Day in the Big Smoke

We loved our day out in London on New Years Eve. The whole idea was to have a jam-packed day which was both fun and exhausting so that we'd return home feeling like we've done stuff - unlike all the previous new years since having children when we've felt like saddos when I've sulked off to bed way before midnight and the first words of the new year have been, "f%*cking fireworks!"

The plan worked. We had an utterly stress-free journey on the super-speedy East Coast service from Newark to King Cross. We made our way to the Lyric Theatre where we watched The Gruffalo and then did our usual trip to the South Bank. Mission accomplished!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

We travelled by train with East Coast from Newark North Gate to London: Standard Advance returns, booked online at www.eastcoast.co.uk, start from £19. Times and fares also on 08457 225225 or from staffed stations and agencies.

Being Resolute

I'm not a New Years Resolution Type. Not for any deep, intellectual reason, mainly because I'm a bore for whom vices are pretty much a fond memory, mostly left behind in my early 20s when I discovered fitness (and subsequently acquired realisation that less Marlboro Lights makes for a somewhat more comfortable running experience), a lovely man to stay in with and how if you don't actually drink JD and coke until 3am every weekend you actually have this thing called a 'Sunday' which is quite splendid.

So these revelations of my 20s has led to me being pretty, well I like to say faultless, you might say boring, dull etc. straight-laced 30-something year old. Indeed last year I had as my resolution to drink more wine, the year before was to go to the gym less and I think, on a slightly different note - yet sticking with the grey, tepid theme - the year before was to re-use my carrier bags. I know, rock and roll baby.

So far, for this year I'm keeping them precise and simple, I have...

1. Don't go on Rightmove quite so often. Your house isn't even on the market. You change your mind every 5 minutes about where to live, and talking about moving is inducing an eyeroll in friends and family that demonstrates both their annoyance and your repetitive yawn-inducing conversation.

2. Don't stress about being a 'perfect parent'. The whole concept is a myth. Anyone who thinks they are one is probably on the verge of a breakdown. Pah! So you can't cook an own-grown vine roasted tomato sauce whilst finishing a work assignement and knitting dolly clothes? Good. Good for you.

3. Drink more wine. Now listen lady, this year get cracking on this one good and proper. Hot squash is no drink for a grown woman. Besides all that wine he's drinking can't be good for him. Make him share. Remember, "we like to share in this house, don't we?"

So come on then, dare to share? What are yours?

It's Started

Yesterday - and I don't think yesterday was even a proper working day - I got a massive load of PR emails, all about one thing; dieting. OK, some of them weren't calling themselves 'diets'; 21st century dieting is far more sophisticated than that. So there were emails on 'detoxing' on 'new regimes' on 'whole new health concepts'. As I was saying, lots of emails on dieting.

It seems a little unfair. Only last week my inbox was full of subject lines such as, 'the gooiest mince pies', 'make your own Heston pudding' and every supermarket I went into was stuffed with recipe cards daring us to make the most calorific of treats, as well as a seeming policy on only having on offer things with over 70,000 calories per serving.

But, oh it seems that was last week people. This week it's all low-cal emails (email light) and Slimmer's World cynically stuffing leaflets through my letter box, well "hang on" I scream - I would stand up and scream but frankly I'm too stuffed and my thighs rubbing together is getting on my nerves - hang on I'm still in Christmas Land even if you're thinking lettuce juice for breakfast.

It's the 28th December. This is Christmas. Quality Street anyone?

Happy Birthday Rosie

So 6 years ago to the day I became a parent and this beautiful, if a little crazy,
girl was born! Happy Birthday Rosebud!
She's still sleeping and I'm awake - it'd be wrong to go jumping on her bed screaming
"it's your BIRTHDAY", right?

My sleep feature

Striving For Slumber

Research consistently concludes that a lack of sleep can have a detrimental effect on our health and overall well-being. Phoebe Doyle looks at ways to help our sleep deprived bodies and our stressed out souls.

Worries about family and work are apparently the aspects of our lives most likely to keep us anxiously awake into the early hours.  “Sleep is one of the first things affected by any form of psychological problem, such as stress, depression or anxiety. As all three are increasingly widespread, it’s no surprise our sleep is suffering”, says Dan Roberts (www.danroberts.com) of The Wellbeing Coach. He explains just how sleep becomes disturbed; “when people are stressed they often find both the length and quality of sleep is affected. Because your system is over-revved by stress hormones including cortisol and adrenaline, your mind races as you lie there, tossing and turning.”

