2011 already.....

I'm back. A short holiday from the blogosphere, as is traditional at this time of the year (!) does even the most fervent blogger the world of good. And for those extremely lazy bloggers amongst us it is a jolly good excuse to do nothing. And for those of us who don't normally need an excuse....well, let's just say it's a marvel that I write anything at all.

So, Christmas, a quick update. We all had a fabulous time - there was ski-ing, sledging, skating, snowballs, sub-zero temperatures - basically, we had it all. And as you can probably tell, a very White holiday season. So White in fact, that our visitors couldn't come, then they did, then they nearly couldn't get home again. Quite terrifying for all of us at various times!

New Year's Eve, my special bah humbug moment (enforced jolliment - won't do it), was spent practising for future years: I watched TV and Jodi snoozed on the couch while we waited for our resident party animals to phone to say they needed collecting from the local hostelry. I'm afraid to say that the prospect of a ball falling in Times Square did not hold the appeal of the Sydney fireworks, even when accompanied by the dulcet tones of Jodi's snoring, and I retired at 10.30. Luckily the partying Tates managed not to upset any locals and our porch was mercifully devoid of poo the next morning!

We had a brief thaw in the New Year and the grass appeared for an all-too-short day and a half. Since then, however, Mother Nature has been making up for lost time and we have had more snow than you can shake an icicle at. And it has been cold. So very cold. 3 degrees the other morning. Not too bad? Well, remember this is Fahrenheit we're talking. That's a super freezing -17 degrees C. MINUS SEVENTEEN AT NINE'O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

(Quick comparison for you though:  Jodi is in North Dakota as we speak and was on the receiving end of a Public Weather Warning this morning along the lines of:  don't go out with any flesh exposed as frost bite WILL set in. Wind chill expected to reach -40 degrees. Guess I should consider myself lucky.)

We built Finn a bobsled track in the back garden, and the wee chap was actually game enough to try it out. We can release the second trial run to the public - that's the one after Jodi built a snow pile at the bottom to stop Finn disappearing under the trees into next door's garden! I will do my utmost to attach said video here...

Meg is on the move: commando crawling with purpose now and really covering some space. The knee is starting to come up and the arm strength is definitely there so it won't be long now before she gets her wings and really starts causing trouble! Again, have some video.........

And so life continues into 2011:  hockey practice, gymnastics class, swimming lessons, Volunteer Fire Brigade, driving tests, triathlon training - I'll let you guess who is doing what!.