December so far
* Trip to Edinburgh to plan a Philosophy Jaunt with David Hume-related sites. Lovely day in winter sunshine.
* My dad went AWoL in town, forgetting to get back home by the time he had said. Was eventually found by the police having a few pints in a local pub -- an anxious time!
* Neuromancer away for a week in Liege at a conference.
* A day at home ("The Lord Mayor's Holiday") writing end-of-term reports.
* A day of horrible snow and black ice, when getting home took 90 minutes instead of 15.
* Dan's Christmas Show, in which he was an enthusiastic shepherd. He's still singing the songs intermittently.
* A long conversation with one of my bosses at school. The upshot is that I have no idea what my balance will be between teaching Physics and Philosophy next academic year; or there might be some Religious Studies thrown into the mix. I'm happy either way, to be honest.
* Booking a trip to the Lakes next year, when Neuromancer is in a triathlon and Dan is attending a Royal Academy of Dance workshop in a nearby town. (How about that for good planning?)
* An evening trip to the "Enchanted Park" at Saltwell; art installations/performances with a spooky/Christmassy theme dotted around, and weird lighting everywhere. Dan and I enjoyed it, Katy was take-it-or-leave it.
* A birthday party and the Kindergruppe Weinachtsfeier for Neuromancer and the children, while I collapsed in a heap at home.
* Finally getting around to putting together instructions for our Will.
* A film evening with a colleague. ("The New World", highly recommended.)
* Sorting out dad's financial woes with an ATM.
* Half a day at home feeling very poorly and sleeping.
* An afternoon in the pub, followed by the annual Staff/Sixth-Form party (a ceilidh) which was tremendous fun.
* A weekend of rehearsals followed by a two-night run of a Tom Lehrer revue in a local bar-with-a-small-stage. Great to be involved with this, although I did manage to fluff up a line each night; also nice meals/conversations afterwards.
* A day doing Christmas chores with the kids, followed by going to see the panto at the Theatre Royal.
* Dan's grading for his next karate belt (yellow stripe). (Admittedly, the main test seemed to be "Is the parent willing to fork out the associated fee?" but that's equally true of music grades etc.)
* Today, one of Katy's friends was due to come around for a play-date; but he's poorly, so we'll have a low energy day at home to recover from all of the above.
All of this in addition to the normal round of dance classes (D now has four separate pairs of dance shoes for various styles), swimming lessons, takeaway meals with friends, etc. I'd like to spend this morning catching up with paperwork and the afternoon watching a film, either on my own or with the children, deferring the large amount of work I've got to do on my book (and the small amount of marking to get done) until later; we'll see how that works out!
On another note, we've only sent out a small number of Christmas cards this year; I've given some extra to one of the school-supported charities (Children North-East) instead, so don't be offended if you don't get one from us.