A Christmas portrait

Adam arrived home late last night - he is very busy on his research trying to finish everything for a presentation next week so he worked quite late in the lab before coming home. Jenni also came with him, as unfortunately her grandad is seriously ill and so her family are all travelling to be with him at his bedside. She stayed over at our house last night to break the journey before joining her family. 

This morning I quickly took this shot of Adam and Jenni with Xena - see the outtake in extras too! (and another extra from my phone of Xena the reindeer!) Adam went to take his car in for the necessary software corrections due to the recall, and Gavin and I walked Xena in the very muddy woods. We then met them at the local cafe for a coffee, while they had breakfast there. Jenni has now left and Thomas has arrived home from his trip away, he had a great time skiing and they had very good snow.

Every Christmas I like to book tickets to a show as a Christmas treat. Tonight we are going to see the ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House in Covent garden, which we are all looking forward to - the boys being familiar with the music having played it as an orchestral piece in the past.

Some bad news today - my brother's partner will not get her Schengen visa in time so she is unable to join us in Switzerland for new year. They are flying to the UK from South Africa and will be joining us for Christmas at home, but when we leave to go to Switzerland after Christmas she will have to fly home. It's very upsetting but everything was delayed as their incompetent department of Home Affairs took months to supply an unabridged birth certificate for her passport which delayed the whole process.