Tomorrow is the day!

Three pairs of socks? Check!

Sheepskin gloves? Check!

Thermal base layer? Check!

You’d think I was off to conquer the Alps, or at the very least Helvellyn. No, I’m going to the community farm down the road. I’m not visiting it, mind you, I’m going to be working there weekends and school holidays until Christmas. I’m going to be Mother Ginger. She’s a friend of Santa and Mrs. Claus, you know, and she makes all the gingerbread to go into children’s Christmas stockings, and as such she will be waiting to greet hordes of excited children as they visit the farm over the next few weeks.

She will be doing this, outside in whatever the weather has to throw at us this year. Given the amount of snow we’ve already had, I thought it would be wise to buy the sheepskin gloves. However, from the weather forecast, I’m more likely to be soaked by a downpour tomorrow than trekking through the snow and ice.

I’ve been creating a backstory for Mother Ginger. She makes all the gingerbread men, and she has elves to help her decorate them – one smily face and three gumdrop buttons are what a gingerbread man needs! However, one of the elves got a bit carried away and created a gingerbread man in a pair of running shoes, and he’s run away. Now she’s looking for the naughty gingerbread man, but he keeps on running, calling over his shoulder ‘Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!’ as he vanishes off into the distance. I’m hoping that the children will want to help me try to spot my missing gingerbread man …

I’m not entirely sure what to expect. Part of me is leaping up and down with excitement and possibilities, and the fact that Christmas at the Farm sounds almost like a novel title! However, the other part of me is looking nervously out of the window, and wondering if one pair of sheepskin gloves will actually be enough, and just how deep the mud is going to get if it rains all day tomorrow.

The one thing that I’m looking forward to most of all is that I’ll be doing something to help make Christmas magical for children, now mine are more-or-less grown up. The flickering candles of excitement in the eyes, the half-heard tingle of bells, the smell of frost in the air … and that’s just me!

See you at Newham Grange Farm tomorrow!