an un-white christmas...

I arrived in Leeds on christmas eve, to stay with my uncle John, Helena and my two gorgeous little cousins Felix and Hetty. Not long after arriving, we headed out to an amazing church built in 1154 (!) to listen to a crib service (for kids - where the story of Jesus is told, and soft-toy Joseph, Mary, wise men and animals are added to create the scene. Baby Jesus is added on christmas day, of course).

On christmas day I was awoken, not by Santa, but to the wonderful sounds of little-ies - "I got Disney knickers!" (Hetty, 3) - "A chemistry set! Just what I've always wanted!" (Felix, 5). It was lovely! We spent a good while watching them open presents under the tree, and some time after 11 hit the road to have lunch with Helena's family in Sheffield.

We arrived home some hours later stuffed full of turkey, bread sauce, veggies and pudding in time to light a fire in the sitting room (John finds it funny that I say 'lounge room'!), and to put the telly on to watch the Dr Who christmas special (with Kylie Minogue). I'm not giving anything away, but it was absolutely excellent!! - as expected. Mmm, David Tennant...

On boxing day Helena packed a picnic lunch, and we headed out for a 5 mile walk at a place called Bolton Abbey. It too was built in 1100-something, but is partly falling down which gave it a wonderful medieval feel. We started out at a cafe enjoying coffee and biscuits, and I saw the start of a hunt, Beagles and all! (although I gather hunting is illegal, so it wasn't a real hunt, it was just for show). We walked around the abbey for a while, had lunch (I'm a Bovril convert, it's sort of like Vegemite), then set out on our 5 mile walk. Felix and Hetty ran all over the place, up and down and all around, and I was the one who was the most buggered by the 5th mile...!

Unfortunately it didn't snow over christmas, but it was a lovely time none the less.