Boxing Day, 27th & 28th December 2014

On Boxing Day, we had a lovely slow start again... this was the view from my bed!

We had a roast beef dinner at lunch time, with just our family. Yum.

We then decided to try and get a photo of all of us - lots of John dashing to and fro to set the camera auto timer etc...

...and the silly one...
Straight after these photos, Tom was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Scott did the ordination, accompanied by Dad, John, Robin and Dan. It was just lovely. Tom had met with Bishop Wade the Sunday before, and the ward had given him a sustaining vote in Sacrament meeting.

After lunch I went for a walk with Dad, and Robin and Niki's family.

It's lovely to look out on the hills from the Temple site.

Then after that, Lucy and I went on a little photo shoot. I wanted to see if I could get photos with nice blurry Christmas lights in. We didn't really get very good pictures but had a lot of fun!

I took this picture as we went back to our building - in the top half you can see bed bases on their sides which Dad strapped to the railings upstairs, to prevent little people from climbing up them!
We really did take over the place! At one point we had filled half of one corridor with a load of double mattresses from the storage room, for doing acrobats on! Everyone left their doors open, and the kids just wandered (and scootered) happily around! The rest of the people staying there didn't seem to mind too much!

Katy and Dan, and Robin and Niki left that afternoon. Here's all Katy and Dan's stuff waiting to get loaded in the car! Scott and I debated about when to go home, and decided to stay another day.

The kids engrossed with some film!

That evening it began to snow. It looked gorgeous!

Lucy and went on another walk. For some reason we didn't have coats on so it wasn't a very long walk, but the whole place just looked so wonderful, and was deserted.

There was more Mafia playing that evening, and I stayed and helped Mum clean the flat, plus a couple of different people dropped by, then later when the younger kids were in bed, John, Hannah, Lucy, Scott and Jack played Settlers of Catan in Katy and Dan's empty flat, and I read.

The next day, the Temple was back open, and I went and did some temple work (borrowing a skirt from Mum, because I hadn't bought any smart clothes.) It was so nice to see Mum and Dad in the Temple, and they introduced me to lots of people, and Dad gave me a guided tour... I have never seen such a sparkling clean boiler room in my life!

After that we had lunch in our flat, and gradually got the place packed up and cleaned. John and Hannah left at lunch time too.
It had taken us three hours to travel to the Temple, but took us SIX hours to get home!! We had travelled 27 miles after the first 2 and a half hours! The traffic was just really slow.

The kids were great on the journey (though they were in little cubicles really, created by the two large caravan mattresses down the middle of the car!)
We stopped off near Kettering for a McDonalds, and happened to park next to Emma Kerjenski's family - one of the school Mums!
We finally made it home by about 7.30pm, and by 8pm had everything unpacked and the washing machine on, though it took ages to get the house feeling warm again.
We were all happy, having had a super Christmas!

At about 4.30am on Sunday 28th (the next morning), Harry woke up and was sick. He'd made it out of bed but got sick all down the door frame! The poor boy then carried on being sick all day till about 2pm. He didn't complain at all, just lay on the living room floor with a blanket, and sick bowl nearby.
The others all went to church and I stayed home with him. He was much better by the next day.

Christmas Day 2014

After negotiations the night before on what time to open the presents in the morning (ranging from about 4am to 10am), we all met in the lounge at 8am! Our older kids woke up at about 5.30am and opened their stockings in the living room, but Harry, Scott and I slept longer. 

I found a lovely bottle of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle perfume in my stocking!

We sang a Christmas Carol, Dad read from the scriptures, then we opened presents.
The twins singing!

(Tom bought Jack some fizzy!)

Lucy with her cousin Joseph.

About half way through... most the kids had already gone off to play! Dad was master of ceremonies, giving out presents.

Hanging out in the lounge afterwards.

My nephew Asher got a scooter for Christmas - what better place could you have to play with it?! He was good at sharing it, so there was some kid permanently on it whizzing up and down the corridors for the rest of the whole holiday!

Watching TV later on at the other end of the lounge.

We had Christmas dinner at 2pm over in the main Accommodation Centre, and used the fantastic big kitchen there, where everyone did part of the meal. It had four ovens and we used them all!

Jack bringing one of the turkeys over! (Not sure why it was in a towel!!)

As the Accommodation Centre was not in use, we had the whole place to ourselves, including the large lounge, where we set up tables for Christmas dinner - it was perfect!!

We had dinner with the Murrays and Connollys (who with Dad make up the Temple Presidency), and one of the Connolly's daughters and her husband, who were over from Denmark. We had a great time!

Later on I went for a walk round the Temple grounds with Katy, Dan and their kids.

Then we had round two of present opening, with Robin and Niki. Katy made these fantastic capes and masks for Heidi and Emma!

We had some fun with balloons and glow sticks, and just hung out chatting for ages. I had a good chat with President Murray about photography and lenses etc, as he has a similar camera to me.

