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
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crimbo 2010 from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.
Trampolining Kezia from Emma Hooper on Vimeo.
