I really enjoyed writing our Year in Review for 2023 so am back to write our Review of the year for 2024. You will see that the year has been a real mix once again – plenty of travelling and social events but has ended unexpectedly.
I definitely didn’t read or blog as much as I’d have liked but this has mainly been down to getting established in my job. What I have read though, has tended to be very enjoyable so still plenty of recommendations.
We end the year with 2 adult daughters and a completely new configuration of who lives in this house. We reached the total of 83 lifeboat stations visited so did really well with our challenge.
So enough rambling, lets get on with the review of the year!
January
We started the year differently this year by missing our New Year’s Day walk – instead we chose a cosy home day, which never happens! We made up for it throughout the rest of January though by doing several other walks, including a bike ride in Delamere Forest, a circular walk around Bickerstaffe and a super windy walk around West Kirby Marina. I try not to have flashbacks to nearly losing Tara as it was going dark!
This was the month that I really knuckled down with working on the blogs, me & my accountability partner, Simone from Manchester Mummy met up for some goal setting and have continued to work on this throughout the year.
A highlight of the month was winning a signed Mary Earps shirt, that we got framed and made a fantastic present for Tara’s birthday. One of my New Years’ Resolutions for 2025 is to enter a lot more competitions.
Recipes made this month – All about the comfort and the ultimate Yorkshire Puddings!
Book of the month: One Day with You – Shari Low.
February
The month started brilliantly with a night in Liverpool watching 2 tribute bands to Crowded House and The Housemartins/Beautiful South. We are hoping to watch many more tribute bands in 2025.
Tara turned into a teenager and Dermot turned 46 on the same day (She actually did turn 13, she wasn’t just grumpy) and this was the month that Violet passed her driving test.
Really excitingly, me and Dermot jetted off to Dubai for a child free break. What an incredible place – Not our usual environment and I definitely liked it more than Dermot, but so lucky to have experienced it.
We stayed at the Rixos Palm and managed to do some sightseeing (Burj Kalifa and the Souks) but also spent time relaxing in the sun. We were also there for one of the rare Dubai storms when safety alerts were sent out to our phones. Tiny bit terrifying!
We went from one extreme to another with a trip to The Lake District as soon as we returned. Once again, we stayed in a Gingerbread House at The Quiet Site. We took in some lovely long walks, had one of the best meals of our life at The Herdwick Inn and rebooted our Lifeboat Stations challenge.
Book of the Month: The Women – Kristin Hannah. Just phenomenal – Possibly made me not the best company in Dubai!
March
March was a whirlwind of normal hectic life for the Costello girls. Football and school for Tara (both playing in sooo many matches and watching at Goodison), Art A level final assessment for Violet, university open days and being offered her university place. Millie was finishing her final degree year and deciding on her next options.
We headed off to Wales at the end of the month and had a wonderful stay in Porthmadog over Easter.
Book of the Month: The Rachel Incident – Rachel O’Donoghue. A bit different for me but very readable.
April
We started April on our travels once again – this time to beautiful Pembrokeshire. Another fantastic cottage where we truly made ourselves at home. We fell in love with the area, in particular St David’s and Tenby.
We moved the weather getting better and spent many days out in the North West – including a lovely afternoon in Birkdale, surfing in North Wales and paddle boarding in Southport Marina. Our very brave brother-in-law and nephew abseiled down Anfield too.
Recipe of the Month: ad| Spicy Sausage Rolls
Book of the Month: The Raging Storm – Ann Cleeves. I love this series and definitely hope to read more by Ann Cleeves in 2025.
May
We celebrated my Mum’s birthday with a visit to one of our favourite restaurants, Emily’s in Formby. Previously we had only been for breakfast, but soon discovered that Sunday lunch is equally fabulous.
There was yet more eating out with a visit to Liverpool’s Duke Street market and a magnificent steak feast at Cowshed in Liverpool. Still one of our favourite meals of the year.
