"I'll type," said Mum. "But I want to type," said Aby. "Look if we spend all our time arguing over who's going to type then we will never get anywhere," said Miriam as Aby takes control of the keyboard.

"So January...that was boring!" began Miriam dismissively. "Hang on a minute, don't forget the arrival of Little Miss Tinker, I'm surprised you've forgotten that, considering she escaped twice in the first week!" said Mum pointedly.  "And it wasn't just a hamster that expanded our numbers. Our new church  youthworker blew in with the snow in February balancing the boy:girl ratio in the Griffiths household for a few months!"

"Talking of boys - Dad...Andrew...are you going to help!" exclaimed Aby. "Well, I'm pretending to pay attention at least," said Andrew defensively. "Dad's on his i-Phone." Miriam cut in, "Dad stop twittering; it's not cool, it's not clever and it's certainly not funny!" "It's called tweeting actually, you are so not down with the kids!" Dad retorted.

"Can we please get back on topic? Why do all family discussions end up in chaos?" said an exasperated Mum "Let's talk about the highlights."

"Well, the walking week with all our mates is always a highlight but the real treat this year was the freebie holiday to Spain," Andrew said grinning. "And we even managed to get out of the time share sales pitch in record time because we have parents who can't behave like normal potential customers!" "Yes, but Aby ditched us half way through the week to go join her athletics group further down the coast AND she got an extra week out there, it's not fair!" said Miriam grumpily. "It wasn't a relaxing extra week, Miriam, we had to train twice a day in the boiling sun and do loads of revision for my up coming GCSE exams." responded Aby. "You had revision to do, you were only doing a couple of modules and a couple of GCSEs you decided to take early. I had to do my AS exams!" Andrew said waking up from his boredom.

"Well, don't forget I did SATs AND I had to leave the comfort of primary school" piped up Miriam. "Mmm, it's weird not having a child at primary school anymore" sighed Mum "it makes me feel very old!"

"Speak for yourself, I feel as young as ever! Well, once I recovered from the loss of my gall bladder," said Dad gleefully. "Pretty careless of you, Dad and you picked your timing, the day you were supposed to be flying to Romania with your work." said Andrew, eyebrows raised. " That's true, but at least it didn't get in the way of our summer holidays," said Mum gratefully. "That reminds me of the traumas at New WIne," said Aby, "though I still can't wait to get back next year!" A smile spread across Miriam's face, "Funny how your tents were being flooded and knocked down by rain and wind in Somerset, whilst Mum, Dad and I were having a lovely sunny time in Dorset!" "Anyway," Mum intervened, "at least you were able to dry out in Devon...and Greenbelt wasn't too wet..."                                                                                                                                      

"The mad trip back down to Teignmouth to see Muse's hometown gig and the week in the Brecons with the rest of the Griffiths' tribe were big highlights of the year for me," enthused Andrew.

"Good grief," interjected Dad. "This is beginning to sound like a terrible travelogue." "Well, if it's a change of subject you want" said Aby "I could mention the Talent Show I organised last month which saw, amongst the many acts, Andrew doing his stuff on the piano, you singing with the Boatie Boys, mum singing with the Onboard Gospel choir and conducting her pots and pans orchestra and Miriam and I showing Ant & Dec a thing or two about presenting!"

"And there was your sister's wedding, of course, with the couple of skilfully adapted songs you and your brothers performed for the happy couple," added Mum. Yes said Dad"A Woebegone brothers lineup playing strangely unwoebegone strongs with scurrilous words about Bronwen and Colin. In another 6 months its will be time for another wedding Glyn and Cara's. The last of the brothers to get married. The bachelor club will have closed for good." 

I hope this gives you a flavour of our year. Feel free to browse the links and the photos and you can get more detail about any or all members of the family.  You can leave us messages and comments on the forum. We wish you a very happy Christmas and the best for 2010.