James, Louise and Billy arrived Sunday morning. They were exhausted, but Billy was wired. Jack was so excited to see Billy. They had so much fun last year on our Christmas vacation. Seems the few days they will have together this week will be just as enjoyable. We ended up having a very early dinner where most guests slept, or virtually slept. 5 of the 11 people had jet lag which made for an instant snooze.
James, Louise and Billy went back to the hotel around 7 pm, Matt went off to bed and the rest of us just stared at each other. The holidays can be very exhausting. Ha!
Monday we had lunch at a local golf club. The beverages were flowing and the dynamics of brotherly love was abundant. The great thing for me was seeing the bantering back and forth between the boys and their mother. All families are alike. Most mothers are harassed ruthlessly and undeserving.
The boys and Barry went off to the pub and the rest of us stayed at the house.
Louise was still battling jet lag, Karen was preparing dinner, the kids were playing and I was getting ready to bathe all so they would be set for the night.
Stuart's cousin, Bradley, and his girlfriend, Vikki, came for dinner as well. We sat down to eat around 7 pm and Millie fell asleep immediately. Vacation and naps often don't mix, so early to bed becomes more common. When the meal was over we played Trivial Pursuit, not my favorite game. But if I am on Stuart's team I am usually fine. He knows more useless trivia than anyone I know. He also is pretty smart. In the end we decided to call the game a draw. It was getting late and we were all losing focus.
After everyone left, Karen revealed to us that she had actually fed some answers to Louise. There was a cheater amongst us. Appalling!
Tuesday, New Year's Eve, we went to Bexhill around lunchtime to Andrew and Lyn's house (aka Granddad and Grandma). After a bit of lunch and obviously restless kids, we adventured out onto the seafront. It was rainy (shocking, really) but we forged on. Jack and Millie loved it, but weren't dressed for the weather (mother of the year). When we told Millie not to stomp in the puddles, we should have saved our breath. That's what kids are supposed to do.
As you can see, it was rather cold and windy on the beach. After our soaking walk, we headed back so the kids could take a bath. James, Louise and Billy dropped by Granddad and Grandma's for a bit. The kids ate, James and crew left, and Millie and Jack headed to bed at 7 pm. Originally I tried to put them down at 6 pm, which was agreeable to Jack but Stuart brought it the time to my attention. Then I realized I had read the clock wrong. Oops! In the UK it gets dark so early that it seems later than it really is.
We had our curry meal around 8 pm. It was delightful. There was plenty to go around and we had a nice quiet evening. We did manage to stay awake until midnight and remembered to watch the fireworks at midnight. The display was spectacular. As you can see, it was beautiful coming over Big Ben. One year I actually want to be there, but Stuart can't think of any worse form of torture than to be in a busy city, in the crowds at New Year. Boo! Guess I will have to do it on my own.
We woke up around 7:30 on Wednesday morning, had a bit of ham and eggs, and left for Eastbourne. Lyn was sick so got up to see us off. Everyone seems to have a chest cold. Can't imagine what would cause that in this wet weather.
We stopped again to see Granddad Tom and Granny, warning Jack yet again to be quiet and well-behaved. This time around he was an angel. He had a lengthy conversation with Granddad Tom about how Santa gets down the chimney. Granddad Tom was so engaged in the conversation, as he always is with any child. I made Stuart record it on his phone. It made me want to cry. Sadly, too many times we don't savour the special times with generations before us until it is too late. Most likely we will not see Granddad Tom again on this earth. I am so glad that Jack had that time with him and so happy we have record of it. I haven't spent a great deal of time with Stuart's grandparents, but I do know that he admires his grandfather more than any one person in his life. Stuart has so many wonderful memories of his granddad and has nothing but the utmost respect for him.
After our visit, the kids and I said goodbye (Stuart would see them again on Thursday), we headed to a pub called The Farm. Matt treated us all to a New Year's Day meal. It was delicious and there were 5 of the 8 grand kids there. Barnes (Grandpa's youngest son), his wife Anna, Bella and Sofia (their girls) joined us. The kids played at the end of the table while we finished our meal. We snapped some photos and enjoyed each other's company.
