Review of 2025

 Well, I'm writing this update a bit later than usual, as it seems to have been a crazy few weeks. But here is a quick round up of what the McCuskers have been up to in 2025:

In February, we celebrated the first of 4 'big birthdays' in our family this year.  It was Fee's mum's 80th and we spent a great weekend with her, as well as Fee's brother and family, at Center Parcs in Woburn. Much fun was had walking through the woodland lights, playing badminton, being pampered in the spa, and swimming in the tropical swimming paradise (Granma even went on the flumes.) It was lovely to spend some quality time together as a family.

In March, Adam turned 18 and celebrated by inviting about 20 friends round for a house party. Not wanting to cramp his style, Fee and Bri took advantage of the cocktails being made by one of Adam's friends and then retreated upstairs, along with various soft furnishings (which later turned out to be a fortunate move!)

On his actual birthday, we went to see Hamilton in the West End, which was  incredible. A few weeks later, Adam put what he'd seen into practice when he played George Washington in some scenes from the show, as part of his final annual show with his theatre school (an end of an era, as we've watched one or both of the kids in the show every year since Lucy started, 12 years ago). 

In April, Fee went off to France, along with 45 year 8 students, on her school French trip to St Omer. We were very lucky with the weather and enjoyed a trip to a chocolate factory, a theme park and a 100 year-old bakery, as well as French bingo and a treasure hunt around the local supermarché.

The day after the trip, Fee went on a mystery tour with her choir to Brighton, where we sang on the beach and in the Royal Pavilion Gardens, as well as participating in a Sea shanty workshop.

Two weeks later, Fee and Lucy flew off on a city break to Lisbon. It was a beautiful city and, despite an afternoon of rain, the sun eventually came out for us and we had a lovely time seeing the sights and sampling pastel de nata!

The third 'big birthday' of the year was Bri's 60th in May. He had a big party at the local football club, which was great fun. Fee's present to Bri was a trip to Copenhagen. We spent a fantastic few days there, staying in an upmarket hostel, walking miles around the city, seeing the 'Little Mermaid' statue, Christianshavn and climbing around the outside of the spire of 'Our Saviour's church' (quite an experience!) Our favourite part was visiting Freetown Christiania, a commune started by hippies and artists in 1971, which now operates free of Danish government laws and regulations. 

The kids gave Bri a pizza stone oven which fits on top of his BBQ, so we enjoyed quite a few stone-baked pizzas over the summer...yum!

At the end of May, Lucy finished Uni for the year and had her summer ball. She then came home to work at the café bar she'd been working in last year, to earn some money to go Inter-railing around Eastern Europe.  She and a friend from Uni visited Budapest, Prague, Krakow, Ausschwitz, Lake Bled, and Vienna, along with various other places, and had a fantastic few weeks. 

She is currently enjoying her second year at UEA in Norwich, living with 5 others, trying to teach the lads in her house how to clean (!) and practising hard for some cheerleading competitions after Christmas.

Adam had a busy few months too, sitting his A-levels and playing cricket for Biggleswade Town CC.  He and his girlfriend Emilie celebrated finishing school with their end of year 13 prom (and after party!) and, later in the summer, spent 5 days in Tenerife.

He is currently taking a year out, having secured a place at the University of Salford to study Film production next year. He's busy earning money by working at McDonalds and dressing up as Spider man for children's parties (getting paid to join in party games and bounce on bouncy castles for an hour!)  He recently went to Amsterdam for a night, to meet up with some friends. They had a great time but Adam managed to miss his flight home (an expensive lesson learnt about giving himself enough time to get through security!) He's hoping to do some more travelling later in the year, so we'll see how that goes :)

Fee and Bri have both done a fair bit of canoeing this year and, on a lovely hot day in July, Fee passed her assessment for the Olympic legacy course at Lee valley white water centre (she'd been plucking up the courage to do this for a while, so was very happy when she passed!)  We have also run several beginners courses and river trips to introduce newcomers to the sport, and Bri spent a weekend paddling some white water in Devon.

