Rhiannon's 2023 highlights

 Rhiannon sent this to us..

 

Cardiff Christmas

 Last night we went to a party at the DFs house, and we remembered a bit too late in the evening that we were going to need to get up and leave the house at a good time to get to Cardiff for the Lewis family Christmas gathering. 

Today is also Auntie Jane's birthday and we all thought about her today. Happy Birthday Jane :-)

Boxing Day football game

 Apparently every Boxing Day there is a football game down at the Danehill Rec, which traditionally was a game of Chelwood Gate vs Danehill, but it is way less formal nowadays.  

Tryfan and I both played and it was really fun!  

Christmas 2023

 So it was just us today for Christmas, and we had a lovely relaxing morning.  

We had a bit of food and decorated the Christmas cake, then walked down to the Coach for the annual midday celebratory neighborhood beverage. 

So great to see Duane, Sara and Kelton there as well.

We came back home and had a chilled, relaxing rest of the day

All in all, a very satisfactory Christmas :-)

A friendly pre-Christmas jaunt

 Rhods and I went over to Cat's house and did a lovely circular walk with her and Gary.  Such a treat.

Battersea family outing

Today we took a family outing to Battersea Power Station to do some shopping and just have a day out.

We split up and did our own things, with Rhods and me together and Rhi & Tryfs together, and then we reunited for lunch at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant on the 2nd floor.  And guess what?!  Gordon Ramsay was actually there! We could see him directly from our table and that was pretty thrilling since he is such a celebrity. We didn't take any sneaky photos of him though. 

So we had a nice meal and did a bit more shopping and then we headed home.  It was a great day out.

Boxes in the hallway

We have had these boxes cluttering up our entry way and hallway for the past several weeks, and today they finally left.  Both Tryfan and Rhodri didn't think this was a photo-or-blog worthy moment, but it was a nice moment to see these boxes go out the door.

Back patio looking good

Steve is now doing the grout between the paving stones and we think it is looking really good.

Pre-Christmas Jazz at the Hop Yard

My friend Sarah was performing tonight at the Hop Yard after a 6 month hiatus, so Rhodri and I went down to hear her.  Even though it was a Sunday night and so felt a bit wrong to be going out on the town, we still went and it was great.

We got to meet Kim and her daughter Hannah, and we also saw some other familiar faces.  Sarah is super fun to watch because she is just so creative, interesting and energetic.

Silent Disco Walking Tour (3rd time!)

 Today was the long awaited event in Brighton that I loooooovvve going to each Christmas time.  I got a handful of my girlfriends to come and we had a brilliant time.  Sally, Heather, Emma B, Leigh, Maddy and me were part of a group of 20.

We had a quick 'sharpener' at the bar upstairs next to the starting point, and then one afterwards as well.  Heather, Maddy and I went for dinner at the 'the Garden Room' after that before taking the train back to Haywards Heath.  It was a fun night and didn't last too late, which was nice as well.

Girls in Paris

Everything is going well for Rhi and Evie over in Paris.  Its great that they are staying for a couple of nights with Flo, so she can keep a bit of an eye on them (...maybe! Although it is entirely possible that she will be a mischievous influence on them!).  

I do know that it is really cold over there this weekend and they did not bring very many clothes. 

Girls go to Paris

Rhiannon and Evie have gone to Paris now for the weekend ON THEIR OWN!  I dropped them at Gatwick for their 6:20 am flight.

They have taken with them only the hand bags that you see here for 4 whole days. Extremely efficient packing (i.e., wearing the same clothes for 4 days)!

They will be staying with Flo for two nights and then in a hotel for the last night. Its a frigid weather forecast so hope they stay warm enough and safe!

Rhiannon's 18th birthday

I can't believe that our girl is 18 today.  That is really freaking me out. 

But aside from that crazy fact, we had a good birthday celebration.  We went into Brighton for brunch at 12:15pm to a place called SIX, which was really great. 

After brunch, we went home and changed clothes, then went down the road to the Carters Christmas Tree farm to choose a tree.  We found a beautiful tree and then went home to get straight into decorating.

We got home and changed into our festive attire, put on our favorite Christmas CD "It's Snowing all over the World" and started decorating. While we were underway, Anne Marie stopped by with a little present for Rhi and she took this photo of us.

It's been a long day but a good one, and it feels so good to be altogether again as a family. Yaaaaaay

Rhiannon is home!

Tryfs, Rhodri and I all drove to Heathrow to collect our girl this morning. It was such a happy reunion!

Annual Village Light Up

This is my favorite night of the year and it was just as mental as it is every year.  All the ingredients were there: 

• a hot and crowded village hall, 
• singing of at least one carol twice by different parties, 
• singing of at least one carol that we didn't have words for, 
• the Danehill Handbell Ringers doing a few numbers
• mulled wine and mince pies
• lighting the outside Christmas tree with kids running around in the dark
• a group of us doing door-to-door caroling 

It was hilarious doing the caroling, as always.  I love how caroling is like trick-or-treating... looking for houses that have the lights on inside and some indication of human life inside.  And some of the houses we would approach and start singing and ring the doorbell... and lights would get turned off!  It didn't happen at too many houses, but it always happens at least once!  But it is so funny to be a crowd of people wandering the village at night, singing and not knowing what we will encounter.  

This is the true start of Christmas, and we are so excited.  Rhiannon is traveling back from St. Louis today and arriving tomorrow morning, so we all can't wait to see her.

Backyard update again

 Today Steve built the stairs that have rounded corners on the end and did the last bit of prep before the paving stones will get laid down.

Nordic Life Directors

Today Rhodri and I both ended up wearing our Nordic Life sweatshirts, and Tryfs found it hilarious so he took this photo of us eating dinner at the breakfast bar. 

Rhods is really busy right now (and in general), and it's really great that he has been able to build his business up so that he has some really interesting clients and repeat customers.  

Toffee season kicks off

Now that its December, it is time to make the annual English Toffee treats.  Tryfan even put on his Christmas jumper to kick off the first batch.

Backyard project update

We can't believe how fast Steve is putting in the paving stones area! It's looking really good.

Christmas season kicks off

December at last!  Today was actually the SLB Christmas party, although no partners/ others were invited this year.  I took the organized bus "coach" from Three Bridges station all the way into London (about 2.5 hours drive), and my plan was to sit with someone that I hadn't met yet so that I could make a new friend on the journey.  I met a winner!  When Marcus sat down next to me, he said, "I think I know you - are you Rhodri's wife?" !! It turns out that Marcus and Rhodri had worked together on the Western Legend seismic ship back in 1996 and for a few years after that.  They were big friends and had lost touch over the years but now he works at the same office that I do and we just hadn't met yet.  So we arranged to get together with Rhodri and also his wife and son sometime after the New Year.  But it was great to meet him and it made the bus journey go by really fast.

Once we got to the venue, I was sat next to my friend Arathi, and we had a great time.

After the event finished, I took the coach back home and sat next to Marcus again. I got home really late and was quite glad when the evening was over, but it was a good evening.