Monday 2 January 2012

A Happy New Year

So another New Year begins and as usual I have feelings of trepidation about what this year has in store for me and my family. Christmas Day was very quiet for us but on Boxing Day our children and grandchildren decended on us and we had a lovely family day - 7 adults and 6 grandchildren. The only one missing is Leah who lives in New Zealand. Photo below of me with the 6.



Last year was fairly hectic. I had to spend a lot of time dealing with my Mother and that is still ongoing. I am hoping something will be resolved quite soon now. Our family returned to the UK from Australia and so we have been able to invite three of our grandchildren (ages 11, 8 and 7) to come and stay. The first time, a long weekend was such a success we had them come again for the October break and took the opportunity to get all three of them swimming (only 1 of them could swim before that). We had a great time but we were all shattered at the end of that week.

Bob had his 70th birthday but we kept it fairly low key and just had several small parties with various groups of friends. We had some lovely holidays - Scotland in June, Spain in October and in early December we flew with a friend and her daughter to spend 6 nights in New York! We had a fantastic time, it was a wonderful experience and I really would like to return.

Here, from Battery Park, is my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty - such a thrill!



and here we are a little closer



A wonderful statue, she is beautiful and I felt very emotional to be there and to see her for myself. Probably one of the best experiences of 2011 for me.

So here's to 2012 - it is going to be a special year for us here in the UK with the Olympics and our Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Bring it on!

Happy New Year to you all.