Christmas Days

It has been 3 days since Christmas and in all that time we never sat still. Santa came as he always does and the presents filled the lounge. 

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with abound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back

Boxing Day flew by, mainly on the motorway to London and back, Boxing Day traffic and we should have known better. Picked up the Under Dickens from Heathrow and that started the whirlwind of sightseeing, walking and eating. The next day was Corfe Castle after a Sandbanks cafe breakfast and a walk on the beach. Susan had arranged an impromptu production of an ancient play telling the story of the 12 days of Christmas, as enjoyed at the time of King Richard. Gary was the merchant, Michael was the knight and Kate took the part of the old man. Susan and Robert were cast in the roles of trees with Benji taking part as the chime player. and the last remaining role was Lily as the sound of the horse's hooves. Much was done with oohs and aah in time to the tale. Dancing was attempted and singing encouraged to little enthusiasm, Matthew was seen to do a jig and a little hop but other than that the performance went off without too many hitches, except for Kate who forgot to be a wizard and tried to strangle a dying Knight (Michael, who volunteered her participation in the play). After a rather disappointing visit to the local tavern, we made our way to Gary for a belated Christmas dinner. All off to bed early, as the Under Dickens were all suffering from jet lag and we were exhausted.

Saturday dawned overcast and cold. The Under Dickens woke early and enlisting the help of Gary and Alex, took a walk to Bournemouth along the beach and then for some fun, came back by bus to Westbourne. Gary in charge of the bus trip did liken it to herding cats, all in the name of experience, that is what I put it down to.

We all met at Kingston Lacy to see the gardens illuminated with coloured lights.  The one area had speakers place among the trees and the lights turned different colours and shades to the music, beautiful and strange in the misty, falling light. Not much time to stand and stare in the long stream of people, I did manage to take a few photos as you can see. Early supper of leftovers and spaghetti bolognese before it was time to take exhausted children home to bed.

As I was drifting off to sleep I heard that protest song by Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi. 

They paved paradise 

And put up a parking lot 

They took all the trees 

Put 'em in a tree museum 

And they charged the people 

A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Hopefully the new year, mankind will stop destroying our planet.