January

I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks now....just been too busy. 

Let me see.

30 Dec we went down to Lyme Regis to meet up with my Mother, brother and his family and my sister. My sister left in the evening and my brother and his family left after dinner but we stayed the night with my mother. 

31 Dec we came home via Sainsbury's in Farlington and a quick visit to the Indian restaurant for a takeaway meal. We then spent a couple of hours getting the food ready for tomorrow. Our neighbours Mark and Sharon came round for drinks at about 10 pm. The lads up the street set off fireworks at midnight, so we all went outside to watch both their display and the ones around us.

1 Jan we had Maria's parents, sister, niece and sister's boyfriend to visit for lunch and tea. We served them Chili con Carne.

2 Jan we spent at home

3 Jan Caroline and Tom went to football again

4 Jan we took the kids to the airport using two cars. The queues were terrible to get into the car parks, we got separated of course and Maria and Caroline went in via "Arrivals" rather than "Departures". The kids made the flight though. Then we dropped off the hire car and drove home. On the way we hit a spot of black ice on the roundabout where the A331 meets the M3. The car span round 180 degrees but didn't hit anything! I rang the council to report it, they said they already knew about it but it was too cold for them to grit the road!

5 Jan Maria went back to work and I had to "sign on". I spoke to my other sister about Mum's birthday present. We decided on a photo frame. I have also been organising the accommodation for the guests.

6 Jan Some pictures arrived for scanning from Ann. The frame should arrive by the end of the week. Found a B&B but Maria is worried about the fact that it is home to 10 cats!

The last week

Boxing Day (26th December) was a quiet one, getting ready for the kids arriving on 27th.

Early morning on 27th December we went to Heathrow. I'd reserved a car at Alamo rentals. Maria dropped me off and then waited for me. As I drove out she followed me, but she was delayed at the exit barrier and a bus joined the queue behind me. As I left the car lot I saw Maria drive off towards Terminal 5, when we needed Terminal 3. I waited for 15 minutes and then went off to the airport. She returned my call as I got to the car park - she was now in the terminal arrival hall.

I got there 10 minutes later and met the kids. No sign of Maria though! They had been waiting 10 minutes. Beth went off and had her paged but then we spotted her.

We got home at about 10 am, had breakfast and then started on "Christmas dinner" preparation. We finished eating at about 4 pm after sitting down at 3.30 pm. We had desert later on though!

On 28th December Daughter No 1 and Son No 1 went off to the football with Grandad. Arsenal won (against Portsmouth). But then Grandad didn't turn up at the kebab shop where they had arranged to meet. They waited 20 minutes and then rang a family friend who they knew was at the match and put him on standby, then they rang me, then they rang Grandad's house in case he contacted his son. They then went to meet the family friend in the pub. Grandad turned up an hour later. He'd been turned back by the police and sent the wrong way, got lost and eventually went backwards and forwards looking for them before thinking to try the pub. He hadn't thought to call anyone - and he'd left his mobile at home too! They got home at 7 pm

29th December Grandad, his son Steven and daughter in law Cheri and their daughter Rebecca came for a cup of tea/coffee and to exchange gifts. After that we went to Guildford shopping (to spend gift vouchers the girls had been given). No 1 son and I went off to find a barber as he hasn't had a hair cut since we had it done on 29th August. We met the girls in Starbucks - here Caroline was able to get us staff discount off the drinks. Maria wasn't answering her phone though. She eventually called at 5 pm - her coffee was nearly cold by then and the girls had gone off shopping again. Back home Caroline and Maria watched "Mamma Mia" on DVD - I sat through it too. It was quite fun, bad plot and worse singing but if you ignore that its a bit like The Rocky Horror Show. Maria says the singing is supposed to be bad to show how it doesn't matter if you can't sing! Tom had gone over the road to see his friends and Beth went too - she stayed to watch "Superman Returns" with them!