Christmas and New Year.

We all rallied round to try and make Christmas the best it could be. And by all, I mean even the cats who were boxed up and came with us to Norfolk.

We stopped in on Jim and Maureen on Christmas Eve.

And found a little bit of cheer with a late night room party, playing this track at about 11:57 so that the moment it went 'It's Chriiiiiiiiiistmassssss' it actually was. (Cos it ain't Christmas till Noddy says it is).

There's a theme here.

The cats slowly became acclimatised to Hainford, starting out in the conservatory before exploring the rest of the house. They did take a shine to the big front window, especially as little brown wrens kept landing a paw's reach away on the other side of the glass.

We cooked Christmas dinner for everyone and miraculously nothing was burned. Well, except Daddy's hands.

Here's Lily sporting Daddy's Christmas present.

After four days away, we headed home. Lily had a bunch of new records and a fair bit of Christmas money...

...so she treted herself to an audio upgrade.

At least when I take photos from Lily's Instagram I know they're 'pre-approved'.

Lily and the gang headed off for a Lakeside shopping trip.

The future's so bright...

Then we saw in the New Year with a small but brilliant evening. Just the three of us, some drinks, some food and the lucky dip bowl.

Here's the menu. One of the lucky dip activities was an Amazon ten pounds in ten minutes challenge. Which proved a little bit too challenging for Mummy.

And that's 2022. We got through, had some amazing adventures but a very sad turn at the end. It's 2023 now, which is a year we've been dreaming of and planning for a long, long time. So then - what if it all goes right?