It's our 1st anniversary of life in Calvados

Well, we've made it through our first year surviving the various challenges that have come our way and, in the process, made numerous friends and accquired various animals. It's about 8 degrees warmer this morning than when we moved in last year so it's only minus 2 outside today. Another bright but bitter day awaits us as i sit here reminisceing over our adventures of the last 12 months. On the day we moved in, not only was it freezing outside, it was freezing inside too. Although we got the fire started straight away, it took over 2 months to actually get the house vaguely warm. The make shift water supply to the bathroom from the well would freeze every night, only defrosting on the sunniest of mornings. Even when the water was running, it had a distinctively rusty colour, and texture, to it. The boiler worked occasionaly, giving us a warm orange bath from time to time. New Years eve saw a small affair of a party when we were joined by Tony and Chrissy to see the new year in. An evening of extreme alcohol consumption meant that as 2008 arrived, we were no longer noticing the cold, even though we couls see our breath every time we exhaled. Our house warming weekend in May was the party of all parties, seeing over 100 visitors on the Sunday. Roll on next May when we will aim once again for a party to beat all parties. October saw a first attempt at a softball weekend. We were blessed with stunning weather and great friends as we celebrated Keith & Sues wedding anniversary in style. Once again we were joined by both english and french revellers and a great weekend prevailed. Christmas day was our next event, 15 of us sat down for our first French Christmas. Alcohol flowed well as always and a great time was had by all. One day I'll sort a dishwasher though because I hate washing up. We have one more party coming up as we see in 2009 in a few days. We are being joined by Steve, Laura, Maddy, Chrissy and Gordy to help us see the year in in typical Larcombe style. We will also be celebrating Steve and Lauras wedding anniversary but who needs an excuse for a glass of wine anymore?? Anyhow, the blog tells every detail of our first fantastic year here. So what did you do in 2008?