St Andrew's Toddlers in Bath is blessed with a tonne of toys so it was quite a task to give them all a clean. Thankfully, volunteers from the church in Foxhill - including Marcella on her first GoodGym mission - mucked in and we got lots done, although the ride-alongs will have to wait for a wipe down another day.

Our priority was the cooking stuff, which often ends up in tiny mouths, and we also managed to wash a huge box of Duplo. We used the church's sterilizer for the smaller bits and manually cleaned the toys too big for the machine.

Toddler volunteer Diane put her hands to sorting and scrubbing, while GoodGymer Stephen donned the Marigolds and did his bit.

Ruth was not at all tempted by the electronic toys and was kept busy loading the trays for the washer. Children's worker Claire worked on the puzzles and we even found some missing pieces, which was a bonus.

A lot of water, cloths and tea towels were involved. We had to leave lots out to dry overnight and I hope it wasn't too big a task to tidy them away.

All in all, a successful evening. It's good to know that the children will be playing with safe and clean toys when they come back after half term - and we'll probably be back cleaning them again at the end of the summer!

Every year, we have one of our most popular missions: putting up the Christmas decorations at St John's Court at the end of November. It's really great, you should try it, it's almost as if Christmas starts with this mission.

However, there obviously comes a time when we have to reverse our good work and take the decorations down. Now, usually, this is not as popular a mission as putting the decorations up; no one wants to say good bye to Christmas.

Last night though, we had a pretty good crowd with seven GoodGymmers turning up to de-Christmas St John's Court. Newcomers Alice and Steve were both very welcome indeed and we look forward to seeing them both again on future missions!

Also in attendance were GoodGym stalwarts Stephen, Tanya, Meyrick, Vicky and recent addition Katie. All in all more than enough hands to help pack everything away.

There was genuine thanks from the residents as well, one had even come downstairs especially to thanks us for putting up (and taking down) the decorations for them every year as they could not do it without us.

We left promising to see them again next Christmas - it's only 352 days away....

T'was a wintry November eve, the crisp air heralding the beginning of something wonderful. For tonight was the beginning of Christmas...

Our annual visit to St John's court to put up their Christmas decorations is now a tradition, and for many of us, the start of Christmas. Eight Christmas GoodGym elves rocked up, just like Last Christmas, to Deck the Halls of St John's Court with trees, tinsel and lights.

Stepping into Christmas for the first time was newcomer Nat, and a first time in Bath for London GoodGymmer Katie - you a both very welcome. we look forward to seeing you again!!

With multiple locations to decorate - the Main Entrance, Common Room, and Leisure Room - there was a lot of decorating to do in just one hour. But we had plenty of help from regulars Emily, Stephen, Amy, Tanya, James and myself.

We made quick work of it, Santa would be impressed. We hope that the residents will awake to see the spirit of Christmas present as they make there way downstairs in the morning. Ho Ho Ho!!!!