A Christmas Story

 It was a quiet run up to Christmas. Evenings spent wrapping the last few gifts, and pottering around the house. On one of the days, I decided to teach little miss how to make a Victorian Christmas Pomander. Last year, they learned about the Victorian’s at school, but given how tough these pomanders are on the fingertips, I’m not surprised she hadn’t made one before. 

The smell of oranges and cloves makes it worthwhile though. It’s a pure Christmas smell. 

On 23rd, we went to our local theatre, The Scarborough Spa, to see the panto. I’m one of those adults who loves the panto, but thankfully little Miss loves it too so I have the perfect excuse to go. This year, it was Cinderella, with Anne Heggerty of ‘The Chase’ quiz show playing the role of the Fairy Godmother. We loved it. 

Christmas Day itself was, as usual, a quiet affair. Little Miss loves her sleep, so she doesn’t wake me at 6am to come down for presents, but we got down mid-morning to find out what Santa had left. 

We were all spoiled, including Thelma, who had a new bed (off the chap) and new toys too. 

We played some of little Misses new games. Guess Who, definitely a game that I love and we had great fun playing it, before I set to on cooking the dinner. 

Christmas Day outfit shot

We didn’t opt for Turkey. None of us are that keen, and they seem to be terribly expensive at Christmas. We plumped for a delicious luxury chicken which we had with all of the trimmings, roast veg, sprouts (of course) roast potatoes etc. I didn’t take a photo because I couldn’t wait to tuck in.

It was an altogether relaxed Christmas that we enjoyed. 

Let the Festivities Commence

 I was so relieved to log off at lunchtime on Friday, and to know that I won’t be logging on again until New Year. I definitely need the break. Once I picked little Miss up from school, it was a quick change of outfit before we headed across to Helmsley to meet little Misses Godparents, the chap and his sister for a Christmas meal at the Black Swan.

We were originally meant to meet up a couple of weeks back, but storm Darragh put paid to that, and the lovely folks at the Black Swan kindly rescheduled our meal for us. This week was altogether better anyway because, even though the cough is still fiercely hanging on in there, most of our flu symptoms have now passed. 

We had a fabulous seat for our party of seven, and as we settled in it was time to exchange some gifts. Of course, little Miss was thoroughly spoiled as she so often is. A beautiful new backpack, sooo many amazing gifts. 

Me and the chap also got a fabulous escape room type game, Curse of the Dark, which we’re really looking forward to playing. Then, it was time for dinner. I started off with Heritage Beet Salad (delicious), followed by roast turkey dinner (delicious) and followed by Christmas pudding and custard (delicious).

A blurred photo of some of us in front of the gorgeous Black Swan Christmas tree

I was as stuffed as the turkey, and we’d had so much fun talking, laughing and catching up. It was a joyful start to the Christmas break, and felt like exactly what I needed to kick start my festive spirit.

Helmsley at Night

Back at the car, the chap filled the boot with more goodies (spoiled again), before we all said our goodbyes and headed home, full and happy.

Yesterday, I braved town because I needed to do my grocery shopping. I was dreading it. I hate grocery shopping at the best of times, so doing it at Christmas time doesn’t fill me with joy. To be fair, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, and at least it’s done and out of the way. I’ve over done it as I so often do, I think I’ve got enough food to last until May! 

I had a relaxed evening, and finished my latest book. A thoroughly frivolous and light hearted read that was quite a contrast to some of the heavy going reading I’ve been doing recently. 

This morning, little Miss went to a Christmas party that was thrown by one of her classmates. It was wonderful, and I got to relax with the other parents over cups of coffee and tales of Christmas preparations. I already feel like I’ve wound down from work, and am ready to enjoy what the next week has to bring. 

I hope you have a very merry Christmas, and I’ll see you on the other side. 

All Aboard the Santa Train

 After the previous weeks debilitating flu, by the time Monday rolled around I was still feeling delicate, but was well enough to work again. I’m quite lucky in that 90% of the time I work from home, so at least I have comfortable surroundings and don’t have to commute every day. If I did, I wouldn’t have been back to work so soon. 

I’d been looking forward to our work Christmas party for weeks. Fully paid for and in one of York’s swankier bars, I was looking forward to getting dressed up and dancing the night away. It wasn’t to be. By the time Thursday rolled around, I was still coughing and thoroughly exhausted. The prospect of putting my glad-rags on and hopping on the train to York was not high on my list of priorities. I was definitely feeling sorry for myself for missing out though, and needed to inject some Christmas spirit. What better way than decorating the Christmas tree.

Little Miss was so excited that we were getting the tree out, and this year she was able to help much more than in previous years. Draping tinsel and deciding which baubles should go where. It was tiring, but well worth it and now my lovely tree is up.

