What a day – still only the second time I've met Zoe in so many years, but somehow it felt really…normal.
Zoe & the boyfriend Alex came for lunch and dinner, interspersed with dog walking and lots of food making. This is definitely the way to go – kept them busy, made the day flow easily, no pressure points and even better, a chance for Mr H to feel he was showing her things as a Dad would.
Started slightly amusingly with lunch – turned out the boyf really doesn't like root veg soup – watching him trying to spoon the shallowest portions into his mouth was quite a handy icebreaker. And we're pretty sure they'd eaten on the way here so it was their second lunch as it was… Well who comes at 12.30 and doesn't think there will be food??
Post walk and golf ball hunt on the common we made mince pies with H's special Dora filling – Alex deemed these 'interesting' as we used puff pastry instead of the usual shortcrust – cue mini pie mountains in the oven.
And then the main event – fizz, beef wellington, posh potatoes (very amusing watching them trying to cut the hasselbacks into hedgehogs shapes, spuds balanced on chopsticks to supposedly stop them from cutting down through the potato base)..
Nicky & Jules joined us, to help the chat flow and provide extra team members for the games. Very nice that Zoe and Alex appeared with little Christmas presents and a bottle – the first time H has had that in over a decade. Really special.
And even managed to offload a spare Xmas jumper to Zoe, complete with lights, among other small bits..
All went super smoothly, lots of laughing, really amazing. H loved it.
Very much hoping it continues in that vein, as we head towards 2021 and hopefully easier times all round.
x