One word? When seven would do…

I knew we’d always struggle to match the magic of last years pretty near perfect Christmas Camp at Helmsley. The snow, the prettiness of the venue, the slightly smaller and therefore more initimate group of friends feel to the gathering all contributed to a holiday that leaves all four of us misty eyed when we think of it. We also got to extend our holiday by staying with friends in Leeds on the way up and of course having the best part of daylight hours travelling home on the last day.

But this year way more people wanted to come – and very pleased I was to have all of them there – but it meant Helmsley simply wasn’t big enough for us, and actually maybe you should never go back and try to recreate anyway. Truleigh Hill was tried and tested from 2 years ago, cheap, available and large enough (with some creative of theoretical bodies). There are benefits – Ady and I had a ten minute journey there on Monday and the same back home again today, we were able to justify taking both our cars so brought up a Christmas tree and did an online food shop which arrived at our house on Monday morning and was put straight from the ASDA lorry into the back of Ady’s car – wish someone else had done the walking up all the stairs with food for 50 people for four days mind you, that was a bit of a killer!

Whenever I talk to people about our Christmas camps (at work, friends etc.) they always think it sounds like such a wonderful thing to do. I love that alongside Davies and Scarlett’s memories of Christmas with Ady and I, their grandparents, uncles, cousins etc they will also have memories of sitting at great long tables filled with all their very best friends pulling Christmas crackers, singing Christmas songs, exchanging presents and just spending that time with the people who we now consider as much our family as those we are related to.

Monday Was really very laid back for a holiday start. We got up, leisurely packed up clothes, cameras, various chargers and other such essentials including a Christmas tree and lights. We wrapped the secret santa presents, took delivery of a huge online food shop and I nipped up to Sainburys for the last couple of bits I’d forgotten to add or had been missing off the order. We were a bit on the random side about eating lunch, I think the kids did but I didn’t manage to – not sure about Ady, and we were off!

We arrived at the hostel, were greeted by the hostel manager and his sidekick (Bearded and Non-bearded) and set about bringing all the food upstairs and getting the kitchen organised. Davies and Scarlett chatted to Bearded about Star Wars videos and we borrowed some bluetac so Ady and I could whizz round and allocate rooms with names on doors. While still doing this Layla and Si arrived :). Others arrived in a steady stream – memorable were Chris and Helen for the vast quantities of crispage and cake they came bearing (in the style of gold, frankincense and myrrh). We’d just about started to fret on the whereabout of Jan and Jonathan when they too arrived, which just left The Babs who was supposed to be late and ended up not as late as she’d expected. It was all a bit alternate reality with the order of arrivals to be honest!

Alys’ birthday was celebrated with games, pass the parcel, gifts given, Happy Birthday sung and cake candles blown out.

Wine was mulled 🙂

We had pasta for first night meal, which we did plain, pesto, tomato, bolognaise with or without cheese, all served with garlic bread. I have to concede to first in a series of Things I Learnt In The Kitchen This Week # 1
Ady was right, it would have been to cook the pasta in several small pans rather than one large vat.

As ever evenings begin to merge but it’s safe to say it was 3am ish.

Tuesday Scarlett was still very hopeful (as were we all) that Alex would be arriving at some point so kept badgering me for updates. She was very upset when it eventually became obvious she wouldn’t be making it :(. There was some crafting – thanks to all who brought the various lovely things for the children to do. I reached sitting around doing not a lot saturation point so went off to do some baking and was joined by Katy doing more of the same. I really enjoyed the interludes with various people in the kitchen – Bob, Katy, Jan, Babs, Michelle and of course Alison who was in the kitchen for about every minute I was too (thankyou darling x) – we covered all sorts of things from religion, careers, callings, philosophy and more of the life story stuff that I love hearing about people. 🙂

Dinner was stew so we had the customary dumpling tossing event by Scarlett, Alison and I (oh how I have missed Alison for that!) and Tilda came and had a few shots too. Scarlett accidentally discovered a new move for 2009 of the ‘bounceback’ which involved hitting the wall above and splashing back into the pan. I think only 3 dumplings were lost (down the back of the cooker) to the cause 😆

The stew didn’t manage to be properly traditional in that it failed to stick to the pan but I don’t think anything was lost by that 😆

Another evening, more crisps, more cake, more alcohol, I laughed until my sides hurt at various things but specifically remember Ady tellling the testicle story which gets embellished slightly more every time I hear it but never fails to be very entertaining.

