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Christmas '99 Newsletter

Dear Friends and family,

Here is another Christmas letter to add to your collection! This year seems to have gone even faster than last year; it is hard to believe that Christmas will soon be upon us. We hope that you all have an enjoyable Christmas and a happy New Year.

Margaret passed her driving test in March, after a mere 40 lessons (never mind the cost). She graduated from teaching 4 years of seminary and made a wedding dress for a beautiful Irish girl. It was the most relaxed wedding she had ever been to and the whole day was very special, finishing with dancing until midnight with all of the bride's family, including 8 brothers and sisters. Tony was amazed that the bodice to the dress was made in 7 sections, with each section having 4 layers - this made a total of 28 pieces. In spite of its complexity Margaret really enjoyed making the dress, which was a very special experience for her - seeing the bride in her dress on the day was really lovely.

Tony had 8 months working in Maidstone, this involved a three days a week commute around a good portion of London's M25 orbital motorway. He averaged 12 hours away from home with a 2 hour drive in the morning and a 90 minute return trip. It was not funny the one day that it took 4 hours to get there. It was a great relief to finish the assignment and be free from the stress of driving along such a busy route.

At the beginning of July, we had a number of complications to the start of our summer holiday. This managed to coincide with a family wedding in Folkestone and Margaret organising the summer fete at Eleanor's school. While Margaret and Tony drove down to the wedding in Folkestone the Jest family troop and Kirstine manned most of the stalls. Julian looked after the bouncy castle. Harry helped set up the ride on miniature steam engine track, then once the fete started he ran the Badge machine (nobody else could manage to operate it). Kirstine ran the teas and sandwiches stall Oliver was on lollipops in the sand. Between them they also ran various bean bag throwing games with Eleanor to help. After the wedding, Tony drove back from Folkestone to Reading to pack the car and return to Folkestone with the Children. Following an overnight stay there we caught the 8am ferry for France. People probably wondered what we were doing repacking our car in a supermarket car park on the outskirts of Calais - Tony's hasty packing of the day before needed to be reorganised.

Margaret's first experience of driving on French motorways meant that Tony could sit back, relax and enjoy the journey (with crossed fingers). Tony's brother had found a good Internet deal for a late booking of an inclusive ferry and caravan holiday in Brittany. We had not been there before but had always kept it in our minds as a nice destination. We had heard that it was very similar to Cornwall. Well, this turned out to be true, even down to the place names - we stayed ½ a mile away from Kerleven beach, which sounds as Cornish a name as ever you could imagine.

On our return the children had a few days back at school, then the pace really began to hot up. Our Italian friend's son Davide arrived for a month's intensive course on how English families argue amongst themselves. He was intrigued that our boys could hit each other without getting into trouble with their parents. The thing is that such matters do tend to go unnoticed two floors up in our home. This is not so in his central Milan flat where two bedrooms and no lounge accommodate a family of five.

A drive to Northampton for a family baby's blessing was followed by Margaret driving Tony, Julian, Harry and Davide down to the Church young men's week long camp. After the camp we got up early in the morning of Tuesday 11th August, this was to miss the expected traffic jams on the way to see the total eclipse of the sun in Cornwall. We stationed ourselves on our friend's farm near to Lands End; this was on the centre of the track of totality. There was an amazing carnival feeling to the whole event. You could see the hill tops all around covered with the tiny figures of people massed together. The eclipse was totally different to a sunset because the sky got slowly gloomier and gloomier, although it was still light on the horizon either side of the track of the eclipse. Finally you could actually see the darkness of the eclipse rushing towards us from the direction of the Scilly Islands. When it got to us there was an eerie silence and stillness, the air got noticeably colder but there was no lengthening of shadows. This all confused the cows, who started to come in to be milked and lots of birds who settled down on the telephone lines. We had expected to be quite disappointed because the sky was overcast so that we didn't actually get to see the moon covering the sun. Despite this it was still very much an experience of a lifetime - we were all very glad to have gone. We did get to see about a third of the sun covered up when the clouds thinned for a brief period.

The weekend after this Tony and Margaret went to London for a prearranged birthday treat by the older children who looked after the younger ones in Reading. We had the benefit of Kelly and Tim's new flat in Fulham. The weekend finished with a concert picnic in Kensington Gardens. Food was furnished courtesy of Kirstine (enough to feed us for the whole weekend). The following weekend was Margaret's opportunity to organise a fish and chip wedding reception at Reading Chapel. A great many willing youth were helped by adults who speedily dished up and served the meal, making sure that it arrived on the table piping hot. The following week (Davide having gone home) we had a bank holiday weekend camping with the extended Jest family.

The children went back to school after this, but there were still two more holidays to come. First Margaret accompanied Kirstine on an 18 to 30's (who is she kidding) minibus youth hostelling tour of southern Ireland. Margaret enjoyed this so much that she organised a similar holiday for her sister and husband when they came over from America in November. This time Tony came and chauffeured a hired car for the four of us, we followed the same route but stayed in bed and breakfast accommodation. Ireland is a beautiful country, the people are very friendly and a visit there is highly recommended. With our holidays finally over it seems that Christmas should be another couple of months away, instead of less than a month.

