Snow

You may have heard that we had a bit of snow in the UK around Christmas/New Year time. Well, it's true - the whole country was covered and some places were snowed in for days. In Woodham we were snowed in for 3 days to be exact - assuming "snowed in" translates to school being closed. Getting a big dump of snow is jolly good fun: apart from the snowmen, sledging and snowball fights, there's the thrill of clearing your driveway with an old shovel and the excitement of driving to Tesco's on the slippery roads - scary but fun.

A few people in Aus have been worried it was too cold for us, but to be honest we didn't really felt it much at all - with the notable exceptions of (1) Lucy burying herself in the snow and discovering that it gets into your clothes and melts and (2) Keezee heading off to work in Perth, Scotland (where he was for a few weeks at the time) and noticing the car thermometer read -12. Anyway, enough of all that - as you'd expect we got the camera out and took a few pics.

But for starters, here's a quick vid of the general shenanigans round our way:



Of course there's the mandatory snowman to make...


... but keep an eye on the carrot.


Turned out quite well in the end don't you think?... just kidding!


A snow chair for relaxing.


Out the front of a nice house - not ours alas!



Waiting for the postie.


Caiti managed to sweet-talk her way into borrowing the neighbour's sledge...


... and then get them to drag her round the street all afternoon...


... last seen disappearing into the sunset.

Ice

With it being winter and all, there's a fair bit of ice skating to be had round these parts. We went and checked out the ice rink in front of Hampton Court Palace, which is on every year during winter, and although we didn't partake ourselves on the day of our visit, the girls got the bug and had to do it themselves. So, before we joined the hoards at one of the outdoor rinks, we thought best way to learn would be indoors at our local, the Guildford ice rink. It was all good fun for the kids and Caitlin got herself a penguin (or "penglin", as she calls them) for a bit of steadiness, which was definitely needed, but Lucy didn't bother with any of that and was off on her own after one lap - much to her parents horror.



Checking out the skating at Hampton Court Palace


And here is Hampton Court Palace in case you haven't seen it before.
Although it looks a bit spooky in the (4pm) evening light, it is very grand and is in a lovely spot by the Thames.





Luckily, although we couldn't go ice skating, we could go on the merry-go-round. You don't have to book 3 weeks ahead for that.


And you don't have to book 3 weeks ahead at Guildford Ice Rink either. You just turn up and get your skates on (literally!).




You may notice Caiti needed a little bit of support to stay upright for the photos. She wasn't real steady on the ice to be honest, but she's a trooper and got better once she had her penglin for support.


Lucy on the other hand took to the ice like a duck to (frozen) water. This is when we finally found her in the Olympic training area trying to perfect her double axel/triple salchow combination.