“Now approximately 10-15% of us, suffer with our sleep”, says Matt Broadway-Horner a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist from CBT In The City (www.cbtinthecity.com) , and what’s more this problem is more common in women than men. Matt says; “half of sufferers report severe symptoms occurring nightly; they take 2 hours or more to fall asleep initially and 1 hour or more waking during the night.”

Quantity and Quality

So how much sleep do we need? Really, the answer is that you need enough sleep to feel like you can get through your everyday life! Chris Idzikowski, Director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre insists; “we actually need as much as we think we need. Anywhere between 5.5-9.5 hours is fine. More or less may still not be much of a problem. Some people are short sleepers - if you feel sleepy, tired or unwell during the day after a short sleep then you're not a short sleeper!” Most adults claim to get between 5 and 10 hours each night and generally people start sleeping less as they get older.

When sleep is broken, it reduces the quality; “when people are stressed they often wake up and worry in the middle of the night – that awful 3am thinking when everything seems far worse than it really is – then they can’t get back to sleep. Bad dreams and nightmares, and non-restful sleep (where you wake up still feeling exhausted) are also common stress-related symptoms”, says Dan.

How Can We Switch Off – Top Tips for a Good Nights Kip

Whilst sleeping tablets are often prescribed for severe insomnia they can have pretty unpleasant side effects, such as confusion, forgetfulness and feeling lousy the following day. In fact some report feeling worse than if they’d not slept at all! Sleeping pills and sleep medications should be used only for short-term situations, and sparingly at that. Their effects are short-lived and so when used to treat long-term sleep issues there are serious concerns.

Thankfully though, there are many less intrusive methods to explore:

Don’t let your bedroom become your office – working on a computer in your room, or stressing over files is not conducive in the creation of an atmosphere fit for sleep. Matt says a client of his did just this; “she had to work hard to change her associations in the bedroom from working with document papers and her computer to a place fit for the purpose of sleep” Matt explains. Dan is keen for us to remove all technology; “only use your bedroom for sleeping and sex. No TVs; no laptops/smartphones in bed; keep your room cool and as dark as possible, with no ambient light and get as good a bed as you can afford, especially if you have back trouble (a common cause of insomnia).”

Try it tonight

Ban the box! Remove all TVs and laptops, remember bedrooms are for beds! Good quality, fresh bed linen can help make sleep more inviting too. So treat yourself and splash out!

Get yourself into a routine – try to go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time too, and yes I’m afraid this means even on weekends. If you have a bad night resist the urge to sleep in the day as this will upset the routine. Chris says, “It’s probably not a good idea for poor sleepers to nap during the day. However, there is also evidence to show that good sleepers - are precisely that, they can have a nap during the day without much effect the following night.”  Chris believes the key’s in training your biological clock; “the clock provides a window of opportunity each night for sleep to occur. A regular routine - going to bed and getting up at the same time helps keep the 'biological clock' running to a good schedule.”

Try it tonight

Give yourself a bedtime! Don’t make it too early though, if you aren’t tired enough to sleep you may lie awake feeling anxious.

Have a warm shower or bath – a hot bath will raise your body temperature but it’s the drop in temperature that follows this which should help you to snooze. Dan firmly believes in the power of; “a long hot bath before sleep”, it serves to relax you as well as to prepare your body temperature. Chris explains the biology at play; “your body’s natural rhythm means that your body temperature should go down late evening and during the early part of the night. One of the reasons this happens is because the blood vessels in the hands and feet, and also the face, open up to release heat. If the vessels are too constricted by cold then this may not happen. A warm bath helps to open up the blood vessels.”

Try it tonight

Have a warm bath about an hour before bedtime; try adding some sleep enhancing oils, lavender is a popular choice. Enjoy it; read a book, have some ‘you’ time.

Don’t just lie there- if you’ve been awake for 20 minutes or more Dan recommends; “if you can’t sleep, try ‘mindfulness meditation’ – this will calm you down and has a host of health benefits. Lie on your back with your eyes closed and bring your attention to your breath as it flows in and out of your nostrils. If the mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to the breath. Do this for 10min or more and you should feel calmer, more relaxed and hopefully fall asleep!”

