Hello school holidays, it’s good to see you!

December and the end of the school year is always a tinderbox of emotions in our neck of the woods. Exhausted kids, mixed with tired parents, a hint of 'I'm going to miss my teacher', and a whopping great dose of 'where did the year go?' makes for testing times. Not to mention the odd explosion or two! In the race towards Christmas, it's easy to get caught up counting down the days. Until holidays. Until Christmas. Until the New Year. Which means you may miss out on some of the good stuff that comes with the journey to the end of the year. This year I decided to make time to pause and take pleasure in the countdown:

•  watching the Mini Fashionista perform in her school concert (a cracker of a job as a sixties starlet), play the violin in her first string ensemble performance (where of course I got teary, because no matter what the content I seem to get teary at school concerts) and morph into a tall willowy little lady with a snappy send of humour
• Seeing Captain Jack master tying his shoelaces and hand-writing. In fact I am pretty sure this will go down as one of my highlights (for anyone else who has watched their child suffer through occupational therapy (OT), frustration, anger and every other emotion that comes with struggling to master a new skill, you'll know what a BIG deal this was). Noticing that no matter how tall and strong he becomes, his heart is still made of ice-cream and melts at the sight of a wounded bird or when someone is hurt. 
• Watching Flashdance emerge from his shell, and even have the courage to speak at assembly (seriously unthinkable at the start of the year) not to mention to produce some of the most wonderful pieces of art, and continue to march to the beat of his own drum (to his credit, he did successfully pull off the 'cool Scottish man' for International Day - complete with hat, tartan skinny jeans and tuxe jacket).
• Saying goodbye to nappies for Little L, and hello to Kindergarten orientation!  Where did that time go? My baby is all of a sudden a little person, with an opinion about everything, everyone and attitude to spare.

How about you? How are you enjoying the ride until the end of the year? Enjoy xx