Tom taking a selfie!

Back at our own flat, before bed. Everyone happy! Before that though, we had been back over to the Accommodation Centre lounge, which we blacked out as best as possible, and played 'Mafia'. It was hilarious! Everyone running round in the dark (or in my case trying to hide behind the settees) while the Mafia 'killed' people, then all the ridiculous discussion afterwards about who was who, and who to eliminate each round!

Back again! Christmas Eve 2014

Happy New Year! Well my plan this year is to keep our family blog going longer than the middle of February - which is all I managed last year!

The few weeks up to Christmas were pretty manic - all the boys' birthdays, plus having a cabin built in the back garden, plus various appliances breaking down, gas leaks, electrical problems, deadlines for making cards for a Trade Show, not to mention ordinary Christmas preparation!

Anyway, we all survived, and on Christmas Eve morning we packed (and I mean really packed in tight) the car and headed up to the Preston Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is near Chorley. My Mum and Dad are living up there for three years while they serve on the Temple Presidency. Mum and Dad had permission for us to use one of the empty flats in the Missionary Accommodation Centre - the same building they live in. 

We arrived after lunch at the same time as my sister Katy and her family, and my brother John and his family. (My other brother, Robin, came the next day.) We were pretty excited to all be together for a few days!!

Us unloading stuff into Flat 1.

After settling in and making up all the beds, Scott and the older kids went to Asda with John, and Katy and I went to Aldi, to get a few bits, then in the evening, Mum and Dad made hot dogs and we all hung out in Mum and Dad's flat. (Out the window you can see the flags representing the nationalities of the missionaries who are currently in the Missionary Training Centre, next door!)

Tom with one of John and Hannah's twins - Viv, I think!

Lucy with Hattie.

Our flat and the lounge were on the ground floor, and everyone else was upstairs. The kids loved running around the place, and using the lift! I took three of my nieces and nephews on a little walk...

 Fun in the lift!

Harry having a (brief) piano accordion lesson from Dad.

Dad showed us around a bit, including the big room with storage areas for each flat. Seemed like a good place for Harry! The place is really well organised.

Another couple living in the Missionary Accommodation Centre popped by - the Robbins, and it turned out that he used to be Branch President of our ward in the late 70's!! They could remember a couple of the people who are still in our ward now!

No fireplaces! We had to make do with leaving stuff for Father Christmas and reindeer next to the lift. (The rest of the people living there seemed very patient with us taking over the place!)

In the evening, when the younger kids were in bed, the older kids and guys went off to play Mafia, and Mum, Hannah and I stayed in Mum's flat and watched 'Nativity' - we were all a bit worn out. I'd bought the film along thinking Mum might like it, and she really did!

Before bed, we left all our presents under the tree in the main shared lounge,

and hung stockings on our flat doors.

February 2014 so far

I've had quite a bit on church-wise in the last couple of weeks, starting with a full Stake Young Women Presidency meeting in Huntingdon on Wednesday 29th January. We discussed our direction for the upcoming year, and had a great meeting - I have such lovely counselors!

The next night (Thursday 30th) I drove with Ben Conway and Paul Garrick to Northampton for our Stake Council meeting. I wasn't feeling that great - had had the beginnings of a migraine in the day.

On Saturday 1st February the whole family went the cinema to see 'Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters'. We saw loads of people we knew there, including Jo, Isaac and Anya Blackhurst who sat behind us. The film was OK, and we enjoyed being together as a family. 

Back at home I cut all four kids' hair, and then in the evening, I drove Lucy, Jack, Kirsten and Dawn to Northampton for the evening session of our Stake Conference. The youth had been asked to sing at it, and we had had one practise all together, but I was a bit worried at how many kids would turn up and sing on the night. I needn't have worried though - loads of kids came up and we sang two hymns during the course of the meeting, but then our last song (the EFY medley which was our best one) got missed off the programme because of a mix-up. I was sitting in the congregation signalling to President Clayton on the stand, to remind him, and luckily he added us in after the closing prayer. I was pretty proud of the youth! I think we sounded good (especially our last piece), and afterwards so many people said to me how they enjoyed it and had felt the spirit. The youth themselves seemed to have enjoyed it too. One of the Mum's took this picture of us - proud of her three kids!

We had soup, and socialised afterwards, and we ended up leaving pretty late, as one of the Young Women Presidents wanted to discuss something with me.

The next day we watched the Sunday Session of Stake Conference. 

Most of us haven't felt that well for quite a bit of the month so far - a continuation of feeling sick, headachey, and just exhausted. Lucy had three days off school last week, and Tom one, plus Lucy was off today again as well (and has had blood sugars in the 23's a couple of times.)

We've still done quite a bit though, especially this past weekend.

On Friday 7th I went to a book club at least (have missed loads!) - not that I'd read the book.

I also helped run a Multi-Stake dance at Bedford Ward for our youth. Here's Lucy with some of the other girls.