D'Arcy Developments

OK, so I took an easy route this year, though a slightly harder route than last year. D'Arcy has a Christmas stocking at his Dad's place - they call it a Santa Sack - so last year we used a pillowcase at my place. This year I bought a plain white pillowcase from Target and today D'Arcy drew on it. Here we have the proud artist and the finished product. So, in the centre we have Wil E Coyote as Mr Hyde trying to kill Bugs Bunny (D's current fave from Warner Bros). Around the outside we have some Christmas trees, "jingle bells" and Holly.

Today, also was the last day of kindergarten. We said goodbye to the fabulous Miss J, who is leaving ther school on her 4 year rotation. We don't know where she's going, but we were all joking this afternoon that when we found out we'd all be moving to get into the feeder area for her new school. There was a reasonably big party in the classroom this afternoon with all the kids and all the parents. I tried to get phone numbers for a reasonable number of them that I didn't already have so we can play in the holidays, but although the hols are 6 weeks, it's actually not that long. It will be the beginning of Feb before we know it. D goes to his Dad for the first half of each week and then when he's with me on Wednesday Thursday and Friday we can play on Wed and Thurs, but I have to work on Fridays. So that's only 6 weeks worth of 2 days - 12 days in all (plus weekends) not very long at all.

My big challenge over the holidays will be to find enough time to do some basic housework - I've been using some of Wednesday when D is at school for that, and that is not going to be possible for the duration!

All the kindergarten classes put on little plays for their families yesterday. D'Arcy's class performed The King, The Mice and The Cheese , which is a cute little story about a king who likes cheese, but has a mouse problem. He calls in his wise men who suggest some cats, which is fine until the king decides he has a cat problem. The solutions the wise men offer escalate, until the king brings in the elephants. You can see an elephant in the middle of the stage here, with his paper ears and stocking trunk. The teacher organised the making of the costumes at school so we didn't have to worry, although D'Arcy was a volcano on the day of costume making, so his buddy Mimi kindly helped the teacher make his. The elephant is being chased away by a mouse, which was the final solution that the wise men could suggest. Sorry it's a bit blurry, I was taking the photos without a flash, and the fabulously cheap Kodak doesn't do good low light shots. Not to worry.

Uninspired to write anything, I thought I'd share this.



I ought to do OK, after all I do work in a fruit&veg shop...

Yesterday we moved the furniture around so that we would have room for the seasonal decoration. D'Arcy put on almost all the things himself, so it is a bit uneven in spots, but very good really. I did the angel. The beloved is freaked out 'cos it's so hot - he's never done Southern Hemisphere Christmas before - and he was wondering if we'd get wandering carol singers in stubbies, singlets and thongs, asking for a coldie. I told him probably not.

Edit I just noticed that the Weather Pixie has put her Christmas tree up too, and that reminds me to move her up higher in the template...

There was a spate of slightly bored dressing up yesterday afternoon, and this was the result. On the left of the photo you can see the corner of a book on the table. The book has a picture of Yuri Gagarin, on which this costume was modelled, and you can see a close-up of the book in the nexxt photo in the Flickr stream. The Beloved is returned from the US, so there's a game of checkers in progress, and D'Arcy is thrashing him. We're planning on moving furniture around today and setting up the Christmas tree, so a weekend of painful domesticity all round really.

On another note, we've instituted a 'swear jar' in the house, to which D is the main contributor so far, but only in the form of IOUs. D'Arcy announced that when the jar is full "and we've all learned our lesson, then Mummy can keep the money". Cool.

need I say more?

and I think I've finally ironed out the layout problems.

"mum!"
"yeah?"
"can we go to france & disco?"
"???"
"can we go to france & disco sometime"
"what on earth are you talking about?"
"you know, france & disco, where jay is going next week"
"OH! San Francisco?"
"yeah. can we go there?"