Wednesday We had our visit to the South Downs Planetarium. The man I’d been booking it through by email rang me in the morning to ask which way we were coming so I passed my phone to Ady, who has lived and worked in Chichester for about 450 years so knows it really well and they had a nice chat about how it was in the grounds of Ady’s old school and he’d get to drive past the bike sheds he used to smoke behind and the fields he played football on as a lad. It all seemed very amicable and they agreed the right way in would be the route we’ve taken the last twice we’ve gone. At no point, unfortunately did either of them mention satnavs, which is a shame as it turns out their postcode doesn’t actually lead you there:(.

We’d debated a convoy but actually 6 or 7 cars is pretty tricky to convoy and as everyone either had a satnav in their car or was following just one other car with one and I was getting stressed about us not leaving at 1030 like I’d wanted to we headed off thinking we’d arrive at most five minutes before everyone else and be able to introduce ourselves, work out prices and so on. So we drove straight there, pulled up, were greeted by the very grumpy man who asked ‘where’s all the rest then?’ and was horrified when I assured him they were but a few minutes behind us and all had satnav disclosing that that wouldn’t actually get them there!

I’d already talked to Fran / Merry once so between us Ady and I rang everyone else and talked them in from the incorrect postcode sat nav (street name was fine, so some people arrived just fine anyway) but the man had a very strange manner about him and was utterly intolerant of us being even slightly behind schedule. The other men there were very relaxed and assured us not to worry, took us into a hall where we could leave our coats etc and then took us through in groups to the planetarium.

This was our third visit there (we saw an ‘in the sky this month’ show and a ‘whistlestop tour of the planets’ show, both by the same, older presenter who was excellent so I was a bit worried that the far younger man who was doing our presentation wouldn’t be as good. It was an utterly groundless fear as he was fab. 🙂 The show was a little bit of everything – taking in the sky tonight at four different times going from sunset through to the early hours. He talked about light pollution, pointed out various constellations and stars, all planets visible in the sky currently, the moon and it’s phases. Then he talked about the solar system and did a show of all the planets (and dwarf planet), asteroid belt, sun, moon, stars etc. We took in the Northern Lights before finally seeing sunrise and the sky lightening. He then did a very lengthy Q&A session with the kids and did a fab job of answering the amazing array of questions he was asked. Most were very sensible, very well framed questions on everything from why we don’t have east and west poles, to what do we think caused the big bang and whether two stars crashing together would form one bigger star. I was really proud of the all the children for sitting still, clearly being interested, asking questions that showed they’d taken in what was said and wanting to know more. It was ace 🙂

Back to the hostel, via home where I picked up Scarlett’s birthday cake and some towels. Most people had already arrived back and were tucking into a late lunch. We had one of my favourite conversations of the week which involved the signs in swimming pools telling you what you aren’t allowed to do. Some people claimed to have never seen one 😯

The children who had wanted to put on a caberet show for us. This included a few instruments, plenty of singing, a couple of jokes and a play. It was, as ever, entertaining and charming :).

We got curry going for dinner, I assembled Scarlett’s rainbow cake which had, as I feared, lost it’s layers but gained a very bright marbled effect, made all the more lurid with green coloured cream and smarties! We sang Happy Birthday, she blew out the candles and was presented with some very lovely presents – thanks all. She did one of the kits that evening, has done several more since we’ve been home today and has gone to bed wearing her buff and fingerless mittens every night 🙂 She is clearly very well known by you all as you got it spot on 🙂

Curry was good, it smelt even better when some people had seconds at about 11pm and then again the next morning for breakfast / lunch :). As is traditional on ‘Christmas Eve’ several of us were in the kitchen til nearly 11pm peeling, chopping and prepping veg. I was not one of the last to bed but when I was droopy of eyelid at 130am ish I thought bed was a sensible place to go.

