Merry....

Well, the past week has been eventful!  We went off on our long-planned weekend trip to Norfolk, having made reservations to stay at a Centreparcs with friends.  I'm not entirely sure how to describe the place.  It's a lot like a holiday resort.  Self-catering cottages are sprinkled all around (there's also a hotel option).  There's LOTS of things for kids to do - it's designed for a kind of young-middle set, I'd say ages 5-12ish would get the most out of the experience.  Yet both teenagers and babies/toddlers are catered to as well.

The restaraunts, for example, have integrated play areas which is super cool when you have bouncy, explorer children who want to move.  There's a swimming pool with lots of different areas and levels of water slides, there's bowling and other sports, many different outdoor playgrounds and indoor ones as well, children/teenager clubs, and so on.  Sports like archery, clay pigeon shooting, waterskiing, and all that too.

We stayed in a two bedroom place adjacent to friends (4 families in total, plus one who visited for the day and stayed at another local place).  The place is set in the middle of Elveden Forest (there are also a few other Centreparcs around England) and although it's "holiday parky" it does a good job incorporating nature.

There was a loop trail just near our cabin - here the kids are taking turns on E's scooter.  I didn't get many pictures of our time there... mainly because C and I were sick when we arrived.  We spent most of the first day out of commission, recovering enough to swim that afternoon and participate in the Secret Santa our friends arranged.  Fortunately, E and B were well enough to spend the morning Doing Stuff, which included....

E attending a children's club and being Elf-ified.  He was so excited afterward that he temporarily forgot how to give a thumbs up.  He'd made/painted a sled, and "cooked" marshmallow cupcakes.

Meanwhile, C and I....

...yeah, we hung out in pyjamas eating apples and looking at the wildlife through the trees.  It also rained pretty heavily the first day there so it was kind of nice to stay indoors.

Another complicating factor to the whole thing is that our car has been on the fritz for awhile now.  Despite dropping a lot of money on trying to fix it, it still has a propensity to cut out at bad times and then refuse to start.  We thought it might be okay to drive the 70-odd miles north, but it turned out to be... difficult.  Broke down twice, the second time being pretty scary when it malfunctioned at 70mph on the freeway.  Fortunately it maintains steering and brakes, although not acceleration.... when we pulled over, C decided to be carsick.  That was a fun journey.

On the off-chance any SAAB enthusiasts read this blog, could they please let me know what to do to solve an on-board computer problem?  We paid to have the system rebooted but that hasn't fixed the problem.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to forget car stress because it's Christmas Eve.

Our kids went to bed looking like this (sans apples, obv.)....

...and they will wake up to this:

Merry Christmas 2012!  Aren't you glad the world didn't end?