Joan's birthday lunch

We had been a bit worried that we might not make it to Joan's birthday lunch after the snow fell and the roads in Sheffield largely closed down.  Sheffield is built on quite steep hills which the gritters and snow ploughs struggle with and our route into Sheffield is up and down one of those steep hills.  Joan's home is up another. It was looking a bit problematic on Saturday.

Fortunately council grit and salt, the sun plus the efforts of various members of the public meant that we could get to Sheffield today, even if it took much longer than usual.  Everyone else who was expected had also managed to get there. And so we got to Joan's home to find her, three of her children, their partners and some of their children there with a mighty spread of finger food ready to celebrate Joan's birthday.

Penny tells me that the staff say Joan has had a good few days over Christmas but unfortunately today wasn't a good day for her. I think she might have been a bit overwhelmed by all the people around her. The rest of us had a nice time, though.  It was good to catch up.  We haven't seen Tim for ages - he wasn't available when we had the cousins' lunch when Matt, Belinda, Sage and William were here in the summer. It was good to catch up with everyone else too.

Click here for Joan's birthday album

I don't have a photo of Joseph on the album.  But he was definitely there. He helped Joan open her birthday presents!