Continuing on my mission to enjoy the most festive of months, I'm back with an update on week 2 of December and what we've done to enjoy the festivities!
This week saw our biggest and most exciting festive celebration of the whole month - a trip to Drayton Manor for their Magical Christmas experience!
We visited Drayton Manor once before back in May, but we thought it'd be fun to return for their Christmas celebrations - anybody who has ever met Tyne for more than a second knows of his love for Thomas the Tank Engine (Just ask any of the couriers or postmen who knock at our house and are met with an introduction to every single train he owns and a long description of who they are and what they do....) and so when we heard that the engines would be all dressed up for Christmas, we knew it would be Tyne's idea of heaven!
The park was decorated beautifully for Christmas, and there was such a magical festive feeling about it all - I particularly loved the little 15 minute shows they did on the balcony starring The Fat Controller, at the end of each one they sang a few lovely Christmas songs and there was snowfall all around us - Tyne was squealing with delight at seeing "Snow" - and I admit I actually had tears in my eyes at the sheer festivity of it all!
The very first thing we did when we arrived was head to the Castle Of Dreams for our appointment with Santa - Tyne was delighted to have a little chat with Santa, and afterwards we spent a bit of time exploring the castle and Tyne made a snowflake decoration to post to Santa with the princesses which he really enjoyed.
The rest of Drayton Manor was supposed to be closed but we were surprised by how many of the shops and food outlets were still open, and the zoo was open too which was nice as Tyne enjoyed having a little look around and seeing the reindeers.
Noah is a bit too young to really know what's going on of course, but he seemed to enjoy being shown the animals and he had a ride on Christmas Thomas and Christmas Percy which he seemed to enjoy too!
Tyne was delighted spending the day going on all of the various Thomas rides, and spending time in the soft play to warm up too - we also popped in to the 4D cinema as they were showing a special 15 minute long 4D version of The Polar Express - Tyne really enjoyed it and it was perfect as we're actually going on The Polar Express next week so it's great that he's seen a bit of the movie now!
We stayed at the park until it closed, when we found a seat by the lake, snuggled up together and watched the end of the day firework display which was really beautiful.
We really enjoyed our day at Thomasland and definitely left feeling very festive!! We also spent the evening before staying in a Thomas themed bedroom at their hotel which was lovely and very exciting for Tyne!
After our visit to Thomasland, I became a bit poorly (7 hour days at a theme park at 30 weeks pregnant after a 4 hour car journey isn't actually the wisest idea!) so instead of the 4 hour journey home we decided to drive the 1 hour 40 minutes to my Mum and Dads house in Liverpool for the weekend...it was an impromptu visit but was lovely to get to spend a bit of time in my hometown!
I love seeing the decorations in Liverpool, and while we there my Mum wanted to take the boys to a Grotto - we had already been to a local one last week but things in a big city like Liverpool are just a bit more special and so we couldn't miss the chance to take them to the St Georges Hall Grotto!
I'm glad we did as it was really amazing - the ice room was really stunning, Santa was fantastic and there were lovely little rooms to explore along the way such as Santa's bedroom and his workshop - Tyne even got to have a chat with Elsa which he really enjoyed!
I was also really pleased to be able to see the Weeping Window poppy display outside St Georges Hall - I'd seen photos of it online but to see it for myself was lovely, it really is such a moving and breathtaking tribute.
The week has been pretty hectic with so much traveling involved - I had planned to do some Christmas art with the kids this week but we've all been too tired (mostly me!), so hopefully we'll squeeze that in next week!
I can't believe the countdown is now well and truly on until Christmas - only more week to go and lots of festivities left to pack in!! How exciting?!
This week our little Elf friend Tinsel had a few days off while we were away, but he did get up to all kinds of bother when we were at home!
One evening Tyne refused to sleep in his own bed - the next morning he found Tinsel sitting in it reading a story!! He made sure to sleep in his own bed the next night to keep Tinsel out of it, so Tinsel had to find a new place to sleep...he found shelter in one of the tunnels on Tyne's train table!
He also spent an evening in the fridge - it seems he misses the cold of the North Pole.
He's also had fun climbing the tinsel on our Christmas tree, and sledding down the stairs inside a toilet roll!
He's not the only cheeky little elf around here either....
Well that's it for our week 2 December update - we'll be back next week with our final recap of December festive fun!
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