Jack Bolton

Well, Christmas has been and gone in a flurry of turkey, roast potatoes, presents, wrapping paper, movies, family visits, the occasional pint of ale, more turkey, etc. etc. You get the idea. Overall, it has been a lovely family time, albeit with a tinge of sadness that you were missing from the noise and bedlam of running around with Edward, Oliver, William and Maria. I hope you had a truly great Christmas with lots of presents and family and noise and laughter. I can picture it in my head and it makes me smile.

William and Maria are doing well now. Maria is growing tall and becoming a little lady. William will forever be quite small I think (you were already taller than him last time you met, to Maria’s great amusement) but he is a fast runner and a fast thinker. I predict he will do well in life. Uncle Nick found a very nice lady a few years ago, Cara. Cara has two children, a boy Isaac, and a girl Ginnie. They are the same sort of age as William and Maria. So they’ve bought a great big house and all live together (2 grown ups plus 4 kids plus a big softie dog) and it is happy bedlam I am sure. The dog is a sweetie. He is a cross between a labrador and a poodle; call a “labradoodle”. Silly!!! But fun.

Edward and Oliver have now gone up North to see their other grandparents (Auntie Suzy’s mum and dad). They have a farm up in the hills in Northumberland. I’m not sure where but I’m told it is very beautiful but very cold.  One year, it was so cold that Uncle Phil’s toothpaste froze solid when it was left in the bathroom.  Brrrrrr!! 

Anyway, Auntie Suzy gave me a photograph of Edward and Oli. It was taken by a neighbour just up the road where they live in Kinoulton. It was such a good picture that Auntie Suzy gave me a copy and I’ve taken a picture of it and posted it here for you to see. You can see how Edward is becoming a proper young man and Oli is growing up fast, just like you I believe.

The next big thing now is New Year 2012. I shall be ringing the church bells in Hickling at midnight to bring in the New Year. That will be fun.

I’m off visiting folk today so bye for now and see you one day.

I’ve just finished four nights out with Santa and Rudolf.  My Rotary Club, (Keyworth and Ruddington) help Santa visit all the houses in Keyworth, Ruddington, Tollerton and some other villages in the area.  We knock on every door and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and usually they put a few coins in our collecting tins.  Our Rotary Club then give this money to good causes such as the Air Ambulance, a local children’s hospice and other local pepople who need help. 

Santa and Rudolf, getting ready to see Jack Bolton at Christmas

We also give some to help stop polio; now that is a nasty disease and one that we are trying to stop ever happening again.  There are Rotary Clubs all over the world and we are all raising money so that children all around the world can have an injection to stop them getting polio.  You will probably have had yours by now; they might have given it to you at school.  Anyway, we’re doing really well and very few people get polio now, just in a few countries in Africa and the Middle East where wars and fighting mean nurses can’t get there to give the injections.  If we can reach those few people, then polio will be gone for ever and no child will ever need to be injected again.  Which is pretty cool and a great reason to walk the streets with Santa.

Anyway, I had a special job.  Santa and Rudolf are on the sleigh, but to save Rudolf’s strength for his big night out (Christmas Eve, obviously), we pull the sleigh using a truck.  I got to drive the truck!  How much fun was that?!  I got the job because I can turn the truck and sleigh around in little dead-end roads quickly without messing about; Santa doesn’t have time to waste.

Hey, I’ve just remembered Noddy saves Christmas!  Do you remember it?  That was the film where we learned how Santa can visit every house in the world in one night.  It’s a little bit magic!  Blimey, that seems to be ages ago since we watched that!  You have soooo outgrown that now.

I am thinking of you this Christmas.  It is the first one that I haven’t seen you since you were one year old and it makes me feel very sad.  But, I am sure that you are going to have a good time.  A few days ago I spoke with your Uncle Simon and he tells me that you are growing up fast and doing well at school.  We both decided that you are going to be tall and I gather you are shooting up fast.  I predict you will grow to be 6 ft and 1 inch tall.

Anyway, I’m still in the office working and I guess I had better get on with it.  Plenty of people wanting to move house before Christmas and there is not much time left.  I could do with a little of that Santa magic to make a bit more time!  I wish you a very happy Christmas with everything that you could want.  Let us pray that next year will be a good year.

All my love, Mr Cheeky  xx

Santa with Rudolf and his little helpers

I went for a really nice walk in Bradgate Park, between Loughborough and Leicester. Slightly wierd because, as I pulled into the parking space, I realised that the last time I had been there was with you, your mum, Uncle Simon, Auntie Dor and Ellie and Alex. We had a winter picnic in the Jeep (Not all of us, obviously.  That would be really cramped.  Uncle Simon had his car with him to) and went for a walk to a large mound. So I took a picture of that mound, below. I think you were about two and a half so you probably won’t remember.

Anyway, I went for a good walk and, when it started to rain, I took shelter at Quorn Railway, where we used to look at the trains. The last time I saw you was there, when we went on the special viewing train with big windows and we saw the track fire.  A couple of years before that we went with Uncle Phil, Ollie and Edward to see the Santa train. I have a picture of all of us standing with the Fat Controller.

At Quorn Station, they’ve built a new tea room. Do you remember the old one, called the NAAFI, under the railway arch? It had a roaring open fire in winter and was very snug. It was all dressed out like it was World War II. We sometimes had a hot chocolate there, or a fruit juice in warmer weather. I would have taken a picture of the new one but it was so dark with a rainy sky that the picture would have been rubbish. I’ll try to remember to take one the next time I am there.

We went to Quorn many times and it holds very special memories of you and I having great fun.  I bet you don’t remember the time that we were standing right next to the big black loco and the driver said you could climb aboard.  The firebox was open and roaring away very scarily and you didn’t want to go in.  Instead, the fireman, who was a very nice lady gave you a piece of coal.  It was tiny and shiny and you kept it safe for several months before it was lost.  I don’t know where it is now.