I know it’s still November but it always starts to feel like Christmas after my children’s school fair and this year was no exception.

There was a wooden chalet for Santa’s grotto, real reindeer and if all that wasn’t enough there was even a snow machine! It really was a magical day and there was such a lovely community feeling with local businesses exhibiting such as the homemade honey stall, hair bands from Sophie Sparkles and a yummy sweet stall from Ogden’s Sweet shop.

Our family Christmas jumpers made an appearance as did Papa which was great and he even managed to sit on Santa’s knee ha ha.  Freya and Rory filled in their letters to Santa which was great, they were asked to write three things that they had done well this year and then what they would like as a special gift on Christmas day.  Rory asked for hot wheels and after years of Freya asking for lovely little gifts like a bone for her toy dog and cold chocolate which caused a lot of confusion for Santa this year she’s asked for ……….an ipad mini – arrrrrrrgh!!!  I guess it’s still November so hopefully she’ll change her mind… We’ve already got a Samsung Galaxy that Freya isn’t at all interested in so I’m sure she just wants it because that’s what her friends are asking for so we’ll see how we get on.

This year we’re going to be hosting and cooking the Christmas dinner for the first time which is a little daunting but saying that it will be Tim doing the cooking as I’m not confident at cooking at all– it’s bad enough making food every day as my culinary skills are not the best.. Tim on the other hand really enjoys cooking so I’m happy to leave it in his capable hands.

So the countdown is now on and we’ve started booking lots of fun day trips and of course our annual pantomime which this year is going to be Mother Goose at Oldham Coliseum.