Christmas and New Year 2016

 I love it when people send me photos of my stockings up!

These, in the USA, look brill!

I didn't make many this year  (nearly everyone has one now) but I DID make one for a toy dog!!

Beacon is a company mascot.

Milly, a real dog, already had a stocking.

Her puppy sister will be needing one next Christmas.

This Christmas Nem bought some table leggers with feet!

We had a new baby elephant born at Chester Zoo, she is the cutest little thing, her name is Indira.

We had no intention of having Pain au Raisins for breakfast on Christmas morning, but #TeamHolliBelly were having them and they snapchatted the evidence and they looked so tasty it sent me scuttling out to the freezer in the shed for ours.

Total Waitrose Bargain Delights

This was a great pressie!

But do I have to put it away now till next December?

Happy Christmas Mr WoollyCow!

It was a very pleasant after dinner stroll and the woolly cows didn't seem too alarmed by our headwear.

As Team HolliBelly were in Darlo, and Cub and Emily were in Hawaii, (HAWAII??) yes Hawaii, it was just the four of us for lunch and it was lovely,

but Andy's cake didn't last long oops.

It didn't actually last till the 28th.

WAY too delicious.

On Boxing Day, Team Hennie went to Rich'n'Mel's so Husb and I went to Theatre Colwyn  to see a Panto, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK.

"Excited" wasn't the word.

There was such major anticipation for the forthcoming "He's behind you!" "Oh no he isn't" "Oh yes he is" that the big kid in me raced down the the stage to buy a flashing glow star as soon as we arrived. What a lovely theatre. Perfect size, great atmosphere, lovely staff, delightful.  

We loved it. 

But are we not allowed to frighten children any more? Can't we have a scary giant who BOOMS out FEE FI FO FUM instead of singing it smiling? The wicked witch wasn't scary either,  she just had just had curly black hair.

Stuart Loughland was superb as Dame Tilly Trot. Her endless supply of colourful outfits reminded me of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, she totally stole the show.

There was a bit of magic too-we are still wondering how they did it-Fairy Aubergine got chopped in half!! And then the flourescent puppets danced to Queen and Star Wars which was fabulous.

All in all it was very good and the children loved it which is the main thing. 

Dec 27th we remembered Geoffers and hugged Bet-with-Cheeks-like-Clouds at the Millpool in Coventry.

Meanwhile the Cubster was planking in Hawaii.

Just look at that sand! I actually looked at the sand before the plank :)

By 30th Dec my nest was filling up as Team Hollibelly arrived from the North East.

Badders and Speedminton at Christleton were fun even with my wonky shoulder.

Badders was followed by SueK's wonderful cake...

we DO love our Christmas cake...

and ROGUE ONE at the Odeon.

NEW YEARS EVE

Nixen and Bells went to Old Trafford to watch the Boro JUST let go of their ONE NIL lead in the 85th and 87th minutes (cruel, cruel,cruel) so we pantod for the second time in a week at the Royal Court in Liverpool which was

  Scouse of the Rising Sun 

starring Keddy from Handbags of Harmony.

The baddy really WAS a baddy in this!

He swore at us and everything.

We are still talking about it now.

We could have gone again the following night it was that good.

The plot was a crazy jumble of events starting with Terry overdosing on herbal teas and hallucinating that he was on an aeroplane full of characters resembling The Wizard of Oz, including a terrifyingly merry lady on her way to a hen party, crazy cabin crew and my friend's friend from Handbags, the pilot. Anyway Liverpool was under attack from a crazy dictator who had been let down by the city in his youth and the gang all tried to save Liverpool from destruction with the help of ED who had already sunk to his neck in quicksand. 

Or something like that!!

It was brilliant.

Singapore celebrated 2017 several hours before us so Suz gets the First Plank of the Year !!

FANTASTIC!

But we weren't into 2017 yet.

We needed tea before Big Ben chimed its famous 12 dongs so

took the spare crackers up to the Piper.

where I had the best present of the night - The Cubster facetiming. Just look at that smile.

I showed it to everyone in the pub.

Great pressie from Cheryl, I love her heart shaped trunk!.

Cub then came outside with us.

We carried him over the threshold with our coal for warmth, eyedrops for good eyesight, paracetamol for health, food, Mr Happy, books and fizz,

but it was so dark, he probably couldn't see a thing. Ooops.

First task of 2017 was to print him off! 

We now look at a larger than lifesize photo of him.

Wotahoot.

Beaut flowers from Bells

All the best to everyone for 2017.

Let's hope it is full of happy things and tea.

CHRISTMAS at NGA and MY LAST LEAP

 We had the usual festive splashing at Aqua with soggy antlers and damp baubles, and I even tried to do a "Helen" with my pool selfie.

The Aqua crowd are fabulous fun, they join in with anything and everything. They always make a great effort at Christmas and this year every single one of them had a Christmasy item on their head or in their ears. I had more Christmas tunes than ever this year thanks to Spotify, so we had a lot of festive fun. My Octopussy ringlets flashed for an hour despite being soaked YAY.

And I'm still chuffed to bits that Marion brings her granddaughter to keep fit. Or put another way, Claire comes to keep fit with her Grandma. How ace is that !

But...

 I had to say goodbye to Hi Energy.

For 33 years I have bounced about on various stages (with different levels of safety!) (I've had some interesting experiences) (and as a consequence gained another nickname "Skippy") but the management decided it was time for a change and introduced the trendy (but it''s just Aerobics) Body Attack by Les Mills. Having now done the class, I feel a bit sad that I have been replaced with something so similar (but also a bit random)

But hey, I'm moving on.

So I did my LAST LEAP.

Hi Energy at Northgate has been MY LIFE for 33 years and I have made lifelong friends along the way. We became a very social group with nights out, theatre trips and bus rides to Blackpool but trends change and nowadays the public want Bootcamp, Les Mills, runs in the mud and dance classes. 

But although it is "Goodbye stage and Arenarobics", it is NOT goodbye to my mates.

Here are some of them.

"Wake Up and be Awesome"

"Do your Own Thing"

:)

I will always be grateful for the fantastic support that you guys have given me over the years. 

I try to make people feel welcome and part of the group and as a result I consider a lot of you as my extended family. Thank you to each and every one of you for making my job so much fun. We have had a lot of fun warbling to the Spice Girls, knee-lifting to Enola Gay and groaning when Waterloo comes on. It has been wonderful to help keep you sane whist keeping you fit. :) Long may we continue. Just not at Northgate.     

Flowers from Debbie, thank you :)

Christmas spin was also fun. No these are not tinsel pigtails!

But they ARE sort of Christmas pudding earrings that nearly gave me two black (brown) eyes!

They were a good idea until I started spinning.

CHEERS

Square One Shenanigans

More spin celebrations. There is a spin bike under us lot somewhere!

While these two were pondering the question of Human or Dancer, WE were enjoying some delicious Guinness Gingerbread made by Val. Wow. Tasty stuff and so moreish my extra bits didn't actually make it home.

Christmas is  always great fun but it was so nice to do my first spin after Christmas without a dellybopper, tinsel or baubles on my head.