Giving thanks A month ago today our daughter was born and she broke a massive smile this morning and my heart melted. I took today, Thanksgiving in the US, off and tomorrow we close the office so it is a four-day weekend and in one of Bermuda's more enduring moments the late November weather allowed the three of us to share breakfast outside on the patio this morning.

Our plans to come home in December before Christmas will have to be re-thought as in a more atypical Bermudian moment, the Registry Generals office lost all of Arabella's paperwork, thus meaning we had to refill in the forms (what colour is the baby being one of the questions) and submit again. They called the other day, with good reason as it turned out, to check the spelling of the names and hopefully we should receive the birth certificate next week and then it will be approximately a month before we get her passport back from Washington DC.

We had already planned Christmas here (we have ordered the tree) but really wanted to visit family and friends before then, but it will have to wait now until January. This at least gives us time to find a routine and to get her to hate a bit less her crib, car-seat and pram!

Last weekend we hosted a little party for Arabella which was lovely, tomorrow we hope to drive over to St George's for the afternoon and I'm cooking Thanksgiving lunch for friends on Saturday. No football to worry about of course as we cleverly avoided any stupid cup distractions! Good luck to Northwich mind, at home to Lincoln and Staines Town.  ¶ 23:10