H
A P P Y C H R I S T M A S !
Monday 22nd
December 2014
Dear family and
friends,
Wow, this year
feels like it has gone by ever so quickly! As you can probably see
from the picture, all of the children are growing up a lot. This
year, music is an even bigger part of our Christmas than ever it
seems. All four girls and myself (Ceri) have been practising
Christmas music for a while now, and we had a carol concert in
Crawley last night that went really well. Our family's charity carol
concert last Friday evening went really well too. We didn't get to
prepare for it anywhere near as much as we'd have liked to, but all
went smoothly and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who came (ourselves
included), which is the main thing. This year we were supporting
Project Antifreeze, a Brighton-based charity aiding homeless people,
and we are very grateful for all of the donations – £200 as well
as a huge pile of bags of clothing for them to use.
Last year, the
total raised for the charity Orphan's Hope came to $450, which we
were also very grateful for.
With the longer
summer this year, Christmas seems to have jumped up on me a bit! Now
that both of those events have passed though, and we are mostly
through our two weeks of flu and colds this December, we're a bit
more focused on time together as well as each preparing some
surprises for Christmas day. Home-made mince pies are featuring well
along the way too. :) We did get an exiting Christmas treat last week
though – we got to see Sleeping Beauty on Ice at the Guildford ice
rink, thanks to Rebekah's birthday gift from some dear friends. :)
We had a fun
day of music last week with a friend who brought along her two
cellos. She got Hannah going on her flute in the one room, while she
played some cello duets with Rachel in another. Rebekah really wants
to learn the cello, so will be doing that soon, and Hannah, Rachel
and myself have also wanted to for a long time. All of the girls had
a go. Later on Hannah and Rebekah were left playing the cellos while
Rachel and Carlene went off to church to play some piano duets for a
while. Rachel has been playing her violin a lot more lately, and is
getting on well with that. Hannah will start flute lessons soon, and
Sarah was given an alto saxophone by someone at church having said
that it is the instrument she wants to learn. So hopefully there'll
be a whole variety of music making in our home next year. :)
Earlier this
year we also did a musical evening on Easter Sunday, with some other
people from our church. This time it was organised by Rachel, who put
together a really great program. We were asked to repeat that a
couple of months later at the London Temple visitor's centre, which
was good to do, and my parents were able to come along and enjoy it
that time too.
Then we had a
visit from America from Michael's Mum and his sister Emma. We saw
more of Emma than we had done in a long time, which was lovely, and
so got to do a few nice things with her. Michael's Mum loves the sun,
and so had decided fairly last minute to come for her visit here when
it is warmer rather than the end of the year as she had planned. She
was here for 6 weeks, and we saw her for a week each at the beginning
and end of that time, and a little in the middle. As a consequence of
that, she was around for Peter's 8th and Sarah's 12th
birthdays. Peter's baptism was scheduled for the Saturday before she
left in July so that she could be there. It was a lovely happy event,
and a very large table full of family enjoyed a lovely meal together
that evening too, including Michael's brother Tom, my brother David
and his family, and my Dad's sister Carol. Quite a few of us!
Sarah's
birthday was a little before that at the end of June. The very next
day, we met my parents and Michael's Mum at the London Temple, and
Sarah enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the temple for the first time,
with my parents, Rachel, Hannah, Michael and myself in there with
there. It turned out to be a very special experience for her. Again,
we enjoyed some time all as a family afterwards and a meal together.
Having turned twelve, Sarah went into the Young Women's programme at
church, and now enjoys all of the extra activities with her sisters
and other friends she has made which are a part of that. Within two
weeks of Sarah's birthday, all three girls were off on Young Women's
camp. They really enjoyed that, made some new friendships and
strengthened others, and had some lovely experiences, including
enjoying sleeping out under the stars for one of the nights.
That turned out
to be the night that a new cousin came into the world. So while they
were out looking at that amazing sight, over in Texas, Michael's
brother Will and wife Trisha welcomed their new little boy William
Jr. – a delightful and very cute addition to their family of three
beautiful girls. We've yet to meet him of course, but do hope it
won't have to be too long before we do. He seems to be fitting into
their family beautifully.
While the girls
were at camp, Rebekah and Peter were enjoying a week of mornings
doing gymnastics, which they both really enjoyed. Peter got his first
badge in that time too. He is on the waiting list for the gymnastics
club that Rebekah goes to every Saturday, but was allowed to go along
for the week's 'camp'. Rebekah is totally loving gymnastics. She also
comes home and shows the other children things. One day we had
everyone taking turns bending over backwards trying to get into a
bridge, and yesterday I was totally surprised to see Samuel doing
cartwheels! He's also on the waiting list, but probably has a lot
longer to wait.
