Christmas

Right then, this is going to be a long blog!

So on the 23rd Mum and Dad finally made it up here.  In fact they arrived much earlier than we expected around 10.30 - we had only just finished breakfast and got dressed.  We had lunch at home and then decided to take a risk with the weather and go for a walk around Kirkby Lonsdale.  Tom got his bike out and went the 'long way' with Matt and Dad, whilst Mum hobbled with me along the short way.  We met in the churchyard and then headed to a cafe for Tea and a bun.  We were lucky in the end with the weather, only catching a short drizzle.

Christmas Eve
It was yet again another horrible day.  We decided to go to the Lakeland Motor Museum - we have been there before but it is interesting and undercover and we thought Mum and Dad would enjoy it.  We did all have a good time, Tom taught Mum and Dad about the TT, and we all enjoyed the old cars. We had lunch at the Cafe there - which was very very very good and then had a look round the Bluebird exhibition.

We came home, had dinner and then bed.  Matt had an interesting conversation with Tom:

M: What day is it tomorrow?
T: Tuesday
M: Yes, but what day is it?
T: Holiday
M: Yes, but which holiday?
T: Windermere Day
M: What?  No! Who is visiting you tomorrow?
T: Granma and Pop Pop
M: Yes, but Granma and Pop Pop are here already, who is visiting you tonight and leaving you presents if you've been a good boy?
T: Father Christmas
M: Yes, so what day is it tomorrow?
T: Tuesday...Christmas Day
M: Yahoo - time for bed!

Christmas Day

Henry the dog

So Father Christmas did visit Tom last night and there was a full stocking by his bed when he woke up.  Did he have a look?  No.  We could hear he was awake as he was coughing and moving around in his bed, but he didn't touch the stocking.  We had to go in and tell him it was OK for him to have a look, in the end he came into bed with us and unpacked it.  He must have been the only 3 year old in the country who didn't jump out of bed to investigate his stocking!

We eventually got up and then got dinner ready.  That meant looking at the beef and working out what to do with it.  We had got a 3 rib of beef.  It was ENORMOUS - so much so that when we weighed it on our scales the scales were overloaded - it was big.  I put Matt in charge of it.  I did the veggies so did a lot of peeling etc.  It was getting on for 10 by the time we were finished and could have breakfast and then time to investigate the presents.  Luckily we didn't have a small child demanding to unwrap everything, I think he was quite content having his grandparents and stocking toys to play with.

Around 11 we were ready.  Guess what - Tom had more than double the number of presents of anyone else, so it took him quite a while to get through them all, whilst I was in charge of writing down what was from who - think I just about got it all right.  No-one was ill today - a nice change as quite often a Branch Family Christmas was plagued by illness (never me though!)  Matt took it upon himself to right this and managed somehow to fall down the stairs whilst handing out presents.  The banisters held him, but one of his toes crumpled up and he felt distinct discomfort.  Apparently he had broken that toe in Japan and was pretty sure he had done it again.  It did come up in a good looking bruise - both back and front, but fortunately he wasn't in pain just discomfort so we carried on.

New trains

He did very well, Grand Central Train Station from Granma and Pop Pop which was a huge success, remote control train for his train set, a night time projector and various other things from Grannie and Grandpa, a remote controlled quad bike from Simon & co, a doggie soft toy/pillow from Vera (a huge hit - surprising considering he doesn't like dogs)  and then loads of other things from various people.  Thanks to everyone.

I did well - an iPad Mini from Matt and some fake Japanese food from Tom (winner of the most surprising novelty items).  I think Mum and Dad got some presents - but I didn't really see (something to do with a huge pile of paper in front of me)

We then had play time whilst dinner cooked and then dinner.  All I can say is that Matt did a superb job with the beef - it was lovely and rare.

Note to selves for future: 3 rib of beef - 220 degrees for 25 minutes, then 1.45 hours at 140.  It was perfect - melt in the mouth and perfectly seasoned.  It stayed hot for the 45 mins it took me to cook the veggies as well.  A perfect dinner.  Oh and goose fat for roasties does work - the roasties were good too.

We then spent after dinner relaxing - watched the Ice Age Mammoth Christmas which was pretty lame, but Tom needed to calm down.  He actually hit a wall around 4pm and got very very tired.  In the end he had an early bath and bed.  He was in bed for 6.15 - very early for him - it was a very exciting day for him and we were really pleased how well he took it, it was exciting but he didn't go manic.

