The Week Before Christmas

I may as well put all these photos into one post as they all happened the week before Christmas. That week is always so busy! On the Wednesday I went to Meadowhall to meet Chloe and Laura. I think I had a meeting first, so it was about twelve when I got there. I met Chloe at one of the cafes in the middle of the mall and I had some kind of festive hot chocolate, I'm not sure what type but it was definitely delicious. 

We didn't wander around very much which I was glad about because I really didn't need to buy any more things that close to Christmas. We went to The Real Greek for lunch where I had one of their meal deal things that come on an afternoon tea stand. I had hummus and flatbread and roast aubergine kebab stuff, and Greek salad. It was lush - I haven't had the aubergine before but it was really nice and I would eat it again. Everyone else enjoyed theirs, too.

We popped into a couple of shops and then we went to Hotel Chocolat for drinks and cake. I was really full so I just had a mint hot chocolate which was lovely as usual. I guess we left each other about 3pm and I came home and relaxed for a few hours. Lee works in the office in Sheffield on Wednesdays so I know I was by myself!

Not long after he got home we went to Penistone Paramount to see It's A Wonderful Life. I've been to the cinema before but Lee hasn't so he was looking forward to going. It's so cute - it still has an old fashioned curtain that is pulled across and they have an interval so you can have a drink or an ice cream. We took sweets so didn't bother, but it's nice to be able to! I have never seen It's A Wonderful Life before although I've seen it parodied a thousand times, and I really liked it. I'm glad we bothered to go!

On Thursday morning I went to Wakefield to meet my friends Stacey and Gemma for brunch. We went to Pemberley's in Lofthouse which Stacey had recommended. It's really nice and fancy inside and the service is good, but the sausages on my veggie breakfast weren't great. They were like veggie sausages were in the 90s! I then went into Wakefield and did a few errands before Lee came to pikc me up. Gemma was borrowing our second car again as we had no need of it over Christmas and she could make use of it. She's done this a few times now and it's never a bother.

Later on I decorated my Christmas cake. I couldn't be bothered making one and our chef at work always makes big trays full and cuts them into bits to sell, so I knew he would have spare and asked him for some. This was definitely big enough for me, my mum, and my stepdad, as Lee doesn't like Christmas cake and I don't like to eat loads. So I had brought it home that week. It already had marzipan and icing on the top, but I bought some white icing and borrowed some snowflake cutters from a friends and covered the cake in lots of snowflakes which were covered in gold glitter. It was simple but looked really cute I think! 

Festive hot chocolate with Chloe just before Lolly arrived

Greek food which is always lovely

Hot chocolate in Hotel Chocolat a bit later

The three of us in the restaurant

Here's Kiki sitting on me as I relaxed, she's such a cute little dot

At the cinema waiting for the curtains to go up

My brunch the next day, I liked it all except the sausages

Pemberley's used to be a pub and then it was a Chinese restaurant for years. It looked nice all decorated for Christmas

Here's Poppy later that day. I promise Katniss is alright too, I just don't have a current photo of her to share!

And here's my cake when I'd done with it

Weekend with Sam and Jac and Others

On the Sunday morning when Sam and Jac were at mine, we went to Holme Coffee House in Penistone for brunch with Jodie. I love Holme Coffee House, the food is great and they have plenty of vegetarian options. They're currently in a small space and you can't book tables, but in February they are moving across the road to somewhere much bigger. I really recommend them if you're in the area! We didn't know if we would have to wait for a table but Jodie got there about 10.35 and got a table for us. The rest of us joined only a bit later. 

I had a cappucino I think and then a sandwich with a vegan sausage, eggs, and avocado, with mushrooms on the side. It was delicious! Then I had a piece of tiffin and maybe another coffee. Jodie and Jac and Sam got the train from Penistone at about 12.20 I think, and I headed home. 

I had my Greenhead Girls over for food and a get together! We went to Greenhead College together a million years ago and four of us are still pretty close. We try to get together each Christmas to celebrate and swap gifts, and I said I would host in 2025 because we had moved and Amy and Michelle hadn't yet seen the new house.

Gillian and E arrived first as Gillian had kindly offered to help me get set up. Amy and her family are vegan so we had got a bunch of vegan goodies and everyone brought things too. Michelle came with little B; her elder child and husband were at a birthday party. Amy and Mike came with their three kids, so all the older ones took off around the house. Katniss hissed at them which they came to tell me about. I explained how she doesn't really like people a lot (although she is getting a lot better with adults). 

