New Year in Largs

Happy New Year! We made excellent time on our drive through to Largs, Glasgow, for once, being very light on traffic. On arrival, I took Sean, Finn and Rowan along the rather wet and breezy prom to Nardini's for an ice-cream. Rowan likes the idea of "Nah-dinis" rather than the ice-cream itself. He gets excited when his brothers get excited and takes that excitement and repetition of ideas to new levels!

Back at the Wilsons' house, the other Wilsons arrived, Alison and David and their four children. Needless to say, there was bedlam in the vicinity of the children so we did our best to contain them to the playroom, watching TV, then fed them separately. Angus was pretty tired, having slept lightly in the car, so he was down at a normal time but getting the rest to bed, and staying there, proved more of a challenge. Our big three were in the ground floor playroom on our new camp beds. However, there was a rather large wicker moose head on the wall which, predictably, Rowan feared would come alive during the night. It was well after 10pm before they settled.

We, meanwhile, tucked into a fine roast lamb, Proseco and wine in the kitchen, exchanging unwanted presents in a dice game and having a food facts quiz. The company was good but we were flagging by the time the clock ticked over into 2011 so the bells were low key, followed by a fairly swift removal to bed, in anticipation of an early child-inspired start to New Years' Day.

I was very warm and asthmatic during the night (possibly a legacy of the cats occupying our room during the day) so Sharon took on the early start while I had a New Year lie-in, rising once the breakfast mayhem had played out downstairs. We were sharing a room with Angus but he has been sleeping reasonably well and late recently. It was Rowan who came to our door complaining of wet jammies. He is still wearing a night-time nappy which is occasionally dry but more often than not wet, so we are loathe to try him without one. Sometimes we forget and he gets up in the night himself but other times he wets the bed. These are the hurdles we still need to negotiate before we move on to the next set!

Later in the morning we finally got everyone dressed and coaxed out the door (Finn was especially recalcitrant) into the car to drive up the Haylie Brae and go for a short bracing walk across the hills to the viewpoint indicator. The wind was cutting but the views down the Firth of Clyde and over the islands were spectacular. David and I took a selection of children down the steep steps to Douglas Park where we rendezvoused with the cars for the drive back to the house.

Jane and Philip served up a roast capon with salad for lunch, much appreciated after the walk in the fresh air. Before we left I took the big three back to Nardini's for a final ice-cream, Sharon picking us up to begin the afternoon drive home. We had a very enjoyable New Year in Largs!