Little donkey.

Mr Shouty has his say in Ely Cathedral. 

The final run-up to Christmas happens on Christmas Eve when we always go to a children's carol service. We try to get to Ely Cathedral if we can because the service there is very special and really short. They have a real donkey and the sermon bit always features a large puppet called Aunty Maureen. She doesn't quite understand Christmas and has to have some aspect of it explained to her.

This year  Aunty Maureen had broken her arm and so felt useless. She wasn't coming over for Christmas because she would just be in the way! Of course the Dean managed to persuade her that she was really loved by all of us and Christmas just wouldn't be the same without her. I nearly cried!

Two years ago she went to the Mediterranean for a Christmas break and all the kids got quite upset. However, it turned out she missed the plane and turned up late. You should have heard the cheers.

Little Donkey

It's a magical service in a beautiful space with toddlers wobbling all over the place and even some adults wandering through the Cathedral on their way to the shops, seemingly oblivious to the magic around them.

The only draw back is that it takes us most of an hour to get there in the car. Dan is usually brilliant about this but, with seven of us in the car, he decided to throw the biggest wobbly of the holiday. By the time we got there we were all ready to call it a day and go home. As we only just got there on time, we had to sit near the back, away from the action. Thankfully, a battery of huge TVs had been installed for us so we could see really well, but Dan was still a bit shouty.

The Dean took us all in hand by asking for "an inner calm to enter us all". It's more polite then saying "Shut-up" isn't it? Try it. I could see Hanna beaming the little bit of  'inner calm' she had left onto Dan, and it worked instantly! Mr Helpful was back and Mr Grumpy had vanished.

Back at home, a huge hot chilli was waiting for us in James and Jo's slow cooker. And so the night before Christmas drew to a peaceful but gusty close.