Happy Birthday Ruby

Today we celebrated Rubys 3rd birthday and took the day off work to go for lunch after releasing 3 balloons on the beach as we have done in previous years. It was a very very foggy day and the mist hung low over the beach so watching the balloons sail off into the sky was really lovely as they disappeared into the clouds. We took lots of gorgeous flowers up to the cemetary and spent the rest of the day in front of the fire. Lots of thanks to all our friends and family who sent cards and houghtful words to us today we appreciate it. Ruby is never far from our thoughts and she will always be in our hearts.

New Year Celebrations

Our celebrations post Christmas and over new year were rather more energetic and required less tissues and medication than they were over the Christmas period. We had a great time seeing lots of people. We had lunch with old friends Jim and Kirstey who we have not seen for some time as Jim had recently donated part of his liver to his 2 year old daughter who had a rare liver disease.the operation was a success and both father and daughter have made a great recovery. We had dinner at Mikes sisters one evening which was great to catch up with them and their 3 boys. That evening resulted in games on the Wii and hysterically laughing at Nicolas stance on the10 pin bowling game.

New years eve was a great evening. We hosted a dinner party with friends Jane and Giovanni and Luca, sister Lucy and boyfriend James and neighbour Becks and and son Harry. I cooked Jamie's fantastic fish pie which was fantastic as always and champagne cocktails and cosmopolitans flowed freely. After dinner we spent several hours playing the Wii and engaging in the difficult game of baseball. We saw the new year in with Elton John and his celebrations at the O2 and a very silly countdown with sparklers and party blowers. New yeas day we met up with Charlie and Spencer and my sister for a freezing cold walk on the beach and dinner which as such a great day.

The following day Mike and I took Charlie to Wild Wood - a nature reserve where they breed wild animals although due to the extreme weather most of them were hiding in their boxes. What we did find there was a fantastic play area for the kids and in true Charlie style his ambitious nature took him to the over 5s section where he found these amazing tunnel slides to go down and we had to tear him away kicking ad screaming when it was time to go. It was a lovely sunny day out.

Sunday before we went back to work my brother Jon and his wife Jo came for lunch with other friends Rob and Marianne and their boys George and Frank. We are all off snowboarding at the end of the month and had another freezing but gorgeous walk on the beach followed by lunch at our local pizza place. During lunch Jo announced that she was 11 weeks pregnant the baby is due the end of July which is fantastic news. We all came back here for coffee and Charlie and boys had a great time talking and watching Cars. It was a great end to our Christmas break.