Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and a bit in between

On Christmas Eve we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk at Frampton-on-Severn, a little way up the road from us.

It's a very old village, with the largest village green in England - some 22 acres.  Along the edges are Tudor and Georgian houses and cottages.  It's a beautiful place for a walk at any time, but on Christmas Eve it was magical to see twinkling lights in the windows.  Christmas Eve is one of my favourite days.  All that anticipation and excitement.  Everything just looks perfect.  I took lots of photos as we wandered along.

Love this one, it's amazing.  Above and below are shots from a slightly different angle to give an idea of the size and spread of it.  I believe it dates from the 15th century.

The village is low lying and close to two rivers, the Severn and the Frome.  After all the rain there was a lot of water in the fields.

We walked the length of the village, until the edge was taken off of the little people.  They all declared their legs to be tired by the time we returned.  Mission accomplished.

Christmas Day was quiet but good.  We made a hospital visit in the afternoon, and on the way back we stopped to see a nearby house that's lit up every year for charity.

Visitors are welcome to walk into the garden and up to the door.  It really is quite astonishing.  I'm guessing their electricity bill is too.

After Christmas we have a little tradition of going to Weston-super-Mare to walk along the beach.  We do this on Boxing Day or New Year's Day, depending on the weather.  As Boxing Day was fine, we went while we could.  The beach is vast, a huge space for running in the cold fresh air after being cooped up inside on Christmas Day.  There are always lots of other people with dogs and boys doing exactly the same thing.

Back at home we're enjoying our Christmas presents, especially Monopoly and a complicated train board game.  We're managing not to squabble (too much) over them.  And we're working our way through the gingerbread house.

 

And yes, I know it doesn't look exactly like Mary Berry's...  There's a big gap in the roof, the icing dropped into the candle inside and the tree fell down.  I was tempted to try lighting the candle anyway, but I thought that it might result in clouds of black smoke billowing out of the door.  Might have made for a good shot.  Anyway, I've been doing my bit to help eat it.  It's surprisingly delicious.  And surprisingly vast.  I'll press on.