Ice Skating, Family Reunions and Birmingham Christmas Market!

A friend date started my long weekend off great. Clare made belated truffles while I went to ice skating with my society and then I had not one but two(!) family reunions in 2 days, visiting one of my housemates at her home. 

Click here to watch the vlog or see it below.

The Christmas fun started with a friend date to TGI Friday's. I haven't been since my birthday and it's my favourite chain restaurant so I absolutely loved it. We went to see Aquaman at the cinema afterwards and it was absolutely amazing. So clever and very entertaining. Click here to read the full review.

Emilia had to leave straight after the film so I headed  and the Nottingham Christmas Market. I walked around for a little while before heading back to the cinema. Like I said in the vlog, there is so much I want to see at the moment and I had cheaper tickets so I decided to watch the second Fantastic Beasts as well! Again, click here to read the full review.

One of my housemates, Clare, was suppose to make truffles for our house Christmas day but she never got around to doing it, plus we had so much to eat, it probably wouldn't have been worth it anyway. 

While she finished it off, I headed ice skating with my archery society. Originally, I wasn't planning on actually skating myself. Let's face it, I've never been very good and since my ankle injury, I've tried to avoid doing anything too strenuous. Anyway, one of the member ended up convincing me to go on and while it may have taken 20 minutes to get over the fear of getting on the ice, I did manage to get on and loved every second of it. Granted, I never let go of the side but it was my kind of fun and I was eventually getting to grips of actually skating.

Afterwards, we went to a little bar. Funnily enough, until a week ago I hadn't even heard of it and now I've been twice! Once with the Midwifery Society and once with the Archery Society. It's quite dainty and quaint but I do quite like it.

The next day I was waiting for the post to come. I've had an absolute nightmare getting my sister's gift delivered. It was suppose to be delivered to the farm by the time I went for my grandma's birthday but it never arrived. When I emailed, it hadn't even been dispatched so I changed the address to my university address in Nottingham. It was suppose to be with me for Wednesday as originally I was leaving on Thursday but still it wasn't here by Friday. Furious but I couldn't wait any longer so I set off to my sisters.

It was lovely to see my niece and nephew first thing when I arrived. I didn't realise my other sister was also sleeping over so I ended up having to sleep on the couch. In the morning, I was woken up by a very dramatic little one year old who hadn't stopped screaming all morning. He'd been awake on and off since 5am so it was a little bit of a nightmare. Anyway, when it got to 7am, I ended up calling it a day and going to get some hugs. While he went for a nap, I gave my niece a very belated birthday present. I loved the bath bombs and books but she loved the spy makeup gift set and played with it all day, on and off.

I'd brought a range of outfits as I didn't really know how fancy we were going for the family Christmas meal. It turns out it wasn't all that fancy so I went for jeans and a jumper. I kept meaning to put on some LipSense but as the day went on, I stuck with a simple gloss.

I've never seen such fancy napkins but Vicki went all out decorating the table and I absolutely loved the napkins. She make them to look like little Christmas trees and even used party popper as the trunk. In the afternoon, we opened up the Christmas presents with the kids and for the first time, I got to see how much they enjoyed themselves as well. Especially my niece!

As usual, my sister doesn't like for my niece and nephew to be in videos so if you know my personally, here is the vlog of them!

I drove back to Yorkshire later that night and we were up bright and early for mum's side of the family Christmas reunion. As always, we headed to the family graves to lay some wreaths and then headed for the meal at Rogerthorpe. My food was actually delicious and I ate so much: melon, chicken nuggets and chocolate cake!

I feel like I'm barely home recently! I love pyjama days and it's going to have been 4 weeks by the time I have another. A few of my housemates planned a big trip together and Vicki ended up inviting Sam and I to her house for some Christmas fun.

Day 1 started at around lunch time as both Sam and I arrived a little after 12. Vicki had treated us both to some treats from a local farm shop cafe. I had a lovely sausage roll, along with Vicki, while Sam got a special vegetarian quiche.

Once we'd finished eating, Vicki made a lovely macaroni cheese for the entire family. We then headed to Birmingham on the train and had an enjoyable few hours at the Birmingham Christmas Market.

 What a cute day!

The macaroni cheese when we got back was delicious, but there may have been a small incident with the brand new dish that Vicki used. As we were all eating at different times, it had burnt a little bit. You'll be pleased to know though, that it did manage to all come off...just about!