Working hard/Hardly blogging

As usual, this blog goes dark when too much is going on. 

So, here's what's been going on over here at Huff House East: Too much.

We've been celebrating quietly 

Toonamint turned eight

Tamsin's whole life has been gearing up towards her First Sleepover Party, which, in our house, is allowed when you turn eight. She's been so excited. She watched Ailsa's June birthday get pushed back to September, though, so wasn't completely unprepared when, at the end of November, we weren't allowed to invite friends into our home, even for cake. But, cake we had, and we've promised that the very instant we're allowed to open our doors, we'll invite her two besties over for a night of sugar and giggles (and probably no sleep). 

She is still delightfully silly, despite being a mature young lady of eight. We like her a lot.

Party Llama cake

Huff Holiday Season

Snacky dinners:
when the cheese plate gets taken a bit too far.

Christmas was quiet, too. 

Just us, which has been the norm for the past three years, but this year, we were going to host all of Chris' family. That didn't happen, and neither did any of our planned outings, because everything's closed. However, again, should things reopen, we have a voucher to use at Legoland. Don't tell the kids (we didn't). 

But, Santa came, we were spoiled even rottener than usual, we feasted, we sang... it was still a good Christmas.

Family selfie in front of Fortnum and Mason
on our annual Christmas Lights Walk.

Tween turns twelve

Vaughn turned twelve without enough excitement, but with plenty of presents and food. Again, give us the word, UK government, and we'll have some of his friends over to eat pizza, play video games, and... well, that's all that 12-year-old boys like to do, really, as evidenced by our new 12-year-old boy. 

He's even more awesome (and stubborn) than when we brought him home from the hospital when he was three days old. Snif. 

Cake: good. 

Pirate cake inspired by his new Sea of Thieves video game.

Back to school homeschool 

Everything is totally normal.

We moved to "Tier 5" of Covid-19 restrictions* just after Christmas, and since then have spent all day, every day together. I've been sitting at the table with the kids, trying to keep up with my own contracts and projects (and usually putting in hours after they go to bed, because there's just no way to do both), while Chris has been manning the printer. He is reprising his classic role of Sandwich Maker, and doing swimmingly, as well as taking on the title of Snackmaster.

Where were you when you got the news?

Everything else

There is nothing else. Well, that's not quite true. The kids walk Ziggy before school, and have various exercise stations around the flat, including Vaughn's new punching bag. The older two were proud to have passed their Grade 1 piano exams in the fall, and all three are keeping up with piano lessons via Zoom. And, once a week, I get a full hour** to myself*** to teach my ZoomCamp, an intra-living-room workout class for my bootcamp participants. 

We have no plans for travel, as we're not allowed to sleep overnight away from our own residence, but...no, that's it. No plans.

Finally, this blog may end up getting transported/commuted/rolled into my writing site (http://karenhoughwrites.com/), so stay tuned and I'll send an update when that's a go.

* Tier 6 is rumoured to involve being confined to underground burrows 24 hours/day and having to grow one's own mushrooms for sustenance

** it's never a full hour before someone walks in

*** see above (sigh)