Happy Christmas. I did manage to pick up the pastels briefly yesterday when my ex husband was round spending some time with the children. They have been well spoilt this Christmas, but they thoroughly deserve it! What with the boys having an Xbox and a new TV, my daughter having a laptop and a sylvannian shop- plus all the games, clothes, sweets and the rest of the stuff it is no surprising that I have spent well over an hour flattening and squashing the cardboard for the recycling bag. Sad day though, as they have gone to spend a few days with the in laws. After years of dreading that visit I am eventually released from it and have spent the morning energetically tidying, cleaning and freshening up the house. I even decided to wash the couch covers (is that a usual Boxing Day activity?). So I did manage to add a little bit of pastel to the new painting yesterday. I felt my old struggles with oil pastel rising again but managed to quash it by deliberately restricting my strokes to diagonal lines which is more evident on the bushes and slightly more difficult to achieve on the buildings. Studying artwork completed in oil pastel it does seem to offer a certain fluidity that a smudged mess distinctly lacks- so will give a go this time. I hope to complete the buildings today given the good light and peaceful home - however since the children have also had a new Wii for Christmas which has conveniently been left behind and since the karaoke game We Sing has not yet been tried I may be compelled to give it a whizz and make poor Alsager suffer this bright Boxing Day.