Safely home
again after a lovely stay, with first DS, then DD, and their respective
families, and life is falling back into its normal sedate winter pattern here on our Welsh
hillside. The rain has finally stopped and the weather is still, mild and
mainly overcast – long may that continue!
In the intervals
of sorting and tidying and doing mounds of laundry (how can two people have worn so many clothes in less than a fortnight?)
I find snapshots of our Christmas visits popping randomly into my mind.
The grandsons
all growing up before our eyes and the shock of looking directly into the eyes
of Grandson#1 who is now, at 13, as tall as his Grandma, and I’m not exactly
small! Where is that little toddler I helped to look after for a year, while
his mother finished her teaching contract?
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| Then - aged 18 months |
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| Now - a teenager exploring on his own |
The sheer fun of
being in the same houses as three lively and talented boys with their thirst
for music and games, with Grandson#3 (who turns 9 tomorrow) demonstrating yet again
his extraordinary skill at charades and his two older cousins introducing me as
always to their latest board games – this year Forbidden Island, rather than Killer Bunnies.
The luxury of
having someone else deciding what we will eat and mostly making it unaided by
me. Oh, we probably ate too much as usual,
but not far too much, and my first attempt at Christmas gingerbread was much
appreciated by Grandson#3, while DS’s first attempt at making a Christmas cake to
my old recipe was an undoubted success.
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| Next time I'll practice the icing better....... |
The pleasure of
unwrapping gifts I know I will enjoy throughout the year – in my case, books,
CDs and DVDs to which I will return again and again. The fun of finding my
traditional chocolate orange treat on my bedside table on my return from Midnight
Mass, courtesy of DS who knows his mother’s tastes, as well as having DD extend
my chocolate experience (did I say I love
dark chocolate?) by introducing me to the delights of Fairtrade Ginger Thins.
Trying to go for
a walk in Port Meadow in Oxford, only to find our way barred by floodwater, but
succeeding in a lovely woodland walk in Yorkshire when the sun finally graced
us with its presence on New Year’s Day.
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| Port Meadow December 2012 Image via Google |
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| A family walk on New Year's Day |
Above all the
joy of catching up for a few days with our very busy son and daughter, with
time to sit and talk or just be together quietly, reading, knitting or simply
relaxing. Who could ask for more?
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| Christmas socks - by me and for me J |
