Clarely Christmas Creativity Causes Cheer

Well when Hitch, our usual Run Leader for Norwich, asked if I'd cover for him as he needed to be in Lapland this week, I had wondered if he was trying to get a bit of extra overtime in for Christmas as one of Santa's busy elves. But the photo he shared with us just as we were about to start, of him in a sleigh, with reindeer and a little helper, definitely gave us second thoughts as to exactly which role he was practising for!

So with that festive mood setting the scene for our last group run of the year, it was great to see so many turn out on a chilly night for our task at the Clare School to make decorations for their Christmas party.

As I am still getting over my nasty winter cough, I knew it would be suspect to do a lot of loud talking this evening so Bill very kindly helped me out with the welcome session announcements and warm up. Thanks Bill!

It is always lovely to see our Goodgym family grow so we were very pleased to welcome Hannah to her first group run. And if she needed any extra evidence that we are such a nice bunch of people to meet up with to do good and keep fit, that people keep coming back, that was provided by Amy celebrating her 50th good deed. Well done Amy, we look forward to seeing you show off your new black GG top in 2020!

After a brisk warm up to get the blood flowing nicely, we set off on the 3km route to the Clare School. Thanks to Bill for setting the pace at the front, to Jenny being back runner on the way out and to Mel for doing this on the way back.

We have visited the Clare School, which is for children with complex needs, before where Hayley, one of our runners works. We are always given a generous welcome and Hayley and her colleagues came up trumps again.

Once inside the school hall, we all dutifully felt the need to sit on the floor and listen carefully while Hayley explained that the school Christmas Party would be held there the next day and needed to be given a festive make-over to help get the children into the festive spirit. Various 'creative workstations' had been set up with different activities to get stuck in to - wrapping gifts for pass the parcel, making snow flakes for the windows, and generally making colourful, Christmassy things to put around the hall. Christmas karaoke, mince pies, juice and a Christmas tree challenge were there to add to the spirit and so we got stuck in......

35 minutes later and wow! what a transformation! Fantastic to see what talents our lovely runners have - ok so my own snowflake efforts were bit of a disaster but we'll quickly move on from that..... Hayley and her colleagues were very pleased with how much was done so quickly, with everyone getting stuck in and having fun at the same time. The pupils would be very excited to see the decorations in the morning.

So with a nice warm glow from doing such a lovely activity we set off again for the Forum where Cheska kindly 'tested' her amazing Christmas chocolate honeycomb fudge on us!!

Take care everyone. Thanks for a great Goodgym 2019 - here's to more fun and fitness in 2020. We now have a break from Monday night runs until 6th January but don't forget to check the GG page and Facebook group for community missions and social events.

Have a great Christmas and I'll leave you pondering who Santa might secretly be....