I have had a wonderful Christmas which actually for me started on the 12th of December when I went away for five days, it was only a few miles away at Cromford I stayed in the Willersley Castle Hotel http://www.christianguild.co.uk/willersley/ for their Turkey and Tinsel 2 break. I didn't even know the place existed until a few months ago when I went to Matlock and found a gate with their name on so I did some sleuthing (searched the web) and decided to book myself in.
It was wonderful, the place is charming, clean, warm (a little too warm for me I had to turn off the radiator and open the window :), the staff were extremely friendly, polite and courteous and did all they could to make your stay comfortable and memorable. Our host Marion was a delight she had laid on all sorts of things for us, I arrived on Monday and settled into to my room which had a lovely view of the Derwent and all the hills etc. Every morning there was devotions and every evening apart from the last Marion gave an epilogue.
Tuesday was our Christmas Eve and we had a lovely coach trip to Castleton, then Bakewell
and then on to Chastworth to see their decorations,
Fountains, the cascade and even a squirting willow tree!!!!
They are in the process of putting gold leaf on the windows, wow.
After tea we had a quiz which surprisingly the team I was in won, well actually it was a joint win :)
Wednesday was Christmas day and after breakfast and devotions we were given a gift from Willersley. We had a three course Christmas dinner, I had the traditional turkey and Christmas pud. In the afternoon we had a lovely lady, Yvonne Wilkes come and show us how to make decorations, bows, and how to wrap a present properly.
She was the person who had done all the decorations for the hotel, they really were lovely.
Christmas day tea was a wonderful buffet. At some point but I can't remember when we were taught by Marion the 12 days of Christmas with actions, hilarious.
In the evening we had three gentlemen and a lady from an operatic society called Bright Reflections who came to entertain us it was wonderful. Memories came flooding back of when I was a child listening to my mother sing and of the records she used to play on the old wind up gramophone.
Boxing day saw most of the T and T's go to Cromford with a guide from the Arkwright Society apparently they had a wonderful time but I missed them so I had a walk around Cromford,
http://st-marys-cromford.co.uk/index.php/about-st-marys/
I found the bookshop and just couldn't resist and bought a couple of old story books,
http://www.scarthinbooks.com/
After lunch we joined together for more of Marion's quizzes and a couple of turns by ourselves, Edward who has a lovely tenor voice sang, I sang "Holy Child" and Caroline read a poem called the twelve days of Turkey, fabulous. In the evening some of us went to a pantomime at Buxton Opera house, they had a wonderful time. I shall always remember with great affection the fellowship and friendship of my fellow T and T's and I hope that maybe next year I will be able to return but of course nothing in this life is certain.
But one thing I am sure and certain of that even though we may never meet again here we shall meet again in glory when we shall be forever with the Lord, what a glorious hope and future we have who are born again by God's grace.