The summer also meant some singing events for Fee, with performances in Covent Garden and Audley End house, as well as a Flash mob at Colchester zoo.

Bri is still running most weekends, and is still heavily involved in Midshires Search and Rescue. He has now upskilled to be an Advanced Swiftwater rescue technician (very impressive!)

In August, Fee and Bri had their first summer holiday without kids for 21 years.  It was very quiet but it was nice not having to nag the kids to get ready every time we wanted to go out!  We decided to go to Italy for a change, and spent a night in Verona, followed by an amazing week at Lake Garda. Having breakfast looking out at the lake and watching the windsurfers was the perfect way to start the day, and we had a lovely, relaxing week with a mixture of sightseeing, cycling, and swimming in the lake and hotel pool.  The best part was drinking limoncino on the terrace, home-made by the owner of the hotel.

The last big birthday of the year was Lucy's 21st.  She decided she would really like to try out a spa day (having never done one before) so we bought her a day experience at Champney's, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Her actual birthday was spent up in Norwich with her friends from Uni. They had drinks at her house, before finally going out into town at around 11pm (just as Bri and I were going to bed). Oh to be young again!

Fee and Bri have been busy with work this Autumn (both still in the same jobs) but have managed to squeeze in a few fun things such as a trip to see Mary Poppins at the theatre, our canoe club annual quiz night, some nights out with friends and ice skating for Fee's birthday. Bri has been to some gigs and Fee took a day trip to Norwich to go Christmas shopping with Lucy.

We're off to Bristol for Christmas and are then planning on a quiet end to the year. We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and wishing you lots of health and happiness for 2026.

-Fee, Bri, Lucy and Adam. xxxx

Review of 2024

Well, December is nearly upon us and, as this is our last quiet weekend before Christmas, I thought I would get organised and write this year's annual blog before things start to get too busy. 

Brian and I started the year with a trip to see 'The Book of Mormon' in the West End, which was highly inappropriate but very funny.  Later in the year, for Brian's birthday, we all went to see 'Back to the Future, the musical' which was great fun and definitely worth seeing if you enjoyed the film. Still on the subject of shows, Fee spent the summer term helping with the rehearsals for her school's summer production of Matilda, which was good fun, but a lot of hard work.  Adam and Fee also starred in their own shows this year (Adam performed scenes from Mamma Mia in his annual theatre school show and played Noah Claypole in his school production of Oliver, and Fee sang with her choir in a big summer concert.)  Fee's choir also performed a Flashmob at Kings Cross Station; watching the public's reaction was absolutely brilliant and something we'll never forget!

In March, Adam turned 17 and started learning to drive. He has now passed his test and is repaying us in the form of a taxi service. 

April was the month for home improvements, as we decided to change our glass conservatory roof for an insulated one. This has made a huge difference and now means we can use it all year round. Lucy had fun planning the new decor, and we're very pleased with the end result.

In May, we did a fair bit of canoeing, including a 'Big paddle Clean-up' event, where we fished out bag-fulls of rubbish from our local river, including shoes and a fire extinguisher! This Autumn, we've re-joined the canoe polo league again for the first time since Covid and Brian has also done a couple of whitewater trips. Fee stuck to calmer waters and joined a scenic paddle on the Norfolk Broads, finishing at a nice pub for lunch!

In June, Lucy left her job at the café bar in Biggleswade and went travelling for a month. She started with a week in New York, staying with Fee's cousin Clare and family, where she and a friend took in all the sights and had a great time. She then flew to Central America, where she took part in a three week tour of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  She had the time of her life, surfing, bungee jumping, white water rafting and becoming immersed in the local culture during a homestay with a Nicaraguan family. 

