Skip to main content

Toby's first Christmas

He was hardly old enough to appreciate the wrapping paper, never mind the presents, but nevertheless 2010 was Toby's first Christmas, and he had the outfit to prove it.


It was also our first Christmas in our own house, in Texas, so it was quite exciting to decide how we wanted to celebrate it. In the event the celebrations got spread over several days, which might not be normal but was certainly fun! The original plans had to be reworked when Mom's flight was cancelled due to snow at Heathrow, so instead of arriving a week before Christmas she actually arrived the day after. We were just glad she could come at all, so cheerfully moved the big Christmas meal to Monday. It's still in the 12 days of Christmas, right?



Mom with children and grandchild

Christmas Eve is the day all the churches have services - one local place advertised five identical services, which made me think that their choir must have all had sore throats on Christmas Day! Our church plant had too few people around to have a service, so we went to their supporting church instead and enjoyed the good music and family atmosphere.


Toby meets Grandma

Christmas Day kicked off with cranberry orange muffins for breakfast, courtesy of
Nigella. I'd made cranberry orange muffins to a different recipe before, but these were definitely superior. I have to admit the cooking did have a bit of a Nigella theme this holiday; I'm a big fan of her recipes. We opened our gifts to each other in the morning, then John and Kristal arrived from their long road trip in the afternoon and we had another round of present-opening.


Next day we Skyped Graham's family, who had managed to rig up a webcam at his aunt and uncle's. Technology is wonderful - they all grouped on the sofa at that end, and we felt almost as if we were sitting in the same room! They enjoyed seeing Toby "live", having only seen photos up to that point.

Monday was Christmas Mark II, with more presents and much cooking. The star dish was ham cooked in Coca Cola (yes, a Nigella recipe) . This didn't quite work as planned; by the time it had finished simmering the meat was falling off the bone and it was all we could do to heave it out of the pot in one piece. It was beautifully tender, and besides, I didn't actually have any mustard powder or black treacle for the glaze, so we ditched the idea of finishing it in the oven and just tucked in.
Toby enjoyed all the extra company and seemed to develop by leaps and bounds just in one week. He's definitely smiling at people now, can lift his head up very well, and even gave us his first coo (though he still prefers grunting and wailing as means of communication). He's getting big, too - we just moved him into 3-6 month size clothes, even though he's not quite 3 months yet. It's sooo much easier to get him into slightly baggy than slightly too tight pajamas, and besides, I needed some new designs to look at! I know you all love them, so here's plenty of Toby-photos to finish with.



Snuggling with Aunt Kristal



Look at my toys, Uncle John!



Smiley happy baby



Zombi-i-e-e-e!



Big blue nappy (yes, he's mostly in cloth diapers now)



All dressed up for a winter walk

Family photo


Just cos I's cute!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice to see that you guys are doing well. Take Care.

David G
Anonymous said…
Hi Martha

lovly to see you all looking so fab, Toby looks a bundle of fun

Bristol's just been cold and wet for ages, hoping for a little spring sun soon

have bought myself a brevill cup cake cooker, 8 cakes cooked in 10min - yummy, wonder where i got a taste for those?

love
Su, from the Cafe

Popular posts from this blog

Three Mile an Hour God: Spiritual Formation Book 10

"The affirmed life must not become either a lazy life or a happy-ever-after, easy life. The affirmed life is not a life of the power of positive thinking. To be affirmed by God means to live with danger and promise."   Kosuke Koyama's book Three Mile an Hour God was written out of the experience of the Second World War and its aftermath in Japan. As Koyama says in his preface, it is "a collection of biblical reflections by one who is seeking the source of healing from the wounds... inflicted by the destructive power of idolatry." The title speaks of a God who moves at walking pace - three miles an hour - and even, in Jesus, comes to a "full stop" - nailed to a cross. If we try to move faster than the love of God, says Koyama, we fall into idolatry. What is the book about? Three Mile an Hour God has 45 chapters, each a separate short reflection headed by a Bible verse. Some deal specifically with Japan, considering her role in WWII, the damage inflicte

National Forest Way: Ellistown, Bagworth, Nailstone

You may well say, "Where?" I'd never heard of any of these three villages before I planned to walk through them. Back in the 1970s, it would have been possible to travel between them underground. All three had collieries producing exceptional amounts of coal (Bagworth set a Guinness World Record). Nailstone and Bagworth collieries were connected in 1967, and Ellistown was merged with the other two in 1971. All the mines are long closed now. The railway lines have been taken up, the winding wheels turned into civic sculptures, and the pit sites transformed into country parks. It was a beautiful sunny day, but we'd had a lot of rain recently. Within five minutes of leaving Ellistown, I was glad I'd worn my wellies.   The way took me alongside a quarry site and then into a collection of woods: Common Hill Wood, Workmans Wood, Battram Wood. The colours of the trees in the November sunshine were beautiful. The path was a muddy mess. At Battram village I crossed a newly

National Forest Way: Normanton le Heath to Ellistown

This 9-mile walk took me through the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods and Sence Valley Forest Park, and into the heavily-quarried countryside south of Coalville (no prizes for guessing what was mined there!) I originally planned to walk from Normanton le Heath to Donington le Heath, which had a pleasing symmetry. But I decided to go a bit further, to the hamlet of Ellistown.   It was a cold morning. I'd been in shorts the previous weekend, but today there was a frost. I added a flask of coffee, a scarf and gloves to my kit, and set off. For a small village, Normanton le Heath has a surprisingly wide road. I parked there rather than using the car park for the Jubilee Woods. That meant I was at my starting point straight away. I followed a road past some rather nice houses, crossed a field, and entered the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods. The NFW leaflet told me that I was on the route of the Via Devana, a Roman road from Colchester to Chester. There isn't much left of it. a mosaic,