New Year

We had some counter cultural friends to stay over for a couple of days to see in the New Year with us. All the kids (seven) were done up in leather armour with wooden swords for most of the walks... It was a great sight to see them skating about on a frozen pond in all their kit! Other more responsible parents were at the edge of the pond, warning their children how dangerous it was going to be when the ice cracked, We tested the ice and then let the kids run riot on it. (We did have a rope, space blanket etc in the rucksack just in case, but were confident with the ice several inches thick that we wouldn't need it).

Back at home we played charades, and other similar games which all could join in with, and once the smaller kids were in bed, taught Ant and Bernie how to play bridge, which they both enjoyed.

It's always good having other Catholic families to stay, as they join in with family prayers, grace before meals and so on, which is good for their kids and ours, in terms of making it demonstrably a normal thing for fun people to do...