We had all the vegan food and mulled wine and Gillian's husband Tom came with their eldest, L, and we just chatted. It was a really good time! These women mean so much to me and I'm glad for their continued presences in my life. We swapped presents, I gave R a big cuddle, and I was sad to see everyone go. I was exhausted by the time they had gone. Gillian kindly did a lot of tidying up; she was so generous with her time. When she went, though, I went and laid down for a bit and Katniss came and laid on me, as she likes to do. 

I was wearing a sequin and mesh skirt that came from Simply Be forever and a day ago. I only really wear it at Christmas but I love it. I'm pretty sure R thought I was a princess because of it. My t shirt is a Judi Love one that I got from Vinted, I really like it and it's comfy. The cardigan came from George also forever ago but I've been wearing it a lot too. 

Festive cappucino in the coffee house

My brunch

Me and Jodie and Sam and Jac, just about, in Holme Coffee House

My festively cute tiffin

A bunch of us girls celebrating in the afternoon, except E, who didn't want to be in the photo

Here's my outfit in full

And here's Katniss when she was lying on me

Weekend with Sam and Jac, Beginning

As is traditional, I got together with Sam and Jac before Christmas. We decided to come to my house as Jacqui hadn't been able to visit before. She arrived on the Friday evening and we went to Tesco to get tons of snacks and wine and stuff. Lee was out - I think maybe at his work Christmas do? I'm not sure - so Jac and I just watched TV. We watched a bunch of Christmas specials like the Gavin and Stacey one and then old ones like Porridge and stuff. It was a lot of fun! We talked shit as usual.

Jacqui stayed on the sofa bed that we have in what is Lee's office. It's a double and it's quite comfy, and there's enough room around it to make it easy to sleep in. It has been worth buying it! Sam arrived about 11am on the Saturday I think, and the three of us put ourselves on the sofa again to watch more rubbish including a bunch of Christmas song videos. We always do that and it's a lot of fun! 

Around 3.30pm we went to get ready because we were going out to The Vault in Penistone for food. I had booked a table for 4pm but the booking hadn't gone through properly, but they told us we could go back for 5pm. It didn't really matter so we went across the road to a pub for an hour. In the Vault we ordered basically all the vegetarian small plates to share between us all. We had a bottle of champagne between us and a cocktail each. By the time we had finished we were a bit tipsy but we had an appointment at church!

We had decided to go to Beer and Carols at St John's which is a very traditional parish church that I've visited a few times before. We got there early enough to get a small table for the three of us. There was a pop up bar so we had a couple of drinks there. Thurlstone Brass Band were playing so that was really fun too. It was just something festive and a bit different! I love that this kind of community thing happens in Penistone. We really do love living here now. The move was a very long and difficult part of 2025 but when it finally happened we both just felt way better and we love it. 

Lee came and picked us up and we just chilled out before bed, it wasn't a late night at all. I was wearing another festive pair of tights which are lovely but shed glitter all over the place, and a Scarlett and Jo dress that I love, I really need to try to wear it more often as it's so cute!

I bought these ridiculous things a few weeks before Christmas and had various fun with them for photos

Look how cute we are 

Champagne and cocktails in the Vault. It's cute in there, I like it

Some of the food we shared

The sign in the loo 

A mulled wine and two gin fizzes from the pop up bar in St John's 

We were sitting near this tree

And we saw some of the festive lights while we were waiting for Lee to pick us up. 

My tights when we got home

And my dress before I put my pyjamas on again

Babyshambles in Leeds

At the beginning of December my friend Courtney came to stay and we saw Babyshambles together! I met her through The Libertines online like twenty years ago. She lives in Texas. She came over for some Libertines shows in maybe 2011, I can't remember, and spent a few days with me. We went to Helmsley which is on of my favourite places ever. I hadn't seen her in person since then right up until last August when she was in Halifax to see the Libs there like I was. We didn't have much of a chance to catch up then, so when Babyshambles reunited to play some gigs and she said she would come over for a few gigs and I invited her to stay with me and see them in Leeds. She arranged to come from Glasgow where she had seen them twice in two nights, so she arrived about 5pm in to Penistone. Lee was out at a gig so I went to pick her up and we went to Tesco to get snacks, and then went to an Indian restaurant to order food. It was a bit of a faff but we finally got back to mine to eat, and then we sat and watched TV. 

On the Sunday we just chileld until the gig. Courtney watched some of the Formula 1 which she's really into. We eventually set off to Leeds about 6pm I guess. I managed to get to the car park that I wanted to get to, which for me is a miracle because I hate getting into Leeds. As we walked out of the car park we went past some of the Christmas markets, so we decided to go for a drink in Thor's tipi as we weren't bothered about seeing the support bands, and we had specific seats in the balcony. 

