At the start of the month I was in London for lunch, then that evening once back home I headed out to Shoreham to La Galleria for dinner with Adrian, Pete, Lee and Ben. After having dinner there we grabbed a couple of beers at Suter's Yard and then headed home.

On the Saturday morning after Ellen's PQA class, we all headed down the high street for the Southwick Christmas Market which was basic, but cute for a smallish high street. On the Sunday we stopped by Mayberry Garden Centre to pick up a Christmas Tree and spent the later afternoon decorating it. Then on Wednesday the 7th it was Ellen's nativity play at school in the morning which was really sweet to watch.

On Friday it suddenly turned bitterly cold, just in time for Jukka's Christmas on Saturday at Paul and Carol's place. Between rail replacement and travel times, it was certainly easier for only me to head through on my own for the day. On the Sunday after a morning at home, Ellen and Una headed over to Lola's party while Ian and I chilled out at home, and even managed to enjoy watching a few flakes of snow fall down.

That week was really cold, but on the Wednesday we made a visit to Manor Cottage in Southwick to see Santa, followed by dinner at La Tavola. The next afternoon/evening I had our Christmas party at Simon and Lucie's house. Then the weekend was fairly quiet, with a nice Christmassy evening on Saturday and a drive into Hove on Sunday to look at the lights.

On Tuesday the 20th, just in time for Christmas, we had our new front door fitted, which we'd been waiting months for and finally got it installed. Very happy with the final result and definitely won't be missing the draughty gaps in the door frames :)

The next few days were nice and festive - Marrocco's on Christmas Eve for dinner, Christmas Day at home, Boxing Day visit down to the beach in the Cargo Bike and then Greg, Kim and the boys over on the 27th.

The following days after Christmas were fairly busy, with playdates, playgrounds, Laura, Dennis and the boys visiting one evening as well as Una and Ellen off to Beauty and The Beast Pantomime another evening.

Then this evening we had Laura, Dennis and the boys over at ours for a New Year's Eve party which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, especially the (early and fake) countdown to New Year's Eve. So until the (real) midnight, cheers and happy new year for later :)