I’d been looking forward to Saturday for ages – with Christmas fast approaching, I’d booked a trip to the amazing Unicorn Theatre for Alex and I to see “The Night Before Christmas“.  A special date for me and my boy.

So the two of us headed up into London, leaving Sophie and Matt to have a local morning together at a music class.  With the weather crisp and clear, I was pleased to have some time spare so Alex could play in the fountains along the Southbank before the show started.  A chance for him to burn off some energy before having to sit still!  As usual, he loved them, and thankfully managed to stay relatively dry!

It was soon time to take our seats, and we loved creeping into the snow filled theatre and snuggling in amongst the cushions and blankets that had been left for the yound audience!  Alex was super excited – but I must admit I was nervous as his attention span is pretty short at the moment, so i worried about how he’d cope with a 50 minute show.  But he was brilliant – as was the show.    It had all the little ones giggling throughout and even included little presents from santa for all the children!  We’re booked to see something else at the Unicorn in February, and I already can’t wait.

Once we’d said thank you to the performer, Alex and I wandered along the Southbank, checking out the boats along the way, before stopping at Strada for a lunch date!  I think Alex is going through a growth spurt as he ate masses of breadsticks, pizza and licked his ice cream bowl dry (classy).  And he was very excited about the packet of apple sweets given to him by Santa at the theatre (so much so that he insisted I took a photo of him and them!)

After a quick meander around Borough Market (and obligatory visit to Konditor and Cook for brownies and curly whirly cake) we headed home.  Once Sophie was up from her nap, I took the children down to Herne Hill for the end of the local Christmas fair.  The children were excited to find a selection of farm animals outside the station – Sophie in particular was thrilled:

Sunday was much quieter, with a fun trip to Brixton for family swimming and softplay in the morning and a relaxing lunch at home.  Alex and Matt stayed home for the afternoon, while Sophie and I headed back to Brixton to pick up some more Christmas presents.  We stumbled across a Nelson Mandela concert with some fabulous local gospel choirs and performers – it was incredibly moving and uplifting.  Sophie and I had a good bop to the music and took in the atmosphere before moving on.  Love living near Brixton.

To close – here’s some sibling love.  If you tell Sophie to give someone a cuddle, she leans into them for a snuggle. Gorgeous.