Our Christmas and Boxing days, told in pictures

 Christmas Eve- Turkey Wellington prepped

 Santa's been!!!

Grandchildren with Nanny and Grandad 

Boxing day lunch with Helen and George 

It's theatre, darling

Another fun week of Christmas japes. We took the girls to London on Wednesday to see the stage version of the children's book Stickman. It was a triumph. A huge amount of fun with the wonderfully uplifting ending (Rob cried like a lady). London was very festive with all the Christmas lights, shop windows and zillions of people crammed into shops making last minute purchases. After the show we walked over the bridge to the south bank for dinner and a walk through the wonderful Christmas fair. Everything was twinkly and lovely and I felt super Christmassy. Yesterday Scarlett and I went to pick up the huge turkey breast I had ordered from a butcher in a village near Hastings, which weighs the same as both the girls when they were born. Last night we met Maria, Lol and Jack at the theatre for the panto of Snow White. The 'star' was Sid Owen, best (and only) known for playing Ricky in Eastenders. He hilariously left the series several years ago to further his career, and here he was on stage in Hastings. Big whoop. Suffice to say, he was truly awful, like looking at an actual piece of wood in clothes. Another let down was the lack of dwarves. Instead children in masks paraded on and off while a recording of their voices played. The real star was the fabulous Lucy Williamson, unknown to us, but totally brilliant as the wicked witch. I've been in the kitchen since 7am prepping all the food for tomorrow's Christmas lunch at Maria and Lol's. I am particularly proud of the turkey wellington, which is all ready to go in the oven tomorrow.

6 more sleeps...

Another hive-like household this week, with much buzzing, toing and froing. I spent Monday behaving badly in London at the kind of long, boozy lunch I haven't enjoyed for years. We sat down at 1.30pm and staggered out around 6 ( or was it 7?) to a nearby pub. I won't go into the details of the naughtiness (that remains locked in the cone of silence) other than to say Champagne and wine bottles littered the table shared by Ruth, Ed, Richard Krupp, David and I. The train journey home also seemed a lot shorter than the one going there so I'm wondering if I may have become one of those drunks who nod off sitting up.  On Tuesday, I had to sprint from the hairdresser's chair to school to catch Flo's stint as narrator at her year's Christmas play. It goes without saying she was brilliant in every way and Rob and I felt embarassed for the other parents. Wednesday I went out for the school mums' Christmas drinks. A bunch of us met up beside the fire of a local pub, while hailstones battered the street outside. Fantastic fun. Another late, silly one with at least one mum (not I) failing to make it to the playground for the drop off the next day, not mentioning any names.
Thursday was Scarlett's turn on the school stage as part of the choir that accompanied the main play. It was wonderful and I cried.

On Saturday we drove to London to Giles and Lucy's house in Wimbledon. After a couple of bottles of Champagne we popped in a cab to Putney for a brilliant Christmas dinner with the old Wimbledon crowd. Suzy and Steve were there, but most of the blokes had married and had children while we were living in Sydney so it was a real treat to catch up with Jim, Joe, Michael-John and Tim and to meet their fab-u-lous wives. We stayed the night with the Iveys and limped home yesterday so Rob could go to work. While he was away the girls and I had  Sunday lunch with Maria and Lol. Not happy to just provide a gorgeous roast lamb lunch,  Maria thought she'd liven up the proceedings by slipping on a rug, whacking her head on the edge of a metal cabinet on the way down. The poor thing was left with two nasty gashes on her forehead, visible only once we had wiped away all the blood, as well as getting a horrible shock. Matron has insisted on bedrest and matron always gets what she wants.

Finally this morning the girls and I attempted our first gingerbread houses. Unfortunately one turned out  like an Australian home after bushfire season. A liberal dusting of magic dust (aka icing sugar) saved the day, elevating mood and returning Christmas cheer to our home.

