Thursday photo #294
As I write, the cat is under the tree trying to unwrap the remaining Christmas presents so he can play with the string. The girls had everything they wanted for Christmas except for a horse. I’ve heard Santa didn’t have space on his sleigh. Maybe next year girls. You’ll have to make do with Bubbles and Rupert for now.

Time to relax
I’ve never been particularly good at just stopping. I’m usually doing something for work, whether that’s writing, messing around on social media or just catching up with some admin. This time of year is always a relief though. The emails stop and I can really take my mind off things and focus on family life.
The advantage of stepping away from work and social media almost completely at Christmas is that I’m always a bit more keen and eager to get on with work when I get back to it.
I take the same approach with the children. They’ve had books for Christmas but we won’t force reading until they’re ready to read them. They’ve also received book tokens which is a great idea because they’ll be able to choose the books they really want to read. We haven’t checked whether there is homework or spellings for the Christmas holidays. If there is, I don’t think the girls will be doing them. I know it’s better for them to go back to school refreshed and keen to work.
Thursday photo #294
Perhaps it symptomatic of being a blogger, but I’m never one for snapping away with the camera on family occasions. I’d much rather enjoy the time with the children. So, we haven’t got a photo of the girls in their new dressing gowns or their horse riding jackets and body protectors. Instead, there’s a quick snap of them by the Christmas tree to look at and loads of memories to treasure.
Merry Christmas.

