Christmas and the New Year

Hi everybody,

The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.

We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.

We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).

In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.

I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".

I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.

Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!

Speak to you again soon,

Lots of love,

Tom