Happy Christmas from the Bartletts

Happy Christmas from Tom, Linda, Samuel and Eleanor Bartlett!

Our dear friends and family,

We wish you a blessed Christmas time and hope that it will be a time of faith, blessing, rest and recuperation and filled with joy from being with many of the ones you love.

Maybe the Bartlett blog is becoming a Christmas tradition. It feels like it is the best way to share much of our news and to give you the opportunity to see a few pictures of what we have been getting up to since last year. Let us know what you think via the blog (or otherwise). To see all of the blog you need to open the tabs on the right side of the blog and then you can go way back to Christmas 2009. We've tried not to make it too long.

To summarise news from each of us let's start with Tom. He is working as a career adviser for a private company, which receives contracts from Job Centre Plus. This involves helping unemployed adults with CVs, interview techniques and applications and is very rewarding. When Tom is not working or acting as the Bartlett children's taxi service he in actively involved in the men's prayer group at church and in writing. Take a look at Tom's blog to read some. http://www.tom-bartlett.blogspot.com/

Linda continues to work for the local council as an education consultant leading an excellent team. This is a service which is traded to schools and so with the current climate they are having to become more entrepreneurial. Her greatest passion outside work and family is her quilting and she has finished a number of projects this year. Maybe one day she will share them on a blog. One day she dreams of running a quilters retreat in her home, where people can find solace and relaxation from the pressures of modern life. She is curently recuperating after having had her gall bladder removed!

Samuel is in his GCSE year and need we say more! It is a hard balancing act with his football and social calendar! However, Samuel does have a goal as he has decided that he really wants to become a sports journalist. He seems to have a photographic memory of sporting trivia. He is currently captain of his football team. Most importantly, he is growing into an extremely kind and thoughtful young person.

Eleanor is in Year 9 and has a lovely group of friends from school. She has just finished scouting and is looking for the next hobby to take up. She takes a piano exam this week, but will teach herself after this. Eleanor is proving to be a capable cook and likes to be imaginative. She also enjoys babysitting and is looking for more work. Eleanor is kind and considerate, with a bubbly personality too.

Our faith continues to be the cornerstone of our lives, individually and as a family and we constantly hold you in our prayers. After God, you come first for us. Do always let us know what you would like us to pray for, for you. We are all on Facebook too.

Our prayer requests for us this year are that:

• the children will come to fully know the Lord and that they will make the personal decison to let Him lead their lives into adulthood;
• Samuel will revise well for his GCSEs and not become overwhelmed or worried;
• Eleanor will make good progress in school, especialy in maths and that she wil be a confident learner;
• Eleanor will find a new hobby to inspire her;
• Tom and Linda's jobs will remain secure in all the government cut-backs and that God will lead them forward with any new steps;
• we will remain strong as a family despite all the pressures on our time
• recovery for Linda
  

May God Bless you all richly,

Happy Christmas. Jesus was born for us all.

Starting with the leader of the family!

Molly continues to rule the roost in the Bartlett household. She keeps us on our toes. Seriously she is a little poppet and no trouble at all. Eleanor seems to take masses of pictures.

October visit to London for a day

This was an incredibly full on day for the three of us (Tom was in America visiting family and friends). We decided to be democratic to choose a venue each, Linda Fortnum and Masons, Eleanor Harrods, Samuel Oxford Street and all lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Linda's main choice was a new pair of FLAT boots!!!! Ouch!

In the evening Linda and Eleanor went over to visit Margaret. I felt so proud of my adopted "god daughter". She has created a lovely home.

October Shenley Woods

I imagine you have all had those days this year when you do something which should be quite ordinary and it turns out absolutely memorable. This was one of those occcasions when Linda and Eleanor took Molly for a simple walk in the woods and the sun shone, the leaves were a myriad of autumnal colours and we had real companionship taking photographs of nature in all her glory. Eleanor is really creative and lays on the ground for contorted angles!

October Debbie's visit to Woburn Abbey

After about 15 years Debbie came up from London to visit us. Linda nd Debbie have been friends since their early 20s!

It is always good to see "old" friends it proves the old adage that you can hook up with good friends after many years and it is as though you ahve never been apart.

Friends we have not seen for ages, we would love to!

October Fiona and Dennis' wedding

We had a lovely family day at the wedding. It was such a joyous event, with so much love and they were such a relaxed and comfortable bride and groom.

Eleanor loved snapping away with her camera and the fact that she was taller than her mother on the photographs!

September Nottingham marathon

This picture was snapped by Alex and Wendy, our friends living in Nottingham.

Tom and Andrew Betts ran the marathon in aid of Advantage Africa, a charity which Andrew and his wife, Jane, set up and run. They do marvellous work in East Africa. It was Andrew's first marathon.