Try it tonight

Refuse to think about anything that is stressful. Worrying about endless paper work? Tell yourself “that’s not a thought for now” and go back to your breathing exercise. In truth, nobody reaches any sensible conclusions in the early hours anyway!

Learn to say “no” – it’s vital to stay clear of caffeine and alcohol for the 4 hours leading up to bedtime if you’re having difficulty with sleep; caffeine blocks a sleep inducing chemical (called adenosine) and alcohol may leave you snoring or desperate for the loo! Dan recommends; “no caffeinated drinks after 6pm, alcohol in moderation if at all when you’re suffering from sleeplessness, and no heavy meals close to bedtime.”

Try it tonight

Camomile Tea is fantastically calming. Have a cup about an hour before bedtime. If you aren’t a herbal tea fan, remember that old adage of warm milk before bed helping you sleep? Give it a whirl! It can relax you as well as filling you up so that you won’t get any unwanted midnight hunger pangs!

Exercise – being active can really help you sleep as it should quash feelings of restlessness. Dan explains; “both cardiovascular exercise like running, spin classes, cycling or raquet sports and calming, meditative exercise like yoga or tai chi are powerful tools to combat sleep problems. The CV exercise burns off those stress hormones, makes you healthily tired and boosts your overall wellbeing, this makes you less stressed/anxious and so aids restful sleep.
“Calming exercise deactivates your stress response and activates your relaxation response. But no vigorous exercise too close to bedtime or it will keep you awake.”

Try it today

Exercising in the morning is the best time in so many ways; you get it over with, you’ll feel ready to face the challenges of the day, and it won’t interfere with sleep. Seek out a gym that opens at 6am (some even start classes then) to ensure your schedule isn’t dictated by their opening hours!

BOX

 A decent night’s kip is made up of the following elements…

• Drowsiness: here you are in a relaxed state although still not fully asleep. This stage can last for 10-15 minutes.
• Light Sleep: During light sleep the eye movements stop, heart rate decreases, and our body temperature goes down.
• Deep Sleep: It’s during the deep sleep stage that your body releases a growth hormone for mental and physical cell repairs.
• REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep:  During REM sleep, eye movement’s increase as does heart rate. During REM sleep we have our dreams.

BOX

Yoga teacher Fenella Lindsell believes simple Yoga exercises can help you to drift off…

Fenella tells us; “Space Breathing can be a very effective way of clearing the mind of thoughts and allowing the body to feel relaxed and calm. It’s a very productive way of preparing the body for sleep and de-cluttering the mind of thought and is equally valuable if you wake up in the middle of the night and find it difficult to get back to sleep. This is how you do it…

Breathe in and breathe out, count 1,

Breathe in and breathe out, count 1,2

Breathe in and breathe out, count 1,2,3

Breathe in and breathe out, count 1,2,3, 4 until you have a space between the breaths of 10 counts and then return to normal breathing.”

And the winner is...

As some of my regular readers will know I'm supporting Green Giant with their campaign to help get kids eating more veggies.

Part of this was to ask readers to share their top tips:

Our winning comment was from Jane Hawkins who will be recieving a hamper shortly. She told us...

Our current favourite is making 'Dinosaur' food Grrrrr This 'special' food can only be eaten by very good boys because it gives them super powers! The special recipe is as follows;
Potato/carrot mash with peas sweetcorn & tomato ketchup on dinosaur shaped toast. (there are some brilliant dino sandwich cutters that take the crusts off) If he is really good he gets a side of sausage to go with it!


Another reader, thelaughinghousewife told us...

I used to disguise them e.g. mash cauliflower into mashed potatoes; add to soups and stews, etc.

What really helped, though, was one simple rule that we are rigid about, even now: you taste one mouthful of a new food. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it; but you always have to TRY it. We would try something every couple of months until they liked it; tastes change as people grow.

And from CatsYellowDays we enjoyed reading...

My son thinks dipping is the height of sophistication so he gets anything that can be made into long thin sticks (cucumber, carrot, baby sweetcorn etc) stood up in a pot and a little mayo or BBQ sauce to dip in into. We also make a big fuss over how great the crunching noise is.

See the Green Giant facebook page for more 5-A-Day tips. And here's a little Merry Christmas from The Green Giant Team.


This is a sponsored post.

Happy Birthday Charles



Charles is 3 today... un-believable, as is he.