Brian, Fee and Adam stayed a bit closer to home this year with a weekend to see Brian's brother in their new house in Yorkshire (near Whitby), a few days in Snowdonia (where we climbed Snowdon and rode the world's fastest zipline over Penrhyn quarry) and a week at a beautiful and very peaceful campsite in the Dordogne, France. The latter was a lovely, relaxing week, where we did very little apart from swimming, reading, eating baguette and sampling the local wine.

We've also been to quite a few 'big birthday' parties and weddings this year, including a Bollywood party for some friends' 10th wedding anniversary, several 50th parties, a trip to Bristol for our nephew's 13th birthday, a weekend in Scotland for Fee's Auntie's 80th and a fantastic posh weekend in London for our nephew's wedding.

September was all change for Lucy, as she started her degree in Psychology at the University of East Anglia.  She is loving uni life, having joined the cheerleading squad and cocktail society, and has made some lovely new friends.  Adam has gone into his last year of school and is working hard towards his A levels.  He's currently in the middle of mock exams, as well as making a short film for his Film Studies coursework. Fortunately, this one doesn't involve transforming our kitchen into a fish and chip shop like his last one!  We've spent the past couple of months visiting various university open days, to help him decide where he would like to apply to for next year.  He's hoping to study Film and tv production but is waiting for his mock results to see whether he has the required predicted grades for where he wants to go!

In other news this year, Adam has started a part time job at McDonalds and is enjoying his free burgers!  Bri is still working for Fujitsu and has been involved in Midshires Search and Rescue's busiest ever year, largely due to the amount of flooding we've experienced. Fee is in her second year at her new school and is still enjoying it, despite the fact she is spending as much time dealing with pastoral issues as she is teaching.

The next few weeks are busy as always at this time of year, with Fee's birthday, as well as Christmas concerts, pantos and parties. Lucy is coming home for Christmas and Adam will be dressing up as an elf, helping to look after some reindeer at a local event :)

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. xx

Review of 2023

Well, 2023 is nearly over, and it's that time of year again, when I look back through all our photos and try to summarise what we've been up to in just1 page! So here goes...

The beginning of the year was fairly quiet, apart from an evening watching Abba Voyage (a belated birthday treat for Fee) which was incredible, and an afternoon Segway experience in a local park.

In March, Fee took a class of 30 year 6 kids on a week's trip to France. With visits to some WW1 memorials, museums, bakeries and a chocolate museum, it was great to see all the children practising the French they'd been taught, and Fee learnt a few new phrases too, after spending a day in A & E with one of the girls!

In April, Lucy undertook a week's work experience in a café-boutique in Lille.  She had a fantastic time and it really helped to improve her French, ready for her A level French exam. 

May and June were a little bit tense in the McCusker household, as Lucy was doing her A-Levels and Adam his GCSEs.  However, we managed to de-stress by doing lots of sport, including canoe trips and a canoe safety and rescue course, plus a bit of family skiing at Xscape.  The cricket season was also well under way for Adam (his first year of playing with the adults, which he really enjoyed).

Fee and Bri also had a night out at the Royal Albert Hall, seeing James in concert for Bri's birthday.

 After their exams had finished, Adam celebrated by going to see a county cricket match with his friend, and Lucy and Fee spent 2 days in Lille, shopping, sightseeing and visiting the café where Lucy had worked at Easter. 

July was a busy month, which started with Fee's cousin's wedding up in Scotland - a lovely weekend spent catching up with family and celebrating with the happy couple. We were then treated to the most amazing production of Les Misérables at Adam's school. Adam played the role of Javert and made us very proud!

 

Adam also had his end of year 11 prom. Lucy didn't have a year 13 prom but enjoyed some nights out with her friends to celebrate the end of her school days!

July was quite a momentous month for Fee, as she left the school she had been teaching at for 18 years, after successfully obtaining a job at a middle school to teach French. It was an emotional last day but definitely the right time to move on.

