An unexpected advantage of reading aloud.

As I believe I may have mentioned once or twice, I'm currently reading the Harry Potter books to my girls at the moment, which they are greatly enjoying so far.  Something that I didn't anticipate though, is just how much I'm enjoying it too.  The thing that is making it so special, is that it's like reading the books for the first time by proxy.  Having read the series more than once myself already, I know what plot twists are coming and obviously I can't forget that, but seeing the girls reactions to events before the big reveal is just fantastic and really does bring back how I felt when I first read it myself.

In other news, K & M have had out a cardboard theatre given them ages ago, along with various finger puppets that they have tied pieces of string on to and are planning a performance of The Lonely Goatherd from the Sound of Music.

We have been enjoying the snow, M most actively, with building snow people and making snowballs, sometimes to throw, but today she made a large one, carried it around the shops (leaving it outside if we were going to be a while) and told me and various other people how it was Father Christmas' pet who'd come to visit while it's snowing here and it will return to the North Pole when the snow here melts.

M's Snow family

 I've been enjoying the aesthetics (and the occasional snowball fight with M).  On our road there was one thing in particular that was so beautiful that I went back with the camera to capture it...

And finally, I mentioned M wearing a moustache when we went out on a group walk on New Year's Day organised by a neighbour, here she is at it again.