Tuesday 13th December

Today was a cruisy one. The kids were tired, we were tired and there was Christmas shopping that needed to be finished. Plus I needed some time alone so had devised a rather clever plan to get some time out.

Adam slept a bit later than the rest of us. I only let him get away with this as he was up at 2:30am writing his best man speech that he had apparently been dreaming of giving so had to get up and write down what he was saying. I had also had a good 8 hours sleep and the kids were up and downstairs and needed some form of supervision.

Adam emerged from the bedroom about 10am with his usual greeting of "what are we going to do today?" my response "I was thinking that you could take the kids to that playcenter and let the run while I went and finished our Christmas shopping" his reply "sounds good".

We bused it into Kingston and I walked Adam and the kids to the playcenter then headed out for a wander around the town to finish shopping as well as try to find something to wear to the tea ceremony we are attending the morning of the wedding. Teresa is Chinese, which means there is a lot of ceremony attached to a wedding. They have said that we don't need to attend these things, but are very welcome, and I'm more than a little interested to see how it all works. The bad news is that its a semi formal event, no probs, I bought a spare nice dress with me, but we cant wear black to the ceremony. Oh dear, I only wear black. So I had the additional task of trying to find something to wear that would be appropriate. I found nothing in the shops but ended up finding something that I hope will be OK online later in the day. Now to keep my fingers crossed that it fits. (for those who care its a red knit dress)

I was very restrained with the other shopping I did. I grabbed Xavier a small gift for his stocking to even up the numbers as well as picking him up a T-Rex tee and a purple hoodie from Next. I decided to just give him the clothes right away, as he is 4, opening clothes on Christmas morning is crap. I grabbed some Peppa Pig Christmas wrapping paper and a Peppa Pig birthday card that I hope makes it home for Stella's birthday.

I wandered down a new area of shops that we hadn't wandered before, but didn't find anything of amazing interest, before walking back to the playcenter to collect my family. We jumped on the bus home, stopped at the supermarket to restock on food and headed home.

Despite being so tired they could hardly talk, the kids insisted on farting about for almost 2 hours at bedtime. Finally falling asleep in separate rooms with a parent in bed with each of them. Tonight I had the pleasure of Mr Xavier, who I might add hasn't asked for me as his bedtime pal for I cant recall how long. He chatted, trying his best to draw me into discussions to avoid sleeping, but I stayed strong. When the Xavier death rolls began, I knew it wasn't long until he finally surrendered to sleep for the night. The Xavier death roll is a name Adam and I devised for what Xavier does in the minutes before he goes to sleep. He literally rolls over and over in the one spot (bit like a crocodile rolls trying to kill its catch) until he stops and you know he is out. Its something he has always done for as long as we can recall, but seeing as he hasn't asked for me for such a long time, its something I had forgotten that he does. (Im sure its somehow linked the the massive twitch Adam does just before he goes to sleep too). Funny the things you notice about people you sleep with, hey?

Once the small people were finally sleeping, Adam and I cooked our first real meal since we have been here. We have been eating a bit of take away as well as far too many of the 2 pound pizza from the supermarket (have I mentnioned just how awesome these pizzas are, they rock). We did a spag bol (the supermarket here sells beef/pork mince mixed already, which is the secret to a great spag bol) and chucked a garlic bread in the oven.

After dinner I began researching where we might stay for NYE, which is also our last night here. We have to vacate our lovely little cottage on the 27th December which is when we head to Paris, but we have 1 night back in London before we fly home. We will get our 300 pound deposit for the cottage back in cash when we leave, and agreed that we would splash out and use that money to stay somewhere nice on our last night. Naturally there isn't a lot available on NYE with it being so close, also its hard to find something that can accommodate the children also. We found somewhere, and are just waiting to hear from the nearly weds (who will by that point be newly weds) and my SIL as to what the plans are for NYE other than spending it together. My hope is that we pay quite a bit more for the 1 bedroom suite at a hotel, have dinner at the hotel or nearby, then spend the evening in our suite chatting, watching the TV countdown and having a few quiet drinks. That way when the kids pass out, we can easily move them to the bedroom and close the door to let them sleep and only have to move them from the king bed to the sofa bed once everyone has gone, rather than having to move them from someone's house out into the cold to get them to the hotel.