Today I went out for Christmas dinner with my family. We're still having Christmas dinner at home on Christmas day, but today I had my turkey at my favourite pub. I didn't manage to grab any photos before I went out because I took too long getting ready (in a move that surprised precisely no one) but here are a few shots I got when I arrived at home:

So: Christmas.

Title aside, I don't actually dislike Christmas - I'm just one of these people that prefers Christmas to be, well, at Christmas. I really can't be doing with Christmas songs in early November, and, heaven forbid, Christmas items in the shops at around the same time as Hallowe'en.

The reason for the title then, has to do less with the fact that it's getting towards Christmas, and more to do with the fact that Christmas this year isn't actually going to happen for me. Being a third year university student and having the first of my Very Important Exams (capital letters totally justified) in early January, unfortunately just means I'm swamped with revision and generally a big ball of stressed out negative energy.

On top of that, I've been very tired recently, and bogged down with a nasty cold, so I really haven't been feeling up to getting dressed properly, never mind doing anything much productive. I did manage to get out a little bit over the weekend to see the Melton Mobray Christmas Tree Festival, which I've not been to before and thoroughly enjoyed. It's held in a church and each tree is provided by a different organisation or group of people, and each has a different theme.

A couple of weekends ago I visited Kirkstall Abbey and the Abbey House Museum in Leeds. The abbey itself is one of the most complete examples of a Cistercian abbey in the country and is set in some lovely grounds. The Kirkstall Abbey Market was also on whilst we were there, and had some lovely artisan chocolates and coffees, unusual foods and cooking ingredients etc.

I didn't take too many photos at Papplewick as with it being another fairly local one, a lot of the same re-enactment groups were there as have been at the other events I have blogged about (Crich, part 1, 2, 3; Rufford Abbey; Sherwood Through The Ages). I'm not sure whether or not I would go to Papplewick again, as firstly it was a lot smaller than the other events I've been to, and secondly, I didn't feel the standard of the re-enactment was as high (some parts were a bit spoilt for me by some people from re-enactment groups carrying modern supermarket carrier bags etc).

And now, onward to the photos:

This weekend I went to Sherwood Through The Ages, a multi-period re-enactment event not too far away from where I live. It's the first time I've done a multi-period event since I started going to re-enactment events on a regular basis. I really enjoyed it though, and I'd definitely go again.

They'd set up the event so you could walk round and see each re-enactment group in chronological order starting with an Iron Age settlement and eventually ending up with a mid 1980s-1990s armed forces group.

My brother was back from uni for the weekend, so this time we decided to both dress up. Since my brother doesn't normally get involved in the dressing-up side of things and therefore doesn't own any really appropriate clothing, we managed to cobble together an acceptable 1950s greaser outfit for him out of things he already owns. Of course this was something I felt I couldn't miss out on, so I dressed to match. It ended up being a pretty cold day though, so most of my outfit ended up being hidden under my jacket.