Thursday Was Christmas Day :). Ady got the turkey in nice and early so it could cook slowly and it was delicious :). We put the first shifts of roast potatoes in the oven and I had Things I Learn In The Kitchen #2 when I discovered, fortunately in time, that lard is not as I had always thought a vegetable oil product but a pork one!!!! 😯 I’d always thought it was dripping that was meaty and lard that was not and clearly as I’ve never had to check before it’s never been a false assumption I’ve had corrected. Barbara’s horrified facial expression is one that will stay with me forever though 😆 Luckily I’d only basted the first two trays of potatoes so we were able to clearly mark those as not for veggies and ensure everything else was suitable for veggies.

A fair few of us had planned to head out, lead by Marcus, for a geocache walk that morning so we set off, with miles of sky above streaked with all sorts of potential weather. The first clue was based on the sign outside the hostel itself so the children worked that out and we headed off using the coordinates from that. I have to say I’ve never known such a successful geocache as we found both the little cache with the next set of coordinates and the big main cache too.

The walk was nice, very up and down hill and included some muddy and rough terrain aswell as finishing with a short walk through some very large shrubby trees which meant the whole thing felt very much like we were walking through the pages of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. This feeling was compounded by hurting, chilling hail on the very last leg of the walk. Scarlett and I fell out over her refusal to stay still and be in the self timer photo we took although we made up pretty quickly. I walked the last bit with Michelle and we ended up first back at the hostel by quite a margin aside from Elijah who whizzed past us on his bike right at the end, closely followed by Kit and Johnathan, hare and tortoise stylee who ran past us at the very end to claim their positions! 😆

I put a vat of mulled wine on and we got stuck into getting Christmas dinner happening. Alison and I made mince pies on the basis we were in the kitchen anyway and then went out to watch the Christmas carols that Helen, Em and a couple of others had worked really hard with instrument playing children to pull together. We had a lovely sing-song. I learnt that many notes in descant versions of carols are now beyond my reach, but I had a go anyway.

Tables were laid, some people got changed and a very efficient human chain of platers, servers and eaters was set up which meant I think we had first to last person served within about 10 minutes. Given our incredibly limited kitchen space, oven facilities, workspace and other handicaps I think we pulled off a remarkable feat once again :). Ady and I were very well thanked by infact Chris and Alison had easily as much of a part in it as we did and there were several others who were equally heroic in making it happen. Along with the people who cleared it all away again afterwards.

Marcus and Michelle – do they wash up? Yes they wash up!

Mince pies went in the now empty ovens and we did secret santa. I think every single person was really pleased with what they unwrapped :).Again, I love how well people know each other and how the gifts reflected in-jokes, known interests, skills of the giver and how much thought, love and inspiration had gone into the gifts :).

The children had watched a film during the afternoon and the original plan was for the adults to do the same in the evening but once we’d all had Christmas pudding, mince pies, custard and cream noone felt inclined to do too much. Ady and I were very slack and decided to let Davies and Scarlett stay up, aslong as they were out of the way as long as they liked. Elinor, Chloe and Freya joined in and the five of them had a lovely last night playing together. I’m not at all sure they managed to not disturb anyone else which was our other condition of the late night but they had a ball.

We made the most of the very last night and for the last three of us – Helen, Alison and I, it was our latest night of the week. Lovely to sit and chat with lovely friends though.

Friday Came around all too quick and morning was even more unwelcome on about four hours sleep. We put the hostel back as we found it and people gradually drifted off. Last to leave were Chris and Helen, us, Michelle and Babs who left in that order down the windy lane. Scarlett loved having friends sandwiching us for part of the way home. Ady ran Ali and Freya to the station and we arrived back at home at almost the same time. Let the chickens out, cleared up protests from Candle and were eating turkey sandwiches within the hour!

We had a very quiet afternoon with baths all round, Davies did the dragon puppet he’d brought home from camp to do and Tarly did the fimo-alike stuff she was given as a present. I began flickring. Early dinner followed by early bed for Davies and Scarlett and a relatively early dinner and very early night for us.

It was a fab week, already missing having all my friends around. Thanks to all who came, here’s to next year!