Generations

With Christmas around the corner, and being lucky enough to have our family here with us,  the warm fuzzy feeling really is in full swing!  I have been sitting on these photos since our trip home in October, and thought that now would be the perfect time to share them 🙂

As readers of this blog will know, I am a BIG family man.  Families rule.  I am always a little bewildered when, especially at this time of year, people I know are looking forward to a bit of time to themselves.  I am the complete opposite.  I am definitely my mother’s child.  My idea of the Perfect Christmas is having all my nearest and dearest under one roof, getting merry and sharing the good times – if there is the possibility of a few dogs knocking around as well then that’s an even bigger bonus.

And I am even more lucky that we have so many generations in the family.  You all know about this little guy, Ryan.  He is my 5 year old nephew who is growing up at a rate of knots, and I hear the uncles and aunties of my childhood whenever I see him: “haven’t you grown,” “you’re SO big!”…but then that’s just part of getting old I guess.

And we love coming home and playing with him…especially on the trampoline.

But as well as the young, we are blessed with the old, and when we went home last Sian and I made a point of heading over to my wonderful Granny and Grandad’s house in Clacton, Essex.  We always love seeing them, but in recent years time has started to take its toll on them.  Grandad, who was so sharp and witty, is slowly losing his short term memory, and Granny, who is a soldier and bastion of survival is getting weak in the knees and a little less mobile.  But they are still here. Still smiling. Still happy. And we love them ever so much.

This is my little brother, Thaddaeus, or Teggy, showing G and G our wedding pictures.  Unfortunately, they were not able to join us last year for big bash, and this was the first chance we had to share the day with them.

With Grandad’s memory fading, he is always looking at the photos on the mantel to keep track of who’s who.  I love the expression on his face in this shot – he had just told Teggy that he recognised our sister, Felicity, in one of the photos, and was so pleased that he could remember her name.

And who couldn’t love this shot of my granny?  When I was growing up, Granny told us quite a bit about the war, Grandad not so much…but the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made are things that I thankfully have never had to and hopefully never will.  It was a ghastly time, and the country pulled together in a way that seems alien now…yet they are both still able to laugh and joke, and that just makes me love them more.

And they have some differences at times, but my dear old mum loves them too.

Of course, being old, Granny thinks she has the license to come out with some outrageous comments and ideas…the most recent being that she thought the new wind farm off the coast was a terrible eye sore and that it had spoiled the view…I got a brief snap of it from the car window and have to disagree…

But then with everything they have been through, and everything they have seen, I only hope this is the only ‘atrocity’ our little nephew Ryan has to see throughout his life.  In the grand scheme of things, a field of graceful wind turbines ten miles off the coast are surely a lot prettier than a squadron of bombers…

Thanks for reading guys – the Christmas blog to come next! 😉

x

4 replies
  1. dadmick
    dadmick says:

    Great photos and thoughtful words.I agree with you regarding the wind turbines.I see them as graceful and elegant as well as a step away from our hopeless and dangerous reliance on oil.May the wind be with you this Christmas(if you see what I mean.

    Love

    Mick

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