Merry Christmas

No formal work this past week or so: just lots of Christmas preparations. This is the third year we have used the Usborne 'Christmas Decorations to Cut, Fold & Stick' to decorate our house. It's a fabulous book featuring easy-to-make and attractive decorations. I save ones from the year before, then add new ones as we make them each Christmas.

Charlie enjoyed decorating our house with his homemade creations.

Last weekend, we caught the train to Kingston to see a much-loved friend of ours performing in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' at the Rose Theatre.

Charlie has recently read the book and is currently reading 'Prince Caspian', so he was pretty clued up on Narnia and the Pevensies. It was interesting for him to be able to compare the book with the performance. The play was very well done. The moment when the giant wardrobe opened to reveal Narnia and snow fell from the ceiling was magical.

On the way home, we discussed how the theatrical production had handled the plot. Charlie wasn't happy with the way that people had been turned to stone (by freezing position and having netting flung over them), so we talked about that and how else it could have been done. He was also disappointed that Aslan wasn't a real lion or a model of a lion. It came down to the difference between our unlimited imagination when we read books and the limits of theatre, something which Charlie hasn't encountered much before. 

We were all very impressed by our friend, who played Susan. She had been so convincing in the part that I had quite forgotten that I was watching someone I knew.

On Christmas Eve, we had our first Christmas lunch. Charlie was delighted to unwrap his present from Grandma and discover an electronics kit.

He spent the rest of the day building different electrical models: a burglar alarm; a radio; and a fan.

I'll be taking a break from this blog for a while as we enjoy the Christmas festivities. Merry Chistmas!