Christmas

Well, we made it to the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales, and had the most fantastic Christmas. All the preperations had been done prior to our going, so all there was to do was unwind, and enoy ourselves. We had a walks to the nearest beach, which we had to ourselves, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed sploshing about in their wellies through the stream, the sea and generally exploring.

We had forays down the lanes and across the fields looking for wood for the fire, which brought out some primal instinct in us all, but especially the men! Hence Stuarts present of a firebowl and lighting steel!

Stuart and Luke decided one day to walk the 5 miles to his sisters house, and saw the sum total of 15 cars in all that time. I just wish I could have gone with them, but my pelvis still is not up to it. I'll have to save it for next time!

Stuart's sister and brother-in-law turned up with a couple of branches of scyamore and hawthorn painted white, which we were able to adorn with festive treats, and had pride of place in the lounge as our Christmas tree.

Evenings were spent with Grandma knitting jumpers for the boys (at a rate no-one could believe!), Nanny knitting a jacket for Sophie for when she is a little older, and the boys playing with toys that were at the cottage.

Christmas Day was lovely, the boys had their presents, as did everyone else, the food was prepared and cooked, and everyone ate heartily. The turkey was perfect, and from a local farm, but despite it being 21lbs there was not much left by the end of Boxing Day. We all descended on Stuart's sisters cottage on Boxing Day, after negotiating their drive way, which is a true test for any car! Needless to say, Stuart, the boys, Sophie and walked up it in Wellies and Sophie in the sling! Their house is as beautiful as ever, and I am so envious of the peace and solitude they have there. The night sky was truly wondorous that night, with no street lights to hinder our view, you could see stars that were so faint that they disappeared when you tried to look at them directly, it really was stunning.

We also went to their house a different route, taking us through Rhiw. I had never travelled this road, and was not prepared for the view as we went over the hill, it was breathtaking, with a view of Snowdonia, Hell's Mouth, Cardigan Bay. That has now become another place on our list of places we would consider moving to, if we could sort out the "work/money" problem! Everytime we visit the peninsula we go through in our mind how we could move there, exaccerbated by the fact the cottage we were staying in was up for sale. Perhaps a time will come, but we can always dream.

The feeling of coming home is never as happy as when returning from other trips out. Despite us living in a lovely community, with fantastic neighbours, friends etc, it is just not rural enough for us. I am sure our time will come...

Best laid plans...

Well, despite all my plans to make many Christmas gifts, they have slowly been whittled down to just a few, due to time constraints, and a rather wakeful 3 month old! After two attempts at the honeycomb that had worked so well on Bonfire night, I resigned myself to filling the Christmas bags with shop bought sweets, although the temptation to find some "homemade" shop bought sweets and pass them off as mine, was rather high, it was also a victim of time, or lack of.

At least I have lots of ideas for projects to work on when time is less of an issue!

However, we can now all breathe a big sigh of relief that all Christmas plays, parties etc are finished with, and we now have 2 weeks together as a family, and we can start on the family traditions. Such as our trip on a steam train tomorrow, munching on roast chestnuts whilst waiting to see the man in red, and then returning on another train having waited by the roaring fire in the waiting room eating warm mince pies. This is the official start to Christmas in our family.

We are all looking forward to a peaceful, restful family Christmas, and I think Alec may be looking forward to spending a bit more time in his bed in the mornings, as am I!

Good days

You know those days when things just fall into place? Today has been one of them. I'm not sure what I have done differently, but there seems to have been time. Plenty of it to go around. Luke was off school with a stinking headache. The parcels of Fairtrade orders arrived, and whilst he made some Christmas cards for his teachers (very nice they are too) I sorted out the orders, and Sophie slept.

I managed to get the washing on the line in the morning (has been unheard of recently!), packaged up the flowers and butterflies for the first consignment for GP mamas on the LETS scheme, got to the post office, picked the boys up, cooked tea, spent time doing homework with them, read bed-time stories, and even managed to squeeze a bit of housework in! All fantastic stuff, which is how it should be every day, and I think what makes today stand out is that this has not been how it has been of late. I like days like today, and whatever it has been that has made today happen, I am very grateful, and look forward to a few more like it.