Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

With all this unseasonal weather its been hard to start even really thinking about Christmas - plus all the chaos caused by my poorly car! This weekend however I think things might change. Last year on this date I had headed off to Derbyshire for the Single With Kids Christmas weekend at Hargate Hall. We woke on the Saturday to snow which really put us all in the right mood for a Christmas themed weekend!

A year ago

This year I've not been able to afford to go but instead I'm able to take part at my church's (St Thomas' Kendal) Advent Fair selling Usborne books. I've spent a chunk of this evening getting the Christmas bits together for my stall and my daughter is running a nail bar next to me (very enterprising at aged 8!). With Sunday being the official start of Advent this is a Christmas themed event with lots going on and things to buy.


Next Friday is the inaugural Staveley Winter Festival and from 16:00-21:30 there are things happening all over the village:

I am running an Usborne stall in the Winter Festival Market based at World of Stone (No 3 on the map). I wish I was going to be able to see all the other things going on but guess I'll just have to send my family out to enjoy themselves with the grandparents instead! If you are in the area on the 2nd December it will be well worth a visit.

On the 3rd its my family's traditional "first Saturday in December" Christmas decorating day. The kids have a fairly free rein to cover the house in our Christmas decorations. We only have room for a 3ft fake tree but it will really gets us all feeling really Christmassy!

Single With Kids Xmas Party Weekend at Hargate Hall

First of all a big thank you to Chrissie at Single With Kids for inviting me along to this Christmas weekend with my children. I have been wanting to try out one their single parent holidays for a while now and this was too good an opportunity to miss!


The weekend guest list included about 35 children and their parents. The setting was Hargate Hall at Wormhill in Derbyshire which is a converted country house that is now holiday apartments with some communal areas. My children and I were very excited as we drove up a twisting country road in the dark and saw the lights of the house ahead.