White Christmas and Chilly New Year

Unusually for the South of England, we've had some

snow in December.. and our little back yard and shed looks like an Alpine scene. As I write this on 3rd January, the snow has all gone but I see a few more flakes fell overnight and have stayed on the ground thanks to the very low temperatures.

This same back yard and shed may well be owned by a new family in the months ahead.. a paucity of decent work in the Uk and a longing for sunlight has had me interviewing for roles in India and South Africa. I am still looking locally as well, but this week will bring a final decision one way or the other.

Christmas was a quiet but happy family affair up in Shropshire with our relatives there. Icy but clear conditions and thick snow made it our first true White Christmas in ages. Henry is walking pretty well now and climbing like a chimpanzee; we've had to increase the child-proofing heights around the house. I came downstairs the other day to find him sitting in the middle of our dining room table eating an apple he'd nicked from the centre display.

Lily is enjoying pre-school; she's the youngest there by quite a bit although as tall as most of the kids already. They're not teaching her much academic though, more concentrating on social skills, so it's up to us to get her reading and writing in the 2 years before she goes to primary school.

I guess everyone will be quite relieved once the career decisions are made; it's been a strange year in the UK and I am pretty sure that next year will also be up and down. The famous "dead cat bounce" or "W shaped recovery" means (I predict) that a brief rally in the New Year will be followed by more difficult times, a bitterly contested election and higher taxes all round.

So it may well be a good decision to move to somewhere a little less affected by the credit crunch - and sunshine won't hurt either. We will be very sorry to leave our house in Berkshire if that's what the eventual decision is, but it would be nice for the kids to be able to play outside a bit more. With Henry having passed his first birthday and Lily being almost 3, we need them to get out, get muddy and get their vitamin D from the sun instead of from a bottle.