Festive Five for Friday

I'm not sure if the fantastic doodle bugs teaching is hosting a link-up this week but I felt like reflecting on the festivities now that I have had a chance to slob out slow down and think!

Today was the first day of our Christmas holidays and, if I'm honest, I have found something lacking so far this festive season. There could be several reasons for this; I'm getting older, I have no children, I've been very busy and stressed, we're busy planning for the holiday we're going on the day after boxing day, we were supposed to be celebrating this Christmas in our new house but that has stalled, all of our family Christmas get-togethers have already happened….take your pick!! I'm plumping for a combination of all of the above! 

However, despite my lack of festive feelings these past few weeks, the children have most definitely been living the Christmas dream and I have tried my up-most to enter the spirit- there 'aint no Grinches up in here!!

We loved this 'Elf Yourself' craftivity from Megan Astor's TPT store- read my blog post 'How to keep the kids off the ceiling' for more information and further ideas to store away for next year. 

My timetable and planning went well and truly out of the window last week- the green are assessment and things we HAD to get done- this weeks time table simply read 'School performance, crafts and DVD's'. I'm sure I am not alone in hating a timetable like this- so much to do and so little time to do it in…rehearsals, of course, over ran and the children couldn't cope with the lack of structure but hey, the performances were fantastic and loved by all!!!

I managed to get my decorations up in time for my Dad, sister, niece and nephew coming to visit- we all live miles away from each other (my father lives up in Aberdeen nearly 6 hours drive away) and I am in the middle so my place was the obvious choice for our mini Christmas  meet-up.

I'm lucky enough to live in the beautiful Lake District in the north of England and we have a tradition were we choose our tree from Whinlatter. As my niece and nephew have never had a real tree it was amazing to take them along and let them pick it for us. I let them decorate it too which, if you know me, was a massive shot of 'control-freek therapy' (I rearranged the decorations after they went home!) 

How do you run your Christmas parities? In our school KS2 play party games in the hall, dance and then have a buffet plate of food. KS1 split the children between the 3 classrooms based on what they want to do. We learnt a long time ago that many of our infants don't like loud music and really can't cope with an afternoon of dancing and games so we give them the choice between a) a quiet room with a DVD and colouring in b) a dance room and c) a room with traditional party games. After an hour we all go back to our own rooms, play pass the parcel and musical statues and then have our party food. 

This year my colleagues and I decided to have a little 'after Christmas party party' and dragged out the Christmas tree piñata we have had for 7 years but keep forgetting to use- we loved it! Why should the kids get all the fun on party day?!

One of my favourite things during the festive season is to sit with the tree lights on, Christmas music playing or a film on while I sit wrapping gifts. One of my least favourite things to do though is writing out tags! Last year I decided that I had had enough of trying to think of a range of benign messages to label my gift with and bought a stamp  

 BEST. BUY. EVER! 

Now all I have to do is write the persons name on one side and the jobs a good'en! 

How has your festive build up been going? Do you have any tips you use to help keep your sanity during the Christmas preparations? 

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