Family time

What a wonderful weekend I've just had!

I'm one of those people who's not the best at keeping in touch, especially with my family. This year though is an auspicious one for a favourit aunt and uncle of mine - 2008 sees her 65th, his 70th, and their 40th, if you follow me. So their kids felt, how could you let that go by without a surprise party? They organised an amazing bash of just such a secret nature, and people came from all over to converge on Yorkshire for the fun. (We made it with 30 seconds to spare, thanks to some slight trouble with lambing. But that's another story.)

It was so wonderful to see their faces when they were ushered into the village hall to see 90 of their nearest and dearest screaming "SURPRISE!" at the top of their lungs. A marvellous time was had by all; even Fred, whom professed to be bored most of the time, tried his first ever spring roll and was impressed. I got to have a whole weekend of catching up with my cousins, to whom I was very close when I was little. I stayed up chewing the fat and drinking calvados with my cousin Willie till 4am. Fred made friends with his second cousins. Kat and I made plans to come to Yorkshire regularly. And we discussed the fascinating business of our great-grandfather and our mysterious great-uncle.

I've come back feeling very warm.