Oh Christmas Tree

Well, this year saw Kezia do her first Christmas Concert with her pre-school.

For the past few weeks she has been singing her songs at school - and treating me to interesting renditions of songs at home. There's been something about Christmas Pudding, she's been singing the Hokey Cokey and Jingle Bells - or Tinkerbells as it is sung in our house. I've been wondering what all these song snippets were about and was intrigued to find out if they featured in the concert .. or if Kezia was just weird!

We were allowed 2 seats at the concert and as Chancey-babes couldn't make it, dearest mamma (Grum) came instead. We got there nice and early and bagged two front row seats! hehehehee

Kezia had to be dressed all in green for the concert because she was playing the role of a Christmas Tree. :D

The children all marched in an orderly fashion onto the stage, Kezia included. It was hilarious to watch all the children wave to their parents. Kezia couldn't see us at first, because she was sat behind a snowy chimney pot, so she waved to the general audience with much glee! It was very funny.

In the concert itself, Kezia was amazing. She paid attention and did all the hand movements to the songs and we could see her singing merrily along. Once she had spotted us on the other side of the stage, we got most of her attention but she still did all her movements - she was just doing them to us!

I was so proud of her. She's the youngest at the pre school at the moment - the only one under the age of 3 - so she really did well. I got a little tearful to see her so grown up.

At the end of the concert there were mince pies for the audience whilst the children (and me) went back to the pre-school where Father Christmas was waiting as a surprise. It was just wonderful.

I have to give full credit to Ladybirds PreSchool in Ampthill. They are an amazing group of women who care for those children so beautifully. My little Kezia is so happy there, and it's all thanks to them.

So let's raise a glass of festive cheer to all the workers at the preschool - and a huge cheer for all the little ones who created such a wonderful concert. It really was a day to remember. If someone said to me on the eve before my wedding day that in four years time, to the day, I would be sat watching my little girl do her first Christmas Concert I wouldn't have believed you. I am so lucky that my wonderful wedding day just led to an even more wonderful life. I am so lucky. And Kezia is so beautiful as a Christmas Tree!

Hippopopolop....

Last week Kezia and I went with Grum and Grandad to meet David and Anna at London Zoo.

We were forecast light rain for the day, so we went packed up with all our waterproofs and about a gazillion changes of clothes for Kez but as it happened the day stayed bright and shiny!

We all met up just before lunch and, once dearest mamma had finished wrestling David and Anna to the ground, we went for a gander.

First to hit the viewing spot were the Penguins - Anna's favourite. They were rather whiffy! Kezia also enjoyed the penguins and we seemed to make a friend with one in particular who followed Anna round the pool.

Once lunch was had, we had a go on the carousel. I think David enjoyed it the most ... he looked so comfortable and at ease astride that painted lion.

We had a good look at all the animals: tigers, lions and their cubs, insects, butterflies (the least said about the bearded pigs, the better) and made a special return to the penguins for feeding time. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't as exciting as we'd all hoped. David and Anna, especially, felt that it was somewhat lacking in the flaming hoop department.

For me, the day was polished off when Anna turned to David and said ( we were discussing what to buy at the gift shop) "We could buy a Penguin. We don't have any stuffed toys on our bed, yet" The look on David's face was classic. Think horror, crossed with amusement, crossed with an 'over my dead body' look.  As it was, she contented herself with a pair of fluffy penguin earmuffs. So, battle won to David, but I think Anna might win the war!

It really was a lovely day. I love my family so much, and Anna is a brilliant addition to it. She fits in really well. The only thing missing was Chancey babes.

Next family day out is Wimpole Hall with the Wyatts, so watch this space at the end of November!


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Where did the time go?

Wow - it's been a long time since I was on here! Blimey! That just goes to show how busy our summer has been. :D

But, I'm not here to talk about the summer. Oh no. I'm hear to talk to you about horse riding. More specifically, Kezia horse riding.

In the last few months Kez has become increasingly keen on ponies (nothing to do with me, honest!) and when we go for our walk 'round the church in Ampthill, I always have to go to the paddock to pet the horses, or there's hell to pay! (Let's gloss over the occassions we make the mission to go, only to find the horses are in an inaccessible field)

So Aunty Sue (or Suzie as she now is to Kezia!)  offered Kezia the oppotunity to ride her first pony. Kez was very excited when she saw 'Bill' (her cousins pony) and couldn't wait to get started. She had a wonderful time. She put his saddle on, backwards, and then his numner over the saddle instead of under, so it's a work in progress. She did, however, realise that the girth on the saddle was missing and we had to give it to her so that she could 'fick it'.

