Mainly Christmas Camp

OoOps I am on catchuppery once again...

Sunday 24th November
Freya had her first Fencing session at the leisure centre - instead of the Wednesday 5.30 sessions at a local school, these are Sunday morning sessions and are the official Lewes Fencing Club. I like that there are juniors, teens and adults all there, divided into the age ranges, but all in same hall at same time, so visible continuity. She and M are both trying it, so far it seems good.
In the afternoon she went swimming with some friends also at the leisure centre.

Monday 25th
Geography for Freya followed by staying to play at N's. Meanwhile lots of work for me, then meeting her in town and taking her to eat something light before Aerial. Intriguing top of Tardis spotted in nearby fenced off yard, would love to get nearer but we can't work out how. She went on all 3 items of equipment at Aerial - trapeze, rope and silks. Not easy for her but I know she is very good at the long game and determination so time will tell what she can do with it.

Tuesday 26th
Creative Writing for Freya then J and I went to pick her up and we all went into Brighton to see Catching Fire, which I really enjoyed. Freya was brewing a cold and drank a litre and a half of water in the cinema.

Wednesday 27th
Kept Freya away from Forest School as she was full of cold and it was a damp sort of day to be spending 3 hours outside in. Did get her to French though and got a lift back with L's grandpa D, which was helpful. No fencing as she has changed to the Sunday one, so a different sort of Wednesday. 
Had an ongoing ton of work to do and in fact all week I kept trying to stay up later to work and not managing it very well. 

Thursday 28th
Freya had Dance, Art and Guides. I think I got taxi with her up to drop off at Dance and then back so I could work. She usually walks with D and J from Dance to Art. I then picked her up from Art to have a quick dinner and get to Guides and it was the last one in the alternative venue, which I'm glad about.
Afterwards more work for me, not quite making my deadline though, but it was self-imposed for invoicing purposes and I still technically made end-of-month, so think all is well with that in the end.

Friday 29th
Friday Club was a Photography workshop, focusing on street photography. It sounded really good from what I heard and saw afterwards. I think Freya went back to N's with L too. I picked her up at 4.30 after attempting more work blah blah.

Saturday 30th
Took Freya up to LAMDA Drama, think there is only one more this term, but she might miss it. Then she and I did some shopping for Sleepy Cat's birthday party, which was happening at 2pm at ours. I had said that it was fine for her to have friends over with their own companion animals of the Sleepy Cat type, if they stayed mainly in her room. So 9 girls plus lots of their small friends were in there eating tiny picnic food and playing games for an hour and a half. All seemed to go very well and Sleepy Cat had lovely presents including a house and an advent calendar, so he was thrilled. Gave them little party bags with small things in.
Some were then going on to Rollerdisco, so I took a few by taxi. It was K's first time so Freya kept her company most of the time.
Then home and Strictly, nice nice nice.

Sunday 1st
Time to pack and go off to Home-Ed Christmas Camp - 10 or so families, most of whom have known each other online (MuddlePuddle Yahoo group and then Early Years blogring mainly) and off, forever it seems. We first started meeting up with them in 2005 and made it to a couple of Kessingland holidays and a few of the Christmas Camps - this was maybe our 5th - plus meeting at other places including D and S's birthday or other parties over in Worthing most years. But we hadn't seen them for about 3 years at this point. This is the last one we went to and here's another one and this one was earlier in the year for Halloween and this was a camping one with a few of the same people
This one was at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire just by Ironbridge - there are 10 museums in the area, none of which we visited on this occasion!
Basically the group hires the whole Youth Hostel for the week, which works out pretty cheaply per person, and we cook and eat together, hang out, play games, chat, go out for walks, etc. The particular features of Christmas Camp usually include a "Christmas Day" when we have Christmas dinner, exchange Secret Santa gifts, the children put on a play and there's usually Christmas Carols and often a general talent show too.
So on Sunday we headed off by train, met up with Alison and L and they took us the rest of the way from Reading by car. We arrived just after dark and settled in. It was lovely to see everyone, but the first night I often end up going to bed early, especially if I've been working all hours. I was asleep by 11 I think and glad of it. Freya was also tired and a bit anxious about how it would all work out, having not seen people for a long time, so she was asleep just before me.

Monday 2nd

We made this a staying-in day at the hostel, and got up at a nice civilized hour and Freya was soon off with other older girls most of the time - they had set up a Teen Room (including 11s and up though) where they could go and they were rehearsing the play and some singing for the Talent Show off and on over Mon, Tue and Wed morning.
I did some crafting with paper to make some decorations, along with a lot of other people. Lovely Em taught me how to do a nice thing with paper and then I made a few and passed on the knowledge rather inefficiently to enquiring children as they appeared.

I did a bit of helping with washing/chopping veg for curry, onion bhaji mixing and washing up stuff. Love curry night at camp, though Freya not so keen but managed a few bhajis and rice. Think I had some wine and stayed up chatting for a while, though not massively late as was still very much enjoying the novelty of sleep availability plus no work.

Tuesday 3rd
This was our day to get Freya over the border to Wales as she feels that everyone she knows has been to another country except her, so it seemed a good chance to rectify this terrible inequality and deprivation. Katy S kindly gave us a lift to the station and we went by train over to Welshpool and had lunch in Wales: Welsh chips, Welsh soup, Welsh panini...

