Despite the fact that we had heard that there would be an estimated 18 million cars on the road that weekend, we had a surprisingly good run, once past the roadworks. Daughter and her husband had travelled to Kent late on the Friday evening, and also had a fairly good journey.
On arrival we were shown around the house. I was green with envy at the size of the kitchen, plus a cross between a utility and a larder, not to mention a downstairs loo! We were shown the upstairs, and unpacked, then back down to chat and admire the Christmas tree and try to light a fire in their open grate. There was a tantalising smell coming form the kitchen, and Son revealed that they were keeping up our family tradition of gammon on Christmas Eve.
I felt a bit of a spare part with nothing to do, but I had brought my Christmas cake, and a pudding made by M&S. We had a lovely meal, and even Grandma felt like a spare part as they have a dishwasher, so she could not indulge in one of her favourite tasks. Son's wife had baked some lovely chocolate cookies, which we had for afters, and I began to wonder whether I had been wise to say I would only not count points on Christmas Day..
We were up at a reasonable time on Christmas morning, opening stockings. Husband grumbled that he hadn't dared put chocolate in mine. Son had to be early at church to set something up, so we were the first to arrive. Once someone had opened the door the place quickly filled up, and we had a very pleasant service with 4 traditional carols. Afterwards we were introduced to various people, and I found at least 2 people who knew folk in Chester that I knew. It's a small world in evangelical circles!
Home again to Son's and I was given the task of handing out the presents from under the tree. We sat down to stuffed turkey breast with all the trimmings, and there were no leftovers of turkey to be used up. Son had made a pudding they had had in South Africa as an alternative to Christmas pud, which he dislikes. The sauce sounded so calorific, but then I can't say much as I had smuggled along some clotted cream to go with the Christmas pud! Some of the afternoon was spent dozing, and no one felt like much tea, except trifle and/or Christmas cake, or cookies. Son, Daughter in law and I walked round the block to blow away the cobwebs,
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| Son |
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| Grandma and Daughter in Law |
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| Husband engrossed in something |
On Boxing day husband and I decided to walk into the town centre, as we were both in need of a walk. Initially we called in at a local shop, but they didn't have a Telegraph, so we walked on into town. there was not much open, and as usual, I needed the loo. The market place toilets were closed, Waitrose was closed, so I headed off to Homebase, used theirs and then bought a couple of every day items to ease my guilt. As I left, husband texted to say he was in Costa, which was open, (and they had a loo!) I joined him, had a drink, used their facilities, then we set off to walk back, admiring houses as we went. We could afford something decent up there. Son and Daughter in law had been to Homebase with Grandma and then a few miles to a B&Q as they were trying to put up a small wire fence. It was husband's turn to be envious when he saw their double garage with power and light, he has wanted a workshop for years.
The fire building wasn't going too well, it is a French style fireplace, so Husband arranged bricks around it to help. We decided a fire basket was needed. There is an antique shop in their town, so on the Tuesday, after Son had gone back to work, we went into the town centre by car to show Grandma around and see if the antique shop was open. We went into Costa, again. there were not many shops open. The antique shop wasn't. However they did go into a home store whilst I went into Boots, and they found fire baskets in there. I also discovered that there was park with toilets, but whether they had been open the previous day I didn't know. We also took Grandma to show her the posh rented house
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| saxon crosses |
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| very old pub |
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| Unusual church entrance |
We packed,. loaded up the car and left, but when we reached the motorway, there was more traffic than we had had on Saturday. It became very slow due to accidents, so we diverted and found the A41, then picked up the A5, so that we could use the M6 toll if necessary. It wasn't too bad so we stopped at Hilton Park services, and once again found a Costa for lunch. We managed on the M6 without using the toll road ., and arrived home at around 4. I soon had the washing machine going, and we had a much needed drink.
At about 7 we went to Daughter's she had invited us for a meal. Her husband was sent home early, so that was nice. However Nathaniel was a bit unwelcoming to us, he had had a very tiring over excited Christmas racing around with his Kent cousins; irregular meals and irregular bedtimes. However once he was offered some food his mood improved somewhat. We had a very nice meal, and didn't stay too late as husband was tired from driving.
Thursday morning, I was up early, and collected Nathaniel. I brought him here and he was playing quite happily. At around 10 I got a phone call, Daughter had been sent home as she felt really unwell, could she have a sleep before collecting him? We said of course, and husband and I went to Sainsbury's to stock up a bit. It was good having someone to help lift Nathaniel into the trolley. Daughter came round later on, and said she felt a fraud as the severe nausea had passed. She did suffer from low blood sugar for a while in her university days, so it could have been a recurrence of that. I think I will break the story now, and continue later
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