Family, innit

A grand annual event took place today - our family picnic. No, I don't mean just the four of us, since only allowing the children out for one picnic every year would be cruel - it was instead the annual gathering of my dad's side of the family, in which about 35 of us all descend on my aunt's house, bring our own picnics, and then the boys play football all afternoon until someone gets injured or they've all lost at least 2lb in sweat, whichever comes first. Cousin James was first blood this year, scalp wound, but apart from that everyone survived. We caught up with all the news - marriages, surgeries, bike crashes, trips to Glastonbury - it's been all go over the last year.

It's such lovely day every year, marred this year only by the loss of Husbandio's camera - it turned up in someone's car, where it had been put to keep it out of the rain under the misapprehension that it was someone else's camera. Still, we knew it had to be somewhere, since family doesn't pinch your stuff! Isabel had a great time, disappeared for hours on end exploring with my cousin's little boy who is a year older, and playing with the tortoises. Emily learnt a new word ("tortus!" she shouted with glee) and ate her own weight in cake, making her way through half a punnet of strawberries, a scone, a jaffa cake and two cup cakes during the course of the afternoon.

Only downside is the length of the drive, it's 100-odd miles each way - we ended up stopping in McD's for tea on the way home. It was the tudor effect McD's in Oxford, which I've driven past a million times and never been in before - disappointingly, it's significantly less Tudor on the inside than the outside. Hey ho.

So tonight I am feeling very thankful for a lovely friendly non-arguing family where we all love and support each other. Can't wait til next year!