Dear All

I'm afraid that I am a bit behind with my Xmas cards this year. I started out as always with good intentions but could never quite get started! It hardly seems possible that Christmas is just days away.

We started off the year with our family ski holiday in the Tyrol. There were 9 of us counting my parents and my sister with her husband and their two boys. We decided that although the ski school don't normally take children under four years old, we would try a trial lesson for Richard. We knew that he was probably a bit too young but he was desperate to be able to ski. It was a great success. Part of this was due to the fact that the tiny children were taken to and from the nursery slopes in a ski-doo with a trailer. This was the highlight of Richard's day. David and I skied along behind and one of us stayed with him for the lesson. By staying with him we were able to help out since the teacher really had her hands full. In fact most days Richard was tired out by about 11.30am and so we just took him away before the end of the lesson. He went to ski school for the first week and even took part in the slalom at the end of the week. Although he came last it was not for lack of cheering from us and his teacher and he got a prize for being the youngest in ski school. Hopefully when we go back there in February he will have a longer concentration span and will last the whole lesson.

The early summer brought with it a lot of east coast mist and at one point in May we were unable to see past our back garden wall for almost a week. It took me back to our days in St Anthony when in June, when the snow was all melting the fog would come in and stay for days on end. We found that if we drove just 15 miles inland and South that we could find warm sunny weather whereas our garden was shrouded in damp fog. All of this didn't please David too much as he is learning to fly at the moment and this foggy weather meant a lot of cancelled lessons. David started his flying lesson about this time last year much to my dismay! He has really enjoyed it and has already sat and passed many of the exams. I must say the thought of going up with him still scares me but he assures me that it is safe. So far he isn't qualified to take passengers.

In August we went camping in France again although this year we went slightly further South than before. This year we went with our very good friends Fiona & Stewart and their two children. This meant that not only did Richard have the company of his two best friends but so did we! They had recently bought a caravan and this was their first journey abroad with it. The holiday was a great success and we had a lovely time. The weather was unfortunately not as good as it might have been but it was still warm and we did spend days at the beach. There are some very picturesque towns some of which had days when they seemed to go back in time and all the townsfolk wore national costume In the Autumn we visited the English Lake District. We had planned this long weekend with Fiona & Stewart and all of us stayed in their caravan. To be a bit more precise Richard slept with them in the caravan and David & I slept in the awning. Unfortunately it was VERY cold and it snowed a lot of the time! It was pretty cold in the awning but we survived.

I am still working with the same company which continues its quest to become profitable. Richard is at nursery all day and I pick him up at about 4.30. It's a long day for him but he copes with it pretty well. David has had his fill of the Government messing about in dentistry and has decided to withdraw from what remains of the National Health Service. It is a big step but one which many dentists are taking because of all the recent changes in their contract and in the fee scales all of which meant that it was almost costing the dentist to treat his patients. He is going to treat only private patients from January onwards. So far peoples' comments have been mostly favourable but it remains to be seen what people will actually do come January. We are hoping that all will go well.

Later this month we celebrate Richard's 4th birthday. He is having a party for his friends at home. I am now beginning to think that it might have been wiser to hire a hall but it's too late now so we'll have to hope that it's not too chaotic.

That's about all our news for now. I'm sorry about the typed "newsletter" but it was the only way of getting all my letters done. I hope this finds you all well and we wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year!