UK Visit

We are now back in Tenerife after our wonderful visit home to the UK.  We are not yet however back on the ship - that will happen on Tuesday 19th January.  We are currently enjoying a weeks break down in the south of the Island and particularly enjoying the sun after what was a snowy, cold time in the UK.  It was all we could have hoped for and more.  Our kids especially dreamed of a white Christmas after 3 + years of constant sun in Africa and we got it and more besides.  Amidst treacherous driving conditions and many cancelled flights while we were home due to the snow, everytime we needed to travel it seemed a window of  opportunity opened up and we escaped the worst of the conditions without any hold ups or problems!We arrived in the UK very late on 20th Dec and spent a good night  near Gatwick and started on our journey up the country the next morning to start our family visits.  With a brief stop off in Sutton Coldfield at Andy's parents for lunch we moved on to Liverpool where we spent 9 days over Christmas.  Brenda's sister Heath, with husband Dave and 3 girls Victoria, Ellie & Zoe also arrived in Liverpool on 21st Dec after not being home to the UK for over 7 years.  We stayed in the home of Dick & Hilary who were away visiting their daughter in Cyprus.  What a gift that was to us - thank you Dick & Hilary.  We had a wonderful Christmas and Brenda particularly enjoyed cooking the Christmas dinner for 14.  Our 7 (Matt & Steve travelled to be with us), Heather & Dave and their 3 girls and also my sister Gill and Dad.

It was very special to be all together again as a family.
We made the most of every moment spent with my Dad (our first Christmas without Mum), with Gill and the rest of the family.
Our 5 kids enjoying Christmas dinner together.

Brenda pictured with her Dad.

 Brenda pictured with her sister Heather

Brenda's brother in law Dave, Dad and sister Gill.

 Andy's sister Jackie, brother in law Andrew and niece Catherine.

After Liverpool we started our journey North and spent New Years Eve with Arthur & Barbara our friends and long term crew from the Africa Mercy who left the ship last summer after 5 years of service.  Then it was on to Newcastle to enjoy time with our boys Matt & Steve.  We were so grateful to Phil & Lois our friends  and also former crew of the Africa Mercy who also loaned us their home while they were away visiting family.
From Newcastle we began our journey back down South and spent two lovely days in Sutton Coledfield with Andy's parents.  This included a lovely evening with friends and family in which we had opportunity to share a little more of our work with Mercy Ships.
Our final stop was 3 days in fleet at Andy's sister Laura's new home.  We enjoyed our time with Laura and Owen, James & Naomi and especially enjoyed an afternoon of sledging in the snow!