Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

We managed to coax Katy away from the Snowman and Snowdog Game for long enough to enjoy a rare family expedition to Chorlton shops (where we immediately bumped into a former neighbour) and a visit to our favourite drinkery Pi - which claims to have 12 draught beers and 60+ bottled ones. We happily opted for Flensburger Pilsener, whilst Katy sipped on her apple juice and helpfully divvied out the complimentary peanuts between her parents. It didn't take long too long for her to start scratching her arms and for pink blotches to appear all over her face. Uh oh - time to switch the apple juice for Piriton: our darling daughter has the peanut allergy that now seems de rigueur for white Western kids.

If you can't spend Christmas day in your pajamas, when can you? Katy was certainly in no hurry to get dressed, and after a more than civilised 8am start we had one of the most relaxed Christmas days I can remember. Here's my Facebook post for yesterday: Quakers don't usually make a fuss about the twenty-fifth day of Twelfth Month, so I thought I might darken the doors of my local Anglican church for midnight mass and some hearty carol singing. Turns out they are not blessed(?) with a live organist but are dependent on prerecorded music tracks, which are usually just a tad too fast and so rigidly metrical that congregations often fail to keep in sync. The machine gave us only 4 verses of Once in Royal , although 6 were printed, and during Silent Night the music was so much faster than our preferred tempo that someone wisely switched it off after just 2 lines. How wonderfully appropriate, given the origins of that carol.

Manchester's Christmas market has been declared "better than Bremen" by a recent visitor from Germany. I managed a quick visit after work, admiring the wooden toys and sparkly jewellery, savouring all the different smells of cheeses and salamis, and enjoying a mug of Gluehwein with a friend (at Zum lustigen Rudolph, see pic!). Leaped onto the tram home and race-walked back to the house just in time to see Katy before bed - at which point she excitedly jumped up and down and inadvertently gave me a thick lip. Now, where are some ice cubes ...

Bathtime is always a good time for interesting conversations. Katy and I were speculating about a Dr Seuss flashcard for the letter E, which features an Elegant Elephant and an Egg. "But elephants don't lay eggs, do they Katy?" "No, but another way to get a baby elephant is if the stork brings one wrapped up in a sheet!" Thank you, Walt Disney's 1941 version of Dumbo.

That's the motto of the 'outstanding' infant school just around the corner where we hope Katy will get a place next September. Just done the online application which, Trafford assures us, means we don't need to worry about lost forms. Ha! Have they never heard of lost data? So now all we have to do is sit back and wait until 10 a.m. on 15th April 2013. I think a lot of perseverance will be required to banish the nagging worry that she might get sent somewhere truly awful instead!

And Katy's getting fat, on chocolate from TWO advent calendars (Peppa Pig and Octonauts).