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Laughter therapy was... Fun! 

Lots of smiling and laughing exercises. And an epic marshmallow battle that continued longer than Laughing John had intended, including into the relaxation phase; when we were supposed to be lying on the floor chilling, I was being pelted with marshmallows. Not sure if this was because I'd been chucking them previously or because I was next to the head teacher and was getting the fallout! Either way, it was great fun. 

Water fight at the end of term I think! 

Physio this afternoon - getting an appointment made me smile as did my pathetic attempt at balancing on one foot. The exercises did not make me smile as they made my ankle hurt. It's for my own good though!

HIGNFY had some classic lines tonight. And I'm looking forward to catching up with The Fast Show. I was upstairs having a bath and missed most of it. 

And it's half term! 

Smiles 365:365

It's been a year of two halves - Swiss and English. Lots of smiles along the way - tears too or I wouldn't be human, but lots of smiles and laughs.

Happy New Year to you all and thank you to my lovely boys for providing so many of the smiles, many unrecorded. 

I'll leave you with some of my favourite pictures from this year. But I'll be back tomorrow, by popular demand, with ...

MoreSmiles365!

And here's the link to all the photos from the year!

Smiles 364:365

We're in the middle of visits to John's side of the family at the moment. More present exchanging has ensued including selection boxes (which is best - Mars or Cadbury?) books and calendars. We were somewhat puzzled by the Arsenal calendar however as none of us support them - Man Utd, Liverpool and Spurs x2 in our house! Still, made us giggle! As did Nanny Mu telling John's sister (on the phone) that we'd "survived dinner"!

And a night at a Premier Inn always makes Jude smile in anticipation of the breakfast!

Smiles 357:365

Leaving snowy Scotland didn't make me smile but I take lots of smiles home with me. 

The look on Jude and especially Isaac's face as they were handed kiddie bags in Bella Pasta today was priceless!

And discovering that John had bought First Class tickets for the return trip made us all smile, especially as the journey was much longer than it should have been thanks to the weather. Never mind, I've had two glasses of Prosecco... ;)

And we did make it home in the end.

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Jude creases me up with his facial expressions!

And I noticed this evening that there's a mouse house in the skirting board!

Lots of Scottish smiles today - running in the sleet and snow with the wind in my face but a beautiful view; delicious food at every turn; laughs with my family and a good hot bath!

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I ❤️ Scotland

That's Glen Nevis. 

And this is us on the way up Ben Nevis (we didn't reach the top!)

Just beautiful - and the road through Glen Nevis is brilliant. A great surface and it has humps and switchbacks and had us all screeching. 

Great bacon and haggis sandwich here - thoroughly recommended!

Then a walk around our bit of Loch Leven. Plenty of seaweed fun for the boys, only curtailed by the fast falling darkness.

Off out for seafood dinner soon. Oh I do like being on holiday!

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Lots of smiles today! I'm on holiday :)

Glasgow - a statue with a traffic cone in front of GoMA. 

Loch Lomond (cue singing)

Made it to the cottage.

Meet Glen Cow (and Mango of course!) Love a cow!

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Sometimes it's not easy to smile. I found out about the tragic death of a lovely bloke today and I lost my smile. I wish he'd known how much he is missed and the hole that he has left in the lives of so many. But even in the saddest times, there are moments that bring smiles, even if they're fleeting, flickering and bittersweet, like seeing photos and thinking of happier times. My thoughts are with the family and close friends of @infernaldepart.

As our friends are currently in Iceland, I was thinking about our trip there at Christmas 2010 and what a great time we had. Sadly Z and A are currently stuck in their hotel thanks to extreme weather but I hope they've seen some of the island, and that they're stranded somewhere nice!

Other things that made me smile today
Jude told me he liked my spreadsheet as he looked at me making the bed this morning. I replied that I liked the bedspread too.
The sun shone whilst I was running - hurrah!
I used Tarsia in my English class today - and M and M loved it!

Smile in other languages
In Slovak - úsmev

Smiles 49:365

This photograph popped up in a presentation I did today - it always makes me smile as Jude was so funny that holiday - and he's so cute too!

A busy day today - went to school twice (and it's a Feiertag!) and it was the last day of Fasnacht so time for Böögg verbrennan mit Feuerwerk. Winti definitely knows how to have a bonfire and fireworks!