My latest blog for Guardian Teach

Read on the guardian teach site http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/dec/16/boy-friendly-teaching

 

Just being a boy is the strongest predictor that you might struggle in school. How is the education system failing boys and what can be done?

 

There was some rather unhelpful research reported not long ago regarding the issue of summer birthdays – an analysis of results had found that children born in the summer term or (horror of horrors!) August were less likely to do well academically. Some friends with August-born children quizzed me on this – to the parents of girls I offered some support; "could be worse – she could be a boy".

 

Of course I jest. But being a boy is the strongest predictor that you might struggle at school. The GCSE results of 2011 displayed the largest gap ever in the discrepancy between the relatively shining results of girls and those belonging to boys. So what does all this mean? Well, it means the media declaring that "boys are failing'" but it means reflective teachers asking, "how are we failing them?"

My view is that what we ask of children doesn't always correspond with what they are naturally equipped to best do, and that this is most prominent when it comes to boys. Even in the holistic early years curriculum, the EYFS, there's strong reference to formal learning; indeed it has, amongst its aims, sentence writing by the end of F2 with attempts at punctuation. This sort of prescribed learning does not come naturally to many young children, and is particularly difficult for boys as it requires highly developed fine motor skills, as well as sitting still!

Young children need to be outdoors – playing in the elements, learning, exploring. I recently interviewed the owner of an Outdoor Nursery where the children are outside all of the time. When I asked her about whether she thinks this practise is particularly good for boys, she explained how in the outdoors gender is less pronounced, less noticeable, and she added, "All human babies are born needing to play - it's their natural drive. They want to explore the world around them, to find out how it works and how to control it.  The drive to play comes from within, it's very powerful, and is the same for boys and for girls."

As we move into the primary years, and typically there's more carpet time, more focussed work at desks, less free play time - the discrepancy between the girls and the boys in our classes becomes progressively apparent. But is this due to girls being more suited to our teaching methods, or is it their readiness to conform?

Girls are generally assumed to be more emotionally competent than boys and this adage is actually well-founded in evidence. At around four years of age, children acquire the ability to alter their emotional expression. They may feel hurt on the inside after a disagreement, but they smile and say it doesn't matter. Feeling one way and expressing something else is known as "display rules". You guessed it - girls are more adept at developing this skill. So as we praise the girls for sitting well, listening and looking interested, whilst their male peers are fiddling, chatting and wriggling, one has to ask whether the boys are just more transparent in their frustrations.

The last decade or so has also seen the focus in literacy on phonics teaching. I see the benefit of phonics each and every time my daughter reads to me. "Sh" "or" "t" – "short". Of course, I also see the limitations of phonics every time she reads to me as so few words are phonetic – but that's a whole other blog post! My point here is that phonics is useful but a resolutely formalised literacy focus; we can teach phonics, of course, but not instead of drenching the children in top quality stories (told from beginning to end, just story for story's sake) and enthusing both girls and boys to read, read, read!

So for those worried that if we focus on boys and their needs then it is at the detriment of our girls - fear not. Boy friendly practise is simply good teaching. Just because girls are happy to conform and comply, it doesn't mean it's what's best for them; it certainly isn't what they require most. It's a teacher's role to make learning playful, stimulating and exciting and ultimately accessible to all.

• Phoebe Doyle is a former primary teacher who now writes on education, parenting and health issues. She's a parent of two young children and blogs at www.tremendouslytwo.com and tweets at @tremendously2

Stowells Light Wine

Now it's a hard job having to review lovely stuff, but one involving alcohol is a particular chore to be frank. But, all in the name of research, when Stowells asked me whether I'd like to try their new Light wine (http://www.stowellslight.com/)  I said, "OK, if I must" and a few days later the package arrived and I, remember - all in the name of 'research', ripped like a child through the packaging and greedily poured - glug, glug, glug - into an average sized (enormous) wine glass.  Mmmmmm.

In truth, I'm an utter lightweight and so the alcohol content being low (less than one unit per 125ml serving) is great for me as it means I can actually have one whole glass without looking like a 14 year old who's just discovered cider. I'm no connoisseur for sure, but the taste was delish (see, told you - not exactly an expert) - it was sweet and refreshing - I opted for white and would whole-heartedly recommend it. It's USP is definitely the calorie content; at just 60 calories per glass it's a whole 30% less calorific than your average wine and, what with this being the Quality Street season and all, every little helps! I can assure you though what it lacks in alcohol and calories it makes up for in full, scrumptious, taste.

