Happy New Year!

We are bringing in the new decade with the coldest winter England has had in over 100 years. Great. When it snowed our first winter here (2007), everyone told us to enjoy it, as it was not usual for this area to get snow at all. So we did, playing in the snow, building snowmen and making snow angels with all the neighbourhood kids. But then it snowed the next winter again (2008), and then the following winter (2009) saw the biggest snowfall in over 30 years, and now this winter, we've had snow twice already, and it's not even February. I think they were lying to us back in 2007, maybe trying to make us South Africans feel a little less daunted by the English winters!

But, nothing can take away the magic of waking up to a carpet of white. Where even the most mundane, ordinary neighbourhood scenes are transformed into beautiful, picture book images. We've made a snowman, and helped the kids up the road build an igloo. I used my Little Miss Sunshine hand-warmer, and she was lovely! We decided though that the thought of hot chocolate with marshmallows was far more appealing than staying out any longer, so we came back in. I'm not sure I'm going to want to go out again tomorrow, so lets hope the schools stay closed another day or two ;-)

My sister in law gave me this set of teacups for Christmas. I have six of each in the cup, saucer and side plate. They are so pretty, and the perfect size for giving the kids their hot chocolate in. The funniest was looking underneath for their makers mark. They say NHS 1972!

The view outside my window. Snow has started falling quite heavily again, so I wonder what the morning will look like? Brrr, I hope it doesn't stay cold for too long.