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The 2011 Christmas Letter (Christmas Bucket List task - Day 2)

So Day 2 of the Christmas Bucket List of things to do was: "Do a 'Christmas letter' for 2011 on fanbloomingtastic.com". I didn't do a Christmas letter in our Christmas cards this year, I don't know....I can't bring myself to do one, it seems a bit braggy. BUT, I do know some of you actually like that stuff so here goes...

Hmmm what did we do this year? Let's be honest, you really only want to hear about the kids don't you....I tell you loads of stuff about me every week here and on Twitter and Mr D is thriving in his job and as per usual working all hours including dashing off around the country and abroad on a regular basis.

So let's start with the smallest first...

Melchett

Melchett got taller as her hair got shorter this year:

 

 

She's now a 3rd grader. She loves maths (even if the Americans will insist in calling it 'math'), science, sports and dancing. Her reading is coming on leaps and bounds, she devours chapter books and adores our local library. She attends a weekly dance class, a gymnastics club and is part of the school choir (meaning we have to get her up earlier twice a week as they practice before school). She is a total comedian and makes me laugh every day.

I know we're biased but she is an incredibly kind-hearted and caring child, very sociable and incredibly inquisitive (though hasn't she always been?) As you can tell from the middle pic above, she's also developing a very individual style of her own and is highly interested in fashion.

 

Although the shortening of Melchett's hair is nothing compared to her big sister's transformation this year...

Goth Child

 

Looking back on photos of how Goth Child has changed and grown up, I'm gobsmacked this is all one year.

Guess which photo isn't taken on an iphone but a self-portrait by the photography student herself (no surprises it was the one taken this weekend on the far right).

Goth Child (who is no longer a child really and tells me the 'Goth' was always ironic as it's a nickname she was taunted with back in Shropshire by other kids at her school because she was a bit different) has matured so much this year and we are so proud of her (and her sister).

She graduated from Junior High School in summer as a straight A student and is now working so incredibly hard to keep her grades at A's in her High School Freshman year. She dropped Spanish on leaving Junior High in favour of Mandarin Chinese and is excelling at that, Honours Maths (they say Honors Math) and Honours Biology. As I said earlier she's also been doing Photography but she misses Choir so much (which she did for 2 years at Jr High) she's swopping to that in the New Year. The uniform you see her in is her dress uniform for AFJROTC (Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) which in all honesty she only took at first to get out of PE, but now she's enjoying it so much she's thinking about doing it for all of her time at High School.

Other things you might want to read that will tell you what we got up to in 2011:

Selling our UK home, ready to move to the USA permanently

Leaving the World's Brownest House behind (that we rented for 1.5 years)

Moving into our new home and arranging for Luca our cat to join us

The arrival of Luca Brasi (also known as the $5000 cat)

Beginning to sort the rooms in the new house out - my sewing room/lair

Surviving a haboob and getting back to school

Putting some colour into a beige house with curtains

Creating a Trophy Room (I mean guest loo)

Going to see the Grand Canyon.....and our family

Working out how to hang pictures ridiculously high

Creating our Doctor Who/Van Gogh 'gallery'

Controversially organised the bookshelves by colour!

Made the living room more ours, more cosy

10 Things You Don't Know About Me....Or Possibly Do....

As you can see, I'm still having trouble getting back into daily blogging after the school hols.

Luckily, my bloggy mate Jayne of Mum's The Word (and featured blogger on iVillage) has helped me out by tagging me in a 10 Things You Don't Know About Me meme.

At first I thought "but everybody knows everything about me, I'm an open book". I think I've probably blogged about every little interesting thing in my life at some time or another. But then I thought, you might be someone who's only just started reading my blogs or started following my tweets, so here's 10 things you might not know about me, but if you do, sorry :P

1. I'm partial to dressing up as a Dalek when bored. My costume is from one of my burlesque acts but I've been known to wear it to the supermarket and to the cinema (to watch Black Swan....long story). I'm also partial to glueing my fake Abraham Lincoln beard to my face and going out shopping too. It's an interesting experience. Here's me in beard with my two great great grandmothers....long story ;)  

    

   
   
   

2. Despite having dyscalculia, being told by my primary school teacher that I would NEVER be good at maths, being atrocious at telling the time and mental arithmetic (I have to have a calculator and triple check everything), I qualified and worked for nearly a decade as a chartered accountant.

