We let in light and banish shade

Christmas day at the Lovemasons began at a fairly respectable time: about 7am.  This is an important Christmas for H because she will remember it but it is still a gentle one.  Next year I'm sure the excitement will be even more intense and begin earlier.  Once she had emptied her stocking we queried the lack of bike.  "Maybe I'll get it next Christmas" was her cheerful reply (I certainly don't think we will hear that again).

We suggested checking out the tree and though the bike was on full display she was fixated on a bag that had Mickey Mouse and Father Christmas on it.  After much prompting she eventually turned her eyes to the bike.  It is purple, as requested, and comes with a pink bike lock and basket. We got it from a local bike store who built it.  J collected it on the day before Christmas Eve while H and I went to the local cinema to see Monsters Inc. 3D.  Luckily it fitted perfectly into our closet awaiting the big day.

She got many lovely presents for which we are all really grateful.  Our own gift to her (the bike was from Santa) was a wooden train set with a purple Thomas the Tank Engine character (Rosie).  She got a nice mix of toys to play with, ornaments to treasure, clothes (including awesome dress-up clothes) and money (which will go some way to extending the train set).

Father Christmas got me noise cancelling headphones (Bose) and Ugg gloves.  He got J an assortment of little things: Christmas with Disney sheet music, card games, notebooks, candles and so on.

At noon Gavin and Elisa arrived and we had brunch (scrambled eggs and salmon).  The kids of course ran around and played with their toys.  We had some prosecco and  periodically picked up whichever one had fallen over in excitement.  The Polar Express came on at some point to provide more sedate distraction (Hatty had watched it the night before too).

A few Skype calls later and it was soon time for dinner.  I would reprise my role from Thanksgiving and cook the turkey.  It was cooked from frozen this time but no-one died and though it is a bit of cheat (not a full turkey it is completely boneless) I think for me it is still not a bad achievement.

The children were soon over-tired and poor Elisa is ill so they headed home and Hatty was soon in bed.  We finished the evening with Cowboys & Aliens.

As ever, it was a magical time and we loved it but missed too our friends and family round the globe.  The next few days should be restful before we begin an action packed 2013.  Merry Christmas everyone.

Party Time

We are all on an adventure, it's just that as we get older we take so much for granted and our fuzzy minds struggle to imagine a world beyond our immediate chores. Sometimes though we are side-swiped by life and the a fresh look. Good friends can be the catalyst but what is there quite like a child at Christmas?

This Christmas Eve we took Harriet to the Kids' Party at work. They came to the 10th floor to leave coats and scooter in my office. One of my colleagues brought his two boys to work and soon enough she was playing golf with the six year old around the floor.

The party itself was extremely busy and there were long lines for all the activities. For an adult like me it was hell but for her it was heaven. She was so excited to ride a bike through Manhattan on a bike simulator. Then we played arcade games and then joined the long line for the roller-coaster simulator.

The line was long but she got to sit and watch a juggling show. At every opportunity she stuck her hand up to volunteer to help even though he wasn't actually asking for volunteers. I would have hung round the back but she gradually pushed her way to the front just in case the chance came.

After the reindeer ride she played table-top soccer followed by air hockey. We called it a day.

This evening we ordered Thai food and watched together The Polar Express. It was lovely and she went to bed happy. Hopefully by morning Santa will have delivered a bike and the adventure will begin again with renewed vigor.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Buffalo

Less than twelve hours before the flight was due to take off we got a helpful message from Delta telling us that our flight had been cancelled.  They do not offer any explanation - not even a meaningless one like 'the flight is delayed because of the later arrival of the in-bound aircraft'.  The only option that we could use for re-booking was to take a flight first to Detroit, Michigan and then another flight to Buffalo, NY.  In other words, instead of a 1 hour flight of 390 miles we would take four hours and travel 1009 miles but options were few.

We were in Buffalo to visit an adoption agency, recommended by some friends of ours.  The agency has just moved and the office was still under construction, in a former Methodist church building.  The meeting was an extended consultation and we came away with a lot of paperwork and a lot of reading to do.  Adoption was always part of the plan but because a second surrogacy is still out of reach we decided to bring it forward.

One of the parts that struck me most was the need to produce a profile.  We had done it before of course, but that was mainly answering some set questions and supplying a few photographs.  This time it is a much bigger effort - the agency showed us samples of profiles and it is amazing the lengths to which some people have gone in terms of making professional looking booklets.

After the consultation we headed to the hotel.  I had booked it using my American Airlines Advantage miles.  American is in Chapter 11 at the moment and by all accounts is an even less happy place than it was before so we will most likely try to avoid them for a while.  I had too many miles for the cheapest hotels and too few for the most upmarket chain hotels but just enough for a local 'boutique hotel'.

From the road it looked like an ordinary hotel but as you pulled into the car park there was an ornate fountain (turned off) that set perfectly the theme for the experience.  The reception had a chandelier that must have been over 10ft long and all around it was decorated in a style that one might at first think is over the top.  They had made such an effort for the holidays - there was a large Santa Claus with reindeer as well as a giant toy soldier and snowman.  The minimalist style is so common these days that to have one senses assaulted by so many decorations (some really quite bizarre) was unusual and overwhelming.

Harriet loved it of course and we loved the bar and its menu.  There was of course much to talk about.

In the morning we had a few hours before the flight home so we took the short drive to Niagra falls.  It is over thirty years since I have been there but some parts of it - the spray and noise of the water - are so familiar.  We had only half an hour to climb the observation deck and take a few photographs before heading back to the airport.  As with the hotel we plan to come back at a future date, hopefully with more time.

The flight home took an hour and was 390 miles direct thank goodness.