What a cliffhanger! Our big relocation news – and then – the sound of silence. Did I plan the dramatic pause? Not quite, and I have been wondering why I haven’t been so active here lately (read, feeling low-level disappointed in myself for not writing more frequently) and then as I scrolled through my photos from the past few weeks, I realised why the blog and Instagram updates have taken a bit of a hit.
Reader, it’s been busy.
We started the year with a bang and a broken elbow, the first broken bone in a decade of parenting and five children which I count as something of a personal success, although I’m not sure how funny the emergency doctor found that.
Elsa was so brave about it that after an initial X-ray indicating nothing broken, she waited another week only semi-complaining about pain before we returned for another X-ray that, yes, this time could see a fracture.

What next? A massive snowfall, whilst mr tMatM was away, naturally:


We had a birthday, and the obligatory mum-cake. Elsa has been busy watching a lot of Junior Bake-Off, so the stakes were high this year and in a last minute attempt to impress a less easily-impressed-these-days eight year old, I carved out the middle of the cake and filled it with M&Ms as a surprise, and it may have saved the day. I can live another year with some level of baking prowess in my daughters eyes – I’ll take that.

We took a quick trip to Whistler for a long weekend, for a final bit of snow – and had all the children, bar Hugo do some cross country skiing:

And then – well then the house sale / move started to get a bit real, with some serious decluttering and packing and removals quotes and realtors and pictures and listings and visas, so many visas.
Someone started crawling (finally)

Also in a long line of “look-at-the-genetics”, my first and last born boys are pretty ridiculously alike so I can’t stop with the montage photos

And finally, in the whirlwind of the past month or so, Hugo turned one – a milestone that I can’t think about too hard –

And breathe! The children keep asking Alexa how many days until our move date, with a mix of excitement and nervousness in their voices. It’s coming up quickly now, so we have a lot to fit in before we leave. Mostly, of course, trying to stay out of Meghan and Harry’s path as they relentlessly follow us around the island.
How’s your 2020 going?
xxx tMatM
Exciting times indeed! And how cute are your kids?! My 2020 has been okay so far with a lovely weekend in the Peak District and a slap-up Michelin star dinner for Mr P’s birthday. We WERE hoping to book a holiday to Lake Como this year but need to get that pesky coronavirus out of the way first x