Happy New Year everyone, I hope it’s a prosperous and healthy one for you!
Today is my Birthday and I’m not always too happy about that. For many reasons, it actually kinda sucks, and here’s why:
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My favourites of 2017
Hello again, I hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas! Surprisingly to some, I’ve only had this blog since the beginning of the year. I’m proud of where I’ve got to with it so far. The end of the year always brings with it a pensive mood. I don’t usually take the time at the end of each year to reflect on what’s happened. However, this year I feel that it’s important to.
This year, we’ve lost people some people who were very dear to us. Going into 2018 feels like taking yet another step further away from them, in some respects. However, as sad as it may be, life does go on. They wouldn’t want me to be sitting here dwelling on them. They’d want me to look at the positives, knowing that they’ll always be in my heart and remain a part of me as the years progress. My long-forgotten New Year’s Resolution was to be more positive this year. So here we go, let’s go out with a final big bang of positivity with my favourites of this year!
Meeting Farmer Christmas at Broadditch Farm
On Monday, Autumn, Dave and I went to meet Farmer Christmas at Broadditch Farm. Yes, that’s right. Not “Father Christmas”, FARMER Christmas! I’ve been to Broadditch in Southfleet, Kent (near Gravesend) before for their Halloween and Easter events. They’ve been fantastic and there is also a wonderful farm shop I enjoy visiting. However, I’d never taken part in any of their Christmas activities before.
The best Santa’s Grottos often sell out weeks or even months in advance, so I quickly booked us in at the beginning of November. Funnily enough, it was the first Santa’s grotto I booked into, but the last one we’ll actually visit before Christmas! We saw Santa at a local preloved sale at the beginning of last month and again at Bluestone the following week.
Please excuse the quality of the photos in this post. It was dark and I only had my phone’s camera with me!
Rochester Dickensian Christmas Weekend 2017
A couple of weekends ago, we went to Rochester Christmas Market. We chose that particular weekend, as it was also the Dickensian Christmas Weekend. Charles Dickens lived locally in Higham and many of his novels were inspired by the surrounding area. This is one of two festivals in Rochester throughout the year in which Dickens enthusiasts, re-enactors and many others gather and celebrate Charles Dickens with members of the public.
We arrived just in time for one of the first parades of the day. It’s always such a delight to see so many beautiful outfits and smiley faces. It’s great fun and feels very festive!
Elves Behavin’ Badly
I’m a bit late blogging about it. I’ve been ill with one thing or another for the vast majority of the past 3 months. This has put me behind with absolutely everything! Obviously, Autumn, my day job and any paid commitments on the blog have had to come first.
Anyway, a couple of months ago I got an email saying that I’d won a competition with Elves Behavin’ Badly. It was something I entered at Blog On Xmas. It was a total surprise, as I thought it had probably already been drawn by then! The elves at the event loved my turkey hat and that clinched my prize!