First tattoo (a train tattoo of course)

We had a late supper - a HUGE cheese board courtesy of Pat and Bob.  It included half a huge brie which was very gooey and lovely, a huge chunk of Stilton, another huge chunk of posh Cheddar and a chunk of Hafod (Welsh?).  I supplied lots of biscuits and we did our best to make a dent.  It was certainly all good stuff, but when we had finished it looked a poor effort, we are going to have lots of cheesy dinners in the near future (heaven for me then! - thanks Pat and Bob)

Oh and today we worked out that at 1414 days old today was the first day in Tom's life that he didn't go out - not bad hey.  It was only because the weather was soooooo bad and there are no easy walks to do here that it happened.




Boxing Day
We had a lazy morning today.  We heard Tom coughing at 6am, but he didn't call out for us.  At 9am I thought I should go in and get Tom.  I went in, he was still asleep.  Ridiculous, he had been asleep for over 14 hours - oh well, I'm not complaining.

Today we had to say goodbye to Granma and Pop Pop as they were heading on their two day journey back home.  They stayed until lunch (usual Boxing Day leftovers).  We then said our goodbyes and decided to brave the weather and go out.  We went to Kirkby Lonsdale to do some recycling and to see if Booths was open and if so buy another ham as their Christmas ham was very very good.  No joy, it was closed.  Oh hum, as it was still lashing down with rain, we gave up, came home and watched Totoro.  Tom then had some beans on toast whilst we sat with him and went to bed and we had another cheesy supper - this time we over did it and neither of us slept particularly well - ooops!

Thursday
It was still gloomy today but we decided to go out.  I got some Lakeland vouchers for Christmas from Pat and Bob, so we thought we would go along and see if they had a good sale on.  They did have a sale, but unfortunately nothing I wanted was in it, so I decided to wait until there is something I really need for spending it.  We headed down to Bowness for a spot of lunch and then decided to revisit Tarn Howes as it had stopped raining.  This we did and enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the Tarn (apart from the two times Tom fell over and cried!)

Friday

Biggest layout ever

Today Auntie Jude and Craig came to visit.  It was another revolting day - at this rate we are all going to disappear under water. They made it in time for lunch so we had Christmas soup and cheese board - we have now made a dent and the brie is getting better and better - it is in fondue stage:  almost impossible to keep on a biscuit!

After lunch we did presents.  Tom was delighted to receive a tractor and trailer from Auntie Jude (he's been wanting one for a while - it is always the first thing he plays with at playgroups) and some more track pieces from Craig.  Now Craig is Tom's favourite train set play buddy.  Craig went away from here last time knowing exactly which pieces we were missing, did his research and came up with 2 T junctions and 2 wiggily woggily pieces - perfect.  It was still raining so the boys set to making the biggest train layout we have ever seen.  It kept them busy for quite a while and they did a great job as you can see in the pictures.

Then dinner - roast beef Japanese stew - very yummy.  Then Tom went to bed and we slouched on the sofas.

Saturday
It was still raining!  We had a very lazy morning.  Tom was up at 8, and at 9 he went in to see Auntie Jude and Craig.  I was sure they would be awake - oops, they weren't!  Oh well, I think 9am is fair game in a house with a 3 year old, most households would have to start around 6 or 7.  We all finally got up around 10am and had a cooked brunch (bascially everything in the fridge that could be eaten for breakfast was cooked and served up).

We then went into Kirkby Lonsdale for the usual walk, except we couldn't do it as the River Lune was way way way up, so much so that a part of the main path was almost flooded and the new path was completely flooded (a shame as they have only just laid it)  We then headed to Emily's for a drink, then it was goodbye to Auntie Jude and Craig (Tom wasn't too happy) and we headed off to Ingleton to look for range cookers (the owners of the house we are buying are taking the cooker with them) and see if there was a sale at Daleswear.  We didn't do too well at Daleswear, but I got some info on range cookers and found a cookshop tucked behind the appliance shop which sells all the good bakeware.  They did have a sale on so I got some cookie cutters for next Christmas for very little which was good - but could be quite dangerous once we move there.

We then had a very late lunch at Neptis, came home did some playing and then Tom had supper, bath and bed.  We had Christmas soup later on and went to bed.

Sunday
Nothing much to report from today.  Matt went back to work and Tom and I went out for a couple of hours doing a number of chores.

We are off to Manchester on Tuesday to see Adam, Karen, Leia and Rosa, so will probably have something to report back after that.