• Our tour of the north continued, the electric jeep masculine working flawlessley to ship us through the damp hills.
• Bollington, a quick overnight and an ascent of the local pilgrim route, White Nancy. The kids left with granny, digging through remnants of classic Lego kits from my childhood.
• Sale. A stay with good friends who escaped London and now live in a beautiful street with friendly neighbours. We watched Jools, played trivia games and the eldest stayed up to the real new years moment.
• Huddersfield. Icy canal paths and pastries with my sister & bro-in-law. A cosy Airbnb and some proper belly laughs. The youngest and I make an excellent Dixit team. We ate home made pizza and local fish and chips.
• Sheffield and a quick stop to open secret Santa gifts with the kids cousins. A walk around forge dam and some lovely trees to climb. Then we covered the remaining route to London in darkness with both Lego movies back-to-back-in-the-back.
• The eldest showed some true responsibility this weekend by walking to the library on her own and returning a book, choosing another book and returning home. All without any issue. This is the year of increased horizons of trust.
• We hosted some close friends and their kids for a pizza night that ended with the after eight game. Something I’ve not played for a great many years but was reminded how very very good it is. Respectable, grown people wiggling every muscle on their face, tongues lolling out of the corners of their mouths, melting chocolates refusing to descend, brown chocolate smears. Hilarious.