Tuesday 27th December, 2011

A Family Visit to Eastrop Park and Chocolate





 

I got up at around 8:30. Cathy had been up since 6:15 with the children. We had bought Ben and Jess Nintendo DS handheld consoles. Those plus C-Beebies on the TV kept them occupied.

Our plan for the morning included a visit to Eastrop Park. Sue and I went straight to the park with Ben and Jess. Cathy, Jenny and Graham went to pick Chris up (and to have a chance to see his new house). When I started out, I was very stiff; walking was quite painful. Gradually, joints and muscles loosened up.

We started off in the playground and were still there when the others arrived with Chris. The playground is very good and in good condition. Ben in particular approached everything at a run. As usual, he was full of energy and wanted to go on everything at the same time. Jess was almost as excited.

Just before Christmas, Jenny bought a new Digital SLR camera. This was something she had wanted for a long time and represented the results of saving up and collecting vouchers for about 2 years. While the children set off with Sue, Cathy, Graham and Chris to feed the birds on the pond, I took Jenny to some steps on the other side of the pond, where she could try out her telephoto lens to get some long range pictures of the youngsters.

Our next stop was the stepping stones across the stream. Jenny and I approached from one side, the others from the other side, so some of us at least had to cross the stepping stones. I explained to Jenny that we always ended up with someone with wet feet when they were young, Almost immediately, Ben "fell" in to the water. He had already pulled up his trousers "just in case". He was soon followed by Jess and Cathy, who all arrived home with wet feet.

Finally, the youngsters spent time climbing trees.

Despite the overcast skies, everyone enjoyed Eastrop Park and I got just about the amount of exercise I needed.

The highlight of the afternoon was testing one of Sue's Christmas present, a chocolate fountain. This was quickly followed by an emergency cycle of the washing machine to wash some very sticky children's clothes.

We finished the evening with a family prayer time, when Cathy, Jenny, Sue, Graham and I got together to pray for our family for the coming year.