Advent and Christmas photos

I know, I know. Waaay too late really. But you want to know what I was doing when I wasn't writing Advent blogs, don't you?

We had an Advent candle on the dinner table every night, and said a prayer together (which after ten days Toby could recite along with us; we were quite impressed). Also Toby had an Advent calendar. Yay, chocolate!

We paid a visit to a Christmas fair in Matlock, about 45 minutes north of here. Lots of handmade stuff to buy, and Toby got his first ride on a roundabout. He rang that train bell all the way round!

We put our Christmas lights up, and had many evening walks around the village admiring other people's. This is Findern village church looking very atmospheric.

We made and decorated a Christmas cake. I kept things simple and used coloured fondant and cookie cutters, which was dead easy and meant Toby could help. We made gingerbread cookies with the same cutters, and stuck fondant on top of those too.

We attended our first ever Christingle service at the local church on Christmas Eve. Everyone gets an orange with a candle and other things stuck in it, to symbolise Jesus as the light of the world. And then everyone prays hard that their kid isn't the one to set themselves or anyone else on fire.

We made Christmas crackers. This was one of those "fun family activities" that I thought would be really nice, and instead turned into a "it's Christmas Eve and we still haven't made those stupid crackers!" activity, where Mum and Dad were grimly assembling the things while Toby got bored and started trying to shred all the components.

We put our (rather large) presents underneath our (rather small) Christmas tree.

We ate cranberry orange muffins, ham and eggs for Christmas morning breakfast.

We opened presents, of course! This is the first year that Toby has been old enough to be excited about the whole thing, and it was great.

Hand-knitted mittens and scarf from my mother-in-law!

For some reason Graham got lots of beer.

We ate Christmas dinner. I think Toby enjoyed his Christmas pudding and custard, don't you?

And we had some friends over for Christmas tea. Next day, it was off to see Graham's parents for a few days, and back just in time for my parents to come visit. Busy but fun!

Comments

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...

Derwent Valley: Belper and Duffield

I'm getting into familiar territory with this walk. Duffield is one of the closest places that I can easily drive to and climb a hill, so I've done lots of walking around here. It's surprising how many new places I still see, though. Temperature: warm. Likelihood of being attacked by hordes of nettles: low. I decide to wear shorts. It's a good choice. The paths are well-trodden, and the sun is bright, though there's a pleasant breeze. There's plenty of free parking by Duffield church, so I drive there and walk across a field to the main road. Veering left up King Street, there is lots to see: the Methodist church, a butchers, and a penny-farthing gate. At the cemetery, I turn right and pick up a path towards the golf course. I'm heading towards the Chevin Hills here, which are the absolute lower reaches of the Pennine range. The ancient trackway along the ridge of the hills is another favourite walk. But today I'm just going straight down the other side ...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog