The last few days, in pictures.

Christmas Eve

We went for a walk on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. I love this picture - a horse grazing under a tree.
Sophie wasn't impressed though. She said that walking was over-rated, she was cold, and that and we should just go home.
She cheered up when we got closer to the horse, though.
Emily and the horse.
Pretty landscape. This area is about ten minutes walk from our door-step.
Silhouetted trees.
Playing cranium at home after supper. The blur is my dad, leaving the board game area as fast as he can. (He loathes all board games).

Christmas day

The girls woke up insanely early, got all dressed up, and then (because they'd been forbidden to wake anyone else up before 7.30,) fell asleep on the couch while they were waiting for the time to pass. Cuties. The plate and cup are from Father Christmas's snack. You can see the celery stalk that one of the reindeer dropped on its way out.
Opening presents. This is the only moment of the day that Sophie's hair was tidy.
My dad made stilts for the girls. This is the initial experimentation phase.
Empty table. "Lunch" was only ready at around 5pm.
Sensible family shot, while we wait to eat.
Getting silly. Stephen tries to restrain his mother.
Girls waiting at the table; the first course is finally on it. But they can't start yet because ...
their mother and grandmother are still pouring wine in the kitchen. We look distinctly worse for wear, and that's before the first sip of wine.
There are just a few blurred shots of the main course - everyone was too busy eating as fast as they could to bother with pictures. Blurry though it is, I liked this one of Soph, though. The hat, and the waving knife ...
Playing dominoes with bathed kids in their new pyjamas and dressing gowns after dinner. Everyone feels rather over-fed and sluggish, like giant pythons.

Boxing Day

Figuring out the stilts
Steve kicking his ball around the garden
And, a bit later, cleaning off the the soccer-ball shaped marks on the study window - it's only a matter of time before that window breaks...
My aunt, two cousins, and their children came to our house for lunch. This is an adorably cute little cousin (my cousin's daughter, not sure what relation she and our kids are to each other)
After lunch, we took a walk to the park to play on the swings and feed the ducks. They got the remnants of the bread I'd baked for Christmas lunch. We shared our bread with another duck-feeding family, and they remarked "Sun-dried tomato bread for the ducks, eh? Cor, can tell we're in Reigate!" (Our town has a reputation for being a little yuppiefied and precious).
Playing football in the park- the kids came home absolutely caked with mud.

And today ....

We got a sprinkling of snow today.
Sophie investigating the first flakes - she dashed outside with no coat and Stephen's shoes. You can tell we are used to living in the sub-tropics.
And how I spent almost the whole day. It was lovely.