mybigadventures.com

We're on the last part of our Christmas journey around the country with a few days in Nottingham. We've been coming here at Christmas for the last few years to stretch out the Christmas holidays before we return to normality. Its been a pretty wintery few days with some cold weather and fog although we did manage to get some sunshine on Thursday. We made a trip out to Newark to see Kelham hall and whilst nearby dropped in to see the quite magnificent Southwell Minster. On the way back into Nottingham we decided to head up and have a look at Green's Mill and science centre. It's located in Sneinton which is about a mile outside the city centre and can be seen from a number of places across the city. The sun was just setting as we arrived and it was closing time at the windmill and science centre so we just had a quick look at the outside. It is a great example of working mill and definitely worth a revisit next time we're in town.

Last night we headed up to Georges Great British Kitchen, fish and chip restaurant on Queen Street. We've been a couple of times before and it's always worth a visit. It's a great atmosphere and tasty meal. We had the sharer desert consisting of ice-cream, donuts, dipping sauces and candy floss. It's a lot of fun but probably more suitable for 3 or 4 people as I think we only managed about half.

Had a catch up with Darren and Helen today which was a little long overdue, but great to see them both and then had a wander around the shops. I've added a few new photo's to the Christmas album linked below. 

I've managed to find a bit of time over Christmas to add a few new features to the website. The changes aren't huge so you can be fogiven if you haven't quite noticed. There are a few improvements to make posting content a little easier on my side and a couple of new features for my site visitors to enjoy.

Blog Photos

I've tweaked the photo setting for blog images so that those of you with larger monitors can enjoy higher resolution pictures.

Mobile Website

I've also spent a bit of time updating the CSS for mobile users, so if you're visiting the site on a small screen you hopefully will get the mobile layout which is a little easier to navigate and read.

Blog Insights

I've added some previous blog insights to the main blog page - they show up in the right hand side of the page and show blog summaries from the same month in other years. Right now I'm getting a couple of blogs from 10 years ago all the way back in 2006 when this blog was first getting off the ground. 

Tags

This is probably my favourite new feature but it still requires some work. The feature has been around on other CMS platforms for years and bascially provides another way to link data together. Right now it only exists on blogs - have a look at the bottom of a few and you might see tags like #Christmas and #DaysOut. Clicking the links takes you to all the content with the same tag. A few of my favourites are from our big adventures:

#Japan2016
#Italy2015
#Europe2007

Let me know how you get on!

Just a quick blog to wish Roger and Lucy a very happy anniversary. I hope you've both had a lovely day with your new baby daughter Beatrice.

We arrived in Coventry on Christmas day after a quick trip down the M1, just as Mum and Dad were sitting down to their non-Christmas dinner of Boeuf Wellington. Perfect timing! (although perhaps not, as we were still rather full from our first Christmas lunch...) Instead, we sat quietly on the sofa while they ate!

So, Boxing Day commenced in a suitably celebratory fashion with Eggs Benedict for breakfast, with Greg joining us for our 'second' Christmas day. We all went for a walk - just around the local area - to get a bit of air and walk off a few of the Christmas calories. Then Dad and I started the preparations for the feast! Pigs in blankets, bacon wrapped prunes, tiny chipolatas, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, sprouts, seasoned pudding (a family recipe for stuffing) and the jewel in the crown - the turkey! A few hours later and we were sitting down to a veritable banquet. Delicious!

We took a break from feasting to open some pressies - one of the many highlights was Ben's new 'cookie train' (a three-part biscuit tin containing chocolatey goodness!) amongst many books, vouchers and other exciting goodies! A piece of Christmas pudding later, and we were ready to call it a day.

Waking up to a frosty morning, we decided to get some fresh air, visiting Hanbury Hall near Worcestershire - a lovely stately home. We pottered through the gardens, watching some robins bouncing around in the gardens and orchards, and then explored the house, which was decorated for Christmas in an 18th century turn-of-the-century style. A very serene afternoon!

What a festive few days! 

He's been! After a bit of a lie in we were up and about. We had a bit of bacon for breakfast and got stuck in to opening presents. Lots of nice things to take home including our newest addition Murphy - a rather nice black scotty dog door stop. After presents it was time to get things ready for lunch. 

We had turkey and all the trimmings including a special of sprouts and chorizo. Dinner was lovely but very filling. After a bit of a rest it was time to hit the road for Christmas part 2 with Dani's family.

Happy Christmas everybody. I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Have a very merry Christmas everyone!

The Christmas holidays have now begun for us. We had the school Christmas party on Friday and then met up with Tamara, Fiona, Chris and Rebecca for dinner and a few drinks. It was great to catch up with everyone, just need to try and do it a bit more often. 

Today we got around to the annual tradition of making Christmas cards. We seem to be leaving it later every year but I think we're in time for the Christmas post so all is good. We're really pleased with the designs this year, if you get one, look out for little bit of red glitter, its not the most obvious part of the design but is my favourite!

I've added a few more photo's to the Christmas album of the card making and will perhaps put in a picture of the final design once everyone getting one, has had a chance to see it first.