window and the bunk bed. All in all, highly successful.

I just love that we *live* here. We didn't have to go far afield, just stumbled out of our doorstep. What a wonderful day! When we finally left the museum, the sun was shining and we detoured through the playground. Fantastic!