Baby Bethany's First Birthday and Dedication

At the very beginning of January Lee and I first of all headed to Penistone for some brunch and some other stuff. We went to Cafe Creme for a breakfast sandwich each, and we most likely popped in to the market too for some cheese and butter. 

Then we went to the dedication and first birthday party of my friend Michelle's second baby, Bethany. We got to Leeds for the service, and met our friends Gillian and Tom and their two kids. Then afterwards we headed off to Gomersal Park Hotel - which is also where we got married way back in 2005 - for the party. Michelle throws an excellent party so each table had a jar of sweeties and some decorations. We say with Gillian and Tom but their girls went off to play in the play area. 

There was a buffet a bit later on and it was delicious. Gillian's mum had recently died so we were talking about that and hopefully comforted her a little bit. Bethany had an absolutely beautiful cake and we left with a piece of that each, at about 6pm. I clearly didn't take a photo of my outfit, but I do remember it was church appropriate! But I was wearing my new Snag tights that my aunt and uncle bought me for Christmas. I already had a pair of tights in this colour and when I saw them with the glittery snowflakes on I couldn't resist them. They're absolutely gorgeous but they were shedding glitter all over the place! 

I will also say that just the day before the party, my mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had it forty years ago when I was a very small baby, and has been well all this time. At her routine mammogram in November, they found an extremely tiny tumour and did further testing before Christmas. She had a mastectomy at the end of January and recovered well from the surgery. As I write this she's about ten days post surgery and is doing pretty well. But of course this was a huge stress for her and for all of us, so January and Christmas were actually just a bit crap for us. I do want to document this here because I think it's important to do so. 

Tights and boots before we set off

Some weak sunshine in Penistone

Egg, mushroom and has brown sandwich. I had a hot chocolate too 

The gorgeous cake

And here's Michelle and the birthday girl herself!

Films of the Month - December

I watched fifteen films in December 2024, which is an average number for me. I saw most of them with other people, which isn't that usual for December because I seem to just be more social then! Here's what I saw: 

I've never seen a Carry On film so when I happened to see one on ITV so I decided to watch it. And I actually quite liked it. Yes they're ridiculous, but it was fun and funny, for the most part

I watched Unicorns and really liked it, I would recommend it

Sam and Jac and I watched Life on the Murder Scene when we were together because we had been talking about it. It's so ridiculous, it's a documentary about the band and it is just so much fun. We enjoyed it

Then we watched Annie together which is one of my favourite musicals of all time but I hadn't seen it in absolutely age 

finally Sam and Jac and I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks just because it happened to be available and we all like it, but I do really like it, it reminds me of being very little

A few people were talking about That Christmas when it came out on Netflix so I watched it. It's really cute, I would recommend it whether you have kids or not

Lee and I watched Home Alone 2 Lost in New York together which I do like, we generally watch the first one but hadn't seen this one in ages

I absolutely loved the book The Secret Scripture when I read it years and years ago and I happened to notice there is a film of it which had passed me by before. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation. It's a sad story though

Lee and I couldn't see Gremlins at the cinema like we wanted to because other plans got in the way, so we made sure to watch it a couple of weeks before Christmas. I think I've only seen it once before so I hadn't remembered a lot of it, so it was good to see again

Lee and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol which is a classic for me, I love it so much

Then a few days later we watched Die Hard which is also a Christmas classic, isn't it? 

We were scrolling through the films on Lee's media player thing when I noticed Solo, which I think we've only seen a couple of times, so I suggested it. I like it, I think it's a decent addition to the canon

Then I had a long gap over Christmas and family stuff, but when Lee and I were away we had Netflix so he was scrolling through and he noticed this. I haven't ever seen it so I was willing to watch it. I liked it - not my favourite Adam Sandler film but it was pretty good

Next I made Lee watch Paddington because he had never seen it. He liked it. We'll have to get round to watching the second two too 

Finally we watched Demolition Man on New Year's Eve, which I hadn't ever seen it. It was fine. I'm not a fan of Sylvester Stallone, but I quite liked it

Trip to Haworth - Day 2 - New Year's Eve

Wednesday was New Year's Eve! We had decided to just stay in in the evening and not worry about people and crowds. During the day we wanted to walk round Haworth as Lee never has, and I hadn't been in a really long time. We didn't get up too early and we watched some TV then set off for the town centre at about 11 o'clock I'm guessing. We parked by the parsonage and walked down on to Main Street. The first shop we went into was The Cabinet of Curiosities, which sells bath salts and wax melts and other gorgeous goods, as well as books. I bought one packet of wax melts which was very restrained of me, I thought. We went in nearly every shop all the way down the street. We wanted to eat lunch in the Old Post Office but it was full, so we went into a cafe called Cobbles and Clay which turned out to be lovely. I had a chai latte and this delicious bhaji butty which came with Bombay mix on it and delicious chutneys. I decided I would make myself something like this at home, which we did in mid January! 

We bought cakes in the bakery and carried on down the hill. Lee left me in Haworth Old Hall and went back to get the car because I had walked a long way by then and was feeling a bit done in. The pub was really busy so we sat in one of the sheds in the garden which wasn't too cold for a bit. I had a glass of red wine.

