I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

The Christmas holidays began cold, snowy, icy and extremely icy for us stuck on top of the north facing side of South Hill. Whilst the rest of Godalming went about its business once the ice had thawed out in the sun, we remained in the shadow of the hill unable to drive anywhere. The one occasion that we did try to venture out, we managed to get 50m down the hill before abandoning the car after seeing others sliding back down the hill drifting left and right when trying to ascend. When Daddy thought it was safe to bring the car back again, he got stuck on an icy slope 25m from the front door, wheels spinning, clutch burning, engine screaming but car going nowhere.

As a result of the ice we could not get the car to Waitrose to do all our Christmas dinner shopping. As a last resort, on Christmas Eve daddy took the massive backpack that mummy went trekking around Peru with down to the supermarket, filled it up with food (which unfortunately included lots of potatoes) and walked back home up South Hill. Just as well that he had a bit of practice at lugging heavy loads up that hill by carrying the Christmas tree the other week!

Thankfully by Christmas Eve afternoon, it was safe for Pops, Grandma and Uncle Ads to set out from the West Country and head east to join us for baked potatoes and cooked ham. Then on Boxing Day we were joined by Uncle John, Aunty Lea and cousin Zaak to take the numbers in our household to 9.

Noah and Zaak very much enjoyed meeting each other for the first time and when Noah went for his naps Zaak would ask 'where's baby Noah?'. We think that the pair of them will be very good friends.

Christmas Dinner

Daddy was in charge for Christmas dinner this year. On the menu: roast turkey, nut roast, roast potatoes, sausage meat, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings, peas and sweetcorn, carrots, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, parsnips, sage and onion stuffing, lemon and parsley stuffing and gravy. Needless to say a huge responsibility...perhaps taken on naively. Grandma had undertaken some great prep work by making two types of stuffing, red cabbage and lots of other food. Daddy was aslo ably assisted on the day by Uncle Ads. Pops assisted with the parsnips. Mummy made biscuit name places.



A resounding success!

After dinner, presents were opened. Noah had a particularly successful Christmas and now has a fine new wardrobe and some fantastic toys to play with.

Noah has very much enjoyed the festivities. He has loved having the Christmas tree up and being rocked and sung to in front of it. His favourite way to be carried at the moment is to sit looking forward and upright. He also likes to fall asleep in this position! He has loved having cooing conversations and smiling at everyone. In particular he finds his daddy very funny!