Christmastime, mistletoe and dodgy martinis

More visitors from Sydney this week, when the excellent Galvins of Bundeena arrived on Monday for 24 hours as part of their Christmas holiday in England. After a bracing walk along the seafront and the usual Old Town fun, we settled in front of the fire for a lovely long catch up while the four girls played brilliantly together.  The long weekend of guests and late nights however finally took its toll, and I took to my bed for the whole of Wednesday with a shocking cold. I am NEVER ill, so it drove me nuts. I feel fine now but the cough continues to keep me up at night, as does the echo of the same hacking from Scarlett's room.

On Friday we caught up with Dad and Alexandra at Maria's to celebrate Ethan's 2nd birthday. While the little chap didn't seem to have much of a clue what was going on, we helped him set up his new train set. After present opening, we invited Dad and Alexandra back for an impromptu roast chicken dinner. On arriving home, we discovered Rob's early onset senility had struck again as for the second time in as many weeks, he had forgotten to turn on the oven before leaving the house. No problem - a curry was whipped from the freezer, rice was made and a dinner for all was on the table in 30 minutes.

 
On Saturday we headed for Tenterden for a special Christmas surprise for the girls, a ride on a Santa Special steam train. After several rides on a vintage carousel and a mini railway to visit the Snow Queen, we boarded the train for a fun, hour long trip through perfect wintry Kent countryside.

The kids were thrilled to find Santa and his elves on board distributing gifts, while the grown ups were 'treated' to a mince pie and alleged martini, made from martini mix and lemonade.  Lots of fun and laughs with our neighbours Janice, Roger and Mathilde and with Mike and Charlie Bailey. Flo hadn't seen her godfather, Mike, since she was two so hadn't a clue who he was, so a reunion and a cuddle was definitely in order. 

More Christmas mayhem this week with the girls' Christmas shows at school, a Christmas lunch in London for me, a girls' night out for me in Hastings, a quiz night for Rob and a dinner in London on Saturday night. Set doors to manual.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As my excitement about Christmas built this week, I couldn't hold off putting up the tree for another moment once it turned December. While Rob picked up the girls from school I had the house all ready with candles lit, fairy lights on, popcorn popping and Christmas music playing so when they walked in the door, the house had become a winter wonderland. We spent a lovely evening decorating the tree together, adding the baubles we have collected over the years from all our trips. Each one means something to us and I love seeing them again every year. We set up our nativity scene and had a brilliantly festive evening.

On Friday we had the school Christmas Fair where I ran the biscuit decorating stall. Before we left I spotted this strange man in red in my bedroom. He showed up again at the fair carrying a large sack of gifts. Rob was totally brilliant and got straight into character with his booming voice and ho hoing without a hint of a kiwi accent. I couldn't wait to see what the girls would think when they saw Santa. As soon as he arrived in the packed school hall, Scarlett ran up to me and said "Mum, Dad's gone mental! He's dressed as Santa!" When Flo saw him, she wasn't sure. "Santa looks just like Daddy," she told me, but at the same time she kept asking me where Rob was.

After the fair we raced home to get Scarlett and her friend ready for a birthday party and started on a marathon cleaning and laundry frenzy to get the house ready for special guests arriving the next day.

Our great friend from Sydney, Julia, flew in from Zambia this week, where she, Richard and their 3 girls are living for 6 months. She was on a flying visit back to the Uk and we were chuffed to get a whole 24 hours of her time. She arrived just before lunch and looked brilliant. Over a hot bowl of homemade minestrone, she filled us in on the fun the family are having on their African adventure and then we walked along the beach to the old town for a rummage through the junk shops and a large glass of red. It was so great to catch up and it felt like no time had passed at all since we saw each other, rather than the 18 months it is since we saw her last. Back home we lit the fire and started secretly getting mattresses blown up and beds made up for the next part of the evening - the surprise guests. I had told Julia my sister was coming over for a drink, so I could explain the delay in having dinner. The real reason was we had to wait for Philippa, Sue and Clare to arrive. We were all friends in Sydney years ago, but over time all 3 have moved back to the Uk, Phil and Sue to Hampshire and Clare to Dublin, via Connecticut and Toronto. Julia's face was absolutely brilliant when the girls walked in. Much screaming ensued before Rob popped a few corks and we settled into a fantastic night of laughs and reminiscing. Between us all we have 15 children and not a facial line or grey hair between us. It was an absolutely brilliant night and I'm so chuffed the girls made the effort to come to see us.

