Merry Christmas
Dec. 23rd, 2007 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woolymonkeyThis year we’re trying out a new way to keep in touch, so this is a long post with a year’s worth of Monkey House news for our non-livejournal-using friends and family.
If you’ve followed the email link and this is your first visit to livejournal, WELL DONE! You can read most of the journal without logging on or having a livejournal account yourself – you can even leave comments. So please browse around and see what you think. If you like it enough to get an account (which is free and harmless) you can get access to more personal posts and to photos we hope to put up soon.
If you think livejournal is a good way to keep in touch, let us know and we’ll do more of it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008 to everyone!
Spidermonkey (the 12 year old) has had a busy year. He’s started secondary school, had surgery to restore a retracted eardrum, and grown about a foot.
We’re still waiting to see if the new eardrum succeeds, but the first term at Parkside School went really well. He loves having more independence, the cafeteria food, and the more interesting lessons (probably in that order). Highlights are DT Food (cookery if you’re over 30), Photography, and Science, where the teacher encourages them to blow stuff up. He still enjoys violin (with a lovely new teacher) and is working for Grade 3. He got a bass guitar for his birthday and is working on Green Day tunes with his still-nameless (and singer-less) band.
He is now taller than Nanamonkey and will overtake Woolymonkey any day now. (We have to stand back-to-back every week or so to see if he’s there yet.) Oh, and he sounds an octave or two deeper than last Christmas.
Squirrelmonkey (the 9 year old) wants everyone to know that he’s grown too – it’s just that he hasn’t caught up with Spidermonkey yet. He’s up to Woolymonkey’s shoulder. He’s had a pretty quiet year (except when he’s practising his cornet), moving up to Year 5 at St Matthew’s, working for his Grade 1. He’s finding school a bit dull at the moment (although maths is still good) but he’s had fun organising a basketball team with his friends, singing in the choir, and playing far too much Runescape.
Woolymonkey is still teaching for the Open University and translating. I’ve also painted several rooms—the playroom in white, orange, yellow, red, AND black—and made blinds and curtains for the kitchen and front room. We’ve got a decorator booked for the downstairs rooms in the spring. And I’ve discovered livejournal…
Musicmonkey (daddymonkey) still working in 3D geometry software and enjoying it. When he’s not been thinking about hard sums he has been doing bits of DIY around the house, putting up shelves, measuring things for curtains and carpets, and playing music and football with the kids.
Zil and Fruitcake had a good year with lots of tasty dry food, fur shedding, and no major spats with trespassing cats. Speedy didn’t think much of the chilly summer and is sleeping it off in the shed.
We’re still waiting to see if the new eardrum succeeds, but the first term at Parkside School went really well. He loves having more independence, the cafeteria food, and the more interesting lessons (probably in that order). Highlights are DT Food (cookery if you’re over 30), Photography, and Science, where the teacher encourages them to blow stuff up. He still enjoys violin (with a lovely new teacher) and is working for Grade 3. He got a bass guitar for his birthday and is working on Green Day tunes with his still-nameless (and singer-less) band.
He is now taller than Nanamonkey and will overtake Woolymonkey any day now. (We have to stand back-to-back every week or so to see if he’s there yet.) Oh, and he sounds an octave or two deeper than last Christmas.
Squirrelmonkey (the 9 year old) wants everyone to know that he’s grown too – it’s just that he hasn’t caught up with Spidermonkey yet. He’s up to Woolymonkey’s shoulder. He’s had a pretty quiet year (except when he’s practising his cornet), moving up to Year 5 at St Matthew’s, working for his Grade 1. He’s finding school a bit dull at the moment (although maths is still good) but he’s had fun organising a basketball team with his friends, singing in the choir, and playing far too much Runescape.
Woolymonkey is still teaching for the Open University and translating. I’ve also painted several rooms—the playroom in white, orange, yellow, red, AND black—and made blinds and curtains for the kitchen and front room. We’ve got a decorator booked for the downstairs rooms in the spring. And I’ve discovered livejournal…
Musicmonkey (daddymonkey) still working in 3D geometry software and enjoying it. When he’s not been thinking about hard sums he has been doing bits of DIY around the house, putting up shelves, measuring things for curtains and carpets, and playing music and football with the kids.
Zil and Fruitcake had a good year with lots of tasty dry food, fur shedding, and no major spats with trespassing cats. Speedy didn’t think much of the chilly summer and is sleeping it off in the shed.
If you’ve followed the email link and this is your first visit to livejournal, WELL DONE! You can read most of the journal without logging on or having a livejournal account yourself – you can even leave comments. So please browse around and see what you think. If you like it enough to get an account (which is free and harmless) you can get access to more personal posts and to photos we hope to put up soon.
If you think livejournal is a good way to keep in touch, let us know and we’ll do more of it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008 to everyone!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 10:10 am (UTC)Have a great Christmas, & maybe see you soon!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 11:01 am (UTC)