The Ever Shrinking Christmas Tree

 
My tree has been a constant in Christmas ever since my mum gave it to me in 1991.

We, my tree and I, have been through a lot together.

A house move.

Cog arriving. 

Single parenting.

Another house move.

The years I have dragged the box out of the attic on my own and brought it downstairs in sections because it was too heavy to carry alone.

Every year the same tree, the same decorations.

We look forward to opening the box and greeting our old friends.  We talk about the memories of where they came from and for some of them, the purpose they have on the tree.

It became tradition somewhere along the way that Cog puts the star on our tree.

The year she fell off the chair and into the tree.
I thought it was very funny, she did not.

Some of the Christmas tree putting up togetherness spirit may have died at that point!

The year she was so excited about getting the tree out, she insisted we did it the first weekend in December.

What I started to notice, like so many of us getting older, my tree is clearly shrinking.

















The year I thought it might be the last year she would be alive to do this.

And this year, still ill but working through it, a new star, like a new beginning.

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Two little kittens, one stormy night, Began to quarrel, and then to fight;

Two little kittens, one stormy night,
Began to quarrel, and then to fight;
One had a mouse and the other had none,
And that's the way the quarrel begun.

"I'll have that mouse," said the biggest cat,
"You'll have that mouse? We'll see about that!"
"I will have that mouse," said the eldest son;
"You shan't have that mouse," said the little one.

I told you before 't was a stormy night
When these two little kittens began to fight;
The old woman seized her sweeping broom,
And swept the two kittens right out of the room.

The ground was covered with frost and snow,
And the two little kittens had nowhere to go.
So they laid them down on the mat at the door
While the old (I've told you already, not old!) woman finished sweeping the floor.


Then they crept in, as quiet as mice,
All wet with snow and as cold as ice;
For they found it was better, that stormy night,
To lie down and sleep than to quarrel and fight.

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December Weekend

 Saturday was a lovely start with Cog and I making Christingles in a cold church hall.

 Warming up with non-alcoholic mulled wine.

 Sunday was a beautiful start too, with a wintry run.






























Snow play

 A very happy car


















And Christingle, my favourite service of the whole year I think (Midnight Mass is a close second)

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Rangers Gingerbread Houses

A few years ago we did gingerbread house building Ranger style and I was struck by the amount of team building required in such a simple task.    And as a sideline craft one night we did simple biscuit houses.   For an easy meeting we did a mix of both.


To give me a night off our very friendly ex-rainbow now Guide Leader that now comes to Rangers with regularity baked the gingerbread.











And we left the Rangers to it.

















Some were simple














Some were artistic















Some were a great combination of both crafts

















It was a nice chatty, easy night, just what was needed when so many of them are knee deep in exams and assignments right now.

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Foot Painting Rangers Style

 One of the things I have learnt across the years is that Rangers love going back to things they will have done as children, that chance to revisit things they once enjoyed without fear of derision, like playdough. At our planning meeting in September one idea presented was finger painting, why not go larger we decided: foot painting.

To protect the carpet in our meeting room I put down the large tarpaulin we use to cover bags whilst pitching on camp.

 I bought hand paint pads as I thought it would be less messy for them but to be honest, I wish I hadn't wasted the money because there was plenty of paint in our cupboard anyway and they got stuck straight into getting very messy.











With plenty of paper, pens and the ever required biscuits we were off.













Some paired up, some were happy to work alone.  Rather than standing in the paint on plates and trays, they decided to paint their feet and hands.

We had taken some ideas off the internet with us.

None of them managed to do the tree recognisably!

The robins were fun.

 The snowmen came out ok.

As did the reindeer.

They all enjoyed having a go at the disney princesses.

 Some with more skill than others, but all well tried.




The room and tarpaulin at the end of the night were pretty much carnage!

They really enjoyed it and went home proudly holding toddler-esque paintings that they were determined their parents would be made to stick on the fridge door.

 I was worried this term that we haven't really done anything deep, we didn't 'do' parliament week and they generally aren't interested in doing in depth campaigning or heavy material.

But watching them chatting, painting, squealing over the coldness of the paint and happily sloshing their feet around in the washing bowls I was quite content that this is exactly the type of evening they want after a day of hard study.  Some of them travel a long way to college and back each day, they are all doing exams, they don't want to debate issues of an evening. They want to develop their team building skills, explore their creativity, hone their common sense gland and enhance their communication skills!

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