I went on a girly weekend away to North Wales with some of my school mum friends and it was glorious. So relaxing, so much chatter and a fair amount of prosecco. The country went mad for the Northern Lights, which were incredible high up on a hill near Carnarfon.
We finally managed to go to the Whit Friday Band Contest in Oldham in 2024. Something I’ve been desperate to do for a few years now. It was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. Just loved every minute – We didn’t manage to see Chav Brass but there’s always next year!
And finally for May, Millie started proper grown up work as an Architect. She is continuing her studies by doing a part-time Masters Apprenticeship whilst working full time and so far seems to be loving it!
June
Now this was another busy month! Violet turned 18 and we had a fabulous weekend at Centre Parcs. Us girls went to the Aqua Sana Spa, while the rest of the gang did the swung from the trees on the High Ropes.
On her actual birthday, we ate at The Ivy in Manchester, where she met all of the dragons from Dragons Den. They even sent over a bottle of champagne for her!
We visited The Beyond Van Gogh Exhibition in Liverpool – Mum really enjoyed the immersive display of his artwork.
Mr C & I had a night away at The Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool and a wonderful afternoon in the spa. We used a voucher I received for my 50th in 2023 to visit The Art School – A Michelin star restaurant in Liverpool.
We also had our visit to the Co-Op Arena in Manchester as part of Vi’s 18th present, where we watched Travis and The Killers. I got a last minute to see P!nk at Anfield and thought she was amazing!
In other musical news, while the country was in the throes of Euro 24 fever, I was performing with our Wind Orchestra in a concert. Mr C showed how committed he is as a husband by coming along to watch (whilst playing the match on his phone!)
Book of the Month: In the Blink of an Eye- Jo Callaghan. There’s a reason this won Crime Novel of the Year – Its incredible, I sat in the pool at Centre Parcs and read it in one go! Proper wrinkles!
July
The football season finally ended, giving us a breather. Tara thoroughly enjoyed the end of season trip to the inflatables at Manley Mere Aqua Park. Highly recommended for a group activity.
We all spent a lot of time at various beaches with Dermot and Violet both being busy on RNLI Lifeguard duty. We also marvelled at The Red Arrows at Southport Air Show. Spine tingling stuff!
We spent a couple of days in Bristol, celebrating Millie’s graduation from UWE in Architecture. Super proud parents.
The following day was spent at Bristol Lido, using up yet another birthday voucher. Fabulous experience but so cold!
At the end of July, we set off on our travels once again, first stopping in Slovenia, where we stayed at Potato Land Holiday Resort.
One of our favourite days of the year was spent swimming in Lake Bled – We are desperate to do this again!
We then headed for another week in one of our favourite villas in Croatia. ad| The owners kindly treated us to a Sakramenski boat tour of the Istria region. Swimming in the Adriatic was simply wonderful!
Book of the Month: The Mountains Sing – Nguyen Phan Que Mai. 5 stars!!
August
August saw Tara heading off for a 10 day holiday with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew to Rhodes. We took the opportunity to take my Mum away for a few days to the North East, where she experienced exactly what its like to do a tour of Lifeboat Stations (Clue: She was exhausted by the end!) We loved our apartment in Berwick-upon-Tweed – it made the perfect base for us.
We loved exploring the area, including Holy Island of Lindisfarne and seeing the Forth Bridge. We finished off our tour with a visit to the Cramlington Spoon – I just love an unusual sculpture or landmark.
We ended the month with a week in Donegal – an area of Ireland that we haven’t been to before. Beautiful as it was, it never stopped raining!
We took the opportunity at the end of the week to spend a couple of days in Northern Ireland – we fell in love with Belfast and booked to go back in November (more of that later!) We were hoping to revisit a fabulous breakfast at The Pocket Cafe in Belfast as we enjoyed it so much!
Book of the Month: The Book of Lost Names – Kristin Harmel.
