All The New Things

We successfully had a Merry Christmas! Well, I was in a funk for most of the time period, but the actual Christmassy bits were very happy. I was able to meet up with two old school friends as they came down to visit family, with every probability that we'll meet up again before another year goes past!

We did my parents' village's Christmas panto and Christmas pub quiz. The latter was hosted by my mother, so I said I didn't want us to be on a team with Dad for fear of winning. He said it would be fine, but sure enough, we won by a significant margin and my parents and I were very embarrassed. Not so the kids: it was their first experience with a pub quiz (my daughter fell asleep during the scoring) and they were thrilled with the result—and the box of chocolates my son picked out as our prize.

Gifts worked out perfectly. On Christmas eve, the kids wrapped the Christmas gift sent to me from my brother and sister-in-law and filled my stocking before bed. I was concerned that there were fewer gifts under the tree than usual; My son was embarrassed that my stocking wasn't as full as he'd expected; none of us actually cared and we were all very happy with what we got. (For the record, my stocking contained two little pictures, some fudge, a soap and a handmade sponge, all by local crafters. Perfect!)

The worst gift was from Meg, a live mouse which the kids decided to rescue. My son promptly got himself bitten by the mouse, and we all had flashbacks to another mouse bite three years ago where we had ended up in the emergency room. This time we agreed that we'd rather keep an eye on it ourselves instead of spending hours to get a doctor's opinion.

For the record, the mouse did get away. Meg was furious with us.

My parents gave us even more gifts (we were spoiled rotten!) and dinner... and a second mouse to dispose of, this one caught in a humane trap. I released it into the churchyard in the dead of night.

Post-Christmas Fallout

We spent the following week letting the Radio Times plan our lives as we built LEGO in front of the television, but for the New Year, I decided we were going to get fresh air and exercise every day, if nothing else, it was dry for a change! So we finished the kids' holiday with a number of day trips: Trevose Head, Lydford Gorge, Bodmin Moor and Tintagel Castle. And yet more LEGO.

This week, the kids were back at school, we've got back into a routine and planning for the new year / decade, all of which has improved my mood tremendously.

Six months into the new life! We're still figuring things out, but now we can see the shape of things to come.