Father Christmas turned out to be the hero of the day and, as promised, delivered the Drum Kit. Beforehand, helpful friends, family and neighbours were advising me that I should ask Father Christmas for a set of ear plugs. I thought they were exaggerating! It turns out that even mini-sized drum kits make a LOT of sound! By 9am on Christmas morning, my ears were ringing and my head hurt. Thinking about it, it was a good job we were in rural Herefordshire, surrounded by fields and sheep! Needless to say, Anna was completely amazed at how magical it all was and adored her noise-making machine, AKA her drum kit (as she still adores it 3 months later)
Christmas day was spent at my brother's house this year. He has recently moved into an old farmhouse complete with 600 sheep, 20 cats and 3 dogs (Steve's wife is a farmer). As the snow lay very thick outside, we faced the day in a very old house with no central heating, very old windows and not much heat insulation going on. Thankfully, they knew how to build houses in the old days and each room had a beautiful inglenook fireplace with a roaring fire! It just felt right for a Christmas day. Along with Carolyne's side of the family, 13 of us sat down to Christmas lunch. I thought it was extremely brave of Steve and Carolyne, considering they had never had a dinner party before, let alone hosted Christmas. I have always known that Steve is a good chef but it turns out Carolyne is even better and, between them (albeit mostly Carolyne) they can't half cook a good Christmas feast! It was also lovely to know that what we were eating was all Herefordshire grown/produced food! You can't beat it when it is born and bred in Herefordshire (including my good self!!!)!
The highlight of Christmas came in the afternoon. Feeling very full on a gorgeous Christmas lunch, we decided to take a walk through the fields thick with snow. Hereford seemed to have much more snow than Cheshire so I had already phoned ahead in the days leading up to Christmas, asking my mum to see if she could find a sledge. My mum didn't disappoint and so, trailing our little red sledge behind us, we climbed the Herefordshire hills, overlooking the farm and most of Herefordshire beyond!
We found the perfect hill for sledging! Just the right gradient so we didn't go too fast for Anna but yet still thrilling enough to excite, with enough flat ground at the bottom to come to a slow halt before crashing though the hedge! Anna adored it and actually proved to be the best sledder amongst us, finding the freshly made grooves in the snow so that the sledge slid smoothly and even faster with every turn. I have to say I was pretty good myself! James... well... he actually fell off more times than everyone else put together! He blames Science as he was trying to place his feet in the optimum position for the least amount of wind resistance! Anna and I didn't put half as much thought into it and were much more successful! Sometimes, over-thinking can be a downfall!
I also have to confess at this point that it was the true definition of 'Lazy Sledging'. Let me explain... my brother had recently acquired a new toy which was basically a little quad-like vehicle (although much safer than a quad but I fail to think of the right word to describe it). It basically meant that when we landed at the bottom of this steep hill, Uncle Steve would pick us up, fling the sledge in the trailer at the back and drive us back up to the top! Steve was getting to try out his new toy in the snow while we were getting all the fun of sledging without any of the work - perfect! In fact, I think Anna enjoyed the ride in the quad nearly as much as the sledging itself, especially when Uncle Steve let her steer the wheel!
So, as the sun began to set over Herefordshire, we made our back through the snow to the farmhouse, watching the smoke rise from the chimney and knowing that we had lots of Chocolate roulade, my nan's sherry triffle and leftover turkey to consume! (Writing this makes it sound very idyllic and makes me wonder whether I dreamt it rather than it being a reality but we have photos to prove it was true, plus James and Anna remember it just as perfectly as I do so it really was that gorgeous!) Who needs expensive presents when you have all that!
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