A&D's friend, C came over on Friday morning to play as she normally goes to Nanny's whilst my friend Marie is at work, but Nanny was on holiday so we were more than happy to have her, although a whole morning with three almost three year olds required some planning so as not to send us all completely mad!
I had originally planned a bit of a Christmas themed morning of a baking session followed by hot chocolate and eating of the baking then crafting, lunch and a little chill out before Marie came to collect C.
The baking went ahead as planned quite successfully in fact; the children made shortbread stars dusted in icing sugar and seemed to really enjoy doing it. They (the shortbread not the children) maybe could have done with slightly less time in the oven, but to my surprise were actually quite lovely. Shortbread is far from my favourite thing so I didn't indulge that much, but Daddy on the other hand loves it and was very impressed with their efforts.
As we were having a cosy morning in I then sat them down with hot (ok warm for the tiddlers) chocolate (made with proper chocolate and marshmallows I might add) and a small shortbread star each. I was actually quite disappointed because the only person excited by the hot chocolate was me! I thought the children would love it, but they were really not fussed by my hot chocolate and were much more interested in their shortbread.
The Christmas crafting was then replaced by making poppies in honour of the fact that I had realised while we were baking that it was actually 11/11. I had some left over sheets of foam from a giant sized rubix cube fancy dress outfit that I had made so we used the red and black ones along with some red glitter to make the flowers and then some green pipe cleaners to make the the stems. You can see their attempts in the picture above.
So on that note, given that it is Remembrance Sunday today , I really want take a moment to think about and thank those in our armed forces, both past and present, who have fought for our country and the freedom that we have; the freedom that I have to sit and write my views about this day in this blog without fear. It is not a political day and in my opinion it really doesn't matter whether you agree with the conflicts that our forces have been or are now involved in. It is about individuals who sign up to ultimately die for their country and also, just as importantly, their families.
My lovely father in law was in the Royal Artillery for 12 years. He doesn't really talk about the serious stuff much, just about the camaraderie, but from what my husband tells me, like the fact that he did combined ops (Parachute Regiment's P Company and Royal Marines' Commando Course) I get the impression that he was an excellent and well respected soldier, but, whilst he sustained no physical injury that I know of, I don't doubt for one second that it had a long lasting effect on him. He was based in Singapore when he met my mother in law; they "stepped out" briefly while he was home on leave and got engaged and then a few months later she flew out to Singapore and they married without any family around them and had their first child out there. I can't even imagine how difficult that must have been especially for my mother in law. So to think that there are members of the armed forces out there who go through the same thing every single day and then others who go through things a million times worse than that I think that all we can do is be eternally grateful to them and support them.
I could go off on a huge tangent here about how poorly paid I think they are and how I don't really feel that they are supported enough with the transition back into civilian life when they leave (my husband has friends who have been in the forces and then left so I am not talking blind when I say that), but today isn't about that and I will save that rant for another day.
Today is about remembering and being thankful for those who have fought and lost their lives; for those who have fought and sustained physical injuries that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives; it is also for those who are fortunate enough not to have sustained injury or lost their life, but who have seen things that most of us couldn't even imagine and who have to deal with those memories and the impact of those events for the rest of their lives and then lastly to the families of all service men and women. I SALUTE YOU!