We had a lovely picnic in the field with the horses - mamma managed to avoid most of the poo, so that was a winner. You will see on the video what the highlight of her day was ...

Lots of love to you all
S. Addlesore  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Agincourt II

Today the Hoopers met the Watkinsons at Wrest Park for their Prince and Princess day. We weren't really sure what that entailed, but it sounded like good fun and as Wrest Park has recently been done up with a new visitors centre, cafe and loos there were many reasons to visit!

Turns out they have also installed a brand new adventure playground for the under 12's. It was amazing. Grum got stuck straight in, shortly followed by Kezia.

Next to the adventure playground was a small arena, where a Knight waited and called his men to his side. Turned out his men included a lot of girls ... guess that's Equal Ops for you. Who knew the Middle Ages were so advanced as to allow women in their frontline troops ...

There was a serious training session, which Kezia was very focused on and followed the directions perfectly. She was then deemed battle ready and joined her offensive line. Battle commenced, and with a blood curdling yelp Kezia ran full tilt into battle. Actually, she skirted some of it looking for the weaker spots and lesser able Knights to attack. A strategy that worked to her advantage as she reformed with the regiment and began a second offensive.

Limbs flew in all directions as Lady Kezia and her comrades chopped their way through the enemy. Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. When one daddy went down, Kezia did choose to lay next to him for a small napette instead of pushing her advantage home with a good rib splice ...

There are rumours abounding that Lady Kezia changed sides briefly at the end of the second battle and has recently been dubbed a 'turncoat' by the less generous in society. We would like to take this opportunity to declare that she was actually working under Her Majesty's secret instructions and was gaining intelligence. Intelligence that proved critical to the overall success and victory of the battle. As can clearly be seen in the live footage, shortly after returning stealthily ( or, as stealthy as you can be in a dotty top, pink tutu and purple wellies ) to her own side the Knight Errant was taken down and victory was declared. Clearly evidence of the loyalty held by Lady Kezia and a credit to her espionage skills.

Due to the fact the footage for the videos was recorded on an iPhone, it will be best to view them full screen rather than the little window that appears here. 

The trailer


The documentary


The movie

Pirates of Trebarwith Strand

T'interweb at last

Oh at last - we have internet! Thought it had all gone quiet on the Hooper front? Well, we've been waiting since our hols for a new hub to arrive as we changed our internet providers. Who knew it would take four weeks and six phone calls to get it!

Still, whilst I wait for the Cornish video to upload for the blog I thought I would share with you all a small video I did of a trip Kez and I had to Wrest Park with mamma and pops. It's just a little something, but it will tide you over until the big holiday video goes up later this weekend. :D

These photos were taken outside of Wrest Park, because it was actually shut on the day we went. Apparently it's only open on a Saturday and Sunday. We went on a Wednesday.

Trailer ...

Whilst you all wait for the full length film of our holiday, I thought you might like to see the trailer ...

Happy 2, Happy 2 ...

 Friday the 13th 2011

I'm sure not many people in this world looked forward to Friday the 13th as I did.

Kezia and I had a wonderful day. We met Uncle David at Hatfield House on her actual birthday and spent most of the time swinging along a zip line and playing at their amazing adventure playground. Little ole Kezia thought all her Christmasses had come at once when she saw Uncle David round the corner!

We had a spot of lunch - ok, so Kez and David had lunch whilst I stuffed my face with cupcakes - and then we just chatted our way round the place whilst Kezia beckoned us on to bigger and better playthings! David bought her Woody from Toy Story to go with her Jesse that he got her last year. Not that she calls her doll Woody - his good self, and Jesse, are called Yeehaaw's ... obviously ...

