Last weekend before Christmas

Saturday, Tom had a birthday party (Ellis').  This consisted of a train ride from Bentham to Morecambe and watching the latest Star Wars film.  There were 5 boys altogether (all from IPS)  Ellis is at QES in Year 7, but has stayed true to his routes so far and has the same friends now that he had last year.  Sam took them on the train, but then they sat through the film by themselves (she didn't fancy it - don't blame her).  She then took them to Frankie and Benny's for tea - what a treat and although Tom isn't into Star Wars, he said he really enjoyed the film.


Matt and I had the best part of the day to ourselves - yay!  I spent the morning bagging up any spare choccies I had and taking them to Gingerbugs as they were running low.  Then once Tom was on his way, we headed to Elaine's at Feizor for a proper lunch.  We then did a 5 mile circular walk - a different one this time which took us almost to Knights Stainforth.  It was a lovely walk, lots of lumps and bumps, cairns, sheep, cows and donkeys.  It was nice to get out and exercise, enjoy the fresh air and not be preoccupied with work!

We got back, had a shower, relaxed and then went to pick Tom up from Bentham.  We spent the evening lounging on the sofa including 'teas on knees' of beans on toast.

Sunday we spent the morning finishing Christmas chores and then we headed round to the Ellershaws for an afternoon of board games and drinking.  The drinking seemed to take precedence - it was a bit of a session.  The kids, as usual played well together. leaving us adults to drink and eat lots and lots of crisps, dips and other really healthy things.

Nothing much happened but we had a really good afternoon of chatting, drinking, eating - oh and we did play some board games but not that many to be honest!  We staggered home around 8pm and struggled to stay up until 10pm and bed.

Skating and sledging

Saturday we had a quiet day, Tom was displaying signs of being tired, and I was pretty tired too and needed a day of doing not much.  Matt headed to Leeds for the day as he had a translators' Christmas lunch / social to go to.

Look at that blue sky!

It was a nasty nasty day and as a result football training was cancelled which I think was a good thing.  We had a quiet morning in, then mushrooms on toast for lunch, followed by a snuggle on the sofa watching Polar Express - Tom's favourite Christmas film.  We then headed to the village for late night shopping / skating rink / Santa.  This is an event the village has held in various forms since we moved here - one year it was amazing with fake snow machine and lots of stalls selling food etc.  Since then it has sort of died.  This year they hired a skating rink - it was only small, but it got people into the village, and for children that have never been skating before (Tom being one of them) it was great fun.  It only cost £2 for 30 skating, which was very good value.  Tom began to get the hang of it and managed to slide a little bit.

Snowball fight

There was a poorly attended lantern parade and then Santa arrived on his sleigh.  The newly formed village band was in the square playing festive tunes.  There was then supposed to be a ceilidh, but nothing happened.  We hung around for ages, but nothing took place.  Oh hum, Tom did go to see Santa though (we have given up trying to call him Father Christmas as everything now seems to be branded Santa!) the present he was giving out was desirable (squidgy frogspawn stress reliever which lights up).  As the ceilidh didn't take place we headed home for tea.

Herbert was happy!

We were then supposed to pick Matt up from Clapham, but his train got cancelled in Skipton.  He then got another to Ribblehead.  Tom and I headed out to Ribblehead to collect him, however, there had been a big hail shower meaning the roads were loaded with balls of ice.  Hum, I drove up to the end of the one way system.  The car was slipping and sliding all over the place - there was no way I would be able to get it up to Ribblehead, so we headed home.  A couple of phone calls to Katie up in Ribblehead and she arranged for Jon (who was at work at the Hill Inn) to drive back to hers, get the Land Rover, pick Matt up from the pub and drive him down.  Turns out that i did the right thing as one car smashed into a wall just outside the Hill Inn.  There was lots of black ice on the road, Jon struggled in the Land Rover - the Civic wouldn't have made it.  Anyway, it all got sorted and Matt got home!

Happy boy

Sunday we woke up and there was white stuff everywhere.  Not only had it snowed but it was deep.

Dry stone wall and Whernside

Sledge!

Only one thing for it - sledging at the Hill Inn.  Normally the slopes of the Hill Inn are crowded with folk from Ingleton when it snows, so we were expecting to join the crowd.  No, we were the first to get there, so we made our tracks.  Still no-one came.  Very strange.  We carried on but to be honest in the end we got a bit bored, much more fun to sledge with others than by yourselves.  We gave up and decided to head to the pub.  The Hill Inn was closed, so we headed to the Station Inn (the road had been gritted by this point).  There we had a drink and a mince pie each (sledging is hard work - struggling up the hill at the end of every run).  We then decided, that as it was such a lovely day, to do the Ribblehead circular walk - which we did.  We then had a lunchtime dinner at the Station Inn which was remarkably good (this pub used to be awful, but the owners booted the last lot of tenants out and now it is much much better).  We then headed back down into Ingleton - still not many people on the slopes of the Hill Inn - not sure where everyone got to - maybe Christmas shopping again?

Can't remember what we did for the rest of the day - hot baths and a bit of relaxing I'm assuming.

