pre-christmas family get-together…. almost

As you can imagine with three married daughters and with their various other family commitments and complicated schedules, the opportunities for us all to get together at Christmas are relatively rare. Yesterday was due to be one of those key occasions – it might not coincide with the “proper” Christmas holiday period but, for us, it was going to be very special. Alice+Dave etc were due to come to stay for a couple of days but, unfortunately, due to the horrendous weather conditions that have disrupted so many people’s holiday plans, they were forced to abandon their attempts to drive down from Lancashire in the snow and ice (the prospect of being “trapped” in traffic with young children for hours on end were rightly considered untenable). As you might imagine, we were (and still are) left feeling very sad by how things turned out. Despite this, we decided to continue with our family supper arrangements last night (it was Felix’s night off from performing at the Tobacco Factory Theatre and Stu managed to get back safely from a crucial glass installation meeting in London – albeit he missed the main course, poor man!) and it WAS lovely.
We count our blessings as a family… and Alice+Dave were definitely with us in spirit last night – just very sad that they weren’t actually there to hug!
Photo: Iris attempting to catch snowflakes on her tongue earlier in the day.