Christmas is coming...

Starting the build up

The amazing John Lewis Christmas ad aside, I am starting to feel very excited about the next few weeks as we have a lot on. Officially I don't get too worked up until December 1st, when the tree goes up, advent calenders start being emptied of small pieces of chocolate and our house twinkles with the zillion or so fairy lights I can't resist buying more of each year. We had a taste of what's to come this week at Maria and Lol's Thanksgiving dinner. Channeling Jack's Amertican birthright, Maria put on an amazing dinner of roast turkey with all the traditional thanksgiving trimmings. Maria greeted her 14 guests dressed as Pocahontas, while Lol was hilarious as a pilgrim father. Neighbours arrived dressed as hillbillies and Michelle Obamo, while Rob and I were cowboys, Rob sporting his original Texan Stetson.

Here is a great photo Kath took last week of Scarlett and Flo on one of the rides at the funfair. Flo's face was a picture, switching back and forth between joy and horror as the ride went up and down, whereas Scarlett's was fixed in a scream.

Happy birthday Rob

Rob turned, cough, ahem, this week and we managed the usual drawn out celebrations. We spent Wednesday, his actual birthday, pottering about the house watching back to back episodes of Entourage. We were supposed to spend the day at Chartwell, looking around Churchill's house, with Rob's sister Helen providing the surprise element by turning up for lunch. Unfortunately all National Trust houses close for the winter at the end of October. Rob was very good and waited until the girls came home from school to open his gifts and blow out the candle on the pile of cupcakes, made and iced by moi. At 6pm the doorbell rang and surprise number 2, Rick, was standing on the doorstop, having trained it all the way from Bedfordshire for the night. Once our babysitter Natalie arrived, we walked into the Old Town for drinks with a bunch of Hastings mates. Great fun but sore head for me the next day after too much Battle cider.

The following night the Hastings Christmas lights were turned on and we were treated to a huge fireworks display, right outside our window. I thought it was churlish to correct Rob, who assumed the display was in honour of him.

 Jump ahead to Saturday and while Rob was at the pool with the girls, I set to prepping for the next birthday celebration, dinner for 8, with special guests Richard Hand and his lovely girlfriend Cath who drove down from Reading. Maria and Lol and Tina and Dick arrived at 7.30, Champagne corks were popped, raw tuna canapés were nibbled and we sat down to 5 hour roast lamb, more cupcakes and a mountain of cheese. 

In other news I have become slightly obsessed with our new favorite iPad app, the photo booth. Will the novelty ever end?

Thank God for Michael Idato

We were very disappointed this weekend when the fireworks display we were hoping to attend, in nearby Winchelsea,  was cancelled due to expected rain, that never fell. After phone calls to the other two families we were going with, we all adjourned to the various armchairs and fireplaces in our own homes. What joy, then to greet Michael Idato at Hastings train station on Sunday morning, fresh from Sydney via LA and Cannon Street station. Michael and I worked together for years at the Herald, where for a period I was actually Michael's boss, a term I use in the loosest possible sense. We spent a very happy afternoon at Dragon, being treated to lunch by Michael, followed by a side trip to the gelato shop before heading home to the fire.

Also, here's a photo of Flo, taken by Scarlett, which I love. It's very rare to see Flo smile so naturally and I think she looks gorgeous.

