Now that it’s 2012, and I have a little spare time before I go back to work, I thought this would be a suitable opportunity to reflect on the past year and summarise what I’ve been up to.
Family
Ellie’s operation
Ellie gave us a bit of a scare earlier this year. What started off as just a niggling pain in the chest turned out to be gall stones, which was at times crippling and meant she had to avoid anything even remotely fatty for several months. She found that change of diet difficult, what with not being able to eat cheese or chocolate. Still, the operation went very smoothly and she was back on her feet and eating naughty things soon afterwards. My biggest confession here is that I’m still ever so slightly jealous at how quickly she healed after her operation, compared to me and my hernia (which is mostly fine now, incidentally).
Peter leaving home
This year my littlest brother flew the nest, finding a lovely little church in Uffeculme to go and be a trainee youth worker at. I went to his induction service, which was a great way to support him as he began his new ministry, and an opportunity to meet (albeit in passing) others like him and also the vicar he’s working with, who seems very nice. Unfortunately, despite booking a date in with him, we didn’t get to actually visit Peter on-site this year (more on that later), so hopefully we’ll reschedule that for early 2012. It does leave Mum and Dad’s house somewhat empty though; apparently their food bill has roughly halved now that Peter’s moved out…
France holiday
Apart from a weekend in Weymouth, we as a family have never had a holiday until this year. Ellie and I have been married for 4 years, and that was all we had managed. This year we took advantage of Ellie’s Dad’s holiday home in France, and had a lovely week with them. We had a fantastic day on the beach, generally enjoyed chilling and not doing too much, and although it was short it was much appreciated. The travel was an adventure – driving on the wrong side of the road isn’t actually too hard at all, although the weather on our return journey made the ferry crossing quite uncomfortable (not that Samuel seemed at all bothered by that).
Samuel’s visit to hospital
Not to be left out, Samuel also necessitated a trip to the hospital, following a very high temperature that caused him to have a brief seizure. That was a huge worry for us at the time, but thankfully it wasn’t anything to worry about in the end. Apparently these things happen with young children, because their bodies aren’t able to deal with the heat as well. No lasting damage, I’m pleased to say.
Grandma’s funeral
Ellie’s Grandma sadly passed away this year. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, as she was very old and increasingly unwell, but it was still something unpleasant we all had to go through. She had been growing increasingly senile, making conversation difficult, and although we’d managed to persuade her to move out of her bungalow and into a flat where she’d have people to help, she actually only lived there for a matter of weeks due to prolonged visits to various hospitals. It was one thing after another, what with falls, blood pressure, infections, and so on. In the end she had a fall while in hospital that led to a bleed on the brain which, in addition to everything else she was going through, was just too much. Thankfully we happened to be visiting Ellie’s Mum at the time, so we were on hand to support her through it. A useful bit of planning on God’s part, methinks.
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