Before taking Kez home we whizzed into Grandma and Grandpa Watkinson's and it was there that she opened her dressing up box. It was an enormous success. Kezia loves to wear a 'pretty' and she had a wonderful time putting on the earrings, wearing the jewellery and skirts and also her little slip on heeled shoes. She looked like some weired 1950's tarty washer woman by the time she was done! That's my gal



Friday night saw Kez fast asleep in bed whilst I frantically cut the shape of Peppa Pig into a cake and iced it

Then on the Saturday we had a lovely family party for Kezia. Kez was overjoyed to see her best bud Harry again - they spent most of the time chasing each other round the garden - sometimes with a pushchair sometimes without, whilst my cousins Sophie and Tom spent some considerable time pinning pegs to Tom's face. Simple pleasures, as they say!

She loved playing with all the toys that everyone bought her - a sandpit from Nanny and Grampy Hooper, a lovely medicine playset from Tom and Vicki, a very nice bouncing ball from her Great Grandparents Church and a wonderful Peppa Pig Tea Set with singing Birthday Cake from Great Grandparents Watkinson. She loves all these and plays with them non stop. When the tea set comes out she pours us both a cup from the tea pot and then we have to clink cups and say 'Chseers' before taking a noisy slurp and making a satisfied 'aaah' sound, before repeating the whole scenario all over again. Those formal Japanese tea ceremonies have nothing on us. I've had my heart listened to on many occassions and told 'Not sad Mummy' which I think means I must be in good working order.  She still dresses up in her 'pretties' at least once a day and she has now nearly got the hang of her balance bike - or 'bicshycle' as Kez calls it - which we are most impressed at coz it's supposed to be for ages 3+. Obviously my child is not only a prodigal genius but miles ahead in her sporting ability. I can see her now: aged 4 with a Gold medal at The Olympics, whist also researching the cure for cancer and composing the most amazing symphony ever known to man - and all before breakfast of course!

One of the gifts that Chance and I got her was a pink piano. She loves to play mine, but we thought if she was to bash the living bells out of it we would rather she 'practised' on a plastic piano rather than my antique one! This piano has a microphone attached to it, and as I type this Kezia is sitting on her little piano stool, playing the keyboard and leaning and singing into the microphone like some weird half-bred Elton John or Jools Holland. The noise she can produce through that microphone is fairly impressive - especially as she tends to mainly honk through it. I swear to god there are elk in Canada raising their heads in hope, at what can only be described as a mating call.


So, there we have it. Kezia had a wonderful time and since that day can now be heard round the house singing Happy 2, Happy2, Happy 2 which we thinking she has picked up from Happy Birthday! Just adorable.

A round up to March ...

Wowee has March turned out to be a lovely and busy month!

In addition to Chance's birthday, the Hooper visit and Comic Relief we also had our bessy mates from Surrey over to stay for 2 nights and a trip to Wimpole Farm - you know, for a change!

Wood and Hooper Faerie Weekend


Wimpole Home Farm

Something Funny for Money ...

Well, she did it!

Kezia pulled off her first fundraising feat with real style. Kezia had a target of 50 jumps over a 30 min period and her fundraising target was £100.

Well, thanks to the totally awesome support of everyone who sponsored her, she has raised to date over £140!

This money will give sight to 1 infant in Africa who is blind through cataracts; it will provide over 30 mosquito nets to protect children against malaria; it will vaccinate dozens of children against malaria; it will provide life saving oxygen support machines for children who are dying of malaria (in Africa 1 under 5 yr old dies every 45 seconds from Malaria); it will provide enough Plumpy Nut ( a peanut butter based foodstuff enriched with essentials medicines for severely malnourished children ) to feed over 20 children for a month and save them from death (1 in 7 children in sub-saharan Africa die before reaching the age of 5 and just over 40% of all child deaths now occur in the first month of life.) ... the list goes on

So thank you from the bottom of my heart. As someone who hates the unbearable injustice in this world I was overwhelmed by your immense support. For every little face that was shown on telly that night, I could just see my little Kezia and my heart broke to see so many children die needlessly; either from abuse, starvation, illness or war all over the world, including here in the UK - all of it preventable. how those poor parents cope having to face watching their babies die but for the price of a Big Mac Meal (£5) I do not know. But for once I felt that, thanks to Kezia's efforts and your generosity, I had contributed enough to make a signifiant difference to people's lives.

I was so proud of Kezia - she put her all into her fundraising. So, the big question is did she hit her target of 50 jumps in 30 mins? Check the edited video footage to see!

Today I will be mainly digging ...

This weekend we had the Hoopers up to visit to celebrate Chance's birthday as we have friends staying on his actual birthday weekend.

