Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to all families, our old (but not forgotten) and new friends.  2010 will go down as one of the most memorable in our lives.  We have had such fantastic experiences and fun since the big move and we really enjoyed every minute if it.

Its Christmas eve night now and we are just back from some last minute in Cork City.  House is nice and warm, Gwen is cooking dinner, Jessica is fast asleep, Sarah is watching the original Miracle on 42nd street and Anna is all over the house not knowing what to do with all the excitement and anticipation of Santa coming tonight.  

This is what it is all about!

Happy Christmas and thanks for reading!

2010 School Photo

Christmas Shopping

It is still really cold in Ireland and they are predicting it will be the coldest December ever.  Much of the country got more snow over the weekend although Kinsale remained mostly dry.  Gwen, myself and the girls headed up to Dublin for some Christmas shopping in Dublin on Saturday on afternoon. The city was packed and really cold but we had a great day (even if I complained a lot!) and we got most of our shopping done.

In other new Sarah got an Irish Speaker of the week award in school.  Not bad considering she has only been speaking "as gaeilge" for three months.  In other school news I got the school's web site in production last week.  It is pretty basic and there is plenty more to do but its a start considering they did not have a web site before this.  You are welcome to take a look here.

That's all.  Five more days to our first Christmas in Kinsale.  

PS: Some random pictures follow.

Cheese!

New Christmas hair doo

It has been very cold here, wrapped up ready for school

Shopping

Shopping

This is bad.  Here we are in Starbucks overlooking Bewley's

Hot Chocolate

Grafton Street entertainer

Shopping on Grafton Street

My lovely wife

Whale Skeleton in Killbritain

at the hairdresser

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Thanks!

Cabin Fever

All readers in Ireland are well aware of the weather conditions.  It has been quite cold and much of the country is covered in a lot of snow.  It has now mostly melted in Kinsale but roads were bad enough all week that the girls’ school remained closed.  All three of them ended up sick at home anyway with some bug that is going around so snow playing was seriously curtailed.  The car remained in the driveway unmoved nor started for seven full days and of course then would not start but friendly neighbor helped me out getting it going again.  

So a week of plenty of playing Connect 4, Guess Who and watching way too much television.  Speaking of which I bought a Logitech Harpmony 650 remote and it has changed our lives!  For years been listening to folks telling me how these remotes are game changes and they really are.  If you have lots of remotes and lots of stuff under your TV then do go buy one. I promise you will not regret it!  The other game changer is setting up a DLNA server in the house and streaming all your movies, audio and pictures over your home network.  I am using TVMOBiLi which a free DLNA server and it works quite well especially for the Mad Men marathons Gwen and I have been doing.  We have now seen Series 1, 2 and 3.

With all the snow and ice we have been surviving from the freezer and walks to shops into the town for dinner so nothing very exciting has been cooked in a while.  We have been enjoying a whole new range of delicious cheeses from a place called The Quay Food Company.  It is a tiny deli in the town owner and run but a really nice chap who really knows good cheese.  He mostly sells small independent farmhouse Irish cheese but has some nice French ones too.  Been popping in buying what he recommends (usually three small pieces at a time) and get to taste ten more while waiting! 

So that’s all.  It has all been very quite and we are mostly stuck indoors due to the weather and sick little girls. The only other news is that the girls Elf that used to visit them in Dallas each Christmas arrived a few days ago here in Cork.  He is the “Elf on the Shelf” and flys in early each morning, sits on a ledge somewhere different each day and keeps on eye on them for Santa.

PS: I heard a very funny conspiracy theory as to why it is so unusually cold in Ireland on radio the other day.  The theory being that the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has screwed up the Gulf Stream which normally keeps Ireland warm in winter!

This one is from Waterford and the black is ashe.  

I made my late grandmother's brown bread.  

Irish Queens!

Santa's Elf "Janey" who flies in to visit the girls each year.

Bacon and Cabbage