Merry Christmas and an apology (or three)

So here it is, Merry Christmas…

I have not been writing much here at all. Or on the Illustration Blog either, in fact. I have been busy with work…

With Christmas preparations (almost done)…

With painting dining rooms (or half a dining room, in fact – rest to be done at some point in the not too distant future, hopefully) and putting together furniture that has been languishing in the basement for over a year (almost done, again)…

With Christmas No. 1…

 

 

 

 

With lots of school things…

With children having chicken pox (for the second time in their lives – who knew that 13% of the population can get it more than once)…

With making pretty boxes of fudge for teachers and early-years professionals…

 

With doing lots and lots of pictures to send to people as New Year gifts (OK, they were going to be Christmas gifts, but since I’m probably only going to manage to post them tomorrow, that’s obviously not going to happen). I can only show you one of them (that has already been opened). I will do a post on the illustration blog in the New Year with all of them, once everyone has received theirs…

And with worrying about writing reviews that should really have been up before Christmas.

 

 

So, sorry for not writing much, and especially for writing just one Tasha’s Thinking Week post and then not another (to be fair, I haven’t really been thinking much about news apart from all the very very sad things in the new year, and I feel wrong to politicise other people’s tragedy).

And a big sorry to all the lovely PRs and brands who have sent us things to review (books, DVDs and board games). There were just too many and I always forget how busy December is now that I have one child in school (and it’s even busier with another in pre-school, apparently). I will get the reviews up over the Christmas holiday period and I will be cutting down on what I accept for review in the New Year, so that I don’t have another build-up like this. If I have too many reviews to do, I end up not writing any blog posts at all, because I feel guilty about writing normal ones when I have reviews backlogged. Which is counterproductive for everyone really!

 

Quick summary of the board games and DVDs, in case you’re out buying last-minute presents

Uno Roboto – great fun and even LaLa (3 – with very good number and colour awareness) could play it

Pictionary – brilliant (can’t believe I’ve never owned a copy) and great that it has children’s words – someone had to read them to LaLa, but she had fun drawing – RoRo was really good at it

Junior Scrabble – excellent – two sides to the board one with specific words, one closer to the original – loving that I’m going to get the girls into Scrabble early, as no-one else will play it with me (I’m a little too competitive and make too much use of teeny, but point-lucrative words)

Molehill Mania – quite fun, but limited in playability (two players only and gets a bit boring after a while) – great for young children (I’d say probably OK for some 2-year-olds upwards, but 5 and up find it a bit dull)

Chameleon Crunch (not pictured) – you need a really big space, which we don’t have – quite fun but gets a bit boring quite quickly

The Polar Express – lovely family Christmas film, once you get over the semi-realistic animation style, which is a tad disconcerting at first

The Dark Knight Rises – I loved it, Chris really didn’t (and he’s a big Batman fan)

New Year’s Eve – feel-good, Christmassy chick-flick which is very like Love Actually – nothing to write home about, but OK to sit down with a glass of Baileys and some Christmas wrapping

 

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas – or Winter Break, if you don’t celebrate Christmas – with lots of love and laughter with their families. I hope you all eat lovely food and enjoy a tipple or two, if you partake. I hope you play lots of silly games and pull crackers and tell silly jokes. I hope any presents you give are appreciated and that you receive thoughtful and meaningful gifts yourself. And I hope you make the most of spending time with your families, and the freedom of time off from work (if you get any time off, of course) and from school runs and exam revision.

 

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year!