I had a hot chocolate with Cointreau which was lush, I would definitely drink it again. We finally went into the venue and got our seats which were in the middle, just a few rows up, so there was a pretty good view. The support acts we did see weren't great but Drew from Babyshambles did come out and sing Blitzkrieg Bop with one of them which was fun. Then Babyshambles! I didn't see them back in the day because Peter couldn't be relied on to turn up all the time, and then they split up. Peter is in a much better place and it's genuinely nice to see them back together. I'm excited to see if they release any new music in 2026! 

The gig was great. They sounded good and it was nice to hear Peter's chat. The video in the background paid homage to Amy Winehouse and also to Patrick, Babyshambles' guitarist, who died last year. They played a bunch of songs I love so I really liked it. When they had finished we went to the lift to go down and had to wait, and while we were waiting, Peter came back onstage and started playing Twist and Shout! The microphones had been turned off but his guitar was still on so the crowd was just singing instead. It was really lovely! I'm so glad we caught it! Drew and Adam came back on and joined in, and then Mik did too although his guitar wasn't plugged in. They played What Katie Did and again the (thinning) crowd sang every word. Just lovely!

After the gig we finally got home and to bed. I took Courtney back to the train station the next morning, but it had been nice to spend so much time with her! 

In Thor's Tipi while Courtney was at the bar

I could drink that hot chocolate right now

We also took some photo booth pictures in there which are cute!

Outside the venue, I love it when they still have marquees

Drew singing with one of the support bands, who were Italian I think

Various shots of the band, including where you can see the videos of Amy and Pat in the background

Andfinally when they came back on after the encore, just randomly!

Day Trip to Ripon

On the 2nd of December my mum and I had our Christmas shopping day planned. We weren't sure where to go but then I thought I would like to go to Ripon, and then we decided we would take Lee and my stepdad along with us for the day too. So we all went in the same car and we got there in good time. I actually drove there! We parked in the long stay car park and walked up an arcade that is new since any of us were last in Ripon. It had some lovely shops in! In fact the first one was a very good charity shop where my mum found some Jacques Vert slingback shoes and matching handbag, which she snapped up as she was about to go on a cruise and thought they would be perfect for it. We then went in a cute clothing boutique where my mum kindly bought me a very festive jumper as part of my Christmas presents.

We went in a cafe and had a coffee and a little breakfast - I had a toasted teacake which was lovely. We walked up to the main square and then through to the cathedral. We went in, my mum and I looked around more than Lee and my stepdad. We lit some candles which I nearly always do in churches, and we spoke to one of the priests who was really friendly and had a lot of information for us. Their cushions round the edge are all about Ripon and one of them had York St John on it, which is where I went to university! It was Ripon & York St John at one point but the Ripon campus shut just before I arrived there - or maybe as I arrived, not sure. It was nice to see the cathedral. 

We went back to the square and went into the Lounge which is one of the chains, I like them. We just wanted a drink; I had mulled wine and so did my stepdad. My mum had some kind of cocktail but I'm not sure what. We then did some more shopping, I managed to get quite a few Christmas presents. By this time it was getting on a bit so we went into a pub for some lunch. It was nice food, my mum and I shared some wine too. By the time we left the pub and were back on the square it was starting to get dark. My stepdad was flagging a bit by this point so he went and found a pub to sit in and Lee, my mum and I did more shopping, I think we went in nearly every shop that Ripon has! We finally went to the pub to meet Norman. I think it was about 4.30 by this point and as we didn't want to set off and get stuck in rush hour traffic on the A1, we decided to just sit there for a couple of hours and chill. So it was a bit later by the time we dropped my mum and stepdad off! 

As it was nearly Christmas I had pulled out all my sparkly tights so I was wearing them with some boots. I also got my vaguely festive skirt out of storage. It was a dress which a friend gave me but the top didn't fit me, so my mum made it into a skirt for me. It is a wintry scene and I get a lot of compliments on it! On top I was wearing this teal coloured top which I don't remember buying but I love the colour! 

Breakfast in a cute little cafe

Looking up at the cathedral. I must have been in there before because we spent a lot of time in Ripon when I was little, as we had a caravan and we used to go near Ripon a lot, but I don't remember it at all. So it was nice to see

I love all the old saints, this was cute to see

Apparently Lewis Caroll was a choir boy at Ripon cathedral and may have based Alice in Wonderland on some of the things he found there

I also really like stained glass windows

Oh this is the cushion that mention my university!

Christmas decorations in the pub, which was nice

Here we all are. I can't remember what I had to eat

This cute little thing is in the main square 

And there were festive lights too!

My outfit when we got home

And my tights and boots!