At the
beginning of July, and thanks to some help from my parents, and
others who loaned us a few items, we managed to go away for a family
holiday – six days camping on the Isle of Wight. We had booked into
our diaries the only week we all seemed to be available, but going
away was a very last minute thing, and squeezed in between everything
else. Just camping in the middle of a big field was really fun. The
boys seemed to love having this huge 'garden' right there all of the
time - especially just being able to get up and go outside to play
while breakfast was being made. When we first arrived, in the rain,
we nearly got blown away watching the hovercraft land on the island.
We waited out the rain as we ate, and from that point on we had
mostly really good weather (quite opposite to what was forecast), and
all returned home either brown or sunburnt! We enjoyed a lovely beach
near where we were staying, and just enjoyed swimming, playing in the
sand and resting in the sun, plus the all important fish and chips
when it got colder later on. We also visited the Needles and Alum
bay, and Osborne House (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's seaside
retreat). We saw their elegant home, beautiful gardens, and private
beach, and especially loved the Swiss Cottage – a miniature home
that Prince Albert had built for their children to learn all of the
home skills and everything they might need. They all had their own
small garden, with miniature tools and he paid them market prices for
their produce.
For
most of the children, and especially Hannah, their favourite part of
the holiday was going horse riding on Hannah's birthday, which
happened to be that week. The boys each rode for the first time –
Daniel wasn't strictly allowed to but he was so upset when he wasn't
included that they found him a small pony and he got to go too!
Samuel looked especially comfortable in the saddle. The best bit
though was that they each had a ride down to the beach; the boys for
half an hour, and the girls an hour. Rachel and Hannah went to a
separate beach that was especially good for riding and had a good
canter. It was all lots of fun! That break was so good for us all and
just lovely on our last night there enjoying a barbecue, and then
sitting out in the night air while the children played around the
tent – a very free and joyful feeling all-round.
Since
then, Samuel and Daniel have started going to a younger home-ed
sports group, which they love, and Rebekah and Peter continue to
enjoy theirs. Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel are all doing ballet still.
Rachel is going to an extra longer class each week now in addition to
her grade 5 class, which she loves and feels is taking her further.
Sarah and Rebekah will have an extra class each week next term as
they prepare for their grade 2 exam. Miss Carroll, their lovely
ballet teacher, invites family along to the last lesson of each term,
so we enjoyed watching some of their classes recently and seeing how
well they are getting along.
Each of
the girls are developing their piano skills, and are lovely to listen
to. Rachel gets asked to play for a lot of things now. She wrote her
first piece of music this year, which is lovely to listen to, and she
is working on another one now. Sarah and Rebekah have spent recent
weeks ice skating as much as they can, rain or shine, now the outdoor
rink here is again open. They're getting on really well, and loving
it!
Later
in the year Rachel and I had the opportunity to spend some time with
my Uncle Ken, my Mum's brother. It was unfortunately because of a
family funeral, but so lovely to see him and get to know him a bit,
and also the other wonderful family that we had the chance to spend
some time with there while celebrating the life, and mourning the
loss, of my Auntie Beryl. We also learned such a lot about our
family.
I have
been enjoying doing quite a lot of family history research this year,
also along with Rachel, Hannah and Sarah who have each followed
separate lines and found a lot themselves. Rebekah has been helping
me with uploading a lot of old family photos that my parents have,
and identifying some of the people in them. It's all been quite
exciting!
I
recently spent a few very needed days away on an energy therapy
course, which did me a lot of good. I have been making some
Montessori learning equipment for the younger children and thoroughly
enjoyed it, and I've realised how much I miss all things artistic. So
for myself, I'd like to do some artwork this coming year. Michael has
been doing a lot of teaching at church this year, and is enjoying
doing that. He is still working on his life coaching qualification,
and has a lot of practise sessions he needs to do to complete that.
So if any of you would like to try some coaching sessions with him,
please do get in contact!
We wish
you all a wonderful Christmas season, and hope that this year you
will have peace, fulfillment, enjoyment of life, and success in your
endeavours.
Much
love to all,
Michael,
Ceri, Rachel (15), Hannah (14), Sarah (12), Rebekah (10),
Peter
(8), Samuel (5) and Daniel (3, but 4 next week!)
X
X x x x x x x x
P.S. Our e-mail address has changed to abundantkrugers@gmail.com
P.P.S. Our computers are out of action at the moment, so we have no access to anyone's e-mail addresses. If we haven't managed to send you this by e-mail, we'd really appreciate it if you could send us yours to the above address so that we have it. Thank you! Ceri xxx
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