Here we are enjoying it over a dinner of ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and a salad dressed with a balsamic-based dressing. Clive was impressed too, despite being sceptical, the lower calorie thing was putting him off pre-tasting, but enjoyed immensely.

Stowells Light is available at all ASDA stores nationwide for RRP £5.49  White and rosé options.

Always drink responsibly. This is a sponsored post.

www.stowellslight.com

Gifts for the boys and men...

Mini Golf set from GLTC £35

Wigwam from GLTC £52



Business mobile phones from Cellular solutions



John Lewis slippers £12.00

An Oak Dining Table from Top furniture

Boden Washed Tee now £14.00

G Star from Tucci this now £80



People Tree Oscar Tee £28




Second hand Chesterfield sofa from The Original Sofa Co



3 for 2 at Joules Click here for offer

Boden Sale just started! Click here

Last Minute Gift Guide

Boden bobble hat set now £12

Tatty Teddy and Teddy Choc RRP £6.99 from selected Morrisons



Red Spotty Dressing gown from Mini Club at Boots now £11.70



Boden hat and mitten set now £17

Micro Scooters from John Lewis

Toys R Us Double Easel now £39.99

Mens Top from People Tree £35

Paul Smith Wallets from Bertie

M & S knitted cashmire woman's hat £29.50

"Have a Quality Street"... and other perils of wisdom...

Feeling Christmassy? If not, I've some tips to get you into the Jingle Bell Groove...

1. Eat. I mean EAT. Eat lots of high-calorie, mildly nausea-inducing rich, indulgent gloopy food. Chocolate is good, dried fruit, alcohol-drenched pies and cakes are better. Eat it all. All day.

2. Have a Quality Street. If the above didn't work and was Quality Street-less, have a Quality Street. These sparkly wrapped chocolates should only be consumed at this time of year and are guaranteed to bring back fond memories of consuming 5 course Christmas dinners and then someone offering these most festive of chocolates and everyone digging in, discussing preferences with all the seriousness of Question Time. Chocolate preference; the politics of Christmas.

3. Buy some crap. Not literally crap crap, I mean tat, something tacky that normally you'd label chavvy or vile - buy it NOW! It might be a bouncing, singing snowman for your otherwise minimalist abode, or perhaps a Poundstretcher-own Barbie for your child who's spent the year longing for such things to be placed amongst their all-natural, all-wooden, Montessori-inspired toys.

4. Argue with someone you love. Preferably whilst wearing a paper hat and some joke socks.

5. Play a game. Play something like Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. It helps with the  Christmassy-vibe-inducing if you play with someone ultra-competitive; observing plastic cheese induced toddler tantrums from a 47 year old man can be highly amusing. Overtly cheating can be a strop-inducer if you tire of waiting.

I'd love to hear your own advice for those feeling devoid of Christmas cheer...

I feel so lucky this year to have written for such great publications - ones that I actually read, not just ones that could easily appear at the end of Have I Got News For You as the kind of "who the f*** buys that?" joke. I've written a few for those types in the past too and I adore it all; it's such a thrill to become a mini-expert for a week whilst you're writing on a topic. It's such an honour to talk to the best of experts, to ask them questions - working with wonderful author Michael Rosen is always a treat and he's helped me lots with features this year. Another highlight was working once more with Sue Palmer, author of one of my favourite parenting books Toxic Children.

Here's a few of this year's offerings...

Top 5 Eco Books for The Ecologist

Surfing for The Ecologist

Fight the Fear for Body Fit

More to Reading than Phonics - For Nursery Ed

Could we ave goodbye to Reading Schemes? For EYE

Feature on Stress for The Ecologist

Outdoor Nurseries for The Ecologist

Bookworm Feature

My year in blogging

A year ago an editor I write for suggested I start a blog. 500 posts later I'm all nostalgic; there's been exciting days out for us to review, there's been tears, there's been tantrums - sometimes from them, most often from me. Induldge me, if you will, as I look at the year in posts... (not 500 - just a few)


The time (there's been many since) we opted for the bowl cut

A moan about our inability to get anywhere, ever, anywhere near on time

The time our Kate married our Wills

More guilt

The bee in my baseball cap over sports day

An education rant

When I tried to choose my favourite

When we went to Woodcraft

A chat on happiness

Happy Days?

It was such a relief last week to find out that we're all happy.


