Happy New Year

In the last few days of the year we've been making the most of our season pass to the local skiing hill and gone 3 out of 4 days. As its only 10 minutes away and floodlit we've even been able to go after tea. The kids are picking it up rather quickly even if they do find it all a bit tiring at times.
Come new year's eve we're celebrating in what is becoming a rather splendid tradition and having the Kellys and Terrells over for the night. This year was the 'Quest for Bacon' year as we'd decided to do an English fry up for dinner and wanted some back bacon rather than the strips of fat that masquerade as bacon in the midwest. The quest has taken us far and wide and all was looking hopeless until the day before new year's when I asked one ofmy work colleagues and she picked some up from a place about an hour away from us. It called Irish bacon and its at least similar. So our bacon quest is not yet over, but we were able to sort out something for new year at least. Even sausages are pretty hard to find, the only two places we know of are a butcher a fair distance away and a British pub.

Still, it all came together on the night and the kids, big and small tucked in very happily.


It was also a bleated birthday for yours truly as we meant to have a sleepover for my 40th and Tina's birthday a while back but Izzy has Swine Flu so we postponed. Andy made me chocolate covered brownies with a dime bar in the center!!!
We kept the kids occupied with the Wii and a treasure hunt, Kim put together a great goody bag including this non-PC foam plane.
The adults were easier to keep amused, plenty of acohol and hugs! Andy made mid-life crisis cocktails (belgian chocolate ice cream, cream, Baileys and brandy - what's not to like) and we had vodka orange with the breakfast
Then we let the kids stay up at least until New Year's on the east coast (or 11pm central)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We didn't make it to bed until 3:30am hoping that by letting the kids stay up late we'd get some lie in, which we did. If you call 6:30am a lie-in. Had cinnamon rolls and waffles for breakfast - not that Becky enjoys that sort of thing in the slightest.

After everyone had gone we decided to head out for a walk around the local lake before having a siesta. Bit nippy today and in the days coming up as you can see on the BBC website.


So goodbye to 2009, a fantastic year in which we've felt blessed in many ways. We're looking forward to 2010 and seeing a few visitors brave the elements maybe.