Christmas and Changes

 Christmas was once again, really good this year. Although we didn't do a lot of the Ainslie Christmas traditions, we had a lot of great time as a family. The Saturday before Christmas we went to see Santa, then spent the rest of the weekend with James and Cheryl. It was great to see them, see their new flat, and spend time relaxing with the family. It was just sad that Laura couldn't be there.
Christmas Eve involved veggie prepping, and the Christmas Eve trip to the cinema with the Clarkies. Lucas was so excited on Christmas Eve and was tracking Santa all night. When Santa got to Rome it was time for bed and Lucas was jumping up and down and checking off everything to make sure we had put out the mince pie, carrot, stockings etc. He then flopped on his bed, told me if I wake up first I must wake him up, then told us goodnight. He's so cute!!

Me and Lucas with our stockings

 The next morning I woke up and got confronted by Lucas for not waking him up, we then went to investigate to see if Santa had been .... We found PRESENTS!! It's so much fun having a 6 year old in the house for Christmas, Kids make it so much more magical.
Laura was on a night shift and so got back home around 10,  I'm not sure she liked the fact that we were all watching her open her stocking. Then it was time for the tree :D
I love spending time with my family at this time of year. The only bad thing was that I had to work the 3 days after Christmas while everyone else was slouching at home. I'm so grateful I live so close to home and that I can be there for the random days, weekends, and holidays. If I had transferred to Maastricht I would of been really lucky to make it home for Christmas day, let alone anything else over the Christmas period.

Mum, Dad and Lucas by the tree

2013 seems to be all change so far. We've been given the news that they are reducing aircraft in Bristol from 5 to 2 in the summer. While I suspected this was going to be the case, and then the ground staff told us that was the case, it was still a little bit of a shock to hear it officially. Basically, 48 cabin crew have to either transfer or leave, leaving 40 in Bristol. First the ask for volunteers to transfer, then if not enough get their transfer (if there are no spaces in that base), or not enough apply, then they will force people to transfer. They've just announced 7 new bases that are opening in April: Eindhoven, Netherlands. Krakow, Poland. Zadar, Croatia. Chania, Greece. Marrakesh and Fez, Morocco  And Marseilles  France. If you apply for one of these you're pretty much guaranteed to go there. Despite pretty much knowing what we were going to be told, I still had no idea what to do. To apply for a transfer, or to risk trying to stay??? I think in my head I was ok to transfer in the UK, but then we got told there were no vacancies in the UK unless someone from those bases transfer or leave. Needless to say I've been pretty stressed and work has occupied a lot of my mind space in the last few weeks. After hours of research and lots of excel charts tossing up between possible places to move to either new or existing bases, I made the decision that for practical reasons I needed to try and stay in the UK (However much I might want to live in Tenerife). I've applied for Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds. If I don't get any of those I'll be risking it in Bristol, hoping I don't get forced anywhere I'm really against (Poland and Morocco) and having to deal with it if I do get forced out.

Hopefully by next week I'll know where I'll be moving to at the end of March (I'm crossing my fingers for nowhere). 

In other news, I'm really looking forward to getting away to France for a week at the beginning of February and am so grateful that I don't have to do the drive down. Since the parentals didn't want to take 2 cars, I get to fly down (thanks Mum and Dad). This job has totally ruined my ability to spend a whole day in a car. 

Really must stop procrastinating now and go start my assignment. It's funny all the things you can find to do when you want to put something off. :)