Happy New Year!

Finally, I find some time to post about Christmas and New Year, although it's after midnight again. Where does the time go?
I'll keep it brief, if I can, picking up from where I left off. We were all up bright and early on Christmas morning, and Lara confirmed that Santa had been, and had enjoyed his whiskey, and the carrot for Rudolph had gone too. She quickly got through the presents in her stocking, then we headed up to Radcliffe, with the motorways been quiet, as they normally are on Christmas morning. We made it up before 1pm, which meant we could enjoy lunch just in time to watch the Queen at 3pm. There was to be no afternoon napping though, not with two two-year-olds to entertain. Actually, as it turned out, Lara and Elizabeth did most of the entertaining, tottering around in the dressing-up gear Auntie Catherine and Uncle Nick had bought for them both - what a great idea that was, it prevented any fighting over the necklace or high heels! Check out the video at the end of the post to see what I mean.
It had snowed quite heavily in the run up to Christmas Day, which made the whole place look very nice, when we found time to take the boys out for a walk. Jackson was able to take himself for a walk, by learning how to escape from Grandma's back garden into the farmer's fields beyond. Luckily, guided by Mishka's concerned barks, he was also able to get himself back through the hedge, which was a relief for all.
We drove back down on the Monday afternoon, as Olga and I had to work on Tuesday. We took over a big room in the company office for three days, and took lots of Lara's toys (and Lara) which meant that we didn't really get much work done, but Lara did enjoy watching endless programmes from CBeebies on iPlayer on the 42" screen there. It rained a lot during the week, but that just meant that when we took Lara to the playground in the park in Marlow, she had it to herself, although she spent more time stomping in big puddles than playing on the climbing frames and swings.
We stocked up at Asda (along with half a million other people) on Thursday afternoon, ready for a night in front of the TV. We called it a night at a more sensible time this year - 1.30am for Olga, 2.30am for me, compared to 6am last year when Sergei and Lucy were here.
The weather on New Year's Day was lovely, clear blue skies, so we made sure we went for a nice walk with the dogs, then called in at the local pub on the way home. Chris and Cara popped in, which was lovely as we'd not seen them for ages. Lara charmed the locals as usual and got a bottle of Oasis and three lollies for her efforts.
Other things worthy of a mention - when we arrived home on Monday, Olga's British passport was waiting on the mat, the final obstacle has been overcome, and now we can travel much more freely as a family. We're just waiting on Jackson's pet passport and we can all go and invade France for a few days.
Lara's been suffering with a cold for the past few weeks, but she seems to be taking it in her stride; we'd run out of Tixylix cough syrup, but when I went to buy some more today, I realised she can have normal cough syrup, now that she's two years old. So it's been two spoonfuls for me tonight, and Lara can have one spoonful if her cough disturbs her too much in her sleep. Oh, sleeping, yes, that reminds me. While staying at Grandma's we tried Lara out in a child's bed rather than a travel cot, and whilst she did fall out a couple of times (firstly onto an inflatable child's bed next to her bed, then later, from that onto the floor), it was generally deemed a success. She's back in her cot at home now, but Olga will take the inflatable one to Russia, and we'll see how Lara gets on with it for 10 nights on the trot. If she get's used to it, we'll modify her cot at home and take one side of rails off it, and use it more like a normal bed. She seems to be waking up regularly now around 6.15am, which is OK as this is the right time for us to be getting up for work, but we're still hoping that she'll have the odd day back waking up at 7.30am. Having said that, on New Year's Day Olga had to wake her at 10am, and this morning it was 7.30am. It's my turn tomorrow morning, so most likely she'll be back to 6.15am! We're planning to go to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park tomorrow, so an early start would suit us anyway.
Enjoy the photos and video...

Merry Christmas One and All

Another late night here,just made sure Santa enjoyed the cookies and whiskey that Lara left for him next to our chimney. Rudolph should be tucking into his carrot too now. Santa did leave a stocking full of treats for a good little girl. We've not packed the car up yet, ready to drive up to Radcliffe, but me and the boys are pretty much ready to go, so the pressure will be on the girls in the morning, but Olga's good at speed-packing. Our aim is to be in Radcliffe by 12.30, ready for Grandma's usual perfect Christmas dinner at 1.30ish, then watching the Queen at 3pm before nodding off at 3.11pm. Someone needs to tell Lara and Elizabeth that that's the plan, or Nick, Cath, Olga and I will have to take it in turns to be "on duty" to look after the little ones.
Anyway, now that I can hear Santa's sledge pulling away from our roof, it's time for bed. Merry Christmas, anyone who's reading this.

Disaster Movie?

This was the scene at 11am this morning on the main road leading to our street. It reminded me of a Hollywood film where the town had been attacked with some kind of nerve agent and everyone had slumped dead at the wheel of their car!
We definitely made the right decision to dump the car yesterday, and I was able to get to work quite easily once I'd collected it. I'll park it there again tonight, as I doubt this main road will be clear anytime soon.
Here are some more pics:

LOTS more snow

Where's the car?

We were almost caught out today by another big dump of snow this afternoon. In Marlow, it didn't look too bad, with sleet falling from lunchtime, and only turning to proper fluffy snow around 3pm. The nursery closed early, at 4pm, so we picked Lara up just before that and set off home. However, the fluffy stuff had been falling in High Wycombe for longer than in Marlow, and the main road near our house - which is on a steep hill - had become almost impassable. We only found this out once we'd parked the car up at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac that I know, after being stuck in traffic for 30 minutes, moving less than 50 metres. With another mile or so to go, and with Lara waking from a nap, and hungry, we decided it was better to leave the car and walk home, so we detoured to the street where we've left the car. I could go and try and get it now, but it's not causing any obstruction and frankly, I don't think we'll need it until tomorrow lunchtime at the earliest. It's still snowing now - 10.20pm - albeit not as hard as before, and it's good snow for building snowmen, so I reckon that's tomorrow's priority, building a "no-man" as Lara calls them.
I was reading the BBC News website this evening and found this paragraph:
"People have reported major traffic problems in the High Wycombe area of Buckinghamshire, with some vehicles being abandoned."
I guess, technically, we have abandoned our vehicle too, but I can agree that I saw lots of vehicles abandoned on the main road near our house; I took the dogs out for a walk as soon as we got home, mainy so I could go and see what was causing the traffic problems. Cars coming down the hill (the direction we needed to go) we having to wait for cars coming up the hill to turn around, as they were getting stuck halfway up. I must say that everyone was very polite, in the 20 minutes or so that I was watching, I only heard one car horn beep, and there were local residents wandering about with shovels, helping cars to get some traction. I'm sure we made the right decision, and it'll be interesting to see how many cars were finally left on that road.
At least this new snow will give Lara a chance to try out the new salopettes we bought for her at the weekend. Mainly they're for her trip to Russia, and it was proving difficult to find such trousers for a two-year old, and an "only-just" two-year old at that, but a winter sports shop in Reading had what we needed (and in the sale too!). They're very pink, but they fit her and will keep her warm and dry while she plays in the snow.
And finally, on a wintery, Christmassy note, I took this photo on my phone while walking the dogs the other night - our most over-decorated house in the neighbourhood:

More snow photos

Here are the usual "family playing in the snow" photos that I always take...