Family holiday

It won’t be long before we are off on our annual family holiday; when I say family I don’t just mean myself, husband and two children, but I mean the four of us, plus girlfriend, and my four cousins and their other halves, and their children, plus some partners, plus their children… There will be twenty-nine of us going on our famhol! I don’t think there will ever be twenty-nine of us all at the same time; many of the children have work commitments so can only come for a few days, but it will be lovely to see them even briefly.

We hire a large house, usually an old farmhouse, but it is not just the number of people it accommodates, but the right selection of bedrooms to accommodate them. Double rooms, family rooms, and dorms for the older kids. In the past we have been to Derbyshire a couple of times, the Forest of Dean, Shropshire a couple of times, Yorkshire, Cumbria twice, and last year it was Devon… which was lovely but very chilly.

This year we’re going to Norfolk; an easy drive for the cousins as they live in the next county, but a 5-6 hour drive for us. We don’t care! Last year we had a forty minute drive to Devon and the others had to trail two hundred miles across country. Norfolk is where the Elsdens first arrived in England from Scandinavia, so I hope to do some family history research.

Each family takes a night to do the cooking, we will be cooking a tagine… one of lamb and one of chicken, and a vegetarian option. It will be lovely to be on holiday, but it will be even better to be with the family!