Two Snowmen

I think I was more excited than the students when the call came on Friday morning that school would finish at first break.  Given our rural location, large catchment area and insufficient gritting on the roads, the Head decided it was in the interests of the safety of the students to close the school...hooray! Yes, there was an element of justification in the previous sentence.

So we picked the kids up from school and nursery early and Gilby 'made' a new friend.

Though he then took great pleasure in destroying him.  More, perhaps than in building 'Frosty' in the first place, as the wild Lord of the Flies cheering whilst he was being stamped into oblivion would seem to signify.

It was also great fun to pummel 'snow-castles' into the frozen paddling pool (no, we hadn't put it away after the summer...)

Clearly, a few centimetres of snow brings out the destructive qualities in my family.  Even Daddy was cheering a direct snowball hit on his five-year-old daughter.

A smashing time was had by all...

She's Offski!

Daddy wanted a cordless drill for Christmas. This did not sound like a romantic present at all, so I decided that a surprise family ski trip was more in order.

I’m not sure though, that planning a massive baptism party for the day before we went skiing was ideal timing. It certainly did not make for a peaceful passage from the house and there were one or two cross words on the morning of our departure. But it doesn’t matter because we have a baptised baby, a sledging Gilby and a fully skiing Gertie now, so all is good.

Tragically, we lost blankie en route, which is nothing short of a calamity and caused two major tantrums and many tears. Gertie is dealing with the trauma and loss bravely now, but it has been with her from birth, and only wrestled from her occasionally to wash so I'm not sure how this one will go. We have promised to try to locate a new one, a promise that I'm not sure we will be able to fulfill.

So our holiday had a chaotic start. But that did not detract from a magnificent trip. The mountain, Gerlitzen, is stunningly beautiful and the surrounding peaks must be good for the soul. It helps if you are taking three under-fives on a skiing trip if you have your old au pair ready and waiting to meet you; not to mention various other family members on hand to help with collecting from the airport, baby-sitting, shopping...

A decade on from my last ski trip I can report that falling over hurts more than it did. It is also more embarrassing to lose a pole and slip from a button-lift when you are approaching forty. Particularly when your four-year-old is more than capable of accomplishing the lift unaided. By day four she was actually skiing down the mountain.

I can remember years ago seeing these groups of wobbly-headed, helmet-clad little children on skis careering down the mountain at breakneck speed, hands clasping wobbly knees. Never for a moment did I dream that I'd own one of my own.

But the highlight of Gilby's trip had very little to do with the snow. He was lucky enough to meet his hero, 'Bino Bear' mascot of the ski-school on the mountain, which made for one very happy little boy.

Walking in a Winter-Floppy-Land

Gertie's assessment of the wintry world this morning?

"Look Mum, it's gone all floppy!"

"Do you mean, the trees?

"Everything. And look, all the branches have dinosaur mouths!"

Oh to be three-and-a-half.

But I can kind of see what she means...

Day Six in the Big Sober Household

It's day six in the Big Sober Household.

And the housemates have fallen off the wagon.

It began with a sloe gin, currently involves wine for Mummy and cider for Daddy, and will end...well, who knows?

I would like to blame the adverse weather conditions. In fact I'm going to.

We had no power for nineteen hours. No heat, no light, no hot water, no hot food. And whilst it looked more and more beautiful outside as a foot of snow fell, inside the picture was grimmer.

We couldn't go outside and enjoy the weather as we knew that we wouldn't be able to get warm and dry again afterwards and I don't do 'cold' very well at all.

We were four in the bed by this morning. It was way too cold for Gilby (who definitely takes after his mother) and began turning blue at about 3am. So we broke the rule and let him into our bed. What else could I do? And we couldn't very well refuse Gertie when she began screaming at 5am because there was no night-light and she couldn't find her door.

By lunchtime I had had enough. We do have an open fire for this hearth-mother, but our log delivery is due next week and we only had a handful left. Not good. So my husband stole a 4x4 from work and we invaded the in-laws, affectionately known as Grumps and Mumps.

And a sloe gin was just reward for finally building the perfect snowman in their garden (in the dark).

We will resume the January detox tomorrow, when normal order is restored. Ish.