Cold mornings

 Annie and I have been going for morning walks to kick off the day and its been really great. Nothing too crazy, but we have had some amazing sunrises together.

A nice breakfast

This morning the boys went off to rugby practice, as always, and with our special guests in the house Rhiannon made us all breakfast! We even had some "Zerosecco" sparkling refreshing beverages to go with it.

Vade performance in London!

This weekend Auntie Sions and JJ (and Winnie!) came to stay with us because JJ and his band are performing at the Kings Place in downtown London. We all have tickets to go see him, and we have been looking forward to this event for a really long time.

It was a really great night! JJ and his band are so talented and fabulous.

Girlies

 Sophie has been coming round after school a couple of days a week, and its been really nice to have her here. She fits right into the household :-)

They hadn't realized that they were wearing matching hoodies!

Skis and bindings galore

 Our downstairs entryway and hallway have been transformed into a ski binding workshop! Rhodri has been really busy the past several months. We have delivery people at the door about 10 times a day every day, and there are boxes stacked all over the place.

But its all in good fun, and nobody is complaining about the upturn in the business!

Morning bliss

 The morning today was stunning. I've been taking Annie on a morning walk this week, and it is crazy that I haven't really done this sort of thing on a regular basis until now.

Sions and Winnie love

 We went out for dinner tonight just because it seemed like a good idea! We had a lovely meal at The Hatch.

Meanwhile, the dogs have been ever so photogenic on these gorgeous crisp winter days.

We love having Sions and Winnie here with us.

A long-awaited day

Today is the day that I had LASIK eye surgery! It was scary and took a long time to come, but I've done it now. I have been pretty worried over the past couple of months, ever since I booked the appointment back in November. So today it all happened. Sioned, Rhods and I took the train to London Bridge and then the Tube to Bond Street, then walked around the nearly empty streets. We had snacks and coffee at John Lewis, then I walked to Harley Street to the clinic for my 12:00 appointment. Then there was a lot of sitting around waiting, and finally at 2:30 pm I laid down on the surgery table and it began. The three technicians and the surgeon were listening to pop music and talking about vacation destinations in Spain, so it was a casual relaxed atmosphere.

The whole thing took about 8 minutes and then I went straight into the post-op consultation room for a few minutes and was discharged out onto the street where I met Rhods and Sioned again. As soon as I was in their care, I put the sunglasses on and closed my eyes for the next 4 hours. We got into a black cab and got driven to London Bridge. Here we are in the cab. 

Then eventually we got home and Rhodri helped me get changed into my onesie, and I sat/ lounged in the corner of the sofa until it was time to put eye drops in at 6:30.

So that was it! My eyes didn't hurt, they just felt a bit weird but I could see fine. And in fact we all laid on the sofa and watched telly for a bit, then went to bed.

I have to wear some plasticky goggle things to protect my eyes as I sleep for the next week, but that is fine! I'm just super glad its over and it went well and I'll never wear contact lenses again!

New cousin on the way

 Auntie Sions is going to have a baby in April and he/she is moving around a whole lot these days.

Doggie cousins

 It has been so cute seeing Winnie and Annie together, although Annie is more excited than Winnie.

Happy New Years

We all had a bit of a lie in this morning after our fun night with the Denslows. 

I joined my swimming buddies at the beach, and it was pretty busy there actually! We had some biggish waves that were fun to bounce around in.

New Year's Eve

 We had a fun end to the year tonight when the Denslows came over. They brought their dog Albie and the two pups had a really great frolicking time together in the house for a bit. Not all night, but a good dose of puppy play to entertain us all for an hour or so, then Albie went back home for the remainder of the evening.

We went on to play games, drink champagne, dance around a little bit to Jools Holland Hootenanny, and we also had a Nerf gun battle (kids vs adults).

Only Rhiannon missed out on these activities, since she was at her own New Year's Eve party with her friends down in Danehill. A first for her!

More Christmas

 Lots of cozy time with Christmas lights on and music playing in the background. 

Rhods and I took Annie for a long walk over at Friends Clump and around Nutley Windmill.

Christmas at Chalfonts

It's finally time for Christmaaaaasss! 

Yesterday Rhodri and the kids went shopping in Royal Tunbridge Wells for the day while I hung out with Annie and relaxed. Then in the evening we all went for dinner at the pub where Rhiannon works. It was a fairly quiet evening with the pub having had loads of cancellations due to the recent uptick in Covid cases. But we had a lovely meal!

This morning we slept in until 9 am, although the kids were up early getting into their stockings of course.  We had a leisurely day with just us together, opening presents and talking to family.

Then we did manage to get dressed up a little for our Christmas dinner, and Tryfan set the table very nicely. 

The weather was pretty crappy and uninspiring, so we just indulged ourselves by lounging around all day. It was really nice!

