It never quite lives up to the hype, Christmas. We have just come back from our Christmas 'break' but unfortunately, it wasn't much of a break. Jo and Sam both got a vicious dose of the flu that has been going around and that I had, albeit much more mildly, a few weeks ago.
It really buggered things up to be honest. Jo couldn't relax and Sammy had a streaming nose all day, every day and needed loads more attention than usual. It all meant that despite everyone's best efforts, there wasn't a great deal of festive cheer to go round. Sam got loads of cool presents, even though they took third place behind playing with pots and pans or helping to make cups of tea??? Generally though, all the things that should have been fun were a bit of a chore. We did take Sam to a cute Cristingle carol service in Iffley but other than that there was a lot of coughing and spluttering and feeling rubbish. Typically Hazel and mum pulled out all the stops which was brilliant despite us not really feeling up to doing much. It has left us all really flat at a time of year when you generally feel a bit flat anyway. We are back to work tomorrow for a couple of days before spending new year with Jamie and Tiff. I really hope we are all feeling better by then. I can't quite believe how much Sam has changed in a year. Check out the picture at the top of the page from Christmas day last year....
One hugely positive thing and something that we are so lucky to have to look forward to, is that we have booked a 10 day break in Barbados in a couple of weeks time. It should really give us a chance to properly recharge. We all need it. There is loads to consider about what we want to do next year. I haven't managed to clear my head enough to think about it yet. Bring it on.
