Christmas Letter 2025

To all our friends and family. Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a joyful new year!

Another year of no updates on this website, but basically, we’re all doing good. So you can just skip to the photos at the end if you like…

When writing this, I looked back over mine and Anita’s Google photos account for the past twelve months, to jog my memory about what we’ve been doing. In January there were a few sunrises over the beach and not much more, so I can only assume that we had a fairly gentle start to the year. There weren’t even any photos of Anita’s pottery which, along with the sunrises, were the most consistent theme in the photo record of 2025.

February wasn’t much different, except that we moved to the adjacent beach hut to the one we’ve been sharing for the last couple of years, taking on the lease with a bunch of friends and thereby expanding our dominion over that small section of St Leonards Marina. So in addition to the photos of sunsets over the beach, there were dozens taken facing the other way, into a slightly sad looking empty beach hut, which I’m pleased to report has since been cleaned, painted and had benches and a kitchen constructed within.

The twins are still both home educated but we’ve taken slightly different approaches with each of them and in March Henri joined a self directed democratic learning setting called the Kids Collective. It’s a really new organisation which runs three days a week. They’ve moved to a more rural site this Autumn and Wilf has also now joined, but we’re not totally sure whether it’s the right setting for them in the long run. BTW, Henri is now Henri after deciding to rebrand herself from Hatty this summer. In addition to this shift in our home ed routine, I also started playing trumpet again more regularly in March with a local jazz band, and we sold our reliable and practical little Honda Jazz, replacing it with an old, impractical but potentially adventure facilitating Mercedes Vito van, which the kids promptly christened ‘Gary’ for reasons not clear to me.

In April, we utilised Gary properly by loading all our bikes and camping gear in, driving to Kent and then leaving the van behind at Sandwich for three days while we cycled about 100km in a big loop through Margate, Whitstable and Canterbury. There’s a short video of the trip below if you want to check it out.

Later that month we took the train up to London to visit the Minecraft experience. Minecraft remains Wilf’s primary passion and the live experience was a lot of fun. We squeezed in trip to the excellently weird Hunterian museum and some of the Egyptian exhibits at the British museum too.

May saw our annual return to the Ashdown forest for the Elderflower Fields festival which we enjoyed with friends old and new. We also had a totally delightful couple of days camping at Goodshill farm where dad used to take me and my brothers as kids. The twins had an amazing time getting to know their cousin Alfie, visiting from New Zealand.

One of Wilf’s other hobbies is karate. In June he moved from red to yellow belt and this November he also passed his orange belt grading so he now takes a gum shield and pads to his Wednesday night group where he practices flying kicks and the like.

In August we schemed a staycation week, filling it with activities, outings, food and games all in the local area and we hired a hot tub for the back garden. We particularly loved the oddness of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, combined with a visit to the ossuary at St Leonard’s church in Hythe and the lighthouse and fish shack at Dungeness. I was also kept busy over the summer break with some DIY at home. After sharing a bedroom since they were born, the twins have now got their own spaces. Henri has moved downstairs into a small room which she helped design and decorate, and Wilf’s room upstairs has taken on a more teenager-ish vibe which he also helped to design.

In September Henri, now joined by Wilf, returned to Kids Collective three days a week and they also attend a forest school on Mondays, so we have found ourselves this term with them out of the house for four days which has allowed me to focus on a cautious return to architectural work (please do get in touch if you or anyone you know needs any architectural drawings… outlinedesign.studio).

In October we had a short but excellent visit to Oxford to spend a little time with my brother and sister-in-law and their new son. The big news of the month however was undoubtably Wilf stumbling across some WWII ordinance while metal detecting in the woods where the Kids Collective is based. See newspaper cutting below.

Henri and Wilf turned 10 last month, which feels slightly crazy to us. They celebrated with low key parties and home and small groups of their close friends.

Tomorrow we’re heading up to London, making the most of the term time freedom home educating allows, to go and see a west end show, eat some delicious food and visit friends. The rest of December looks as though it will follow a similar vein as we all slow down and look forward to a couple of weeks off from work and normal routines.

In addition to all of that, Anita continues with her freelance work, sea swimming and pottery. Henri has joined a drama class which she loves and will be moving from Brownies to Guides in the new year. She is a talented and creative artist and continues to enjoy reading. Wilf, as mentioned, is getting really into his karate and metal detecting, when he can fit them in around his main passions of Minecraft and Pokemon. And I try to get to allotment when I can, though perpetually feel like I’m doing a bad job up there.

If you’re reading this, it should go without saying, but we would love to see you in 2026. Hosting is more or less our favourite activity, so if you’re passing by, please do come to visit us in St Leonards.

For now, wishing you and your families a very merry Christmas and and joyful new year.
With love,
Anita, Stuart, Henri & Wilf