A Little Delinquent

What every Santa wants, locally brewed beer, dairy free cookies, and broccoli for the reindeer.

Decorating cookies on Christmas eve.

Tim and Ollie dressed up for the Christmas service.

Eating some rice with chopsticks at Wagamamma.

Like everyone else, December was a very busy month for the Spaulding clan.  Here are some highlights:

We celebrated my 30th birthday in style.  I went out to lunch with some friends on Friday and went to a movie with some of the same friends that night.  Tim graciously stayed home to watch Ollie man.  On my actual birthday, we made a trip into London to spend two nights at the RAF club.  We've visited London so many times, that its nice to go into the city and just enjoy being there.  That's also a plus when a toddler is involved!  We managed to visit some of the museums and walk around Trafalgar square at night.  Amazingly, we also nabbed a lot of sleep as a family.  Ollie was exhausted from a busy day on Friday at nursery, so he and Tim slept in until 9:45!!  That's a record in our house when jet lag isn't a factor.

The cathedral here in Bury has a crib service every year, so we enjoyed taking Ollie to help him understand the real reason that we celebrate.  Its fun to watch all kinds of little kids running around...it makes Ollie look tame!  Our friends Kate and Dave invited us back to their house for some very tasty lasagna.  If Kate ever offers anything she's made...say yes!

Christmas morning was very special this year.  Ollie isn't old enough to wake at the crack of dawn yet, so Tim and I were up making coffee before he made it out of bed.  Opening presents with a toddler is fun, to say the least.  He played with each toy before opening them all.  The joy lasts a little longer.

We spent the next few days organizing and cleaning the house.  I'm happy to say that the crib is out of storage and assembled in the nursery.  We're also down a chair in the living room.  We put one of the comfy chairs in storage to make room for the tree.  The extra stains from the stay in storage were enough incentive to toss the well loved, but old chair in the bin.  Amazingly, our little English living room is much better off with one less piece of furniture.  What a difference some space makes!

The last update is that I've decided to make the blog private.  I'll be able to post more about what's going on in our life without worrying who's reading what.  I'm very happy to add friends and family (and family of friends) to the list.  Just send me an e-mail and I'll make sure that you are allowed access.

Hope all is well!