My teacher, Mrs. Benson, said when we go back to school after the Christmas holidays we should tell everybody what we did for Christmas. I can’t write very well yet. I can read and write my name, and ‘love,’ and ‘the,’ and ‘to,’ and ‘and’. So Grandma said she would write down what I want to say. But I told her, I said, “Grandma, you must write what I tell you to write, Okay?”

And she said “Okay.”

My mummy is having a baby and she is sick all the time. So she couldn’t go to church with us because she might have been sick all over the church, and that wouldn’t have been very nice. So Daddy and Grandma and I went to church first to save places, and then the others came and sat in our row.

Daddy said it was my fault that mummy is sick all the time because I kept saying how much I wanted a little sister, but I don’t care. I do want a little sister.

My cousin Susannah came with her mummy and daddy and her grandad, who is called Alan. He can hardly walk and he sat in a chair sort of like a pushchair to go to church. Grampa came too, but he came late because he was cooking the turkey and potatoes.

I was the Star that led the Wisemen up to the crib, and I had to carry a big star - and wear a stripey shiney cloak, and I didn’t really want to do that very much. The stupid Wisemen kept fighting before we went up the aisle - and one of them kept hitting the others with the belt on his costume that wasn’t tied up properly. Grandma said I was very good, but I didn’t like doing it. I don’t want to be in the nativity play next Christmas.

Father Christmas came in the night to give me some presents - it’s only for children. Grandma helped me sprinkle some special oats for the reindeer out by the front step, and we put a mince pie and some port for him to eat and a carrot for Rudolph. And I put a picture I made for him under the tree, but he didn’t take it. I asked mummy why he didn’t and she said maybe he thought it was only to look at and next year I will have to write on it that it is for him to take away.

Father Christmas gave me some new tights and a shirt which matched which matched. I put them on right away. Mummy made me wear a skirt too. And some chocolates. But the best thing was what I had asked him for - a snow globe. It was smaller than I had wanted, but it does snow - and it has Red Riding Hood and the Wolf inside while it is snowing. 

Mummy and Daddy said I couldn’t open any other packages until after church and when the others were all there in the house together. I really, really wanted to open one before that, but they said I couldn’t. But I was a good girl, and I didn’t cry.

There were lots of presents but most of them were for me and Susannah. Daddy and I bought lots of presents for Mummy but she didn’t buy anything much because she has been too sick to go shopping. I got lots of books, and Grandma gave me a CD with lots of songs which all say my name, Natasha, in them.

Susannah calls me Tasha. She can’t say my name properly yet. She calls herself Sannah. I wish she could talk properly. I can understand her a bit better now that she can talk more but I wish she could say my whole name Natasha.

We had a big lunch that Grampa cooked, and it was good but I didn’t want the Christmas pudding, and I didn’t like the sprouts. I had some roast carrots which is what Grampa does best.

Susannah’s grandad wet his pants and made the floor wet in the downstairs toilet, so I had to go upstairs when I wanted to go to the toilet. He had to sit on a towel after that. Susannah still wears nappies and has a bottle. She is still a baby.

Grandma read all of my Dora books to me and Susannah. And then we drew pictures of snowmen. And Grandma said, “Put a circle for the head.”

Susannah said, “Circle for the head.”

“And put a bigger circle for the middle.”

“Bigger circle for the middle.”

“And a great big circle for the tummy.”

“Big circle like Grandma’s tummy.”

Grandma didn’t like Susannah saying that. But I said I thought that Grandma was going to have a baby too, her tummy is bigger than mummy’s. But she said that Mummy and Aunty Stephanie  and Uncle Jonathan were her babies and she wasn’t going to have any more.

So Grandma said that maybe she would try to get rid of her tummy while Mummy is making the  baby. So when Mummy gets fatter, she will get smaller. She says that was her New Year’s resolution.

She asked me if I was going to make one of those too. I said that I was going to take care of my new baby sister (mummy said it might be a brother, and I suppose that would be fairer for daddy as then there would be two boys and two girls, but I really want a baby sister) and I would change her nappy and rock her when she cries.

That is all I can think of to say about Christmas.