After the boys had finished breakfast, I cleaned the kitchen and then began the production of industrial quantities of spice biscuits to supplement the shortbread made (on Thursday) to give away to the 7 teachers and teaching assistants, and sundry others who require gifts at this time of year. I was just rolling out the very last of the mixture when Katie arrived home nearly six hours later. The doorbell rang and there were Katie, Sam and Elias – with poor Tomi struggling down the road way behind, looking utterly knackered. At that point I, quite by accident, managed the perfect domestic goddess moment. The house was full of the scent of around a hundred freshly-baked spice biscuits, and there am I, in (I kid you not) my best pinny with the roses on it, with just enough mixture left for the children to have a little roll and stamp out a biscuit each. At which point I hear Sam whisper to Elias, ‘Wow, Katie’s got a nice mummy.’ Aww, give that kid a biscuit!

Tomi eventually staggered in and declared, all wide-eyed, that the biscuits were just exactly like the ones they have at home in Finland. Aww, just like mother used to make! The kids demolished a huge pile of biscuits and then hurtled out to the garden to run off some of the sweets they ate at the cinema. I made Tomi a cup of strong tea and he confessed that he really had no idea how exhausting it was going to be taking 5 seven year olds to the cinema. He said Katie had behaved beautifully throughout but the boys had been pretty extreme. Apparently he left the film at one point to go to the loo and, when he came back, the people in the row in front complained that Sam had been swearing and throwing popcorn at them! Yet to look at wee Sam, you really would think that butter wouldn’t melt…