Then we went on a drive up to Penistone Hill. I know that I couldn't walk all the way to Top Withens, which is somewhere that inspired Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, as it's about two and a half miles from the car park over rough ground. So we just went to the car park instead. It was blowing a gale and it was wild, but it was lovely to go up there. 

We went back to the flat and watched a film for a bit and then I had a bath. I had some Lush melts that you can use in the bath so I chucked that in and a lot of bubble bath too. It was lovely to just wallow for a while. Lee had a bath too and then we got dressed to go out for a drink. We went up to a pub near the parsonage and managed to get a table. They were closing at 8pm or something but it was before that. We sat in the room with the pool table so we had a game when some other people had finished. We had a couple of drinks and then went back to the flat. 

We watched a film - I think in total we watched four films on New Year's Eve, haha - and then put Jools Holland on at 11.30. There were some fireworks at midnight but we couldn't see any from the flat unfortunately. But it was a lovely, relaxed NYE and I'm glad we went away together. We didn't sleep great because of the upstairs neighbours and on New Year's Day we just came home and chilled out! 

This shop is so gorgeous, it looks so lovely and the Christmas display looked so pretty too 

Looking down Main Street from the top 

Here's Lee in Cobbles and Clay which was busy but not heaving

And here I am. I only took the two dresses with me so wore the rose print one again

Chai latte

And my lovely butty

With my hat on getting ready to go back out into the cold

Looking up Main Street from the bottom 

Look at this sign on a shop in the village! It is really cool how there is Bronte history everywhere

Here we are outside in one of the little sheds in the beer garden of Haworth Old Hall

Up on the moors - it is so beautiful up there

The sign pointing the way to Top Withens

Here I am on a little bit of the moors

Cornflake cake back in the flat while we relaxed and got warm again

Chucking some of the Lush melt into the bath. The tub was huge and I was so relaxed 

And finally here's one of the drinks I had in the pub!

Trip to Haworth - Day 1

On the 30th of December Lee and I went to Haworth for New Year! We had had a really crap couple of months with one thing and another so we decided to treat ourselves for a couple of nights away. We didn't book it until just before Christmas. We had seen another place that we liked but it didn't get confirmed so we ended up in this basement flat a little bit away from the main street. It was really cute. It had a lot of steps down to it but I was okay getting up and down. In the flat there was a really deep step (which we were warned about, so it was fine) and I managed it - Lee helped me sometimes and I made sure to bring my stick down with me from the car to help. 

We had plans to see our friends Leanne and Adi and their daughter April so we headed off to theirs first in north Leeds. I had told Leanne that we were going out for tea so she just made some snacks for lunch. I took my Christmas cake too so we could all have a piece. We just chatted for ages and it was really nice, to just chill. We had had a busy Christmas week and had had a chilled weekend after my cousin and aunt and uncle had left, which I was glad for, but it was nice to go out and see our friends too. 

We set off from Leanne's at maybe 2pm and drove in some crappy weather to get to Haworth. Lee has only been once before so he was excited to go. We checked into the flat and sat for a bit watching a film. The sofa was small but the flat was cosy and as you can see there was a bath in the bedroom which was lovely, and one of the reasons we chose to go there. 

During the day I was wearing an old dress from Evans which I've since got rid of because I don't think it fits properly anymore and it can go off to the charity shop. At about 6pm we got ready and went out to Haworth Old Hall. I had booked a table there for 7.30ish but we went a bit earlier to get a drink. I can't remember what I had to drink but it was nice. Then I had cauliflower wings and a vegan burger, which were both lovely and delicious. 

After we had eaten we drove up to the top of Haworth and parked by the Bronte parsonage. We had a bit of a wander around in the dark by the church and the parsonage and the Kings Arms. They all looked beautiful in the winter darkness. After that we just went back to the flat and watched another film I think, before bed. In the evening I was wearing my rose print dress from Simply Be which I really love and like wearing. 

Oh also, my tights! I bought this pair of star print tights from Snag years and years ago and I've worn them to death because I consider them a really neutral pair of tights. The toes were absolutely done in on them and they also had a hole in them. I was gutted because I love them! So I looked on Vinted and there happened to be a pair so I bought them! They were brand new in the packet and hadn't been worn, which was ideal. So I wore them while we were away. 

Looking across to the church from where our flat was

The bath in the bedroom, which was so lovely

This wall was between the bathroom and the bedroom to let some light into the bathroom (it didn't have a window) while still maintaining privacy

This was the huge shower in the bathroom which was also lovely to use

Here's my fake wrapover dress from Evans. I like it but I didn't love it so it went to the charity shop

New to me tights and my boots - I wear these a lot because they're really comfortable and easy to take on and off

Some kind of cocktail in the pub

My cauliflower bites and Lee's soup which was also vegan

Burger and chips

The church in Haworth, where Patrick Bronte was pastor, and where my friend Stacey got married in 2017

The parsonage all lit up at night. I've been round it a few times but Lee never has so we might go back and look round it at some point

The front vista of the church near the iconic steps

This pub is also in God's Own Country as a place where Johnny goes

Finally here I am in my rose print dress before I put my pyjamas on!