I’m eligible for an Irish passport and I need to look into it. My grandad (Irish) changed his name when he immigrated to the Uk though so I don’t know if that will complicate matters. Also not sure whether he did it officially or just started using an anglicised version of his very Irish surname. I think there are people who will help with the tracing of paperwork part?
Unescorted that was a long list indeed! The biscotti sound nice - how well do they keep? I don’t think I’ve ever run the dishwasher 3 times in one day! (I’m weird though and still hand wash quite a lot of stuff 
).
Bummer about the car Em
We put up the new lights outside and they look lovely. They are a warm pinky-yellow and the children are enchanted. I also paid £80 yesterday to get a local licensed scrap man to take away all the bathroom waste that was on my drive (we were originally going to have the main bathroom done before Christmas and save by just getting one skip for both, but as it hasn’t happened yet I couldn’t bear having it all there over Christmas). I am waiting to see how long it takes DH to notice that the huge pile of rubble and bathroom fittings that were blocking the garage has gone. Place your bets.
Anyway, no rubble and naice lights. I can hold my head up with the neighbours again 
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The Snowman was really good. It was in a local church and they were selling drinks, cakes, popcorn... there was a lovely relaxed atmosphere, we were relatively early and got good seats, the DC behaved beautifully and were rapt. The brass band was brilliant. Young boy sang ‘walking in the air’ pretty well and got a big cheer. Best £30 I’ve spent in ages. DS really surprised me though. He exclaimed ‘it’s a church’ and then said ‘I like the church’ a few times. He NEVER says he likes something without prompting. And he wanted to stay afterwards to look around and cried when we left, saying he wanted to go back to the church. It was the oddest thing... I don’t think we’ve ever taken him to a church so I was surprised he even knew that’s what it was, and he seemed to really like being there. Hmmm.
Made home made meatballs and tomato and pepper sauce for tonight, to have with pasta, loads of cheese and the strictly final. Dilemma: do kids’ bedtime with DH and watch it with an hour’s delay, so too late to vote, or leave DH to do it alone (bit mean?) but then be able to vote?
I’ll probably do bedtime.
Making cards and doing some wrapping tonight.