Christmas Highlights 2013

New year didn't get off to the best start for me. Despite going for a run, collecting more delicious allotment veg and taking Charlie to see Walking with Dinosaurs 3D, I was violently sick and spent the rest of the day in bed.

We had such a lovely Christmas, I thought it would be nice to reflect on the happy times whilst I wait to recover from whatever bug has struck me.

1. For the first year ever, I pretty much left the Christmas tree just as it was after the children decorated it, a riot of festivities on a plastic tree. For a great deal of December and some of November, I worked on orders for Christmas stockings. They ended up in Australia, Canada, America, Liverpool and Canterbury. Josie's designed her own 'Let it Snow" stocking covered in crocheted snowflakes and Charlie adopted the oversized Rudolph design.

2. My husband's present was a labour of love and involved all of us spending hour upon hour putting together a camping scrapbook of all our outdoor adventures. A very popular part of the process was using my vintage typewriter to type up extracts of our camping history. Josie also had the typewriter in her room for a while, I believe she is writing a novel, but I have not been allowed to read it.

3. My little animal lover Charlie decided that he wanted to leave carrots out for each of the reindeer. Much argument followed over the design in which 6 large carrots and two sliced carrots should be placed.

4. Josie finally received her own engraved Swiss Army knife which went quite nicely with the coat that Auntie Zoe had sent from Australia.

6. A letter of thanks for Father Christmas always goes down well on Christmas morning even if this year I did get to hear of its content shortly after 2am which was a little bit early.

5, 7 and 8. If you want to see weather, dramatic scenery and gigantic ferries heading off to France, The White Cliffs of Dover is the place to be. There was blue sky, stormy rain clouds and glorious sunshine all at the same time. It truly is a beautiful place to run around and let off steam. Depending on your attitude to heights you can stand right on the edge of the cliffs and glimpse the rocky inaccessible bays below. There are a number of footpaths that have crumbled into the ocean, such is the nature of chalk. Looking down on the port of Dover is rather like looking down on a toy town port with miniature cars and tiny lego sized people heading off on the waves.

Part 2 to follow

 

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