Sleepy Cat came too as you can see and didn't get left behind thank goodness. Imagine having to retrieve him from foreign parts without any passport or anything.
Alison picked us up at the station, which was much appreciated, and we were back at the hostel before it got dark so Freya could carry on joining in rehearsals for various entertainments. After dinner I played Settlers of Catan (expansion pack with ships and gold) with Barbara, Helen and E, really enjoyed the game, so much so that I have put on my Wish List - but have gone for Star Trek version! Cunningly alienating non-games lovers and games purists alike.
The game went on very, very late and Barbara won, all of which is not a bit surprising. Freya had really got overtired waiting though, despite attempts to prop her up with vegan mince-pie muffins. Very delicious, I think I might have had 3!

 

 
Wednesday 4th
"Christmas Day"!! Got up very late, helped mainly with washing up of large kitcheny items as was too late for chopping and prep, oops! 
Lovely Christmas Dinner - veggie version was filo pastry parcels of a delicious mixture of veg including aubergine and courgette, and there were roast potatoes and parsnips, carrots and lots of other lovely veg. Was yummy! I didn't have room for pudding but later on (we had dinner at 3ish) I had 2 slices of Katy S's really good vegan mince tart made with apples in the mix and with orange and lemon in the pastry, a really nice thing, not that over-sweetness that some mince things have. Might have to try making one.
After dinner, we all went into the lounge and the children did their play, which was a crazy combination of various panto elements, mainly Little Red Riding Hood inspired and the ritual giving out of the Secret Santa gifts took place. I got a gorgeous cushion from Helen R and Freya got a lovely pencil case made by Beth, both of which are so soft and beautifully made, as well as being very useful (my sofa cushion has largely had it, so a bit of extra proppage makes all the difference especially when working). Our given gifts seemed to be welcomed too.
After the excitement of a room full of 40 or so people opening presents we all eventually settled down for the Talent Show in which anyone was welcome to perform. Freya joined a small group of girls singing accompanied by ukulele, they sounded nice. There were songs and instrument-playing, a great magic show by Maddy, an excellent comic song by Katy S and way too many jokes at the end by a seemingly infinite loop of children doing variations on a theme.
Carols too, some then and some later and Freya joined in with handbell playing.
Stayed up chatting and had wine, lovely day and evening.

Thursday 5th
We had to leave a day early due to commitments back home, so we were up and packed and out by 11.30 with Alison very kindly taking us to the station for our middayish train.
I was glad that lots of people were in the dining room when we left so I could say proper goodbyes with hugs - I love that group of people and they always make me feel so welcome, it's very comfortable and friendly. Really will try and see them again more often than leaving it 3 years.
Trains were a bit disrupted but mostly OK, we followed a rainbow for ages in and out of Birmingham.

We got back about 45 mins later than planned but still in time for dumping our stuff at home and going straight out again to the Lewes Castle temporary skating rink - you might think this involved ice but it was very much a non-ice experience. A very tiny plastic rink set up in the Castle gardens with people paying a fiver for fifteen minutes of stomping round on it. Crazy really! And it rained! Had booked it before we went so that Freya could go with friends but I don't think any of us were impressed, nor were N and co. when we bumped into them later after they had had their skate.
Did the late night shopping tramping around thing, including this year needing to deliver something to Guides, which caused emotional anguish for Freya in terms of not being sure how to deal with where she wanted to be, what she wanted to do, how to choose, how to say sorry, etc. Was quite a stressful evening as these things go, but OK overall, ended up by getting wraps and chips for dinner and taking them home.
Spent a lot of Thursday night putting Book Club together for the morning, I had made lots of notes but the actual prep took some time.

Friday 6th
Book Club! Fantasy genre books was our main theme and they had read The Hobbit and Howl's Moving Castle and a few had had a go at The Dark is Rising too.
Talked about what defines the genre, other features of the genre, characters, treatment of female characters (or absence!), humour, imaginary worlds, etc.
After our snack break, we did Secret Santa, with a great deal of 'can I be third/fifth/sixth to choose?' for some reason, which got very stressful. I was happy to let L choose being third as it had been her idea, but then it turned out half the group had very definite ideas of which order they wanted to go in most of which were incompatible with each other, ugh. However, once that stress was over, they all seemed to love the random gifts they had got. I gave them all light-up novelty balls as well and L and M had brought biscuits and I gave them all Lindors too, so it was all pretty festive.
Finished with riddles, a rune puzzle and charades.
Went to K's after for a cuppa. 
Back home, curry and relaxing and QI and zombies hooray!

Saturday 7th
No LAMDA drama, so a long lie for all of us, except I think J had to get up to take delivery of some parcels as he has done some Xmas shopping online already, I've not started yet but I won't get paid till Wednesday I expect.
Bloomin' bleedin' washing machine has packed up so J spent a lot of time trying to get belt back on, which is horrible job, I helped too for a while. We got it on but as soon as started machine, drum rotated a few times then off it flopped, could hear it, so J has ordered a new belt and we can only hope...
Gave Freya a bath and hair wash and then she was off at 3ish for a sleepover with L and M at other L's in Btn.
I then had the very long hot bath I have waited about 3 weeks for, with bubbles and a bath bomb and a backlog of issues of the Radio Times! And wine and chocolate. Ha!
I emerged and cooked roast potatoes, sausage rolls, chilli sauce and green veg and J and I watched a film called The Quiet Earth, which was really quite bizarre, very much of its time, not bad really but just a bit 'so... er... what?' at the end. We also watched Misfits and Have I got News for you.

Sunday 8th
Had another good lie-in, I do feel I have caught up on a lot of sleep over the last week. Daughter returned just now, apparently didn't sleep until 7am for about 3 hours! Seems to have had nice time and they all went to the cinema with some others today too to see Frozen in 3D.
Hoping to watch last night's Strictly in a bit with a nice dinner, not sure what exactly it will be yet. I have the other half of last night's bottle of wine too.