On Saturday Chance, Robin, Kez and I all went to the swings in Ampthill. Kezia found a stick and spent most of her time there moving from molehill to molehill to have a good dig ... I reckon that Welsh and Cornish Mining blood is making an appearance! Even when she was on the slide she had her stick in her hand and completed each ride with a quick stab in the ground before carrying on. It was hilarious! We laughed our heads off at her for most of the trip. It was great fun ... even the adults got stuck in!

The End of an Era ...

"The OU will never be the same again without Martin"

"It's the end of an era"

"He will be missed at every turn by every one of us"

"Martin was one of the best, if not The Best, person to have work for you"

These are just a few of the lovely things that many people said to me on the occassion of Pops' retirement.

The retirement party at The OU was an emotional affair. Over 150 people turned up for the party - quite a few of whom had retired from the OU many years before but had made special arrangements to travel to Milton Keynes to wish Pops well.

Quite a few of his staff dressed up in outfits that had been worn by dad's office to raise money for charities like Children In Need, The Salvation Army, Great Ormond Street ... the list goes on ...

There was a 'Martin quiz' which was brilliantly done, and an awesome presentation was given by Ruth where she had incorporated pictures of Pops on a great big projection screen. The photos that she had were from the past 35 years and were highly amusing. I had been scanning in photos like mad in the weeks before to send over to her! Not to mention frantically baking in the kitchen to make and decorate a cake big enough for 150 people!

Throughout the party there was Rock n Roll music being played, a non-stop stream of photos of Pops through the ages running on the wall and the mirror ball in the middle of the Old Lecture Theatre was especially fixed and made to work for the occassion too!

It was definitely evident throughout the whole event just how fond everyone has been of Martin throughout his entire working career and just how much respect they have for him - not just for his job role but because of the fair, honest and caring boss/colleague that he is.

And now for a personal note from me.
I have spent 31 years watching Pops trundle to and from The OU. I have learnt more from him about Higher Education and the running of The OU than from any of my OU bosses or work colleagues. I have listened to him talk about the good work and strong ethics of The OU and wanted to have myself that same belief in HE and what The OU can do. I listened to other people talk about what a fair boss he was - how he was always keen to promote and advance his staff - a quality sadly lacking in most other bosses at The OU. He really did represent what The OU was all about. A strong and tall pillar of OU ethics. Many would say the last bastion of how The OU used to be when it started. And what have I learnt from all of this? I have learnt that my father is deeply respected by all who meet him. I have learnt the importance of equality, of fairness and of second chances. I have learnt that to forgive is not the same as to be taken for a fool. I have learnt that second, third and fourth chances are not failures, so long as it is not the same mistake repeated each time. I have learnt to be patient with others and to respect their personal, ethical and work boundaries


But most of all pops, what I have learnt from you is how to be a good person. In this busy world we are all too eager to give quick congratulations and move on without telling someone really what they mean to you. How much their struggles or victories make you proud. How strong that person always seems and how proud you are just to stand next to them and be counted.Well, that's how I feel about you Pops. All through my life you have been my moral compass, the person I least wanted to ever disappoint, the person I always wanted to be as proud of me as I am of you. And I know you are proud of all of us. You love us all so much, you are so proud of us and it's only right that you should know the feeling is totally and utterly recipricated. I love you dad.

So - let's charge our glasses and give a HUGE toast to Martin. Well done boy. You made it out the other side! Here's to the next 50+ years of history, memories and fun.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How many candles?

Yes, yes. Thank you all very much. In answer to all your very thoughtful enquiries; passing the age of 31 has not had a discernable effect upon my eyesight, hearing, memory, ability to bend or an understanding of current events. I do not yet qualify for my buss pass, there are no joint replacement procedures looming in the future and I am still aware if I fart in public.

In all seriousness though, I had an awesome birthday. It started the weekend before with a lovely meal with the family at a local pub. David and H travelled up from London for the occassion, which was absolutely brilliant and made both mine and Kezia's day!

On my actual birthday mamma came round and we went for a lovely walk round Ampthill. Mamma and pops spoilt me rotten - as always - and mamma had made me a few batches of my favourite cookies. Yum yum yum!


