If you're ever disappointed with what you receive this Christmas just remember somewhere, someone is unwrapping a Tottenham shirt.

Well, it has been a good day today.  Needless to say, my daughter woke early.  My son, who was too excited to sleep properly woke up later.  I am not sure if my daughter was speaking loudly when she came into our bed so that he would wake up or not...

Anyway, we did allow them to see if Father Christmas brought them a present, which he did, using the bags he had used last year, as well as bringing a present for the adults in the house.  My son had warned me earlier in the week that I might not get a present as I had been too naughty but he did not seem to mind that I had been given one.  I do tell children that I did not get presents when I was young as I was too naughty, which to be fair, I was.  My brothers can confirm that and have done so on many an occasion!

Since being with my wife, Christmas has been more about giving, but this is even more so now we have the kids.  We made them wait till noon to open the presents, and they were very good to wait so long (something I used to hate when I was a child) and loved what they got.  And now, knackered, they are in bed allowing the two of us time to snuggle on the sofa, watch Alan Carr and type this entry!

It's really nice too see the teams who are struggling in the Premiership do well in the League Cup. West Ham, Sunderland, Man Utd...

The end of the weekend, and for me an okay one but I am still ill!  It has been good being able to spend time with the kids, and my Mum had come up to baby sit which allowed my wife and I to go to a great birthday party at Trotters.  I started to feel unwell on Wednesday and while I was able to still go to work, I have not been on my best form.  Here is hoping I will be well for Christmas.  The carol service of my daughter went well, it was great to see her there and she liked taking part.  It is sweet watching them like this, especially as I know that they will grow and I will enjoy many things in the future, I need to treasure these memories from now.  Right now, we are resting from dropping my mother back in London, the kids watching the Muppets. Tomorrow I am back at work and hopefully feeling better.  Of course, there is a big game for Arsenal tomorrow, the game against Chelski.  I am hoping for an Arsenal win, but considering our record against José Mourinho I suspect a draw would be the best that we can hope for!  And in case you are wondering about the picture, it was of a fan who managed to get Suarez to sign a contract before he actually signed a proper extension later on!   

The Bank of England is to introduce plastic banknotes that can survive a spin in a washing machine by 2016. Surely that will just encourage money laundering ?

We are getting ready to watch the carol service that my daughter will take part in.  Last night, we watched my son in his nativity play.  He got to play Joseph and remembered all his lines, though there seemed to be one moment when he almost did not.  He loved being the centre of attention for the evening (though this was only for a few moments as all the kids in his year had one part or another to play) and coped with the 'pressure' quite well.

Anyway, have to go in a moment.  I hope you like the picture, I saw it when looking at pictures taken in the year on Yahoo! and it reminded me of the pictures that I had wanted to take on a dolphin spotting trip in Bali.  Due to the delay in taking photo's in the day's before digital camera's, we did not realise that I had only taken splashes until we developed the film.  And I had got carried away and had taken loads of shots!

After 16 pints of Coke, 9 bags of Minstrels and 5 large popcorns, The Hobbit was finally over.

Well, I loved the film, thought it was amazing.  And it was worth watching it on a big screen and in 3D.  Just in case you did not know, it had a dragon.  And watching a big dragon in a cinema in 3D is amazing.  As it does not follow the plot of the book exactly, I suspect that my wife will not fully approve when she or if she gets round to watching it.  But I loved it, just in case you missed it the first time!  The down side was that I did not get to watch Strictly Come Dancing, yet.

I have spent the morning with the kids so far, my son who would normally be getting ready to play rugby having a cough that is bad enough that means that he is going to have to miss it.  But he had a early present from Father Christmas which meant that he has a rugby ball that he has been throwing about.  So far, nothing broken, yet.

While they were playing on the laptop I was able to watch the highlights of the Arsenal game that I listened to yesterday.  We did make quite a few mistakes in the game which 5hitty made the most use of and while many papers are saying that this is a sign of how Arsenal can not win the title, they forget that Arsenal were going to be tired considering the lack of time they had to prepare for the game. Arsène Wenger stated that he does not envy the riches that 5hitty have, but considering that they have some of our ex-players it is a bit hard to really to fully trust him on that.  Besides which, in addition to an extra day's rest, they were able to almost play a different team midweek while we could not.  And there were a few close decisions that went against us as well.  So in summary I do not think it was possible to say that City were really playing against an Arsenal team that was playing as well as we can.  Journalists should really be smart enough to be aware of that! 

Mesut Ozil has claimed Arsenal can win the title. That's not as unbelievable as it sounds, the women's team's pretty good.

Well, I knew we were going to lose.  My wife could not work out why, if I knew that, I was swearing lots everytime 5hitty scored.  I have not had a chance to watch the game and will be doing so tonight.  The kids were very kind and tried to feign an interest in the game probably to put me in a better mood.  But my daughter hates football as she considers it to be a boys game and my son loves rugby.  But tonight, I get to watch the Hobbit!  Needless to say, I loved the last film and am looking forwards to watching this one.  My wife did not enjoy it as I did and was annoyed that it did not follow the book, but it had to be different to bring in the money that the Lord of the Rings trilogy brought in. Anyway, I have to go as I am going to be leaving soon.

Robin van Persie, also known as the 'human tampon'. In for one week, out for a month.

Well, a quick post before I go to bed.  At the moment I am dreading what is going to happen tomorrow when Arsenal lose to 5hitty.  I know that the team are pretending to be optimistic, but they only got back from the defeat in Naples on Thursday and have flown to Manchester today to lose the game tomorrow.  So I am hoping that we do not get thrashed too much.  On the bright side, van Persie, a great player, is out injured.  Made me smile, and I know that is the wrong Manchester team, but with the strength that the 5hitty squad have, one injury would not be enough for tomorrow. 
For the last few nights I have had to spend more time with the kids.  My wife has had to go out most nights, which has meant that I have had no excuse but to get home to put the kids to bed.  Last night, we dropped her off in town and while we were doing so, the kids were singing to Roar which they both love.  Memories like that are things I hope never to forget as they sounded so sweet.

My wife said she's leaving me because I can't do anything right when it comes to housework. It took me hours to mop that carpet.

As predicted, we did not win, though I was glad that we did not lose on the weekend.  The odds are that we should not lose tonight against Napoli, but it is hard to be certain as we are playing in Italy.  But it is the game on Saturday that worries me more as the team will not have had that much rest.  I guess I can hope that 5hitty get something wrong again but I doubt that will happen.Anyway, the kids, have had a great time with them. They were very nice and let me watch the football, but I have also had a great time away from the football. Today I had fun doing the school run this morning. I normally like to walk them in, but due to time pressures, we had to drive in. Kids eh! But the walk back was as usual, lovely. It is great that they will run to me and give me hugs, well my daughter will, my son prefers to be cheeky to me. But this time is time that I will pass all too quickly.