Fee and Bri celebrated the start of the summer holidays with one of Fee's 50th birthday presents, a gin workshop, where we made our own gin and tasted a few too many samples! Fee also had the amazing experience of singing with her choir in Covent Garden. Despite the rain, there were big crowds and it was great fun.

In August, we celebrated the kids' A level and GCSE results with a holiday of a lifetime: a cruise around Japan and South Korea.

Those of you on Facebook will probably have seen all the photos and read all about our amazing experiences, the highlights of which were Mt Fuji, a ride on the bullet train, the amazing food, the contrast of old and new in Tokyo, the Gamcheon cultural village in Busan and being served our dinner by a cat robot! It truly was an amazing trip and one we will never forget.

As soon as we got back home, Fee started her new job (which so far is going well, although has been a very steep learning curve) and Adam started his A levels. He's still at the same school and is studying Computer Science, Film Studies and Creative Digital Media.

Lucy is taking a gap year before studying Psychology at UEA in Norwich. She is currently working at a cafe/bar in town, which she is loving, despite the odd awkward customer.

Brian is getting his teeth into some new projects for Fujitsu and is now going back into the office a bit more. 

Other Autumn highlights included a day at the Canoe World Slalom championships and several weekends away for Brian, canoeing and ongoing training for Midshires Search and Rescue. He has now qualified as a team leader and is helping to train new Search and Rescue technicians.  Adam has started a part time job at Halfords and Fee has been singing at lots of local Christmas events, including bringing some much needed Christmas cheer to the elderly patients in Bedford Hospital.    

We hope you are all well and looking forward to eating lots of mince pies and chocolate!  Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year 2024!

Review of 2022

Well, we can't believe it's already mid December...where has this year gone? After 2 quieter years, this year seems to have been pretty full on!                                                                                                             
January was fairly quiet, although Fee joined a newly formed choir in Biggleswade called 'Somewhere 2 Sing', which she is thoroughly enjoying.  

February saw our canoe club's 40th anniversary dinner and dance, which Fee had been busy organising since Christmas. It was a great evening, with nearly 80 members and ex club members attending. Adam and his friends also managed a trip to Wembley to see rapper KSI. Unfortunately, as they were under 16, they had to be accompanied by an adult so Adam had nominated Brian to take them (who was secretly quite chuffed that he'd been considered the only dad cool enough to go!)

In March, Lucy passed her driving test and both kids were busy with drama performances: the first was a new play called 'Chatback' which they performed at the Royal and Derngate theatre in Northampton for the National Youth Theatre festival. Their second was a fantastic performance of Blood Brothers. Brian spent 4 days in North Wales for a Swift Water Rescue course, to help with his Search and Rescue work. He is still enjoying volunteering with Mid Shires Search and Rescue and it certainly keeps him busy! In between all that, Bri, Fee and Lucy all caught Covid (Adam escaped this time, having had it last year) but fortunately we weren't hit too badly with it. 

In April we finally got to go on our cancelled ski trip from 2 years ago. It was an amazing holiday and so much fun, made even better by lots of free activities at the top of each mountain such as trampolining, face painting, graffiti walls, ice mazes and skim boarding!

In May, Adam completed his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition and we all spent a hilarious day in London, taking part in a 'Faulty Towers' dining experience for Brian's birthday. The actors were amazing and we didn't stop laughing from the moment we arrived until the end. Basil insulted several guests, Sybil sang a special birthday song to Brian, but Manuel was the funniest - 'serving' us nibbles with a tennis racket, spoon feeding Adam his vegetables and combing Fee's hair with a fork!

In June we celebrated the Queen's Platinum Jubilee by watching the Beacon lighting in town and having drinks with the neighbours in the street.

