Having made my children endure Guys and Dolls and Charlie and the chocolate factory on the 25th
with me squawking along there was an encore today.

They wanted to spend some time playing with me and I said sure after I get the washing done,
and they tidied thier room we could spend the afternoon sprawled in the sitting room.

This also ment the sitting room had to be sorted, tidied, decluttered and have all rubbish removed.

You would never guess it was prestine on the 24th, floor washed, sofa pulled apart and hoovered, everything polished, everything tidied, a mere two days later and a whole black sack of stuff was pulled out of it and into the bin. Ok a lot of that was boxes and card and plastic from all the presents but still, the mind boggles.

The sitting room during the day when the kids are off school is thiers basically.
I have comfy sofa at the end of my kitchen to curl up and read on and listen to music, I don’t watch tv during the day unless it is certain cartoons with the kids ( x-men, teen titian, static shock, batman ect) or do I play the consoles unless we are playing together ( starwars lego, puyo pop, crash team racing, mirco machines ). When they are in school it doesn’t get too messy and it is easy to straigthen out when they are in bed if I want to play more adult games or watch something on the tv, but when they are off school the place can become a war zone in a matter of hours.

But I won’t watch cartoons or play the xbox or watch a movie or let them paint or play games with them if the room is messy; which is a wonderful rule to have in place.

So the room was made mammy ready and all the presents but back under the tree and then we settled down to play cards, lego, do some colouring in, eat a lot of bickies and quality street chocolates and a large pot of tea and to watch the sound of music with the tellytext subtitles on so we could sing along.

Now they know “do a deer, a female deer” and “rain drops on roses..” from me singing them and can and will singing them on thier own but they have never been old enough to sit and watch the movie and retain any of it;
but this time they watched caught up in the story of the Van Trapp children and were singing along.

My daughter also saw for the first time a nun in the full black habit and veil and then asked
“Mammy why is that lady wearing a coffin dress ?”
the lines the veil formed about the nun to her mind looked like a coffin. So we had a talk about nuns and monks and I realised that for me nuns were a common enough sight and I am old enough to have had nuns teaching me in school in the old style habits but the only nun they know of is a rahter elderly sister that comes to thier school and she does not have a viel or habit.

My son was more intrested in trying to figure out ways to catch a cloud and pin it down, keep a wave upon the sand, hold a moonbeam in your hand and making notes of his ideas.

I also infliced seven brides for seven brothers and bedknobs and broomsticks on them over the last few days 🙂 musicals and thier appreication shall not die out, now to get a copy of clamity jane….

I just blew in from the windy city…