3. Once when working in the PR department at Darlington Civic Theatre I stood in for Lord Charles and was used as a dummy by ventriloqist Ray Allan. Just to avoid confusion, this is actually Lord Charles in this clip, not me....I know the similarities are quite astounding:

    

    

4. I TOTALLY failed my German 'O' level. I got an 'Unclassified' in it. My excuse is it was my very last exam that year and my period had just started. Not enjoying German or being very good at languages probably contributed too. I do however have a grade C in 'O' level Latin and Grade 1 CSE in German. Go figure.

5. Not knowing the words to songs has never ever stopped me from singing said songs, and usually very, very loudly with additional pogoing much to the amusement of my daughters. I do stunning versions of Come On Eileen, La Bamba, Should I Stay Or Should I Go and Life On Mars? with a 'getting any of the words right' success rate of about 12% per song.

6. I once ran in a relay race with 2 others against sports television personality John Inverdale over the Shropshire Iron Bridge (in Ironbridge unsurprisingly) to raise interest in taking part in Sport Relief. John beat us all soundly. I was representing BBC Radio Shropshire where I worked at the time. I'm so, so sorry Shropshire, I let you down. John is incredibly fit though. And very tall. I was quite surprised at how tall he is when first met him.

7. I used to run a knitting charity, in fact I quit my job to run it. I took in spare wool and needles from people who didn't need them and passed them on to others who would knit baby clothes, trauma teddies, squares for blankets, or whole blankets for several charities I hooked up with who needed them in mainly in South Africa and Pakistan (just after the huge earthquakes). I also taught hundreds of people and children to knit at this time through schools, Brownie groups, roadshows etc. and eventually got paid to teach adults to knit at a local adult education centre (though I re-invested this money in the charity). The whole enterprise was however a victim of its own success (I had a lovely interactive website with patterns and pictures from knitters who joined in from around the world - from Japan to the USA, Spain, France, Denmark, hundreds across the UK, and even India). It worked very well whilst I was in the hyper stage of my cyclothymia (which lasted over 2 years, probably the longest top up I've ever had) but when the depression crash end came I couldn't cope with all the work I'd generated through it and very sadly had to gradually shut the scheme down. I still think it was worth it though - I got loads of thanks from older knitters feeling they were doing something useful for others, I got wool and needles into the hands of people who would use them instead of perhaps being thrown out, I taught tons of people to knit and hopefully they'll pass on this skill, and together we made a huge quantity of blankets, baby clothes etc for people in desperate need of them.

    

   
   

    

8. In 2007, I auditioned to be on Big Brother. I may have happened to take my top off. I didn't get through to the next round :) This was part of the queue waiting for auditions with me in Birmingham:

    

   

    

9. In 1986 I started a Bachelor of Education degree specialising in Secondary School Theology and Comparative Religions. I finished university with a Bachelor of Arts 2:1 in English Literature and Theology. 'Obviously' with this qualification I went on to be an accountant, as you do. I've been back to university twice to qualify as a chartered accountant and later a broadcast journalist. I've worked for, amongst others, the NHS, local government, the voluntary sector, run my own charity, run my own business desining websites and publicity literature, been a housewife, taught myself to sew costumes & build props and, am now a burlesque performer in the United States of America...................and yet at school they told us that we had to make the right decisions NOW choosing subjects for 'O' levels because they would determine the path for the rest of our lives - rubbish. You can be whoever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do, there is nothing you can't do, just things you haven't done yet.....it might might take time, money and effort but the world is your oyster!

10. I play the drums, but very badly. This doesn't stop me. Drumming is superb for relieving stress and causing laughter. Luckily Mr Devyne and Melchett are both drummers so I have two kits to practice on.

OK, there you go. 10 things you might know about me or might not. For more interesting '10 things you don't know about me' and other posts check out:

Mrs Teepot

DummyMummy

THIS is Mommyhood

Badger Mad

and of course Mum's the Word herself - Thank you!