Our 2016

January

January started as always with a post – Christmas family get together for Dave’s birthday. The only difference was that this year Marita was ill and Dave had to do all the cooking! Nevertheless everyone enjoyed the food and nobody went home with food poisoning.

2016 was the big year of babies in our family. Before we took home our own, we became aunt and uncle again when Debra, David’s sister gave birth to a boy, Austin on the 12th of January.

February

We had to get all of our flying done before Marita got too big, so our February started with a visit to Germany for Marita’s Dad’s Birthday. Eva, Marita’s sister was due a month before her, but you can already see whose baby would be bigger.

Taking the opportunity for a last holiday without children, we decided to visit Tenerife. The weather was mild for February and it was a welcome break. It was not as adventurous as our previous travels: we went to a resort and played bingo with the pensioners who lived there during the winter.

March

As part of his pre-baby bucket-list Dave wanted to run a half marathon. He trained hard for three months for the Reading half marathon and missed his ambitious target time by just 7 seconds. Nevertheless he was very happy with his time of 1:24:06

April

We have another niece to add to our growing collection! Eva’s sister gave birth to a baby girl; Adele, on the 6th of April.

May

The wait was finally over and we finally became a family of three. Sebastian Bernhard Petter Sinden was born on the 14th of May. Although 10 pretty uncomfortable days late, and Marita being in labour for three days, he was still definitely worth the wait. Marita begun her year of maternity leave and Dave had two weeks paternity leave. Life as we known it changed significantly from this point.

August

The whole family gathered for Bastian’s christening in August. He was wearing the same christening gown that Marita already wore 33 years previously. Marita’s whole family, including the baby Adele drove over from Germany.

Bastian is very lucky to be welcomed into such a big family.

September

September was a busy month for us. David’s sister Debra got married to Steve in an intimate ceremony in Essex.

Eva, her husband Stefan and Adele visited us for 2 weeks in England. As Adele is only a month older than Bastian it was nice for them (and the sisters) to spend some time together.

Bastian enjoyed getting to know his cousin.

We finished our September with our first family holiday to Crete. Marita’s sister Lisa came too and enjoyed getting to know her nephew.

December

We are back in Germany again. But this time with Bastian. He and his cousin Adele enjoyed their first Christmas together. We will be staying here until the 4th.