Yes, in the week that brought us massive strikes, huge debates, a much-loved twat on the telly urging us to shoot those who clean our hospitals and teach our kids - we were informed, with a degree of aggression, that despite what we see, hear, feel, we are happy. Well, 7.4 out of 10 happy to be precise.


The news reported that when asked how happy we are, on average we said that we're 7.4 out of 10. The thing about averages of course is that they're enormously distorted; there'll always be those annoying smiley-but-dim folk who'll claim 10 out of 10 for everything. Then there's the glass half empty miseries *waves* who'll go for a 3 or a 4 just to give room for improvement. So the average could be equally considered a calculation involving the miseries being subtracted from the divs. Ahhh, Rule Britannia.


In truth, I'm actually quite happy. Don't tell anyone, I know it's boring, bit shallow, not very poetic but *whispers* I like my life. In fact if you asked me on the average Tuesday at say 11 o'clock I'd say I'm around an 8.2. And timing is important. Ask me when I'm trying to do some last minute work, and I'm trying also to not find out whether children's eyes do go square, and I'm determined to ensure they don't have pasta and grated cheese again for tea, and I'm being occasionally called upon to diplomatically stop the outbreak of World War Whatever-We're-On-Now because there's tribal tension over whether Rastamouse or Justin's House should take viewing priority - I might, just might, have to lower my happiness score ever so slightly. I'll have a 4.7 if you're asking.


The researchers knew about all this timing malarkey, of course they did. But without the precise domestic timetables of their subjects to hand they opted to survey them at the beginning of summer. A time full of promise and optimism. OK we might be un-employed, hopeless and hungry but is that Jazzy Jeff I can hear? Yes those clever researchers knew they'd be dolling out the findings in the depth of winter, one bursting with dis-content, but wanted to get it all down whilst the sun was shining and Mr Whippies were still dripping down our arms.


But what does it all matter? It means nothing doesn't it? If someone really did stop me today and ask me how happy I am, I'd think "how happy should I say I am?" "Who is in earshot?" It wouldn't exactly boost a get-together with an old pal, where we're cheerfully ordering vanilla mochas and discussing the hilarity of MailOnline comments if some clipboarded folk asked us about happiness and one of us chimes, "about 1".  Just as the rule when someone asks how you are is to say "fine thanks, how are you?" (cat's died, I've started to go grey, I can't stand my job - "fine thanks, how are you?"), when someone asks how happy you are you're quite likely to bump it up a notch.


What they really need is for the likes of Cameron and his creep of a sidekick Chancellor to go and ask people - I'll personally pledge the money for tabards just for the sheer thrill of seeing them in our local market square, or perhaps at the entrance to tubes, asking people how happy they are. Not yet though, not whilst there's Jingle Bells screaming from the shops and we're all fingers in our ears about our finances - lets send them out mid-Jan, when all the New Years Resolutions have been thrown out along with the rank turkey we froze, off you go lads, it'll be fine, remember we're a nation of 7.4-ers, what's there to be afraid of?

My Santa's Grotto

My bedroom is now looking like Santa's grotto. A grotto though that belongs to an un-tidy, deranged, dis-organised, kind of a Santa. A Santa that might have lost the will to live ever-so-slightly, one that thought that buying gorgeous Paperchase paper may make the task seem easy, pleasent even, then remembers that no matter how classy your wrapping stuff, paper cuts see no class, nor does sticky tape with no end to it or ribbon that refuses to curl. A Santa, let's say, who is rather miffed by the absence of Elves to tidy up, share the strain, make me him a cup of tea for Godsake!

What with living in a rather cosy - make that tiny house, what with having one child's birthday, another child's birthday and Christmas all within 6 days of eachother (I know - genius!) it's all a little present over-load and it's presently present mayhem in my bedroom. What's more, far from having the luxury of being able to do the wrapping last minute, feeling all Christmassy late December with a glass of mulled wine on the go, I'm now having to start the wrapping early, feeling like one of those saddos with their decorations up already (sorry, I don't mean to offend but why?) just because if I don't wrap, due to our lack of storage space, the kids will spend every evening curled up on my bed for storytime staring their presents straight in their face.

So come birthday and birthday and Christmas I'll not mind having wrapping paper all over the floor and toys here, there and everywhere - I'll just be thankful that my bedroom's a bedroom again - you can keep your grotto Santa!