Christmas

At The Old Post Office

Christmas Eve

The weather wasn't too bad, so we decided to go for a short walk.  We headed up to Ribblehead to do our usual one under the viaduct and round in a circle.  The rain just about held out.  We then headed to Inglesport for lunch and then round the village and back home for a play   The evening was spent in The Old Post Office eating platters and drinking beer / wine / G&T.  A good evening was had by all, and Tom was spoilt, as he was given a fish platter with raw smoked salmon on it - they got it in specially for him.

Christmas Day

The tree and presents

We had a good Christmas Day, although a slightly disturbed night.  We were woken up by a tearful Tom at 2.30, crying because Father Christmas hadn't been!  Apparently he had looked at the foot of his bed for the stocking and not found it.  The stocking was a foot from his head, in exactly the same place it has always been left.  There was also a sparkly present, shining in the night lights!  We pointed them out but it took a while for him to calm down and be left alone again, what a chump!  He was up again at 3.30 because he couldn't get to sleep and again at 4.30 because he had a hurting foot.  Not a great sleep.

Totoro and a Truck

After a late breakfast of scrambled egg, posh bread and smoked salmon, we got all the veg ready in time for when Pat and Bob arrived and then spent a good while opening presents.  Guess who had the most?  Tom did very well, but his favourite was the Totoro onesie that Auntie Jude and Craig had found for him.  He put it on immediately and stayed in it all day and all Boxing Day!  It was way too big for him, but he didn't care, and he looked fab in it anyway.  Think he'll be wearing it still in High School!  He got a lot more clothes, some silly games (thanks to Uncle Martin he got the game of the year - Pie Face!), lots of books as well as the huge Bruder truck and Baymax we got him. We'd told Tom beforehand that he needed to say a proper thank you to anyone who'd given him a present, but he took this to extremes and shouted "THANK YOU!" at the top of his voice, before he'd even taken the paper off, even if the donor was on the other side of the world.

Matt making friends with Baymax

Dinner was pretty easy to cook - rib of beef, of course - (refer to Dec 2014 and 2012 for cooking instructions) and loads of veggies, Yorkshire puddings etc.  We sat down at 2pm for the spread.  The beef was perfect and delicious.  Once full up we retired to the lounge, watched Stick Man and then had pudding.  Bob and Pat then headed home to feed their cats, whilst we collapsed some more.  Craig and Tom played for most of the evening whilst the rest of us put our feet up (thanks Craig).  No more food passed our lips - we were officially stuffed!

Thanks to everyone for our presents - we were all very happy bunnies.  I got a fab new camera from Matt, which means I no longer need to keep borrowing his.  It is waterproof and shock proof so I should have trouble breaking it (I hope).  I am also the proud owner of a cake stand - you would think I would have already have one wouldn't you?  Problem is I don't want to eat the Christmas cake that is in it as it looks too pretty!

Boxing Day
Boxing Day Jude and Craig headed off towards Durham pretty early.  We had a quiet morning and then headed to Settle to Bob and Pat's for Boxing Day lunch - they had got some smoked salmon fillets in specially for Tom.  Tom took his Meccano and the two of us got to work making a Meccano crane - which went well until the final stage where it took me and Matt a while to fathom out how to finish it off.  Lunch was good, we then went into the leaking lounge (it was raining outside and the rain was coming inside!) to relax, read a book etc before realising that all the roads were filling up  and flooding again and we might have trouble getting home, so we said our goodbyes and headed back via Horton.

The evening was spent round our neighbours at a open house.  The Bickerstaffs were there too, so we hung out for an hour or two before heading home for bed.