There's no room in the inn!

I was devastated to miss Wiggle's school play this week. Amy says that she was a superstar and delivered her one line to perfection. Modern thespians do not normally spend the first five minutes of their performance with their fingers in their mouth, but we can't have everything. I forget that she is so young and to perform in front of the whole school must have been petrifying! The awards ceremony obviously went well as she came home with a certificate for taking part and a note for being an excellent helper at school too. Anna then partied well into the evening on Friday at the club disco. A true performer. Well done darling....(P.S loads of dry nights!)

It's hard work being beautiful....

 My house evolves more and more into a place of all things girly. I have issue with this. There remains one tiny area of the house that speaks 'man lives here' and that is the shelving in the study with my DVD collection. I am surrounded by nail polish, dolls and barbies, pink things, flowery duvets, Emma Bridgewater, Mrs Hammond's new found vanity, skinny jeans, knickers to wash - the list is endless....Now we do beauty treatments. Somebody help me, when will it ever end!!!! Oh for a day of manly things when somebody listens and displays enthusiasm for discussing football. Lucy sums it up very well -'Blah, blah, blah'. I will however, never put up this argument when Strictly is on the television. On occasions like this I am happy to go along with all things girly. I did forget the one other manly thing in the house and that is Anna's Buzz Lightyear pants, but that is another story!

Chilling out the Lucy way...

Nobody does chilling out quite like Lucy. Maybe with the exception of her mother! Sunday is a day of rest in the Hammond house and you can see the long term taking its toll on the girls as they get more tired as each day goes on. Lucy takes her spot on the couch and spends the day watching telly, on her DS and drawing and making things. I think she would describe this as her perfect day and who can blame her. As we speak she is designing a barbie wardrobe for her dolls with junk modelling stuff. I have to say I am impressed. This is creative ability that it not often shown in the Hammond house. Wiggle is on the rug drawing treasure maps. We all await roast beef and it smells really good....

Two happy girls meet Santa!

It's the 1st December and the Christmas fever is already upon us. The girls have already met Santa, the lights were turned on in town and there is much excitement in the Hammond house. I have to say that Lucy is starting to get very sceptical indeed about the difference between the real Santa and men in fake beards going around Norfolk. It sadly feels like this may be the last year for her before the bubble bursts. For Anna the dream continues - the look of wonder on her face when she was on her mummy's shoulders waving to Santa this evening was a real treat. Twenty four more sleeps to go girls! Speaking of sleeps. Six dry nights for Wiggle this week. Well done - nearly cracked it....

Two nights, lots of hugs and the thespians....

After months of upset and not cracking it, Anna has been a superstar and has been dry for the last two nights. She is a very proud girl and is delighted. Go on Wiggle, go for the third in a row! After several aborted attempts Amy and I just stopped fretting and forgot about it until she was ready and she may well now be.

Phone conversations with the girls have been a delight this week as they have been telling me about their parts in their school plays. Anna is going to be the Innkeeper's wife and is full of protest as she tells me she does not want to get married. She was very annoyed when I told her if she was a wife, she was already married! Lucy is going to be an Elf this year. I am not one hundred percent sure, but was there an Elf in the story of the baby Jesus? Only time will tell. I came home last night and the welcome I got was lovely. I got hugs, kisses, a make over, my body measured (don't ask), doctored and told several times how much my girls loved me and missed me. What more can a guy ask for....

Pudsey Day!

In celebration of Children in Need day Anna spent some time drawing a picture of Pudsey to show her teacher on Monday. She's a lucky woman! She told me it was for 'Need in Children'! Great picture Wiggle! I love the picture and I really loved the cuddles when I got home today. Looking forward to a weekend with my girls...

A house that is truely home.....

Houses have been a huge part of family life this week. Grandma moved house yesterday and it was an emotional day, leaving behind well over forty years of memories. Granny and Grandpa also moved this week and left their beloved house. Both very significant events in every body's life and difficult days to cope with. This got me thinking. It is not the bricks and mortar that should carry the memories, yet what went on within. Wherever we move to, we will always have those. I will remember the girls bedroom from this house for example and all the fun they had sharing a room, but the special memory has been watching their bond as sisters flourish as a result of this, not the room. I stood outside an hour ago and watched Amy and the girls through the kitchen window (yes - I was having a fag!) as they chatted and decorated cakes. It was a magical sight and it was nothing to do with the house. They were smiling and giggling. Amy was teaching them and stroking their hair as she spoke. It was a perfect picture of a mother and her two daughters, framed through the window of our house. This is when it struck me. When I work away, I don't miss the house, or my own bed - there will always be another bed to sleep in or another house to live in. It's the people that live there that make it special. I was very sad to see Grandma's connection with Berry Hall finally end yesterday, but I would be even more sad to loose Grandma or watch Amy go through the pain of loosing her parents. So let's forget the houses and as we push towards Christmas remember that houses last for potentially hundreds of years and continue to be enjoyed by generations of families to  come. Our families belong to us just once in a lifetime and I quite simply love mine to bits....