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Early trip out this morning to get a steam train to see Father Christmas. The ticket promised that the train would take us to the North Pole, though I was sceptical about that. Even if it could go over the sea, then surely it would take too long to be practical. But I was prepared to pay the money to see if it was the case. Especially as my dad was paying. It was less than twenty quid each though - it’s worth paying that just on the off chance of getting to the North Pole.
It turned out that the train went up the track for about 10 minutes, then the engine was driven to the back and we went back to the station we’d come from, which was now, supposedly the North Pole. A bit of suspension of disbelief required. But I have to say the enthusiastic volunteers running the event were fantastic. And there’s a brilliant cafe at the station too.
Would recommend this to anyone in and around East Somerset at Christmas.
Plus there's loads of bits of rolling stock in various states of decay.
And fun to be on a steam train. It sure makes a lot of steam. We thought we wouldn’t be able to see anything for a while.
Our second Father Christmas of the year was better than the first. His beard was over his face. The kids weren’t sure if this was the real one - my daughter seemed to have worked out we were back where we started and not at the North Pole at all. But Freddie in Phoebe’s class has apparently met Santa and Santa has glasses like a snowman and this Santa didn’t. I was sceptical that Freddie had definitely seen the real Santa, but Phoebe believes him.
Then back to our mansion to play games with the family and have dinner round the big table like we were medieval nobles. I was unlucky in the game of present swap, where if you threw a 6 you could get another present or swap with anyone you fancied. I didn’t throw a single 6 in spite of having about 20 goes and then my son stole my starter gift (a bag of chocolate coins) so I ended up with nothing. We’d even tried to get rid of a jar of piccalilli that we’d got in a hamper, but Catie ended up winning it back. I don’t think I like piccalilli, but then again I’m not sure I’ve ever tried it and didn’t know what it was. I looked at the jar properly and it’s vegetables mixed in mustard, which actually sounds OK. So it was a Christmas miracle after all.