Then my dear frend Nuria (who some of you will remember as one of my bridesmaids) took me and Kez and mamma to London Aquarium for the day. It was absolutely awesome! Kezia loved looking at all the marine life. It was a brilliant day out.

So I would just like to thank everyone involved in my lovely birthday this year. And a further thanks to all you peeps for wishing me lovely thoughts :D

Over the hills ...

In 2010 dearest mamma and pops went on a trip to Switzerland. It was a working trip for pops, but mamma tagged along ( can we all say WAG?!) Here is a blog entry, from mamma's holiday diary, about their time in Switzerland. At the end of her blog there are some videos for you to watch with your speakers on. 

Monday

Arrived safely on saturday although very delayed due to the striking french air traffic control not letting us Brits travel over their space until they were ready!  Arrived in the evening instead of the afternoon in Geneva .  Found good place for beer and food called - guess what - the Swiss Chalet - and it was like being inside a cuckoo clock!  Hotel in Geneva massively expensive - 250 swiss francs which is about 200 squid - and they don't give you a tea/coffee tray in the bedroom and the breakfast comprised tinned fruit, dry cheese and croissants!  Having seen the prices in Geneva we think we were at the bottom end of the market. 

They speak french in Geneva and german here in Zermatt so have been getting by ok.  Although my french ran out yesterday when I was trying to find out which train we should get on, and then I found that the very nice guard I was talking to spoke English!  Winner!

Had a walk round the old town of Geneva on sunday morning and then got the most wonderful train to Zermatt .  We went up one side of the lake, with mountain all round, some with snow on the top.  Totally brilliant.  Changed at a place called Vispe and it was considerably colder.  This part of the trip took us up the steep mountains.  Switzerland is stereotypically Swiss - it's exactly what you think it's going to be like.  Chalets with flowers dripping off the balconies.  We travelled for an hour up to Zermatt . 

We're in the Zermatterhof five star hotel and we arrived from the station by horse drawn carriage (two white horses with plumes on feathers on their heads!) in spectacular fashion with people taking photos of us, felt like Posh and Becks!  The place is full of twinkling chandeliers and pine, lovely!  We have a suite of rooms, and this morning at breakfast we didn't sit with the rest of the conference people who were on big tables, but were ushered through to the front of the dining room to our own table with the big boys - ha!  Being with the Director of Government Relations has it's moments!  

Church bells ring a lot and echo round the mountains.  They only allow electric vehicles and horses here in Zermatt so it has a different sound to other places.  And it smells like snow.

Honestly, it's just like being in a Christmas card.  And when we woke up this morning it had snowed - pinch me someone!  The snowy trees on the mountain side keep appearing and disappearing in the clouds, and these are just outside our windows.

So today I'm amusing myself and I just found out where the swimming pool is in the hotel so am going for a swim later.  There's also a spa but it's massively expensive so will pass on that.  Will be busy drawing and painting and will be going for a walk - I've got a simple map - just one road up the middle so I shouldn't get lost.

Tonight be have a gala dinner.  Tom orrow we're going further up the mountains on a little train to Gronergat to have lunch and then another dinner.

It's like the Sound of Music but better! 
 

Tuesday

 

Managed to find my way back from the walk yesterday, it was touch a go at one point as all these swiss chalets look the same!  More snow this morning on the tree tops. 

 

Had a gala dinner last night.  We entertained by 3 blokes dressed as you'd expect - playing alpine horns.  It was very entertaining, Mart kept laughing as they weren't in tune.  And then we had two people also dressed as you might expect playing hand bells, this had Mart in fits as it was slightly ridiculous as they raced up and down to reach the bells on a long table, and there was a really old boy playing the accordian.  The menu was dried meat with cottage cheese, followed by thick pumpkin soup with bits of lamb and roasted nuts floating in it, then fillet beef (so rare it wasn't even warm!) with polenta and mushrooms, then plums in various disguises.  It was interesting.  We've got another dinner tonight.

 

The spa dahling is amazing.  Gentle piped music, a pool with a waterfall thing, hot room, dry hot room, steam room - and - wait for it - an ice room. You go into the hot bits and then into the cool and put the ice on yourself, all that seemed a bit like hard work so I just had a lovely swim and had the pool all to myself.  Fancy little ol' me swimming and looking at the Swiss Alps!  Bring it on!

