The Weekend

No routines, no regular activities; this weekend was not a usual weekend, it was Christmas. My first English Christmas. I have been in England and celebrated Christmas with my husbands family many many times, but that is different. Several times it was on a canal boat and once in Scotland, celebrated at two different homes. This time it was in our home, with other peoples things. Given that, we managed to make the house feel like it was ours, and fill it with our love, decorations made by Zelda and wonderful aromas created by my cooking.

It is a ritual to decorate the tree on the Eve of Christmas after children have all gone to bed. This year my husband did it in record time. Usually, the tree is finished to perfection by 1am, maybe later. This time it was finished by 10:30 pm and we had time to relax, enjoy a sherry and a cuddle on the couch. We admired the tree and then went to bed, exhausted.

Zelda was a sleep early and fell a sleep on her own to show "Santa" that she could! Now all she needs to do is show us.

Unbelievably we were able to sleep late on Saturday morning. Zelda did not come into our room until after 8am. In her hands was her stocking, bursting to the seams, and a huge smile spread across her face. She proceeded to show us everything in the sock one by one. She then ate a chocolate coin and devoured one medium sized raspberry flavoured sugar mouse! If you believe you are what you eat, then this was true for Zelda Christmas day!

The tree was surrounded by presents for all. It took us all day to open them slowly. Everyone was happy.

The lunch was stress free to prepare, and we enjoyed it slowly. Zelda ate a bit, rather like a mouse and then scurried off to run around the house squeaking.

A walk into the snowy woods and to a close by field followed where we tried out Zeldas new pocket kite. Zelda wound up like a moue in a net, all tangled up in the strings, but it was a lot of fun and we burned off the big meal.

9pm and Zelda was a sleep . A quick meeting about never giving sugar candies or chocolates again in the stocking and off we went upstairs to sleep.

Today was relaxing. We decided not to cook anything elaborate, but to hang out in the house and play with Zelda. No sweets were consumed and the behavior was entirely different. The day was different too because of it. This is a huge lesson learned, for us all.

We played snap, tiddly winks and  race cars. We watched a ballet video and the movie Aladdin. Afterwards we played magic carpets. We had a lovely tea of crumpets, celery, carrots, radish and cucumber and then Christmas cake with brandy butter. We listened to the Snowman and then danced all together to the music. This was the perfect ending. A close knit ending. an ending to make you feel the beginning.