 

Solstice swim

Our little sea swimming club went for a winter solstice dip today and it was so gorgeous

Silent Disco Walking Tour

 For my birthday back in November, Cat gave me a ticket to attend the Guru Dudu's Silent Disco Walking Tour in Brighton. We took the train from HH and got there in good time to start at 4:00 pm in front of the Theatre Royal, and we met our sea swimming buddies Ali and Emma there too.

We girls did call in for a swift pre-game bev at a really cool upstairs bar next to the theatre, then we went down and put our headphones on to start the event!

These photos do not convey how ridiculously fun, hilarious, and invigorating this event was!

Senor Samba, our host and leader, was fabulous at leading the fun as we danced, sashayed and skipped through the streets of Brighton under the Christmas lights! It was soooooooo fun

In fact, I'd go as far to say that this was the most fun I've had for awhile. I can't wait to join another silent disco walking tour, in London, Brighton, or wherever! Next time I'll bring the whole fam though. Maybe.

After this ended at 5pm, we went out for an early dinner at Brown's, and that was fabulous too. We caught the train back to HH where Rhodri met us and delivered us all safely home. What a great night!

London trip for a 16th birthday

 Today we went into London for the day in order to celebrate Rhiannon's birthday. Rhiannon, Poppy and I traveled in together and did some shopping during the main part of the day before Rhodri and Tryfan met us for dinner later.

The 3 of us girls had lunch at a Hawaiian cafe, which was really great, then we split up and walked around and met again at 123V, which is the vegan restaurant that Rhiannon chose for her special dinner.

Even though it was in the basement of the Fenwick department store, it was really great food and service. We all sat in a booth and had a great meal.

Despite (or maybe because of) the rain and the wind, it was a very festive atmosphere around New Bond Street and Regent Street. It felt pretty busy everywhere actually, which was surprising since it has been Covid restrictions etc all over. 

At the end of it all, we caught the train back to Haywards Heath station and then I drove Poppy home and we all went to be around 11pm.  A long day but a good one!

Rhiannon turns 16!

 Our girl is 16 years old! She has been working really hard these past few months in preparation for the "mock exams" at her school, which have been all of this week and will continue through next week as well. On top of that, she is working at the pub tonight rather than doing anything fun with her friends. At least Sophie could come over today after school and hang out a little bit before Rhi goes to work.

She seems in good spirits about it all, though. And I know she would prefer working to the alternative activity for tonight, which is the annual Chelwood Gate Tree Lighting event. This has always been my favorite event of the year, but with all the stuff going on right now and the fact that it hasn't been well publicized or organized, I'm really not that keen this year. 

[Post-script]

Rhodri and I lead some door-to-door caroling along the main road through the village, which was actually hilarious and cringey. There were only 6 of us to start, with my swimming pal Emma making an appearance that totally made my evening! She is such good value to have along to things - she has a great energy and is always up for stuff! Then about 4 houses into our caroling tour, Leigh and Stuart caught up with us. 

Here is the scene at one of the houses we sang at. They hadn't opened the door yet, but they did eventually! We didn't have as great of a success at other houses - one guy switched the light off and pretended he wasn't there! Another guy totally ignored us although we could see him in the kitchen!

Anyway, we had a heck of a laugh about it afterwards when we went to the pub to visit Rhiannon after giving up on the caroling adventure.

Swift recovery

 Annie seems to be feeling just fine! In fact, I'd say she is acting really bored, clearly prowling around the house looking for trouble. Here she is after having pulled the stuffing out of a toy...

I forgot to mention that we put all our Christmas stuff up, including a lovely tree that we got from the Carter's tree farm down the road. We did all that last weekend when Sions and JJ were here.  But now we are discovering that Annie really likes to nibble on the ornaments, the skirt under the tree, and she also likes to hide behind the tree where we can't reach her! She is such a little minx.

The Big Op

 Annie had her big operation today: she will never give birth to puppies. She really doesn't like going to the vet, and she was also just there a few days ago after wounding her paw somehow. 

Now she is in a body suit and we need to sort of unvelcro the back section whenever she goes outside to do business, and she doesn't enjoy that too much either. Poor girl. Hopefully she recovers swiftly.

Sions and JJ visit

 Along with Winnie, we've also had Auntie Sioned and her boyfriend JJ visiting too. It's been super fun to have them around, and to get to know JJ a little bit better.

This morning JJ had to leave a bit early to go practice with his band, so Sions and I dropped him at the train station and then went to watch Tryfan play rugby. 

They played really well and it was fun to be there, although we ended up getting there a bit later than planned, but that is another story!

Doggie cousins

 Winne and Annie got to have a reunion this weekend! They are so cute together, and also well behaved.  It was super fun to see them together.