In July, Adam took part in his school show: 'A night at the musicals', which was fantastic. Fee also got a chance to perform as her choir put on 2 concerts in a local concert hall. The culmination of Adam's cricket season this year involved a nail-biting match in which Adam's team were 1 run behind with 1 ball left to be bowled. Luckily, they scored 4 runs off the last ball to win!  July also marked the start of university open days for Lucy, with visits to Warwick and Lincoln (the latter scoring highly in Lucy's ratings) to look at their Psychology courses.

August was lots of fun: we had a lovely relaxing holiday in France - on a campsite about an hour south of Bordeaux, on the Atlantic Coast. After a busy end of term, we did very little apart from reading, swimming, having fun on the waterslides, BBQing, eating, drinking and sleeping!

We also spent a day in Paris on the way home. Adam then went off to Explorer Camp in Oxford, Lucy went to stay with Grandma, and Fee and Bri went white water canoeing in North Wales for a weekend. Fee's still not sure about white water paddling (having not done it for 20 years) but the scenery was beautiful and it was a fun weekend with good friends from the canoe club.

In September, Adam started in year 11 and Lucy went into her final year of sixth form (GCSES and A levels for them next summer). No sooner than we had settled back into term again, Lucy turned 18. We celebrated as a family with a trip to see 'Dear Evan Hansen' in the West End, and Lucy had a night out in Cambridge with her friends, eating, drinking and singing karaoke!  

We also attended more Uni open days, including Portsmouth, Nottingham, Chichester and Worcester. As well as being keen to find out about the courses on offer and what the accommodation was like, we became curious to find out which places provided the best coffee. Free tea and coffee seemed to be a trend, but Chichester Uni went above and beyond, offering all visitors free waffles as well!

In October, Fee and Bri spent a lovely weekend with some of Fee's University friends in York, to celebrate 30 years since they had started there in 1992! We then had a visit from Fee's brother and family and spent a fascinating day at Bletchley Park, learning all about the code breaking that went on there during the war. We also went pumpkin picking, and who knew that a simple wheelbarrow could provide so much entertainment for the boys!  

November was a reasonably quiet month, although we had a visit from Fee's mum, who took us out for a delicious Sunday lunch as an early birthday celebration for Fee's upcoming 'big' birthday. We also visited UEA in Norwich, which Lucy loved. She has now submitted her UCAS form and has applied to study Psychology starting in September 2024, as she is planning on having a gap year to do some working and travelling.

And here we are in December. The first 10 days of this month have been incredibly busy, starting with the kids' murder mystery play (in which Lucy's character turned out to be the murderer, stabbing someone with a Christmas candy cane!) The following day, Fee had the amazing opportunity of singing in a Christmas concert in St Alban's cathedral with her choir. It was truly magical and something she'll never forget. The weekend ended with a house full of Fee's friends, celebrating her 50th birthday with an afternoon tea party. Unfortunately she had to work on her actual birthday but Bri and
the kids spoilt her in the evening with birthday cake and a lovely dinner.  Brian has been away this weekend, canoeing and walking in Devon. Despite temperatures below freezing, he seems to have had a great time!

Earlier this week, we were treated to some amazing singing, dancing and acting in Adam's school pantomime. Adam played the part of the dame's cat and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Fortunately, things are a little calmer between now and Christmas so we have a bit of time to finish Christmas shopping and get ready for the big day. Both Fee and Bri's mums are joining us for Christmas day and we're hoping to meet up with the rest of both sides of the family after Christmas.

We hope you all have a lovely festive season and hope to catch up with more of you next year :)

Lots of love from

Fee, Bri, Lucy and Adam. xxx

Review of 2021

Well, here we are almost at the end of 2021, learning to live with Covid-19 and slowly beginning to resume some of the things we used to take for granted pre-Covid. It's not been the most exciting of years, but we've still managed to have some fun moments.

January started with a bit of a shock, as schools were suddenly given less than 24 hours notice that the children would not be returning the following day and we would be back to online learning. Adam was quite happy about this, although Lucy was sad not to be going back to see her friends. Fee still had to go in to teach the keyworker and vulnerable children, as well as setting and marking online learning for the rest of the class but, not having had the vaccine at this point, was quite relieved to be teaching a smaller, socially distanced class.  Brian was still working from home, as he had been since the beginning of the pandemic.

