Santa Run

 There was no frantic hurry to get going this morning. Despite this, I was up before seven. Ellie and Diane followed me down after a while and started on breakfast. The important thing was for Diane to avoid the overnight news, Facebook, and the radio. We hadn't seen the "Strictly" final and she wanted to watch it without knowing the winner.

Once everyone was ready, we loaded the car and headed off towards Newbury. We were meeting with Denise, Dom, and Becky at The Craven Arms for lunch. Ellie was sitting on her booster seat watching the iPad. I had managed to connect the device to the Skoda's WiFi hotspot so that she could watch whatever took her fancy... meanwhile, we listened to music from my iPhone to make sure we didn't inadvertently hear a news report revealing last night's winner. We had an excellent run to the restaurant, arriving at the same time as Denise, Dom, and Becky. 

We were shown to our table in the TeePee. During previous meals in the teepee, we had been cold so we came prepared. It wasn't necessary. The teepee was cosy and warm. The menu was much the same as on previous trips (though chicken had been replaced with turkey for the festive season). We all chose roast dinners - Di had lamb, Dom and Becky had beef, Denise and I had turkey, and Ellie had some chicken nuggets. The food was excellent though we did struggle to finish our portions.

Between courses, Ellie went outside to play on the swings and the slides. We also played a Christmas Bingo board game while waiting for our sweets. This was fun and kept Ellie (and the rest of us) entertained.

We exchanged presents and cards and said our goodbyes as it was starting to get dark and headed back home. Again, we had a good run, though we did get re-routed through Winchester for some reason.

We dropped Ellie off at Zoe's and then pottered back to settle down for a quiet evening so Di could watch the Strictly final.