Mystery gift

If you are the kind giver of a string of knitted bears and some booties - thank you! Please tell us who you are!

So here it is, Merry Christmas...

Joe & Breda singing

Opening presents

Joe & Niamh in the Wigwam

Conor & Liz having a dance

We had a whirlwind Christmas tour of Somerset and Wiltshire. Straight down to see Breda's new house in Frome: it's a beautiful cottage with a really homely feel, great views and a garden with a fishpond. Joe had great fun exploring the garden and getting thoroughly wet and filthy. On Christmas Eve we had a lovely long lunch in Frome's finest eatery and explored Frome's microbrewery, indulging in a beer called 'Beer' and something strong called Elderberry Fizz. Sylvie kept us all smiling with her constant smiles and gurgles.

Christmas day was spent in the spacious glory of Conor and Liz's posh townhouse on the other side of Frome. We had a traditional Christmas lunch of spoked salmon, Thai curry and endless puddings. We were all spoilt with presents (despite Niamh and I apparently not doing Christmas presents this year) and had a great day.

Boxing day, off to Gordon & Phyllis for our first visit to their new home - just fantastic. Really light and bright, loads of room, great garden, in a lovely quiet area on the edge of the lovely village of Bromham. Again Joe loved running around and Sylvie was all smiles.

We had to take Astro on this trip as she broke her leg last week, had surgery to put a metal plate in her leg and has to stay in a cage for 4 weeks to rest it. So not only did we have 2 adults and 2 kids plus all the trappings, but we had Astro in a box and her cage on the roof of the car. What we go through!

Will add some pictures when I can. Hope you've had a lovely Christmas.

Next we have Niamh's birthday (Dec 29th) with Sam & Paul & Siun then hopefully a very quiet New Year!

100 Posts - and finally a video!

Ok this is an experiment in video, thru t'interweb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2mvXcp53qM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFCY9SLm4Qo

I can see clearly now...

God, December already, where did the time go? We've decided to cancel Christmas for everyone except Joe this year, we're too knackered and skint! Sylvie is too young to even know what day it is and Simon and I just can't be arsed to buy into the Christmas madness this year. We have all had nasty bugs etc over the last couple of weeks, Joe and I are on antibiotics, hopefully Sylvie will escape and Simon's flu jab seems to be keeping everything at bay for the time being.

Joe starts at his new nursery tomorrow. He had two very successful settling in days last week so seems like the best time to start. He is still going to the Christmas party at Holly House on the 20th which will be the last day for everyone there, so we'll get a chance to say goodbye. Joe made a new friend the other weekend, Neil was visiting us en route to Scotland from Singapore. Not sure he expected the story book reading marathon he ended up with but Joe was very taken with him and was upset when he left. Shame, Singapore's a bit too far away for babysitting duties!

Our floor is being finished tomorrow so the eight week job will only have taken seven months but hey ho! It's looking very sharp but I won't be able to relax until the floor is done, we've had so many false starts on this job. The new doors and windows have gone in, as have the portholes on the door - looking good. (Must get a window cleaner!) Then just the garden to sort out, hopefully that won't take seven months!