Sunday afternoon

Sunday afternoon, and another walk - boys really do need a huge amount of exercise.  Mine seem to anyway.  Otherwise they resort to wrestling in the middle of the living room floor.

Sunday was a lovely day, with clear skies and winter sunshine.

We walked along the seafront and did some scrambling about on rocks, which is one of their favourite things.  The tide was in, which we haven't seen for ages, so it was quite novel to see some little waves breaking over the rocks.

The temperature was maybe eight degrees.  And the water temperature, who knows?  Maybe ten degrees.  Certainly not warm enough for this...

Oh my.  Onlookers stood open-mouthed as this group of swimmers stripped and took the plunge.

You will note the woman on the beach in the coat and the woolly hat.  That was the appropriate thing to be wearing.  I imagine you feel quite amazing after a dip in water that cold, but honestly, I struggle to get into a heated indoor swimming pool unless it's about twenty-five degrees outside.

To the boys' delight, one of the swimmers climbed out on the slipway where they were stood.  I think they asked him if it was cold.  He certainly wasn't in for long.

The boys spent some time running away from the waves, just until their feet were well and truly soaked.  Then we walked up to the community bookshop.

I love the piles of books on the mantelpiece and the cosy alcoves and beanbags for the children.  It's easy to spend an hour there browsing.

Back at home we're doing all the happy post-Christmas things, like staying in pjs until lunch-time (mostly the littlest boy, he's very resistant to getting dressed and only really does it willingly when there's a persuasive reason to), making delicious things with leftovers, working our way through the gingerbread house and playing Christmas board games.  We had three this year.

The first one was a little confusing, but we quite enjoyed it in the end when we worked out how to work as a pack to stop a player from winning.  A little shouting was involved, but only of the excited kind.  So far no-one's tipped a board over.

The second game was given to the oldest boy who is an avid bird watcher.

There are twelve boards and sixty-four different birds to match, from all over the world.  It's really nicely made, and includes a booklet with information about each bird.  My favourite - the blue-footed booby.  How wonderful.

And finally, there've been hours of Monopoly.

I quite enjoyed it for the first few days, although I've got to the point where I can see the street names when I close my eyes.  But really, sitting in a lovely warm home with my three favourite people, watching them have fun.  There is nowhere I'd rather be.

Hope you are enjoying these slow post-Christmas days too.