An American Halloween and more

We arrived back yesterday from 10 brilliant days in the US, staying with my bridesmaid Sarah, her husband Scott and their 8-year-old twins Ruby and Jacob at their gorgeous New Jersey home. We had a ball. They live in a beautiful part of the state, with an amazing show of Autumn colour and much more Wall Street than Bada Bing. Scott and Sarah are very generous hosts, we were made so welcome and we ate and drank very well, both at home and at a few events they organised for us. The kids played really well together and we taught them our favourite card game, Rat-A-Tat Cat. The close proximity to New York meant we were in Manhattan most days. We had been to New York many times before we had the kids, but this was our first trip as a family and I was interested to see if it would work. When we were childless, we would walk around Manhattan and Brooklyn at our own speed, stopping to rummage through shops and drink in bars and restaurants. This time we needed a little more structure, so it was as much fun for the girls too, but still they amazed us with their stamina as we still put in the miles and did a lot of walking. I'll let these photos do most of the talking.

On our second day, we met up with our wonderful friend Luke, who was visiting from Sydney and we were lucky enough to have one crossover day.  Here he is with the girls on the High Line, a very cool new park built on an elevated section of abandoned railway track, stretching from the west village to the Meatpackers district.

 The girls check out some Halloween decorations in Greenwich Village.

 A great view of Lady Liberty from the Circle Line boat

 More Halloween larks in Tribeca.

 The beautiful and moving World Trader Centre Memorial, created as two waterfalls in the footprint of each of the towers. The names of everyone killed from the 4 planes, in the towers and the police and fire department are engraved on the walls surrounding the waterfalls.

 Under construction, the new so-called Freedom Tower that will replace the buildings that fell.

A great afternoon spent strolling over the Brooklyn Bridge to the newly developed Dumbo 

district in Brooklyn.

 A walk to Midtown to see the Flatiron Building

On Friday night the grown ups got dressed up and had hair and make up done by Scott's sister Jackie, so we could attend a charity fundraising Halloween ball with 500 others. It was like no other event I have ever been to. The costumes everyone wore were amazing (there were 4 other sets of Alice in Wonderland groups), silent auction items included trips to the Caribbean and Europe, and the bidding was done via iPhones we were all given when we arrived. There was great food, an incredible band and during the live auction guests bid on a dinner for 10 ($10,000), 3 nights in Rome ($9,000) and a puppy! ($5,000). There was a lot of money in the room, as well as a lot of booze, and the night ended with Sarah and I literally helping one of her very drunk (and very lovely) friends into her house and half carrying and pushing her up the stairs to her bed.

We awoke on Saturday morning to very heavy and thick snowfall. The TV stations were going nuts with live shots from all over New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as the unseasonal weather (it was the only the third time there had been snow in October in the region since the Civil War!) caused havoc.

 While we thought this was great (here's a lovely shot of Sarah and Scott's house in the snow), it created a huge problem. As the trees were still full of leaves, the extra weight of snow was bringing down trees and branches all over the place. With power lines also falling, there were roads blocks all over the area and several of Sarah and Scott's friends and family lost power in their homes. We had to keep the kids in the house on Saturday as branches crashed down in the garden and on the house.

 On Saturday night we headed out on a wild goose chase of backroads and u-turns to get to this Japanese teppanyaki restaurant for dinner. The kids loved seeing the chef throw food and cook in front of us.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the other dinner Sarah and Scott organised on Tuesday night at the esteemed James Beard Foundation in New York. This world renowned culinary institute promotes good food from sustainable sources and regularly hosts chefs from all over the world at special dinners. I was thrilled when Sarah told us she had booked a dinner there. She knows what we like. On the night we went, it was an 8-course, wine-matched degustation dinner, cooked by twin brothers Tom and Rob Aiken, who run a Michelin-starred restaurant each - one in London, the other in Philadelphia. We were in a private dining room with a view of the kitchen. A very special night. 

 We spent our last day enjoying Halloween. First in the city, where we surprised the girls by meeting up with Laura, another lovely friend from Sydney who came to visit us in Hastings in the summer. She was also in New York by coincidence and we spent a great morning toy shopping at FAO Swartz where we had a laugh dancing and playing on the giant piano keyboard made famous by 

Tom Hanks in the movie Big.

We drove back to New Jersey in time to brave the snow and power lines to go trick or treating with Ruby and Jacob. All the houses on the route were brilliantly decorated, everyone dressed up and the kids collected enough lollies to last them until next Halloween.