New Year up North

After a couple of lovely christmasy days at home, we packed up our car and headed off to Cumbria to stay with our friends Kellie and Gareth. After a long journey we arrived in the pouring rain, put Charlie to bed and sat down and opened a bottle of bubbly and sat up talking until the small hours catching up on news and gossip. Unfortunately the rain persisted during our stay so we couldn't leave the house but it was great to spend some time together and Charlie had a thoroughly fab time with their girls Poppy and Daisy knocking down the Lego castle that they built, again and again. The girls were really sweet and spent lots of time playing with Charlie. As we stayed indoors, we also all got to watch the Simpson's movie which was hilarious.

Two days later we packed up the car again and headed further up the country to Scotland to visit our friends Moira and Fraser. Again the weather was not being kind to us although instead of torrential rain, it was beautiful and misty over the hills and mountains as we drove towards their village. We had a brilliant time, and celebrated new years eve with a dinner party with some of their local friends. Moira cooked a fabulous meal and the biggest beef wellington you have ever seen all washed down with a magnum of vintage champagne brought by one of their friends. Games followed dinner and it was such a hilarious evening. It kicked off with the newspaper game, where we all had to tear a piece of paper into the shape of an elephant in the dark. The results were ridiculous, particularly mine which bore no resemblance to the big beast whatsoever. Mike's was outstanding and was promptly awarded the winner. Next was 'Who's in Hat' describing as many famous people to our teams. The finale was our own version of Mr and Mrs with questions set by Moira and myself for the girls and by Mike and Fraser for the boys. It was so funny and some of the answers given by everyone were outrageous. A very very funny evening.

The following day, nursing very bad hangovers we braved the weather and went for a new years day walk to a national park which was just the tonic. It was very misty and eerie but very beautiful and a much needed cure to the headaches. After an easy evening in front of the TV and an early night we set off the next morning for our long drive home. A fabulous trip away.