February and March were obviously quite uneventful. Adam celebrated his 14th birthday in lockdown and, shortly afterwards, he and Lucy returned to school. 

April arrived and, during the Easter holidays, we finally managed to catch up with Fee's side of the family to celebrate Christmas and exchange presents. We had a lovely day at a country park near Newbury and thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas dinner of sausage sandwiches!

After Easter, Fee took on a new role at school, going back to being a class teacher again, as the year 3 teacher had left . She thoroughly enjoyed it as a short term role, but one term of 55-60 hour weeks as well as keeping on top of the housework and family stuff was enough for now!

With GCSEs being cancelled, Lucy got stuck into her forty something assessments (to give the teachers enough evidence to give them teacher assessed grades) and, at the end of May, had her last day of school. As her end of year prom had been cancelled, they were allowed to dress up for their last day.

Also in May, Lucy managed to finally complete her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition (which she almost admitted to enjoying!)  then decided to get her hair cut and donate it to the Little Princess Trust to make into wigs for cancer sufferers.

We celebrated Brian's birthday (and the first day of being allowed to eat inside at pubs and restaurants) with a meal at a local pub. It was so nice to be able to do something normal again, despite the large plastic screens between tables. Another return to normality came with the cricket season, and it was amazing to be back watching Adam and his team play matches again.

June passed by pretty quickly, and soon it was the summer holidays. Fee, Bri and Adam went to see the 'Hundred' cricket at Lords. We watched the ladies' match in the morning, before the heavens opened, forcing the cancellation of the mens' match in the afternoon. Still, at least we got to see a bit of play! July also saw our first canoe polo tournament in over a year. It was a perfect day for being out on a lake, with temperatures of 28 degrees C. We even persuaded Adam to give it a go.

With foreign travel still very difficult, and requiring quarantining on arrival back in the UK, we booked a caravan in Hastings for a week. The weather wasn't exactly what you'd call 'glorious sunshine' but we only had one day of rain, so were able to get out and visit some places such as Battle, where the battle of Hastings took place, and a crime museum. We rode in the clifftop funicular, went for a few bike rides and ate fish and chips on the beach (although sadly, we couldn't go in the sea due to a sewage leak!)   In August we celebrated Lucy's fantastic GCSE results and also spent a nice few days in Bristol.

In September, Fee got a new job (in the same school) as joint English subject lead.  She is enjoying the new challenges of the role as well as still teaching French and music across the school for 2 and a half days a week.

Adam started his GCSE courses, having picked Computer Science, Music, French and History for his options. And Lucy started her A levels at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge  - studying French, Media Studies and Psychology. She found it a bit of a shock to the system at first, with long days and numerous train cancellations. However, she has now settled into it and is enjoying being a bit more independent. Shortly after starting back at school, we celebrated Lucy's 17th birthday, which of course meant she could learn to drive. She seems to be enjoying her lessons and - apart from breaking down the first time Fee took her out to practise - she's doing well.

November seemed to be focused on Adam's scouting activities. He decided to apply for the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in South Korea and made it through to the selection weekend. Unfortunately, he didn't make the final cut but had a great weekend and it was all good life experience!  The following weekend he had a survival camp, sleeping in home-made shelters in temperatures of -1 degrees C, 40 mph winds and sleet. Not my idea of fun but he seemed to enjoy it!

In other news, Brian is still volunteering for Mid Shires Search and Rescue and has been out on numerous searches this year. He's also still running and has entered a couple of races this Autumn. Lucy is still coaching gymnastics (but now getting paid for it) and Adam has started helping out at Beavers for part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. He's also taken up Parkour which is definitely keeping him fit!