Carol Service

On Wednesday we went to Tom's last Christmas Carol concert - awwwwww.

Getting ready to play

It was lovely - last year we had very bad seats and couldn't hear or see anything (we were there 30 minutes early too!)  This year we got there 45 minutes early and got some great seats (we weren't the first to arrive by any means!) 

It was a lovely evening, lots of traditional carols, some new ones including the Teachers' Twelve Days of Christmas which was such fun '(6)Hand Sanitiser....(5)When's it half past 3?...(4)Don't waste the glitter...(3)Decorate the tree....(2)Learn all the carols....and (1) You still have to do your homework!!!!!

Who told the dirty joke?

Tom did a guitar recital (Shallow) which made Sal Ellershaw who was next to us cry!.  They all did a couple of poems and a song.  The head boys and girls did readings.  It was just lovely.  A really good atmosphere and a lovely evening.  We will miss it next year.

Mum and Dad Visit

Mum and Dad came up for their annual visit.  Of course, as soon as they arrived it clouded over and started to rain.  It got sunny just as they left!  Oh hum!

They came just in time for the school Christmas Fair on Thursday.  This was the first time I wasn't running it - it was such a lovely experience.  We went round all the stalls, spent huge amounts of money and had fun interacting with the teachers and pupils.  All the year 6 pupils were running stalls, Tom was (as usual) doing what Charlie told him which was a rather complicated bowling alley type thing - lots of rules and regulations which kept changing!  Mum won 5 packs of Haribo!!!!!  Think we did every stall going and soaked in the atmosphere  - sat down had tea and a bun and just really enjoyed ourselves, much nicer than running around on PTA stalls, I'm so glad I have taken a back seat.

Tom (driving?) a train

Friday evening we headed to the OPO for drinks and then went for tapas - was a good evening - everyone enjoyed themselves.

Trains!

Saturday the boys headed to York to go to the National Railway Museum and I took Mum on a bit of mystery tour - she knew were were going out but not where or what...







First stop was a garden centre to go hunting for Christmas presents and then I took her to the Midland Hotel in Morecambe for Afternoon Tea.  Mum and I very rarely have any quality time together, this was lovely, so nice to be able to treat her.  We were both very relaxed and enjoyed the view of the bay and the cakes and sandwiches.  On choosing her tea, Mum went straight for Prosecco - go girl - I teased her, but really I was pleased that she was up for mid afternoon booze!

Mum drinking in the afternoon!

Tea for 2!

At work!

Unfortunately the weather was awful - the plan had been to walk along the prom at Morecambe afterwards, but it was driving rain and wind, so we gave it a miss and headed home.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Sunday we had a quiet day as Mum and Dad had been rushing around a bit since arriving up here.  Don't think we left the village.  However, I was still able to put them to work.  Matt and Tom went out to Ireby to pick up a Christmas tree and Tom, Mum and Dad were put to work decorating it - with Christmas music in the background and Christmas hats to wear.  In fact we got all the decorations out - found lots (as usual) that we had forgotten about including 2 new sets of lights.  I spent a while twisting the new lights around the bannisters - up and down each spindle - once done it looked lovely and festive.

The day ended with a proper roast in the evening - don't think Mum and Dad would know what to do if roast wasn't served on Sunday evening?!!!!

Snuggled up together - 3 peas in a pod!

Monday the sun came out and they headed home!  Was a shame the weather was rubbish and also that I was busy with work, so couldn't spend much time with them on the week days,   Oh well, they have promised to come in the summer next time...

Super Sunny Weekend

Stone Jetty

Wow, we had a super sunny weekend - it was cold, but not too cold, the sky blue and not a whisper of a breeze.  We had to make the most of it...

Looking good in the sun!

Saturday after football we headed out and had lunch at Archers Cafe - the place was empty?!  Very strange as it is never empty, you always have to queue!  Must be that people have started Christmas shopping!  Oh well, it was to our advantage. so we decided to eat big - very delicious it was too, always good food there.


We then drove to Morecambe, parked up at the bottom of the prom and went for a walk up to the stone jetty - the light was beautiful so Matt was busy snapping away.  Certainly a glorious day and it lifted all our souls.

Looking down over Morecambe Bay

Sunday we headed to Grange-over-Sands for the day as I wanted to take Matt on a walk Tom and I did with Steph and co a while ago to The Hospice (a stone tower with fire grate etc for lost, weary walkers).  You get great views from up there and I knew Matt would enjoy it.  I was right - once again he was snapping away, because, again it was a wondrous clear day, we could see for miles.  We spent a while up there, before heading back to the village, having lunch in the Hazelmere cafe.

Arneside Viaduct

We were all in need of something sweet - so I had a crumble, Tom had a huge mince pie and Matt had 2, yes 2 cakes!  We then went for a stroll along the prom so the boys could see some trains before heading home.

Hills

Next on the agenda was to go to Kingsdale at 6pm to see the ISS pass over us.  Matt wanted to take an arty photo of it.  Tom and I went for the ride.  We saw it and Matt got a decent photo of it.  However, it was cold, so we were all very happy to return home to a good hearty stew.

ISS from Kingsdale