White Christmas
The snow is still with us, so we had a proper white Christmas,
complete with some fun in the snow.
The beer cooler was superb.
Ice & Snow
Icicles
(sign of a poorly insulated roof I think)
Hoop
(it's hard to bounce the ball in 12'' of snow)
Snowballs!
The boys made some small snowballs in the garden yesterday...
...it was hard work, but mum appeared just in time with some refreshments.
More big snow
A post-sledging trek through the snow to a long starbucks line (we should have gone over the road to the organic coffee shack :-( )
This was our street before the deep stuff came!
Big Snow
After the small snow came the big snow
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links
Finn at Five
Finn is now officially five, having been "nearly five" since about June.
I think he knows something I don't...
Christmas Tree Team
Tree from Noel's at Cottage Lake, decorated by the gang in the picture
(including the shy one hiding in the reflection)
I had nothing to do with it, except dragging 8ft of fir from car to garage to family room
This year we also appear to have started a new Christmas tradition (can it be a tradition if this is the start?): yup, tree jumping. I can see that this one may end in tears.
Small Snow
We got back to a certain amount of snow. Fun fun fun.
Apparently, this is what's known as 'trace'.
Big Trip: Wrap Up
End of the Big Trip. "The Firm" reconvened at Heathrow T5 for a final farewell, fortunately news reports of an ensuing chaos were significantly exaggerated, and T5 continued to function normally.
Finn's return trip was also enhanced by the custom headphone adapter, cunningly crafted from BA socks. Nice.
Big Side Trip: food
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links
Big Side Trip: Genève
A little side trip from the big trip to Genève for some work-stuff.
Decent view from the hotel...
...including some kind of student party. Something to do with history, the French and large pots of chocolate, apparently.
Genève is at the end of Lake Geneva , where the lake flows into the Rhône River ...
...and all the trees have bells on.
Unfortunately, I didn't get up into the Alps , although the view from 5,000 feet on the early morning flight out was pretty impressive.
Big Trip: A Wallingford walk with granny
An early morning walk along the Thames and around Wallingford Castle
with Granny and the boys.
Nice boots Finn.
Wallingford council don't like dog walkers, but apparently dogs on their own are perfectly fine.
Big Trip: Hainault Forest
A winter walk in Hainault Forest
with granddad, nana and the boys
and views across London as the evening drew in.
A quick clean up
and then drinks and
a relax at the Camelot.
I do miss English pubs.
Big Trip: Night out in London Towne
11 years. Awesome. Thanks Beautiful.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links
Big Trip: Frinton-on-Sea
Early start (at least early if you're all jet lagged and used to sleeping in until 12) with breakfast on platform 3 at Romford station
I didn't get a good pic of gran (far too stern!) so instead, check out this much better one from last April's visit.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links
Big trip: wii
Uncle Paul was the hero with wii games...
...concentration was key...
...and the crowd were riveted. Literally.
No damage to report, although Dad had a near miss with the chandelier. Opps.
Bottle Beach Walk
Along the north bank of the Thames, downstream from Tilbury , is where London's rubbish ended up. Just past the power station is Bottle Beach, where the remains of a (Victorian?) dump are exposed by the river. Bottles, glass and china survives, but most of everything else has decomposed. Even the metal has rusted away.
The 'water tower' was an early radar station, and according to to font of all knowledge was, until recently, still marked as a water tower on maps.
A proper walk, even if it was across crushed and broken glass :-)
Big trip: getting there
Car to SeaTac (thank you Dawn!)
A spot of pre-boarding grub
Movies on the flight
and a morning coffee at Heathrow (thanks Les!).