September
I always see September as a time for new beginnings – Tara started in Year 9, Millie started her Masters in Birmingham and Violet headed off to uni in Preston. She has completely loved it so far and made a great group of friends.
Dermot started the month by taking part in charity fun run with the Wirral RNLI lifeguards – of course, we went to cheer him on! You may have seen them covered on the news, raising money to commemorate 200 years of the RNLI.
Myself and 3 of my friends from school (yes, we have known each other for 45+ years) headed off to London for the weekend. I know by now that you are probably wondering if I ever spend time at home! We sang our hearts out at Abba Voyage, ate and drank loads and generally had the best catch up.
We were also invited to attend the local food and drink producers evening at Haigh Hall in Wigan. What a great display of local artisan food producers that we are hoping to go back to when it returns in 2025. One of the highlights of the evening was a fantastic talk and tasting session by Cheese with Claire (and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t like cheese!)
We also went to see Brassed Off at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Perfect for someone who loves at Brass Band and one of my favourite theatres.
Book of the Month: Prima Facie – Suzie Miller.
October
In October, we started our newest blog, North West Family Adventures. A place for everything that is going on in the North West and the best places to visit. We are slowly moving the North West content on 2 Adults 3 Children over to its new home. Keep an eye out for plenty of new content on both sites during 2025!
We spent half term in Devon, where we ticked off LOADS of Lifeboat Stations. We have now ticked off Cornwall and a lot of Devon – still plenty to do though!
Part of the enjoyment of travelling around the country on the Lifeboat Station challenge is coming across unusual places to visit. We discovered Clovelly Private Village and the cliff side railway at Lynton & Lynmouth during this trip.
Book of the Month: James – Percival Everett. I don’t usually go for Booker Shortlisted books but this blew me away.
November
The month when it all started to go wrong. Rather than a child-free weekend in Belfast, I unexpectedly ended up in hospital, where I was diagnosed with gallstones. Apparently riddled with them! More on that later.
Violet was super excited to get her student paramedic uniform – She starts on the ambulances next week. We are so proud of her.
I did manage to go away with some friends for a weekend in the Lake District, where I took absolutely no photographs and completely switched off. You may remember that we went to the same place last November and got snowed in!
Book of the Month: Comfort Eating – Grace Dent. I do love a good food memoir and really enjoy Grace Dent’s writing.
December
A much quieter December than usual. I was on a liver shrinking diet of less than 800 calories per day ahead of surgery. This somewhat curtailed any plans for eating, drinking and being merry.
My operation came and went though, and I am now gallbladder and gallstones free and feeling fine.
We did manage to go to our local panto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at St Helens Theatre Royal though – Oh yes we did!
After a couple of weeks recuperation, it was time for Christmas which was as lovely as ever. We ate at home this year and had our Christmas Day trip to the beach.
We followed Christmas by a few nights in Lincolnshire -an area we haven’t been to before but enjoyed exploring. Skegness and Grimsby were as expected but Lincoln was absolutely beautiful.
The last day of the year was spent celebrating Dermot having taken over the shop 25 years ago. That’s an awful lot of haircuts!
And so the end of the year – our first child-free New Year’s Eve for 22 years as all 3 girls were otherwise engaged. We had a lovely meal at Hawksmoor in Liverpool, then headed home for champagne as our kettle was broken and we couldn’t have a cuppa!
Book of the Month: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I read all 3 of her Housemaid books in less than a week – the perks of recuperating in bed!
If you aren’t sick to death of seeing what we get up to, feel free to check out our Review of the year for 2023.
Having to drink champagne because your kettle is broken isn’t a hardship! 😉 Though I’m glad you now have something that makes brews!
What an amazing year you have had – you have seen, been and done so much! It has been epic to be on the journey of 2024 madness with you!
However, what amazed me was it was January last year you won the Mary Earps shirt – it feels like it was yesterday! A sign that time flies far too quickly, but you certainly packed a lot into that time! Here’s to 2025 – let’s do this! 🙂 Sim xx