With Jesus and Everything

Christmas time is here by golly...

On Friday, the family arrived with the tree. It's a new tree from Santa, by way of Granny Scott, and it's seven feet tall; next year we're presumably going to be going up to nine, as this seems to be the pattern. This meant that a lot of Friday evening was spent decorating the tree. Arya opened her advent book - The Owl and the Pussycat - and I read it to her before getting her into bed around 9, but she actually went to sleep pretty quickly.

In the morning we woke up in decent time for ballet, and then squandered that extra time so that we had to rush again. I ended up changing Arya from her pyjamas into her ballet kit at the bottom of the stairs in ballet, because she wouldn't go upstairs without changing, which meant sitting in front of the fire door, trying to wrestle her into her clothes while shielding her modesty with my body and waving to the other parents as they went by. Still, once she was ready she went straight in on her own. After ballet we split into two teams: Andrew and Sam went to order the Christmas food(1), while Hanna and I took Arya for the everyday shop.

Dory Cup.

Then it was Tumble Tots. Arya resisted changing out of her Christmassy blue dress, but once she was ready she was great and went in perfectly. When she came out to use the toilet she was excellent and sensible and everything. After TT, she put on her Rapunzel dress and we went home, then out to the library through the gauntlet of tombolas and raffles making up the Littleport Christmas Fair. The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet, we had dinner and then it was bedtime.

And that, as they say, was when the trouble started.

She got grumpy about getting ready, and grumpy because she wasn't as wild about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves(2) as The Owl and the Pussycat. She didn't give Mummy a hug, so wanted to go and do that after about twenty minutes of 'trying' to sleep, then got cross with me for something and told me to leave her alone. Then she was restless for a long time and told Hanna that she was afraid someone would take her and we wouldn't be there.

Damn.

Balloon!

Now... Hanna thinks that she's infected Arya with her fear of kidnapping. Given how fearless she is most of the time, I wonder if Arya isn't rather using the things she's heard us say to try to express existential fears that she doesn't really understand. So, if we leave her in the room she can't see us, that's like when Mummy and Daddies get scared because they can't see her. Either way, she got pretty het up and took a long time to go to sleep. Eventually Hanna got her settled and I was able to cuddle her until she went out.

Then Nyarlathotep ate our faces, just to show us(3).

Sunday morning was pretty chilled, as these things go. Arya even agreed to use the toilet before wetting her nappy. It was so chilled that we once again ended up running late without really realising it. Go us.

Hanna and Arya and I went to a christening. Not, as I had at first assumed, a sort-of-christening-type-thing for roleplaying weirdoes, but an actual christening in a church, with Jesus and everything. We arrived about twenty minutes late and missed the sermon with the men at work sign (it's going to bug me, wondering what that was all about) but in plenty of time for the second hymn(4), the prayers and the whole call and response, audience participation bit. Arya was a bit lost, but super well-behaved and very keen to help put the hymn books away at the end. She then went haring out of sight around the edge of the church, and as much as I wanted her to stay where I could see her, it was good to see her being her usual, fearless self.

New car seat selfie!

There was a reception/party (not sure which a christening gets) nearby. There wasn't a lot that was GF, but someone quickly whipped up some sandwiches for Hanna and Arya to have with the ham and cheese, and some brownie for after. Arya then utterly gorged herself on pink macaroons (a pastry with no flour of any kind, you say!) and we went home via Halfords to pick up a new, larger car seat. I was pondering getting an LED lamp for LARPing, and Arya was very taken with it, by which I mean she took it and ran around the shop with it. For the better part of an hour. She also wanted to try out the bikes and decided that she really wanted the Cupcake bike and not the Princess one (that her Mummy has already paid for.) Fortunately, in the car Mummy mentioned that she'd asked Santa for the Princess bike and Arya replied: "Oh yes; that one is my favourite.")

Daddy Andrew: "And the sheep and the goat
can go on top and be friends."
Arya: They're not friends.
Daddy Andrew: Why not?
Arya: They're a sheep and a goat!
Apparently this self-evidently disqualifies
them from friendship.

Back at home, Arya played Duplo with Daddy Andrew and built a garage for the Batmobile, mostly out of animals. And for those who maybe thought I was kidding about Bat-Horse... Slowly the Bat-Tortoise I did make up, although the Bat-Turtle exists in a hundred slightly-modified TNMT action figures, and Bat-Goat remains an affectionate term for Baphomet used in the higher echelons of the Knights Templar(5). There is no Bat-Polar Bear, and this makes me sad. And concerned. Who else would fight all that arctic circle crime?

After dinner, I got Arya ready for bed, which was... slow going. We'd offered her the choice of going to sleep at my place or going straight in the car, and I think she probably didn't want to go and was stringing it out. We were going to put her in the car once she'd had at least a stab at sleep, but in the end I suggested to her that we read an extra book (as well as the day's advent book, Rumplestiltskin) and then go into the car, which worked out pretty well.

And I get to see her again in just a couple of days, as we'e going up to Leeds to see Hanna's parents for pre-Christmas.

(1) I recognise the value of reserving these things early, but I'll be honest, it did kind of feel like just spreading the stress out as 'what kind of ham?' became a total thing.
(2) Weirdly, the book keeps almost all of the murders, but the Chief Robber just sacks the two thieves who fail to locate Ali Baba instead of offing them.
(3) That frame of mind when you feel that Elder Sign is judging you. #parentalproblems
(4) I'm guessing Jerusalem was the first, because the others weren't and one of them always is.
(5) Future Arya, do not rely on this blog for history homework!