We headed back to Karen's house, or at least most of us did. The boys went to Battle to meet up with Andrew. The plan was to have a curry meal and for 4 of the 5 boys (step brothers-there are two, one being Barnes), the other son is in Canada, to spend some time with Andrew before Matt left on Thursday and Stuart left on Friday. Seems that would have been a good plan had pubs been open in Battle. In the end they met up at the hotel where James and Louise were staying, had some beers, food and then came home.
During all of this, all 5 grandchildren, Barry, Karen, Louise, Anna and myself were back at the house. The kids played, very noisily might I add, the adults conversed and we were all happy. It was amazing how well the children played together. There were toys everywhere and we just stepped over them. Grandpa pulled out some drums, a wash board, and chop sticks as well as a few blow horns, to create a 6 man band. It was a memory maker for sure.
Thursday morning Karen, Matt and Stuart went to Eastbourne. Barry, James, Louise and Billy went to visit Barnes ad Anna's new house, and I stayed at the house with Jack and Millie. My friend Sam came over and brought her two girls, Daisy (6 years old) and Zinnia (almost 9 months old). Jack and Daisy struck up a friendship last summer when we were visiting. They were playing in the other room when Daisy suddenly appeared. Jack was not with her. She whispered into her mother's ear that Jack wanted to kiss her but she didn't want to kiss him. Good golly, is this happening already?
I had a little chat with Jack about who we do and do not kiss. He was a bit embarrassed but understood. We proceeded with the day, had tea, the kids played (without the kissing) and we had a good chat. There is never enough time for visiting.
When everyone returned from their respective places we all sat around and chatted a bit before Matt had to take off to the airport. After Matt left, Stuart and I did a last run to the local shopping center to exchange some jammies, get some shrink bags for our clothes. I know it's shocking that we had too much stuff to fit in our bags, thus the need for the shrink bags.
That evening we ordered out for a Chinese meal and hit the sack early in order to be able to get up for our 9:30 am flight.
Friday morning we rose at 4:15 am and drove to London. We got to the airport early enough to have one last English breakfast. Our flight was uneventful. Millie slept for the first half of it, which was nice. Wade picked us up and we headed home. Once we arrived at home we decided to unpack and keep the kids up as late as we could. Since we arrived home at 10:45 pm, it was only 6:45 pm in the UK and putting the kids to bed at that time would have been silly. So they played with their new Christmas toys and then headed to bed around midnight. Of course they didn't fall asleep until almost 1 am.
Our water pressure was horrid when we got home and it took almost 3 hours for our water heaters to do their job. My shower was long because it took forever to get the soap our of my hair with the trickles that were coming out of the faucet, but at least the water was warm. I fell asleep on the sofa somewhere in the middle of epidode 8 of Glee season 3. When I woke up it was 4:45 am. I drug myself to bed with the hopes the kids would sleep until at least 10 am.
Our dreams came true, we all slept until nearly 11 am. And although that was great, we had a lot to do before we started back to school on Sunday. We got up, headed out to do some banking and grocery shopping, came back home, packed a picnic and went to the Hili Archeological Park to meet Cathy and her girls as well as James, Kirsty and their two kids (other English/South African friends), and Cathy's mum and step father. It was nice for the kids to be outside and running around. We took Jack's bike that Santa brought him and Millie's push trike she was given by Wade and Karen. They had fun just playing in the fresh air.
We got home, bathed the kids, put them to bed, and continued to get things sorted from our vacation. We did 3 loads of laundry (all had to be hung on our lovely metal drying rack -air drying....hate it), Stuart made hummus and I took down the tree and decorations. We sat down to watch some mindless television at about 9 pm. Stuart made us a cup of tea. Mine was a bit larger than his. For Christmas, Andrew and Lyn bought me the mug on the left. His dad always gives me trouble about how large our cups for tea and coffee are, thus the new mug. It holds about three times the amount of a normal mug. I know he didn't think I would ever drink tea out of it....wrong!
At 11 pm we started down the hall, heading for bed, knowing tomorrow would be the start of the second term and not exactly sure what we were doing in terms of teaching, we noticed Jack was wide awake. Oh jet lag, you are not our friend.
Jack laid in bed with us until about midnight then was forced back into his own bed. I have no idea how long he was awake in his own room. Maybe coming home one day before we had to go back to work wasn't the best idea after all.
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