Christmas Letter

Where do the years go! When I recollect the year I realise that we seem to fit in a lot within a short time frame. Some of our adventures and happenings include: the Bristol trip, enjoying our Greek sailing holiday, the London trip, new animals, a wedding and visitors. I shall endevour to provide you with a brief resume of the year and if you require further details, you will have to visit the rest of "Latest News", which covers all aspects of the year 2008, in more depth.

The year started with an early Christmas Party - where friends and neighbours spent an evening with us a few days before Christmas.

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Christmas involved my sister Beverley coming over from the U.K. where they were joined at the Christmas table by Jacinta, Nicky, Reece and Annie. Presents this year included a guitar for me, clothes and an exercise bike and rowing machine for Melly and a digital camera, electric guitar and MP3 player for Sorcha. The family also received a new computer from the family fund.

In March we flew to Bristol to meet up with relatives that we hadn't seen for some time. While we were there, we met up with Beverley & Ffion and Colin, Chris, Michael & Holly. We also took advantage of visiting Bristol Zoo.

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During late March I visited my boat Saracen in Nidri, Greece and undertook some jobs in order to get it ready for the Summer. In April we had a visit from Francesca, Michael, Teresa and Tom (sadly it was to be the last time that we saw Tom, as he died in November). In late April five ducklings that we were rearing got taken away by a pine marten. A couple of weeks later we caught the pine marten. Late April, May and early June were really warm with clear, blue skies. Unfortunately, it seems to have rain almost every day since. During this time we added to our animals and a couple of kid goats joined us. They eventually got the names: Podge and Rodge. We also obtained two geese and five ducklings. In late June, Gary, Pat, Tony & Janet came to visit us in their caravans. They missed the good weather by a week and got soaked almost every day.

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In early July, Derek and I went to Greece and sailed in Saracen for a couple of weeks. On the day he left I was joined by Imelda, Sorcha and Caitlin. A few days later Mum, Beverley and Ffion joined us. After a further 17 days the boat was packed up and we returned to Ireland.