Today we took Charlie sledging.

We drove up to the top of the hill overlooking Holmfirth, which is where I used to go as a child, and it was exactly as I remembered it. I used to go up with my Mum and Dad every time it snowed. The car park always used to be full of other kids and their parents all scrambling out of the car with winter woollies on and sledges in tow.

Today when we arrived, we were the only ones on the car park, and I wondered if times had changed and people don’t come sledging anymore. I was proven wrong when a few minutes later another car arrived and then another until the car park was full within an hour. 25 years later and everything was still the same.

It was so cold and windy that Charlie looked like a ripe tomato within seconds. The snow was so deep that it came above my wellies, but the sky was so blue, and the sun was shining that it somehow felt like a summer’s day. I felt like we were in another world. Reality hit when half an hour later Jorgie wouldn’t stop wailing and Charlie wouldn’t get on the sledge as he’d rather just pull it around the field whilst every other kid was having a ball actually sledging.

He probably takes after me. I remembered when I was younger, and I sledged down the hill but picked up a bit too much speed and couldn’t stop. I went right over the edge of a steep slope and when I landed, I genuinely thought I had broken my back. I cried and screamed which resulted in mass panic from my mum and dad. So, whilst all the other kids were having fun, I was being carried up a hill on a sledge as a makeshift stretcher ready for my mum and dad to drive me to hospital.

When we got back to the car as they were about to lie me in the back I asked, “Have you got any chocolate biscuits?” At this point they realised my injury wasn’t so serious after all and actually they had probably sustained more injury to their own backs by carrying me back up the extremely steep slope. The moral of the story is probably not to go sledging at all but where’s the fun in that?

After sledging until my bum was numb and I couldn’t feel my toes we got back into the car to go for hot chocolate and cake in Holmfirth. My underwear and leggings were so wet with snow that they were stuck to me and I hadn’t brought a change of clothes. Charlie made me feel much better when he said, “Mummy are you going to die soon?” and then “Is the next activity ice skating?” I replied with “No Charlie hopefully not and no we are not. What do you think I am? Elsa from Frozen?”.

We arrived at a coffee shop to be told that the coffee machine wasn’t working so Kyle and I had a milkshake and Charlie had an ice cream. The perfect winter warmer when you have been sledging for two hours on a hill that could be a perfect home to polar bears.

Later on, I went to meet my best friend for food and to watch Mary Poppins Returns at the Cinema. The film was really nostalgic and actually was quite emotional to watch. It brought a tear to my eyes at times. I loved Mary Poppins as a little girl, and this carried on the story from when I was young as the children were the next generation from the children in the first film. There were lots of references to the first film and it was special when Dick Van Dyke made an appearance.

Although it was brilliant, I couldn’t help thinking that it would never beat the original and that Julie Andrews would always be the best Mary Poppins. But is that because this was a film I loved as a child so it will always seem better? Will Charlie and Jorgie grow up to love this new version and if another is released in 54 years, they will think that nothing will beat this version? Will I go to the Cinema many years from now as an old lady with my grandchildren to watch the latest one?

By pure coincidence we had watched the Lion King last night with Charlie and he loved it. I can’t remember the last time I had watched it but I’m sure it was as a child myself and it is weird how you forget bits. So, all in all its been a weekend of nostalgia and remembering how it feels to be a child and how you see things from a different perspective. It does make you think about the circle of life so to speak and how quickly time passes. You should make the most of every moment.