My Festive Highlights

December 29, 2015 by Rachel Kershaw in Days Out 2

Merry Christmas, hope you had a fun filled festive break! Mine has been a veritable whirlwind of presents, food and family time and I’ve loved every minute! I’ve been a bit quieter than usual on social media over the festive season as I honestly couldn’t tear myself away from my loved ones on the few days I had off from work. So to make up for going off the radar, here’s a few of my festive highlights…

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Whitley Bay Playhouse

When my mum, brother, niece and nephew came to visit me in Newcastle earlier this month I knew that going to a panto would get the thumbs up from everyone. The kids have only just turned four years old and had never been to a panto before so the small yet modern theatre at the Whitley Bay Playhouse was the perfect venue for our family outing.

The show was packed full of humour and audience participation that kept us all entertained throughout. The Dwarfs were not quite the cute little characters we were expecting, each one was based on a different celebrity, from Bruce Forsyth to Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Cowell and Alan Carr, it was an unusual interpretation but one which gave us plenty of laughs. With the fabulous Faye Tozer playing the Wicked Queen I felt like I was watching a West End production and a Steps concert all rolled in to one, what’s not to love? As you can see from the pics below, there were smiles all round!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is on till the 3rd of Jan at the Playhouse so still time to catch a show if you’re quick!

Festive Afternoon Tea at St Mary’s Inn

With hectic work schedules and so many demands on our time in December it was important to plan some quality time for me and James to spend together, just the two of us. St Mary’s Inn near Morpeth just outside Newcastle is one of our favourite escapes and a festive afternoon tea was a real treat! It really was as yummy as it looks.

The seasonal twist on St Mary’s popular afternoon tea included sweet mince pies, scones made with spiced fruits and of course, turkey and stuffing sandwiches. My absolute favourite part of the feast was the cranberry and sherry trifle, it was so Christmassy and absolutely delicious. As well as getting the quality of the food and atmosphere in the cosy dining rooms spot on, St Mary’s Inn also get top marks for generous portion sizes, we had the left overs for supper later that night!

You can read a previous review of St Mary’s Inn here, I highly recommend it!

Quality Time With Family

As I said at the star of this post, I’ve spent what little time I’ve had off from work with my nearest and dearest and for me that’s what Christmas is really all about. James and I stayed in Newcastle on Christmas Day and enjoyed a chilled out day with his side of the family including our gorgeous new niece who was born in September (we got her a jumperoo, she LOVED it!) We then drove to Rochdale where my family live and had a boxing day knees up. Thankfully the rain subsided long enough for us all to get out of the house on Sunday and we took the kids to a nearby park to play on their new bikes.

It really was a wonderful Christmas time! How was yours?