Wicked Uncle Cliff

playing cards with WUC

It is always good when someone you like comes to stay. When that someone has been a friend for more than twenty years, their visit is always looked forward to and enjoyed. When they bring a friend who fits into your family as though they were born there it makes everything just about perfect.

WUC shows us how to shuffle

Wicked Uncle Cliff came for the whole weekend and New year. This was an unexpected bonus for us and nearly a week of excitement for Miss Em. She adores him. He teases her and buys her presents - that she never takes for granted - and he takes great delight in her sense of humour and her amazingly adult outlook. In some things she is a normal seven year old but on occasions she can leave us all lost for words at her grasp of how things work in the adult world. He pushes her brain and finds ways to make her think and she loves the challenge.
This time he introduced some card games. Simple ones that a seven-year-old can understand and play. It has been interesting to watch how she has toned down her behaviour as it became obvious to her that she was getting just the same attention as everyone else and she was being treated exactly the same as everyone at the table. She stopped trying to be the centre of attention and concentrated on playing to win. We played Newmarket and Chase the Ace and a little game that we think is called tuppence-ha'penny.
At Midnight last night we upheld our tradition and stood by the front door to yell Happy New Year to our neighbours across the road. Then we all came back into the warm, gave everyone a hug and after a while drifted off to bed.  A very good start to the year