the annual family holiday

This time next week I will be in Wales on the annual family holiday. This holiday has been an event since about 2002 and it was originally my family, my four cousins (brothers and sisters) their wives/husbands/partners and children, two uncles and an aunty, near Belper in Derbyshire. However, the older generation faded away, but we and the cousins continued this lovely tradition, and as the cousins became grandparents so the numbers of participants increased. We had so many great adventures in various parts of the country, Derbyshire, Monmouthshire, Shropshire, Norfolk, Devon and elsewhere, even after the year when the world stopped, but as our numbers increased it became more and more difficult to accommodate us all. For a start there were bedrooms – doubles, twins, singles – one year we had a dormitory for the children whose ages by then ranged from four to eighteen! Trying to fix a date was difficult as we had to go away in school holiday time, and then those who had been at school when we first started got jobs and taking time off wasn’t always easy…

So, after a wonderful big family holiday where thirty-two of us stayed in a huge property near Monsal Head in Derbyshire , about forty miles from our first holiday together, it was decided that there were just too many of us, with too many commitments, so we would call it a day. However, that was not the end of the family holiday! Now, four cousins, wives/husbands/partners go away together, just the ten of us, much more manageable! This year we are heading into North Wales to Llangollen, a place I have never been to, nor husband, so we are looking forward to it immensely! I will still be sharing odd bits and pieces here, not necessarily about our adventures there, they may come later. In the meantime, I had better look up the recipe for my lamb tagine which we will be serving on our night to cook!

My featured image is of cousin Simon who is always in charge of cooking the breakfast sausages (Powters from Newmarket, of course!)