Boxing Day walk

It was a perfect day today for the traditional Boxing Day walk - sunny, bright and crisp. After breakfast we walked from the house to the woods where I took this photo of all the boys (young and old!) - note that Tommy's hair is wet from his shower, not greasy! The woods were busy with many families out walking. The roads were also busy with so many cars, probably due to the rail strike which is really screwing up everyone's Christmas weekend plans. Our station and the next one along the line have been closed since the week before Christmas and won't operate again until after the new year - a pity for the poor man who recently started a small coffee/food kiosk at our station, he has had to close his business too.

After our walk I came home and started preparing lunch. There were not enough leftovers from yesterday - as expected - so I had to cook another meal - today it was salmon with roasted vegetables. 

It has been a very busy day - after lunch I took down the Christmas tree, as we leave very early tomorrow morning to go to Switzerland and I do not want to return from there in January to a dead Christmas tree. It was so messy as after 3 weeks the tree was very dry and the needles were falling everywhere, so it was a big clean up operation. I had to vacuum everywhere after packing away all the decorations. I then had to hem some trousers Tommy got for Christmas, and as I do it by hand it took some time to get it right. 

The boys are about to leave to go back to their homes. Luke is flying out to Switzerland early tomorrow morning, and Adam and Pip are flying a bit later in the day. Tommy is going back to Cambridge as he wants to do a few days work and is only flying out on the 29th. Gavin and I are driving with Xena, it is going to be a horribly early start tomorrow morning.

I won't have time for journals now as I haven't started packing yet, I still have to make food for the journey - breakfast and lunch - and then empty the fridge, and decide what I can take with us. Plus I still have to do a few loads of laundry. I feel as if I am running out of time to get this all done!