The Culveys… Czeching In - Dec 2004
Ho, Ho, Ho……Merry Christmas!!!
The tree is up, presents everywhere, and I’ve only got one more day of work, so it must be time to say hi to you all. I think the last update was in the summer but not sure, it seems like a good place to start.
Our holiday this year was a week in Northern Italy at Lake Garda. We drove from Prague, in our new family (MPV) motor, which took about ten hours with regular ‘India stops’. We stayed in Simione on the southern shore for a couple of nights and then headed up the west side to Limone. It was a spectacular place and incredibly relaxing. India found her love for swimming, or bobbing to be more accurate. Tanya tagged along too and a good time was had by all.
The rest of the summer was spent at home with lots of sunshine and visitors! Abi came out for a week of chilling for her and her bump, Ly’s Dad & Jenny came for week, then Ly’s Mum, Dee, and Les.
We also met up with friends from Korea, Dana & Patrick, with their son Tristan who was born a couple of weeks after India. As Dana is from Prague it was great to spend time with someone who really know’s Prague, and of course it was great to see them and reminisce.
The summer also brought us some new neighbours, Ross, Jed, Stephanie, and Shane, moved in behind us from England. We got on straight away and many a BBQ was shared. The Cat Lovers Association of Pruhonice (CLAP) was also formed as they are cat crazy too, with two new kittens added to the neighbourhood shortly after they arrived.
Autumn brought a trip back to the UK for Nigel & Zoe’s wedding, this was India’s 1st and she made sure it was memorable by vomiting all over herself and me in the middle of the service! Lovely! Actually it really was lovely, and great to see everyone too.
The week also included a quick trip down to Wurzel land to see my Mum, Dad, & Co. It was a great quiet weekend which was just what we needed after the hectic rush around in Northampton.
A matter of a few weeks later and it was another mad dash back to Blighty and down to Sidmouth for Julia & Paul’s wedding reception, seeing the Devon mob was fab as we hadn’t seen some of them for years, it really was a flying visit which managed to include a trip to a donkey sanctuary, which India loved!, and an afternoon with my Ma n Pa, and Andrea & co.
Lyra’s Auntie & Uncle (Irene & Michael) followed us back for a week, which was the start of a long stream, some of them were extremely drunken affairs, and the rest just drunken!
October also took Lyra into hospital to have her Gall Bladder removed, to say the experience was a stressful one is an understatement, language difficulties were only the start of a really tough week, with a very sore recovery period, needless to say we will not be making use of Czech medical service again if we can help it! Lyra is fully recovered now and not missing her organ too much!
Alongside the trauma of Ly’s operation we had the news we had been waiting for since Feb, India’s shoulder was completely recovered and the physio could stop, this was a major relief to us all as the exercises had been quite a trauma for us all.
Next event was the arrival of the not so little Kiera (10.1 lbs ouch) for proud parents Abi & Mark, Lyra dashed over to ‘help’ and pass on her wisdom gained over the last 9 months! Kiera is completely gorgeous and already has more hair than India (not much of challenge though).
So into December and of course it was Tanya’s 30th Birthday Bash, the Fancy Dress Party was a blast with almost everyone donning ridiculous outfits and making it a brilliant party. As expected, it all got too much for Tan, and the floodgates opened as you can see below!!
Slightly more civilised though was Tanya’s birthday treat, a night at the ballet in Prague’s beautiful State Opera House, it was a complete surprise for her and I think it’s safe to say that she felt like Cinderella, which remarkably was the ballet we saw!
That pretty much brings us up to date, we are all but ready for Christmas, still waiting for the snow to arrive, tomorrow is our 3rd Wedding anniversary (seems like yesterday!), and Chris arrives for the weekend.
Our first Christmas with India is going to be wonderful, she may not know what it’s all about but she loves all the lights and is already proving that she can rip the paper off a present as well as anyone!! It’s sure to be a weekend to remember.
That only leaves us to say a very merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all…..
Which brings me nicely to an invitation to India’s 1st Birthday Party. It will be on Saturday 5th Feb in Northampton between 4pm & 6pm for the kids and something in the evening for us big folk.
Everyone is welcome, but can you please let us know if you can come as we need to get a feel for numbers.
Our contacts are of course:
lyraculverhouse@hotmail.com or sungbukdan@yahoo.com
Ly’s Mobile - +420 721 235 949
Dan’s Mobile - +420 724 008 211
Home - +420 267 751 459
Merry Christmas once again, Dan, Lyra, India, and of course Tanya too!