Saturday, I had tickets for us to go and see Santa on the Santa Express at North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The railway is a beautifully historic one of steam trains and diesel engines which goes between Pickering and Whitby. This train wasn’t going that far though, it was a shortish jaunt from Pickering, with Santa coming along to see the children and dish out gifts.

For a minute, I thought I was going to be adding this to my list of ‘things the flu or the weather has ruined this Christmas’ as little Miss had felt really poorly. She was also desperate not to miss it though, so I wrapped her up and off we went. 

It was magical. We got some delicious hot chocolates from the tea room before boarding the train. Inside, the halls were well and truly decked with Christmas lights and gifts in the parcel shelves. Christmas music streamed out through the carriages, and honestly, it’s the first time this year I’ve felt truly festive. 

Little Miss loved it, especially when Santa came through with beautiful snowman plush toys for the children, and then we all sang a really weird rendition of the 12 days of Christmas as we headed back to the station. 

Back in Pickering, we had a very short peruse of some shops before settling into Capelmans for a fish and chip dinner (although mine was gammon and chips, which I haven’t had in a very long time). It was pretty evident our appetites hadn’t fully recovered, and I returned home with a good chunk of my gammon for Thelma. It had just felt good to actually get out of the house, and to make it to something we’d had planned for ages.

Sunday, the chap came over to set up one of little Misses Christmas presents. We went out for coffee, and I made us a delicious chicken casserole. It was a laid back day, but it was lovely and just what we needed. We’re all still (hopefully) on the mend, but taking it easy to try to make sure no other plans go out of the window. 

A Winter’s Tale: Storms and Flu

 Of all the weeks to return to blogging, and I choose the one where we all come down with Flu. Little miss fell ill on Sunday, feeling especially hot and quite tired. To be fair, now she’s a little bit older, she does seem to have slowed down with catching so many things. Bugs, coughs, colds, sickness was a weekly occurrence during her first school year. This is the first big thing she’s had since starting back in September, but wow, it was a biggy.

Anyway, Sunday evening, she went off to bed and I finished the book I was reading. ‘How they Broke Britain’. A great read if you want to be really angry at the media, the Government and especially Rupert Murdoch. It’s a really well researched and presented book actually, that dissects each character in the Brexit farce that has resulted in the country being well and truly, broken! Spoiler alert: It features BoJo, Cameron and Liz Truss too (like you couldn’t have guessed).

As expected the next two days little miss was at home, poorly. I wasn’t expecting that by Wednesday I would have it, and not be able to lift my head up off a bed/sofa for the whole day. I’m not sure I’ve had a proper flu before. This was it, and it wasn’t taking any prisoners! Even as I type, I’m still coughing, and still have a much smaller appetite than usual. 

As the weekend arrived though, I started to perk up and look forward to the prospect of a big extended family meal that I’d planned some time ago, at the Black Swan in Helmsley. I hadn’t accounted of course for the damage that Storm Darragh was going to inflict on North Yorkshire. I was pretty much determined that I’d be going, until I spoke with someone who lives a little closer to Helmsley who told me of the flooding, the massive trees blocking the roads, the abandoned cars. It sounded like my journey to the meal would end up being like a scene from an apocalypse movie. Still feeling delicate from the flu, I couldn’t face the prospect of being stranded on the roads too. So, illness and bad weather conspired to keep me indoors all week. 

Let’s hope next week is better!

Back Again

 After about 6 months ‘off’ blogging, I’ve decided to start writing again. This is my 4th iteration of a blog since I first started blogging, back in 2019. Every now and again I just get a bit fed up and take a break, and then come back to it again. They always follow the same format, an online diary. A place to put my photos, and a bit of a journal about what I’ve been doing. What a story they’d tell if I’d kept my original one going for all of these years. 

It was unfortunate that I decided to take a break from blogging when I did. I was just about to embark on a 4 week sabbatical from work, to coincide with the school holidays. I spent 4 weeks on adventures, with a holiday to Wales, and visits to all sorts of local attractions, and a spa in the Dales. I even bought a selfie stick. I know, I should be ashamed. 

The problem was overwhelm. A busy workload, social media overload (I’ve been taking a break from that too), and life in general. It all conspired against me, and something had to take a step back. I didn’t totally give up on my hobbies though, I got plenty of crochet and reading done in the time. I guess I started to feel obliged to post about my days, and actually I just need to remember, the blog is for pleasure not for business, so I don’t need to feel at all obliged by it. 

While I wasn’t blogging, the platform I was using went defunct, and I’ve lost all my old posts too. Unfortunate, but thankfully I do keep most of my photos, and even print a lot of them (old school), so it’s not too terrible. Memories aren’t made on the internet. 

Anyway, here I am, back at it, ready to share my adventures all over again. Hopefully some of my old readers will find me again, and I’ll try my best not to go MIA all over again. 

A walk on Scarborough sea front a few weeks back