Early in the run-up to Christmas, the Shans decamped to Center Parcs Ireland, to ensure we'd breeze through December in a groovy festive spirit! We had a wonderful time -- we've been to Center Parcs several times over the years, but this was my favourite trip yet, because Dante is now old enough to do more of the activities, so there was almost no dead time during our stay, and we were buzzing about from one fun event to another.

These photos were taken from early in our stay. As you can see from the first, it was chilly, but remained dry almost all the way through the holiday, which was a major bonus, as several of our activities were outdoors...

...but not ALL of them, as you can see from the second photo! We did this on our first night there, and it was way more fun that I'd expected. Basically, you could load up a variety of video games, which were projected onto the huge wall in a squash court, and each one involved hurling balls of all different sizes at the wall. We were all exhausted but delighted by the end of it!

In the third snap, Dante gets creative on the blackboard in our lodge -- it's there so that you can leave messages for the staff, but I'm not sure what message Dante was trying to send with this drawing -- maybe, "The aliens are coming!!!!"

The final photo is just a lovely little snap of my two mini monsters, Dante and Gaia. They drive me crazy sometimes, but when I look at a picture of them like this, my grumpy old heart just melts away inside me... *sniff*