We went on the mountain railway to a place for lunch, sitting in a restaurant overlooking the Matterhorn and the weather was clear. Fabulous food, barley soup, pork in something and lovely delicate little swiss puddings.  It can go down to -1 at short notice so I'm wearing everything today, if I fall over I'll never get back up!  I'll be a snow pudding!  They'll have to roll me back down the mountain!  Gornergrat - wow - what an amazing experience. Seriously cold, glaciers, the sound of the mountains, thin air, above the clouds, snow and sunshine, everything very clear, bright and sparkling.  All round us were mountain tops and snow and clouds.  Truly magical.  Absolutely loved it.  And these mountains stand here quietly throughout all time.  We left our footprints in the snow.

I saw a woman running across the mountain wearing a pinny with seven children following her dressed in what looked like old curtain material - I think they were singing!

Wednesday

Last night we had another dinner. A speaker at this one was some gov minister or other.  He manaaged to speak in three languages all at once and all muddled up!  We had fish, mmmm, very tasty. 

Today, Mart had the morning off so we went for a walk and then to the museum and church, learned about all the young men (and one young woman) who'd lost their lives on the Matterhorn . Their graves are round the church. Very poignant.  So young.  And unlike today, they weren't athletes who knew much about how to help their bodies get up the mountain, they just went in ordinary clothes with wooden skis.  Mart went into his final session, and I sat and did some drawing in the cold sunshine.

And then home, arrived about midnight after 11 hours of amazing travel on trains and planes. Very happy and totally exhausted! 

  

See you all soon

Lots of Love

Heidi

xxx

These videos are best viewed in full screen mode. For the less techy minded of us you make the videos full screen by hovering your mouse over the bottom of the video so that a bar appears. Click the symbol in this bar (right hand side, in front of the word Vimeo) that looks like a square made of outturned arrows. This will open the video up in full screen. 

Swizerland 2010 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.

Video of Switzerland shot by Lynn from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.

Quiet Sunday

 
This Sunday us Hoopers went for quick bimble in Ampthill. It was lovely, if a little muddy underfoot!

Kezia said 'Hello' and waved to everyone we passed - which was too cute for words!

Have your sound up to hear us on our walk. :D


Walk in Ampthill   Jan 2011 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.

and they all said 'aaahhhh'

In the first week of December Mamma, Kez and I all went to Mead Open Farm, which is just outside of Leighton Buzzard.

We'd never been before and, despite the blisteringly cold weather, had a lovely time. I think we will take Sue and Harry during the Easter hols to see the chicks and stuff!

 Kezia had a brilliant time meeting all the different animals and at one point one of the staff members got the rabbits and guinea pigs out of their hutches for the children to stroke. Kezia was amazed by these warm bundles of fluff and became totally captivated by them, just running from hay bale to hay bale to stroke the next one and have a word in it's floppy ear. She even fed one a piece of hay from her hand! Ok, so she pointed and stabbed in it's general direction and it eventually gave up fighting against the whirlwind of determination that is my daughter and ate the piece of straw. Thank god - or we'd have been there all day whilst she wrestled it into submission!

  The farm had converted one of their barns into a series of small passageways which wended their way through a winter wonderland. These scenes also had tame rabbits trolling around them, so grandma ended up doing several turns of this as Kezia dragged her on by her reins!

 
It was a lovely day and definitely one to be repeated regularly. And grandma did exceedingly well, considering just how disinterested she is in the world of animals!


Mead Open Farm from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.
Early Dec 2010 Kez, mamma and I went to look round a local farm.

Family Time

For Pop's Christmas present I scanned in all his and mamma's wedding photos and created digital copies of everything. I also created one of my picture videos, like the one I did for Chance and me and Soph and Dan. I thought it was probably something you might all like to see too.


Lynn and Martin's Wedding from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.


I also did 1980 and 1985 too - as these were the years where David and I joined and those albums have our first birthdays in them. If it interests you, I have included the videos for those too ...


1981 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.



1985 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.
My family. 1985

White Christmas in Ampthill

Who woulda thought that we would have a white christmas eh?! It was absolutely blimming marvellous.

