A few of his new favourite things

As usual (well for the last couple of years anyway!) we spent Christmas very quietly. Christmas day was spent at home, just the three of us, with the usual present opening, turkey scoffing and film watching.

Then on Boxing Day we had friends round. I cooked a Hairy Bakers turkey and ham pie, which was lovely, even if the cranberry top didn't quite set. I also did a trifle and Christmas cake, which I'm not sure that they had ever had before. I'm not sure if that is because they are American or not, but I think that B made a valiant attempt at the Christmas cake considering he doesn't like dried fruit of any type, and he managed to fairly surreptitiously pass it onto N!
M had a few meltdowns, mainly over sharing his toys (and not necessarily his new ones) which surprised me, as normally he is pretty good at it. Its possible that we have shut ourselves off a bit just recently from the world, and that hasn't helped. It raised fears in A (and myself a little) that M doesn't meet up with others enough and the meltdowns are a result of home ed, but I have heard enough stories from friends with 4 year olds to realise that it is more an age thing than anything else. Whoever coined the phrase 'the terrible twos' was lying according to this little boy, as the twos were fairly calm, and we definitely have the 'foul fours'!

Then on the 27th we went to Leukerbad, as we did last year, and spent 3 nights in the mountains in a hotel. Thankfully I stayed in good health this year, as last year I missed the whole thing by staying in bed, ill. We went sledging, which was great fun, and M and A spent a morning skiing, with M going down the nursery slope on his own several times, which was a first for him. We also did a lot of swimming, and we definitely would rebook at the hotel, as it had a great thermal pool, which was fairly quiet as it is small and there are a couple of much more impressive public pools up the road, and of course the pool was free to hotel guests. M really seemed to enjoy the water this time, just using the frites to swim around and a few times even ducking himself by the edge. I have to start going regularly with him, maybe incorporating a trip to the new Bern swimming pool with lunch with A, if he can get over there from work.

Again, New Year's eve was quiet, which is just the way we like it. I've always seen the 31st of December as just another day, and actually resent the fact that (back in the days) nightclubs, taxis etc charge a lot more for that one night. I'm liking the idea that the 21st December is to be celebrated as the New Year (as read about on one of Gill's blogs ) but I guess I have another year to think about this one, and I'm not sure that A would be too pleased if I changed his year around (doesn't really like change much, does my dear hubby).
At midnight we went out onto the balcony to watch the fireworks at Ouchy, but were disappointed when none materialised. So we watched a Viennese waltz on ORF (which brought back loads of childhood memories for A), a troupe of naked Swiss Romande ladies dancing to a bizarre military marching tune, and then stayed up another hour to watch the fireworks in London, on the BBC. My nightmare evening was on ITV (honestly, an evening with Elton John, where's the celebration in that???) so the remote was hidden.

A took M skiing on New Year's day leaving me to do some end of year business accounts, which still aren't done, so I will be using Sunday to finish them off when the boys go skiing again.

So, what are M's new favourite things? Through copious amounts of Christmas tv watching (which I didn't think much of this year, although I did like Jonathan Creek and the Martin Clunes thing, The Man Who Lost his Head, I think it was) we found out that M loves slapstick comedy, Wallace and Gromit and darts, and he also has a new found interest in skiing, sledging and swimming. Things to be capitalised on, I think.