Eleanor (7½) has been attending an infant only school for the past two years. Finding a new school for her was difficult. Two schools turned us down which meant applying to a school out of town; this would have meant a long journey on the bus for Margaret or necessitated another car. You can imagine our surprise and delight when Margaret received a totally unexpected phone call from the headmistress of a local Church of England school that we had not even applied to. Being a church school it is so popular that she would not normally have got a place. However, a child moving away from the school freed up a place after the normal end of the admissions period. In the past these two schools have been historically linked and every year a few children move from the infant to the Junior school. When the headmistress of the Junior school phoned the Infants school it just so happened that Eleanor was the only child without a new school to go to, so she was offered the place. She was very excited to renew her special friendship with two Danish friends when the family visited us this summer. They had a wonderful time organising a secret girl's club.

Oliver(almost 11) is still practically perfect in every way (outside of the home and away from his aggravating older brothers whom he is actually beginning to learn to ignore). He also participates in his school football team - he is their goalkeeper. He continues to tower head and shoulders over his school and church friends but still has a young face so he does not look particularly older than them, only bigger. He has gone up into scouts and enjoyed going on a mini expedition with a group of scouts recently. They hiked along the Kennet and Avon canal and caught a train back to a friends home. There they cooked dinner over an open fire and slept in tents on the lawn in the back garden. When he walks around at church with two of his rather serious friends, one of their dad's laughs and calls them the "undertakers".

Harry(13) took a rowing course on the Thames in the summer. He wanted to do this so much that he missed going to see the eclipse with us. He regularly plays on his school rugby team, but unfortunately on his first match ended up with a magnificent black eye that had to be x rayed and excluded him from the next two matches. To his delight he had the "train track" style wiring on his teeth removed ahead of schedule. This revealed an almost perfectly aligned set of teeth - we have a "before" photo to remind us of the big difference. Harry and his possessions have a great difficulty in staying together, acting rather like magnetic poles pushing each other apart. The suggestion of a string to keep his train season ticket attached to his blazer was initially rejected as a ridiculous idea. After losing it a number of times last year he quietly took up the idea. Harry has been called as Deacon's quorum President.

Julian(15) is working hard at school, starting his first year of study to prepare for GCSE exams he will take in a year and a half's time. He has begun taking early morning seminary lessons that are now being taught at the Reading chapel. We made a deal with him that he would cycle there for half the year and we will drive him the rest. The advantage to him is that he gets to choose which days he cycles, so he is saving up the driving days for when the bad weather starts. He continues to grow up but not across, is now 6'1", and says "I used to think that you were tall Daddy, but you don't look so tall any more". Julian continues to enjoy a full church social life, with regular youth dances and plenty of opportunity to mix with friends around the stake. He enjoys his calling as Teacher's Quorum President. Both boys take their responsibilities seriously.

Blue the pedigree Burman pointer cat became an unwanted guest at the home of one of the children Margaret child minds (Jack was due to get a new baby brother). Much to Blue's disgust he moved in with us. Sarah our resident cat has been most unwelcoming, the two of them maintain a healthy distance from each other. However, the element of competition that Blue's arrival has introduced has been excellent for Sarah - she has lost most of her irritating indecisiveness at coming into the house and eating food. It has not been such a good experience for Blue though: he has a permanently cross tail. Somehow he often arranges alternative accommodation for himself for a few nights each week. He returns to lounge in front of our fire smelling strongly of cigarette smoke but with no shame or remorse at having gone absent without leave. Instead he has an attitude of couldn't care less. Eleanor and Margaret both adore him, they think that he is a fabulous character, with his air of grandeur and his ability to find very unusual places to lie in around the house. Tony would be quite happy if only he would purr.

Sam came home from his year's working holiday in Australia to a big family welcome at Heathrow airport and a family dinner. This experience has helped him to mature. His concern for our water bills and a willingness to pay housekeeping (no money has changed hands yet) shows how much he has changed. Sam is currently living at home and working in Reading. His Australian girlfriend is soon to leave hot and sunny Perth, to come to cold and wintry England (of course it's nothing to do with Sam being here). When Sam first came back from Australia he got a job in London but soon realised that he could not set himself up in a flat there. So, he decided to live at home and work in Reading until he is more financially secure. He is now talking about going to live in Brighton for the summer.

Kirstine, after staying in London with Kelly and Tim has come back to Reading to live. She so impressed her employers at her part time job that they have changed her hours to a full time contract and paid for her to convert her degree course to the Open University. She has moved into a two bedroom flat with a friend, this is just two streets away from us. Kirstine also enjoyed her Irish holiday and plans to return on a four day celebration ending in Galway and an Atlantic swim on New Year's day.

Damion's temping job finally finished. He now works for the Independent newspaper in London. He has a nice flat near the Docklands area that he shares with some church friends. He has also applied to Oxford University to start a teacher training course next year; this will depend on how well he enjoys his new job. He was called to the Hyde Park Stake High Council and enjoys the challenges that this calling presents and travelling round the stake. A new tent for his birthday meant the opportunity to take a welcome break from London with girlfriend Becky and church friends.

Kelly is now working at St. Thomas's hospital, progressing in her career as a speech therapist. She and Tim are now homeowners, having bought a flat in Fulham that is 10 minutes walk from the river Thames. Their most exciting news however, is that Kelly is expecting to make Margaret a grandmother at the end of May. Since their flat is very small this has rather accelerated their plans of a steady progression up the housing ladder. They are looking into moving a little way out of London where their money will buy them enough space for a pram and cot. Tim is still enjoying work as an estate agent letting flats in central London. He is probably more excited than Kelly at the prospect of being a parent.

If you can visit Tony's website you will find a page of photographs of all of us in and around our house - you get to see every room. Tony managed to borrow a digital camera for a couple of evenings. There are also lots of photographs from this year's Young Men's summer camp, you can see for yourself the things that they do.