Christmas started for us with a weekend in Caterham on Fri 17th Dec - what we affectionately call our First Christmas! The drive down was absolutely awful. We were stuck on the M1 all the way down to J6 and then we were stuck all the way on the M25. After six hours of sitting in nothing but traffic Chance and I decided to take the backroads to Jean and Robin's, especially as we were just a few mins away if we could just out of the stationary traffic. As we left the motorway (in the dark at 5.30pm with the thermo showing the external temp to be -7 ) we realised what a terrible mistake we had made. As we skidded our way round the junction roundabout we suddenly realised that we had a steep down hill drive - a steep downhill drive that was white with ice and not exactly empty. We gently glided to a stop behind the line of traffic that was waiting to ascend the first part of the decline - one car at a time. Now our Honoria, as beautiful, wonderful and luxurious as she is, is totally pants in snow and ice. She's a rear drive, automatic car weighing in over a ton. Once she decides she's not going to find a footfall there is nothing you can do but try to ride the rather extensive glide out and hope you don't hit anything. At one point Chance had the steering wheel turned competely down to the left, and we were still heading to the other side of the road. Add to this the stress of trying to get the brakes to slow us down (more skidding and gliding) and that there were cars coming up the hill alongside us, as well as the other cars in front and behind us, it was a 'chew the seat with your arse' type  moment. At the other end of the road is a short but steep incline onto a gritted main road (the London-Brighton Road in fact ). This posed another stressful moment for us. Our car can't get up the hills in Ampthill in ice - let alone a big one like this, with cars steaming up behind us. Poor old Honoria groaned, and weaved and smoked as Chance gave it his all to get her up the hill, at which point she found a bit of grit from the road we were turning onto and we were off. The rest of the drive to Jean and Robin's was still pretty rocky, but at least they were on gritted roads. It still took us a further 2 hours to do a 10 min journey though. Chance did a bally good job on the drive down, not only to keep his cool with a chattering toddler in the back seat whilst he tried to defy gravity, but also to get us there safe and sound in terrible conditions.

We had a nice First Christmas morning with Jean and Robin and Kezia was spoilt rotten. One present she actually got so excited over she squealed !

We had to stay in Surrey one more night than we had originally intended as it snowed so hard on the saturday we were snowed in. The drive back was no way near as bad as the drive down, as we travelled in the daytime and before everything froze - but it was a good job we went when we did. As soon as we were home the snow descended properly in Ampthill - followed by the ice. Things got so bad the main road from Ampthill to Woburn Sands was actually closed by the police.

On Christmas Eve Mamma, Pops, David and H came over to spend a few hours with us. The weather was still really bad, so they got a taxi over here and we exchanged our gifts. Mamma and pops bought Kezia a beautiful pram complete with dolly. She loved it as soon as she saw what it was, although it was lucky it got here at all as Pops had some difficulty in the assembling ...

David bought her a talking Jesse from Toy Story 3. You pull the cord in her back and she has over 23 phrases to work through. Already Yee-haw can be heard echoing through the hallways. And sometimes you get to hear Jesse say it too! I can safely say that it will be a long time before I dare go anywhere without taking Jesse with us. She has become a firm favourite!

Christmas Morning we opened all our pressies and had a lovely time. We had goose for lunch (first time for everything) and I have to say it was super duper yummy. Much nicer than our usual duck. Kezia wore her party hat in the right spirit and we had the rather noisy train chugging it's way through all the serving bowls as we tried to hear each other speak! Honestly, the things you do to keep kids entertained!

We saved some of Kezia's presents for Boxing Day, as she did start to get a bit overwhelmed with it all by about midday. And as she has to play with each toy for at least half an hour after she has opened it, a small pile of presents can take a long time to work through!

Her big present from us this year was a trampoline from the Early Learning Centre. She totally adores it! We saved it for after Boxing Day as a last treat and it has proven to be a huge hit. She loves bouncing on the trampolines at Tumble Tots and now she can poop her outself at home too! In fact, watch this space for Comic Relief in March, as Kezia will be doing a sponsored bounce to raise money for Red Nose Day. :D

So yes, it has been simply wonderful. I hope your Christmas' were also full of fun, family, love and giggles. :D

Below are two videos - the first one being our christmas vid, the second one is a video of Kezia bouncing on her trampoline when we first put it up. She had spilt juice down her front by this point and was in her slobby tracksuit before going up for her bath, so I do apologise for her appearance! chuckle.

Lots of love to you all
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


crimbo 2010 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.



Trampolining Kezia from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.