Grandpa and The Watsons Come to Stay

On Tuesday Grandpa came up to visit us.  The main reason is that we have bought Tom a model railway for Christmas and Matt wanted help putting it together.  Bob didn't have to be asked twice!  We kept his visit a secret from Tom and were expecting surprise when Bob turned up at the school gates to collect him.  Not so.  Tom barely acknowledged him!  I guess we should have told him after all!

A good team

On their way home from the station, Matt and Bob bought a Christmas tree, so I put Tom and Grandpa to work on it.  They worked quite well as a team and before long we had a nicely decorated tree in the lounge.

We then headed to the Wensleydale Creamery as they were having a special Christmas shopping evening:  free mulled wine and mince pies, 20% off everything in the shop and the restaurant open.  What's not to like?   The mulled wine had the desired effect - we went a bit mad in the shop and then enjoyed a cheesy meal in the restaurant.  Bob and Tom then had a mad 20 minutes in the car on the way home - not sure who was sillier!

Bob stayed with us until Friday - a little longer than expected thanks to a storm on Thursday stopping all train services.  Tom didn't mind one bit - Bob didn't either.  He got to pick up and drop Tom off at school enough that he was doing it solo by the time he left.  Oh and the model railway got done as well.

Last weekend the Watsons came to stay.  They didn't come for long - arriving 4pm on Saturday afternoon and leaving again at lunchtime on Sunday.

Digger Tom

We took advantage of them not coming up for a while by heading into Kirkby Lonsdale for a look around as it was their Christmas Markets weekend.  I went really to see if it was worth my while having a Lily Pad Bakery stall there next year.  It isn't!  The town was festive enough, but there weren't many people around.  The market area was half fun fair and half food.  So Tom had a go on a roundabout and we tucked into a hog roast bap and a chicken curry.  We then headed home.

The Watsons landed just as it was getting dark. They have three girls who remembered we have a train set.  I set them the challenge to use every bit in a layout - they took this up and worked industriously for quite a while.  They then tucked into lasagna and garlic bread and went to bed and we tucked into gyoza and shabu shabu (Lisa and Cameron used to live in Japan so appreciate and enjoy Japanese food)

Sunday we were going to take the Watsons for a walk in the country, but it was horrible weather - wet, foggy, cold, windy.  It wasn't going to happen, so we took them to the Wensleydale Creamery instead.  After eating a mountain of cheese, buying a further mountain (them, not us) we left.  Came home, had tea and a bun and then said goodbye to them all.

We were all shattered, so suggested to Tom that maybe he would want a nap.  He did, so did we, so we all had one.  Matt and I had a an hour each and Tom 2.5 hours - it was deliciously decadent and wonderful.