What A Lovely English Christmas We Had

It's nearly midnight on Friday, so I will do  a quick Christmas roundup post.

We had an interesting drive down to Kent on 23rd Dec - high winds and lots of rain!!  On the way we met up with a couple of old Aussie friends at some Services, where we had a quick catch up of the last two years!  They also, very kindly, furnished us with a supply of Tim Tams to keep us going!

We arrived late on 23rd, so called it a day after a long day travelling in harsh elements!

The next morning ... our campsite was virtually deserted ...



 On Christmas eve day we caught up with Elaine's Sister, Brother in Law and one of her neices, Josie and had a lovely cruisy day with them.


This is Elaine's sister, Julie feeding the boys.  Sammie doesn't do tricks.

Posing dogs ...

On Christmas morning it was all hands to deck and so here I am wrapping those pigs in blankets ...

Elaine having a hug with niece, Josie ...

I have a fat gut so she has to hug my neck!

The girls in the kitchen ...

Josie, brother in law, Paul and myself nipped down the pub at noon on Christmas day for a swift one and a bit. Good to see that dogs were welcome on Christmas Day ...

Then it was back to the house where we were joined by Elaine's other niece, Leyna, hubby Bill and lovely little great nieces, Connie and Evie ...

It was a bit hectic for the boys so they had a kip ...

Sammie chillin' with the girls ...

Time to carve up that big bird ...

Yum yum.....poor old Elaine, I ate so many Brussels ...

Elaine with great niece, Connie and little Sammie ...

On Boxing day we went for a walk around Mote park, which was just at the end of the road.

Santa was driving one of the miniature steam trains ...

Smoke gets in your eyes ...

Strollin in the park ...

Sisters ...

Sisters feeding very tame swans ...

Mote Hall ...

There had been a massive amount of rain in Kent over the last few days, but it wasn't going to stop this lot from enjoying their day out in the park ...

So that was Christmas, and it was so delightfully English.  Many thanks to Elaine's sister Julie and hubby Paul for inviting us to their lovely Granary for Christmas, we loved every bit of it.

We left Kent on Friday morning to head back to the boat.  We stopped off to see my Mum, who was staying with my sister in Luton.  A good thing that we discovered on this visit was that the motorhome fitted in her driveway, so we will go down again for an extended visit taking the menagerie with us!

We were going to stop off at Milton Keynes, but the traffic was horrendous on the M1.  In the end we turned off the motorway and went up the A roads ... we got back to the boat eventually!!  The boat always looks huge after we have been out in the motorhome!  

Tomorrow we will finish upacking, washing and cleaning etc after our trip away ... things get messy with us and five animals on board !!