I should have thought this through – three huge children getting in the way.   I am now going to be in disorganised mode right up until Christmas.  I haven’t brought their presents.  How am I going to do that with them all off school.  Oh well.  Same old same old.

This morning my youngest child had an advent calender drama…..he watched my oldest child eat his chocolate from window number 17.  ”You’ve eaten the wrong one, it’s the 18th today” he said.  ”No it’s not”.  ”Yes, it is, mum told me when I asked her this morning”.  ”NO IT’S NOT”, “YES IT IS” went on for a while before I said “Sorry, my mistake, I’ve given you the wrong information, it is in fact the 17th”….”OMG!!!” he said  ”BUT NOW I’VE EATEN THE WRONG CHOCOLATE!! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT??”

Good grief.  It took a while to persuade him that eating No.17 tomorrow would be acceptable.

I’ve had two Christmas Carol services this week.  Just lovely.  Nothing better than listening to children sing their little hearts out.  I watched one teeny boy go puce and try really really hard not to cry when he came in with the song at the wrong moment and all his friends laughed – I remember doing that as a child, it just seems SUCH an enormous a problem when you’re that age….

Weirdly, both vicars at the different churches gave the same sermon – all about how Christmas decorations in our area are deemed to be in very good taste and that the problem with being obsessed with good taste means that we can lose the joy of Christmas.  I thought it was a strange concept anyway, let alone having to hear it twice – do you think vicars have planning meetings pre Christmas about what to discuss?

However, tonight I know that I need to go to bed right away. I have had a lovely busy weekend. I am now on my knees and need to sleep. How do I know I am tired? Because I have just had a slightly mad moment with my children and need to get some perspective. I have confiscated all of the advent calenders because none of my children have confessed as to which one has eaten MY chocolate from window number 15. DAY 15!!! SOMEBODY HAS RUINED MY ADVENT CALENDER BECAUSE IT’S NOT IN ORDER AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ON DAY 15 NOW? I told all three of them that they needed to stay in the kitchen and talk about it and then to come and tell me who it was, but instead of taking me seriously they all simply opened the kitchen door and wandered about as if nothing had happened and kept looking at me like I was mad and telling me to calm down because it was only an advent calender….

I suspect it was wrong to become so incensed about an advent calender chocolate. But it’s the principle of the matter that counts. Perhaps I should eat four chocolates per day from each of the calenders until one of them cracks.

A far more important reason for going to bed now is because I’m going to try and see my 8 year olds teacher before school tomorrow morning. The same boy who threw all his clothes up too high for him to reach them after swimming the other day has thrown a plastic bottle at him and caused a large bruise on his leg. No more Mrs Nice Guy. Time for mother to wade in…..