Smiles too today for my iPad training - it went well and I managed to make everyone go "ooooh!" at some point!

And I had to smile when Jude texted me to ask if he could make scrambled eggs for breakfast then proceeded to text again for instructions! "I think I'll leave it to you next time, Mummy. They weren't as good as yours!"

Smiles in other languages
In Maltese - daħka

Smiles 46:365

At last - documentary evidence of me on skis. True, it only documents that I wore them, not that I actually went anywhere on them but still! There are many people who thought it would never happen!

No skiing today though as we're home but, having cleaned the car after an unfortunate incident involving car sickness on the way home, we popped off to Kreuzlingen and Konstanz for a walk and lunch. Below is the 'family' I found by the Sealife Centre. Think they need feeding up!

Other things that made me smile today

Conversation in the car was hilarious but unrepeatable - needless to say, as I have two boys, it involved bodily functions and getting a word slightly wrong! 

John bought me some flowers - we sort of 'forgot' Valentine's Day as we were up a mountain! And Pancake Day too come to think of it!

It was good to wake in my own bed this morning!

Smile in other languages

In Belarussian - ўсміхацца

Smiles 45:365

There is a sad absence of photographs of me skiing thanks to my inability to take pictures of myself, and the fact that John and Jude are in different places whenever I'm skiing. So here's one of me sledging - which was great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed skiing - especially as I have yet to break anything!  I descended a blue run twice today without falling today and although I did wipeout on the drag life (bit embarrassing that!), I was really pleased with myself! Still, my body is very achy - I should have done this when I was 4 - and I'll be glad not to put those boots on again tomorrow morning!

This is the skylight in the bathroom. Looks like there's a cloud baby looking down through it to me, but it's really just snow.

And here are the icicles outside the kitchen window. Impressive eh?

The boys have said so many funny things today but I've forgotten them all as I didn't write them down. We did have a great game of 'replace the name of the film with aardvark' and our best ideas were - A series of unexpected aardvarks, Nativity:Aardvark in the manger and Minority Aardvark. Much giggling - and I was very impressed by the boys' knowledge of films!

The boys wiping out sledging was hilarious today - they were competing to see who could get the most 'air' off their sledge and land in the most spectacular manner. At one point, Isaac managed to land on top of a snow bank, still seated in his sledge, two foot in the air. Much complaining about steering wheels in crotches though!

Smile in other languages
In Icelandic - brosa

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Another day of fun on the piste - I can now do something resembling parallel turns and survived the chair lift twice! Anina is so lovely and very very patient.

Poor Isaac has been ill and missed out in ski lessons, having to stay in bed, so it was lovely to see him out sledging with us this afternoon - and wiping out spectacularly. I was scared he was hurt but when I rushed to check he was ok, he lifted his head and said "Get in!!" with a huge grin on his face.

Playing Name that Tune with the boys was a source of great amusement too, especially as John decided to take control and play 80s music (no complaints from me but is that fair when the contestants were born in 1998 and 2001)
"My confused brain is making all these songs sound like the Macarena." (Isaac)
"Is it Squeeze Up the Junction?" (Jude)
Isaac claiming that he was at a disadvantage as he had blocked ears, despite scoring more points than me.
Jude chastising Isaac for having a coughing for mid song - 'it's putting me off!'
"Is THIS Squeeze Up the Junction?" (Jude)

Other things that made me smile
@mfljess used an idea from my session at ililc3 in her lesson today and it went well.
Photos of my sister and brother-in-law dressed up for a Murder Mystery.
Looking out of the window into the pitch blackness of the mountains and seeing a snow plough's headlights looming towards us.

Smiles in other languages.
In Kannada - ಕಿರುನಗೆ

Smiles 42:365

Bit of a whirlwind of a day really as I unpacked from #ililc3, put on the washing machine, shopped and then repacked to go up to the mountains to learn to ski.
So very busy but still time for smiles. Being fitted for skis was fun, as was making ourselves at home in Amden in the house kindly lent to us by John's colleague, its full of photos of her gorgeous little girls so there's a smile at every turn. and the views! So beautiful.
Here's Jude mesmerised by the fire!

Smile in other languages
In Greek - χαμόγελο