Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens.

Manic innit!!!

Why do we do this to ourselves?

It falls on the same day every year. Retailers remind us of it’s impending approach earlier and earlier every blinking year and yet here we are (most of us) running about like headless turkeys!

We’re very fortunate in that the big day will be spent with our lovely in-laws and so I will only be assisting (possibly) and not having to co-ordinate the big meal. To this point the only dalliance with festive food has been the annual – ‘Who makes the best mince pie’ tasting session that Daddy Simon and I indulge in every December. I know that you can get them much earlier in the year but I can generally pack in a year’s consumption in the thirty one days that make up December.

I did consider making some myself but only got as far as buying a jar of mincemeat – well maybe a wee bit further – possibly a couple of (dozen) spoonfuls out of the jar whilst I was pondering if the Marks and Spencer’s pies were actually worth the extra expenditure given that the Cashier in the nearby Co-op is, quite frankly, a stroppy and judgemental cow.

I did start the Christmas shopping ages ago.(mid November!) I popped odds and ends in the trolley whilst out and about with the kids and took advantage of the Black Friday Sales then lost interest until the beginning of December. A gin fuelled online splurge left the spare room looking like the Amazon delivery truck had ram raided the front of the house and to make matters worse I’d been chucking random items of clothing that I didn’t fancy ironing and toys that I had confiscated on the grounds of bad behaviour or that were just plain annoying me into the Thomas the Tank Engine train wreck of a room.

So we took a deep breath and cracked open the (second or third) bottle of Baileys that we were ‘saving for Christmas’ ( sooo close) on Saturday,had a quick sort through and had everything wrapped and labelled by about 2130.

I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the labelling system so if someone gets a wrinkled striped shirt – I’d quite like that back – ironed preferably but whoever gets the sodding toy electric guitars is welcome to keep them.

Now of course Christmas should be all about the children and unsurprisingly our wee Christmas puddings have once again surprised me.

I really thought that it would be next year that they would have a grasp on what was all going on – but their curious little minds have been working overtime and I’ve been interrogated about Christmas Trees, Nativity Scenes,Father Christmas, what are presents, can I have a present and why do I still not have a present?

The festive trip on the Bluebell Railway with them was magical – both Daddies breathing a huge sigh of relief when Alexandra did not howl the place down when she met Father Christmas as she did last year. Both gracefully accepted gifts from him as he passed through the train and wasted no time in ripping through the wrapping to make sure that Daddy Simon was getting his money’s worth.

Each one of their regular programmes has had a Christmas special that they’ve been glued to and they’ve loved pointing out Christmas lights and trees when we’ve been out and about and have possibly offended more that one or two elderly gents in red jumpers and almost definitely the woman in the red hat at Tesco last week.

Heigh ho!

Time has once again run away from me and so I’m going to sign off and go and spend a bit of quality (street) time with Alexandra and Calder before they go down (and hopefully stay down!) for the night.

I truly hope that you all have a fantastically festive time over the next few days and will finish as I started –

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! XXX

One of the many reasons that I no longer run a sporty little hatchback – and yes it IS a case of Prosecco – thank you for asking!!!