We've just enjoyed a fantastic trip to London for Fee's birthday, to see the musical 'Come from Away' and we went to watch Adam's school pantomime last week. We're off to Bristol over Christmas and will be catching up with Brian's side of the family too.

Hope you are all keeping safe and well, and have a lovely festive season.

Love and best wishes from

Fee, Bri, Lucy and Adam. xxxx  

Review of 2020

Well, 2020 has been a strange and very different year for all of us. As we sit here writing this, we feel very fortunate that, unlike some, we have not been affected too badly by the pandemic and are still fit and healthy. When we look back at some of the things we have done this year, we realise that a lot of these things would never have happened, had it not been for Covid-19. Although a lot of our plans such as holidays, the kids' annual theatre show and Adam's middle school leavers events were cancelled, we have still managed to make some positive memories this year. 

During February half term (before Coronavirus struck) we had a lovely few days in Bristol, celebrating Fee's mum's 75th birthday. 

On Mothers day we went for a lovely walk at the Swiss Garden near Biggleswade, to see all the daffodils in bloom.

In March, Brian's mum celebrated her 80th birthday. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to visit her so, instead, the kids made a birthday banner and we waved it for her as she stood on her balcony.

We got into quite a lockdown routine, with the weekly clapping for carers and virtual pub quizzes, as well as home-learning for the kids (which was a bit of a struggle at times) and our daily walks.

After 2 months of lockdown, Adam

desperately needed a haircut (didn't we all?!),
and Lucy was quick to volunteer. She actually did quite a good job!

For the 75th anniversary of VE day, we had

a socially distanced tea party in our front gardens

with all our lovely neighbours.

We also entered the 'World Backyard rolling Championship' (doing eskimo rolls in our kayaks on dry land, in the garden). Unfortunately, we didn't make the medals but had lots of fun giving it a go!

Once outdoor sports were allowed 

again, Lucy and Fee took advantage
of the beautiful sunny weather and
went kayaking.

Fee joined Gareth Malone's 'Great British Home Chorus' and, along with hundreds of the other choir members, now features on a CD which made it to number 1 in the classical charts.

In the summer holidays, we had a lovely weekend with Fee's Auntie Isobel, in Dunbar, Scotland, followed by a few days in a static caravan in Blackpool. The weather wasn't great so we ended up playing lots of Uno in the caravan but we managed to get out and see the Blackpool tower, eat fish and chips, and go for a couple of cycle rides.

We also had a lovely week with Fee's mum in Bristol, and Adam also got to finally experience part of his birthday present (Wakeboarding) at a local outdoor watersports centre.

September saw Adam starting Upper School,
which he seems to be enjoying so far.

It was also

Lucy's 16th birthday. 

She wasn't able to have a big party, 

but fortunately, meals out with up to

6 people from different households 
were allowed, so she and a few of 
her friends went out to a local 
pizza restaurant for the evening.

In October, we finally got to catch up with Fee's brother and family (we hadn't managed to see them when we went to Bristol in the summer as they had been to France and therefore had to quarantine for 14 days).

Since March, Brian has been working from home, with just the occasional day in the office. He's been out on several Search and Rescue missions (which have obviously still been going ahead, despite Covid) and has continued with his running.  Fee was working on a rota system during the first lockdown, going into school to look after the keyworker children, and working from home setting work, phoning families etc the other days. She went back for the last 2 weeks of the summer term, teaching a bubble of eight year 1 children and, since September, has been back to work as normal (well, the new normal anyway).  The kids have carried on with the majority of their activities online; we've had Scouts challenges galore and they even performed and recorded an online murder mystery play with their drama group.

Fee's mum is coming to stay for Christmas, and we're hoping to see Brian's older brother and his family too, but it doesn't look like we'll see many other people this festive season. Let's hope that we'll be able to make up for it next Christmas.

We hope you all manage to enjoy your Christmas, despite the restrictions, and we wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.

Lots of love from us all. xxx