We wish you a hoppy Christmas

No it's not a typo. We had a severe frost and myself, Mike and Daniel all took tumbles. I was the first casualty. We were heading for church on Xmas morning and I slipped on our drive way. I went from the top to the bottom in a matter of seconds. Mike heard me laughing and came out with Daniel in his arms to see what had happened. They both flew up in the air. Mike shielded Daniel as best he could, but he still ended up with a cut mouth:( The real problems began when we realised that neither of us could get back up. Mike tried to hold onto the wall between our house and the neighbours, but it was so icy he kept slipping down. We ended up taking off our coats and shoes, and putting the coats under us to gain traction on the ground, we inched our way back up the drive. I got to the top, stood up off my coat and fell right back to the bottom of the driveway again. Grace watched the whole pantomime from the safety of the door way. We never did make it to church. When we told our families about the incident their reaction could not have been more different. The Hayes' were full of concern for us all. The Coyles - well they laughted till they cried. Chris has renamed us Torvil & Dean Hayes.

Other than the fall we had a really lovely day. Grace woke at 2:10AM to say that she had heard Santa on the roof. We got her off to sleep after an hour or so, and she woke again at 8AM. She was thrilled with all her presents - especially her new pram from Ger & Nelius and a skipping rope that was part of of her present from Barry & Rose. Daniel was more interested in the wrapping paper than anything else. He's cut two new teeth over the last few days so he was a bit off form. I'm sure hurtling down the drive way didn't help to improve things for him either. He perked up after his nap though.

Chris, Pam Sophie & Jake came to us for dinner. Pam put Graces Peppa shop together for her. Daniel loved pressing the buttons on it. We got to talk with baby Eve in LA. She kept saying Moo which Grace thought was so funny. I'll post some pictures later. Unfortunately we have no footage of the fall. My family are particularly disappointed about that.

Visit to Santa

We went to the Dell Xmas party on Sunday 6th Dec. Grace and Daniel had a ball until "silly" Santa gave Grace a present that she already had - hence the sad face in the second picture. We went to Smyths on the way home & exchanged it for some play dough. paints, paper and two cups that she painted - inside and out, for Daddy. God help Mike if he tries to use them because he will definitely end up with some kind of poisoning. Grace is very arty though. She will paint and colour for hours on end. I have afine collection of her master pieces at home.

After the party we went to Neilus & Gers for Xmas dinner. They had it early for Neil, because they are spending Christmas with Dave, Rebecca & Eve in LA (the lucky gits). I may be slightly biased, but as far as I'm concerned Ger makes the best dinners, and I really do hope they have a ball in LA. It would also be great if they brought their favorite niece back a big bag of peanut butter cups. Ger, if you are reading this I'm considering myself as the favorite niece, not Grace.

The mutual appreciation society

Last nights conversation between Grace & and her Daddy went something like this.

D I love you Grace
G I really love you too Dada
D You make me very happy
G Oh Dad you make me sooo happy too. I just love you

Nothing like a little girls love for her Daddy :)