If you would like to know more about their amazing work go to http://www.advantageafrica.org/

September Happy Birthday Samuel

Who would believe that Samuel is now 16. We always have a picture opening presents in the bedroom. It's a family tradition.

July 4th our sadness

This year has been really sad for us all, as we lost our dear friend Jack to cancer in October. He came with Gill and Casey to our July 4th barbecue for them. He was a great friend to us all and nothing was too much in helping his friends if they were in need.

This is the poem Tom wrote when he heard of his pasing away:

October Brings the Cold

What, really, do we know,

Of the shift from life to death;

With our childlike, searching guesswork

On the themes of that last breath?

When I'd heard that he'd departed,

Then the child within me spoke;

Asking questions, shouting answers,

Breathing fire, spewing smoke.

Then I knew I had to grow up,

So I left the house and walked

Down the path to that frail seashore

While the child and adult talked.

But those voices both were quietened

As I looked across the bay;

Contemplating - senses heightened -

There was nothing more to say.

Little breezes teased the surface,

And the ripples laughed and danced;

While the cloudlets hurried eastward

With the seagulls they'd romanced.

And the wavelets kissed the shoreline

Over stones that seemed to sway;

While the lighthouse pointed skyward,

From its home across the bay.

Are these the objects we call lifeless,

Like my friend, soon in his grave?

Or is each infused with life-force

From the memories we save?

July 4th with the Williams family

We visited Andy and Anne Williams and their 3 children in Molesworth on July 4th. It is wonderful that we have hooked up with Tom's second cousin living in the UK.

July Gullivers Land

We have really tried to make sure we see more of Linda's brother, Richard, Tonia and Freya. Here was a great day at Gullivers Land in Milton Keynes. You can look now Eleanor!

July Sacrewell Farm

Linda and Eleanor took the caravan to Sacrewell farm near Peterborough to give Freya her first stay in our caravan. it was possibly the hottest weekend of the year. Phew! The cousins had a lovely time together and Linda really enjoyed getting to know Freya better. They had a memorable sunny evening walk though a ripening cornfield with Freya skippig along as a "milkmaid"! Here are the girl eating corn ears.

Cheeky girls!

June Half Term in Mordiford on the River Wye.

We had a week in the Wye Valley with our caravan. It was close to idyllic, with mostly sunny days on the river in our kayaks and a day trip down river in a hired canoe. We had discovered something which all of the family enjoyed. One day we had a great visit from our friend John.

May Sam and Joan's visit

We love seeing Sam and Joan and their visit this year was very happy. Mary and Joan also came over earlier in the year, but we have no pics! We met Linda's parents in St Neots too, for their birthday celebration.

Oops forgot March 2010 our stay in Sandringham

Below with our friends the O'Briens and left with Linda's parents.

Please note the title is "in" and not "at" Sandringham!

We were in our caravan at the Camping and Caravan club!

It was a beautiful site, despite the electricity being in overload.

April 2010 Eleanor's 13th birthday party

Eleanor had a party at St. John's and invited a lot of friends from St. Pauls, her school. Parents survived and the young people were really fantastic fun to be with.

April 16th 2010 Professional Photos

Enjoy these professional photographs taken on Eleanor's 13th birthday. We all really had fun too. You'll see the family photo on the first post you read (last post!)

February 2010 Freya's 7th birthday

This is a favourite photo of Samuel and Eleanor with their English cousin Freya.

February 2010 The Black Mountains

We arrived in a snow storm and wondered if we would ever get to our rented cottage on a farm. An hour later and the road may have been impassable. River Cottage was all we could hope for, with a long burning stove, cosy decor, comfortable beds, a view of the snowy fields and stream and , yes, lots of quilts in our riverside barn conversion.

On our second day we were in bliss climbing the Black Mountain from different sides (girls vs boys), drinking by a fire in the pub and sledging down the hills on a piece of plastic sheeting.

Tom was in bliss in the bookshops in Hay on Wye. Getting back was a little more challenging in the snow but we were offered two tows by farmers! We decided we wanted to get back to the area later in the year.

Valentines 2010

We always have a lovely family celebration for Valentine's day, with lots of red and hearts! Maybe the children will grow up to be romantics. Our friend Lesley joined us this year.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 doesn't seem so far away. Times goes fast. We had a lovely Christmas with family and friends and I hope to be able to upload some photos now. We are creatures of habit and love Christmas Day with Linda's parents, brother, sister in law and neice. Like many families we dont deviate too much, or indeed at all, from our traditions. We just wish that Tom's family was there too.

Ah! Now I can't turn it around!

How about a picture of Linda and her brother...