Monday 24th December – day 65
Day of preparation for tomorrow for some of us, and a day of reinstalling the PC for Chris!!
Al and Vic set off for London, we go on to the wrinkly’s (Ma and Pa) for supper then on to Midnight Mass, before returning to Al and Vic’s for bed.
Tuesday 25th December - day 66
A truly wrinkly Christmas, no kids rummaging loudly through their stockings, a quiet get up, and down to Ma and Pa’s for elevenses. We decided to have the “salmon stuffed with avocado cream cheese and lemon” for our lunch, rather than as our starter later, so lunched, then there was a lot of sitting round and nattering, until it was nearly time for the Queens speech. As Chris and I are not yet old enough to understand the Queens speech we set off for a magical misty walk by the river towards Brungly.
Day of preparation for tomorrow for some of us, and a day of reinstalling the PC for Chris!!
Al and Vic set off for London, we go on to the wrinkly’s (Ma and Pa) for supper then on to Midnight Mass, before returning to Al and Vic’s for bed.
Tuesday 25th December - day 66
A truly wrinkly Christmas, no kids rummaging loudly through their stockings, a quiet get up, and down to Ma and Pa’s for elevenses. We decided to have the “salmon stuffed with avocado cream cheese and lemon” for our lunch, rather than as our starter later, so lunched, then there was a lot of sitting round and nattering, until it was nearly time for the Queens speech. As Chris and I are not yet old enough to understand the Queens speech we set off for a magical misty walk by the river towards Brungly.
Home then, to finish the 
final preparations for dinner …….. and more nattering ………................ too much nattering in fact as it delayed supper until 7pm, by which time father was in fear that he would not be getting any Christmas dinner. Our reward for serving a perfectly cooked chicken….............Ivanhoe (1950’s version no less) - need I say more.
final preparations for dinner …….. and more nattering ………................ too much nattering in fact as it delayed supper until 7pm, by which time father was in fear that he would not be getting any Christmas dinner. Our reward for serving a perfectly cooked chicken….............Ivanhoe (1950’s version no less) - need I say more. Wednesday 26th December – day 67
Being joined by the kids today, unfortunately Tim can only stay for the day, as… fortunately he secured employm
ent at Tesco’s last week, which is not much short of a miracle, but essential as he needs to earn a lot of money to join a team goin
g to Argentina with Latin Link, but Hannah is staying on for a few days which is lovely.
They arrived just before 10am, and we opened our presents before joining the wrinks.
Al and Vic also made excellent progress back up from London and were able to join us around 2pm, much earlie
r than had been hoped for.
As this was the moment when all would be together, as if by magic, Father Christmas appeared as he does every year, but always just as father leaves the room, we are beginning to wonder if there is a link there, especially as they both seem to be having the same difficulties getting off the floor!!!
They arrived just before 10am, and we opened our presents before joining the wrinks.
Al and Vic also made excellent progress back up from London and were able to join us around 2pm, much earlie
r than had been hoped for.As this was the moment when all would be together, as if by magic, Father Christmas appeared as he does every year, but always just as father leaves the room, we are beginning to wonder if there is a link there, especially as they both seem to be having the same difficulties getting off the floor!!!
Al and Vic left to sleep off their early start, and after Tim had consumed vast quantities of Granby’s meat and potato pie, he also left to pick up Dad from Banbury so that they could both get to work the next day, ah for them.
Thursday 27th December – day 68
Today is our family’s official feast day, so best frocks on and prepare for fun and games. Al and Vic were hosting this so Hannah and I went out for a lovely coffee. On return, our job was to make encouraging noises, sport our most helpful facial expressions, and make bruscettas. The wrinks arrived early afternoon, and by 4pm we were sitting down to a feast of bacon stuffed with chicken livers.
Before we were allowed to have the next course - Salmon and Cod Wellington, we had to sing for our supper, well whistle actually, on little tuneless whistles that have been around too long probably, and we had to work together to create a recognisable carol. If there has ever been any doubt before that I belong to a house of chiefs without any Indians it was during that game. Everyone had an instruction that no-one else would follow; if they all had just listened to me we would have got it right straight away!!!!!!
We were rewarded however, with a truly fabulous chocolate sachertorte.
Then just when we were ready to slope off to the settee it was time for ……GAMES.
First Al had set up a racing game using wind up race horses. The races were close run for all except mothers which just went round in circles. Eventually the overall winner had to be the horse that kept going the longest, as none of them could keep going in a s
traight line for long. We then had a competition to see who could make the most convincing looking penguins and polar bears using coloured ba
lls, pipe cleaners and Tescos best templates and glue. We had to work in pairs, and mine was by far and away the best, but Chris lost us the first prize because he would not finish after the whistle blew, shame on him!!Friday 28th December – day 69
A day of departures, Hannah returns to Manchester and Al and Vic set off for Buxton. The three girls attempt a coffee before Hannah (and ALL her bags) get on the train, but the business of making the right travel arrangements makes it somewhat of a hectic affair!!
As Al and Vic are preparing for their journey, we load up our goods and chattels and leave Green Drive for the Orchard, to stay with Ma and Pa for a couple more days. The last few large meals are starting to settle in places where they should not, so Chris and I set off for a route march around Clitheroe Castle. Two minutes down the road and the heavens open, we foolishly carried on regardless, and by the time we had reached the castle we were utterly soaked, and the plod back was squelchy indeed;
although atmospheric, as the wind was up and driving the rain horizontally around us, as well as the homey smells of coal and wood smoke from home fires, increasing our eagerness for home comforts.
Saturday 29th December – day 70
We were determined to get out into the fresh air today, but the weather forecast was doubtful, a running theme by now! But again we set off resolutely, for Barrowford, to wa
lk along the Leeds/Liverpool Canal. We started well with a lovely homemade soup at the Pendle Heritage Centre (picture taken from the web as too wet to take a photo!!) and finished well with a lovely warming brandy/beer at the Assheton Arms in Downham, but the walk in the middle (which lasted over 2 hours) was very wet, cold and did not always reward with stunning views, although the walk along the towpath and back up the steep windy back lanes was worth the effort. And as you can imagine we did not meet too many people on our walk.Sunday 30th December – day 71
We left the wrinks (to recover we think!) at midday to travel down to Malmesbury for the New Year celebrations.
The journey was lengthy, because of queues, but also possibly because we found ourselves on the toll road by mistake, but we arrived at Anne and Andy’s by 6pm. This gave us just enough time to unpack, wash and set off across the road with our hosts to Jill and Martins for supper. We were joined also by Di & Ian and Sue & Al, and we had a lovely evening catching up with friends. 
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