Our annual outing to see Santa started early on a damp weekend morning. The year before we had taken a later train and had struggled to find somewhere nice to eat afterwards. This year we were on the 11am train, much to Lorna’s disgust as both her and Paul had been out the night before, and we arrived bright and early with plenty off time to get a hot chocolate and mince pie before. Pretty certain that certain members of our party were just topping up from the night before with the Bailey’s in the chocolate but less said about that the better.

As the previous train, yes previous, there was an earlier one, pulled into the station the excitement levels rose. Both James and Grace were really excited to see Santa. We all boarded full of Christmas cheer and excitement.

If you have not been on the NYMR’s Santa express before, it is an hour and a half or so and the train travels a short way down the tracks, whilst the elves keep you entertained, until the arrival of the big man himself. Along with Santa comes a present. Last year Grace was appalled with her tea set. This year she got a cuddly unicorn and was over the moon! James got a dinosaur game and was also on cloud nine. Both of them were very lucky.

After the train, we headed to a lovely farm shop just outside Pickering that also does food. They did a lovely three course meal that worked out at about £20 a head with drinks. The food was amazing and we all ate until we were full to bursting. I do not think anyone managed a full three courses, settling for two instead. The only downside was that the weather did not allow the little ones to have a play in the play area but such is life.

After filling ourselves up to bursting with lunch, I had the belly pork and it was scrummy, we all said our goodbyes and headed home. We had a super important job to do in the afternoon. That was putting the Christmas tree up. James really got into it this year, and before we knew it there were decorations all over the tree.

After the tree was up and we had all enjoyed a hot drink whilst admiring it, it was time for the little man to go to bed. We had had a lovely day, a trip on the train, a lovely lunch and some silliness whilst putting the tree up, simply perfect.