This was a bit of a strange week for me. In the past I have always taken off as much time as possible for Christmas. I am usually off work for the same time as the kids, so about 2 weeks. However, I hadn't accrued much leave since joining in mid-November, so I had 3.5 days available to take this year.
The business has a mandatory 3 day shutdown and this year it was in the week between Christmas and New Year, so this week I worked all the way up to lunchtime on Christmas eve, and took my half day for the afternoon.
With the kids being off school though I did have a bit more time for the morning. I was able to wake at 7am, then have a run or a workout and a shower before starting work. On Monday, I took a few pictures of my new haircut once washed - I do like it more when it's been scrumbled.
I found out from UkuleleLand that we had raised £85 for Southmead, which was nice.
There were still a lot of people working on Monday, so it was still quite busy with calls, emails, and a few meetings. By Tuesday it had got considerably quieter and, for the first time, I was able to have several hour stretches just quietly getting on with a task without interruption. I made good progress with my task list (5 proposals and a piece of verification work). It was a really nice way to wind down to Christmas, as by Christmas eve I was feeling pretty in control and good about what I had managed to achieve in the week.
On the Tuesday evening, I chatted to John a while which was good, then not long after that there was a knock on the door. It was Mush bringing around a present and card. It was so lovely to see her and I wish we could have talked longer. In the card was a sticker which went straight on my ukulele case.
Mark started doing lots of the cooking for Christmas day on the Wednesday. The smells were maddeningly good!! He very kindly brought me up a bacon sarnie which was amazing.
Mark and the girls went out delivering Christmas cards on Christmas eve, their return home was perfectly timed with me finishing work. We had lunch and then a walk.
There was a plan for a Challis/Lillington quiz on Christmas day and Boxing Day. I suggested that the girls make the rounds. I helped Bunnykins put hers into a powerpoint, Mark helped Woo a little.
My favourite round of Bunnykins was "Films in Lego Town". You have to guess the films from the following pictures:
1.
8.
10.
The answers of course being:
- Jaws
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban
- The golden compass
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone
- The Hobbit
- Crocodile Dundee
- Men in black
- Cleopatra
- A Series of Unfortunate Events.
- Zoolander (!! of course...I mean it even has Billy Zane and David Bowie!)
After tea we watched the Christmas performance video from Bunnykin's school.
Before bedtime we brought a present down for each of the girls. Woo had asked for a onesie. She had chosen hers as a kaki men's onesie. I had seen a tall sized woman's onsie in a bunny style, so had bought that for Bunnykins. They were both delighted.
I feel glad to have captured this year's Christmas day. It got me thinking about Christmas days past and what traditions we have and where they developed from.
2006 - before kids... Mark and I were busy with DIY and then I guess we must have gone to either my parents or his for Christmas. We would have seen the other set the weekend before Christmas as living in Hull and Dorset at the time it was rather much to go between the two for Christmas Day and then Boxing Day.
2008 - Christmas at home with my parents and brother staying with us. This was a lovely year. My mum was still relatively well, only occasional worrying signs of the Alzheimer's. We had a lot of fun. Woo was still rather little to go into establishing much tradition about presents or stockings. I mean of course all that happened, but it wasn't something she was massively aware of.
2009 - Bunnykin's first Christmas. Spent at home followed by lunch at Marian's with Granny & Grandpa too. This was a good year. We did establish some traditions. The girls had stockings in their rooms. We came in to Woo's room first as Bunnykins was still asleep and watched her open her presents. The videos are too cute, I mean heart breakingly adorable. Woo's gentle and excited little "aw!"s and her "der!" as she tips out the chocolate coins have become Christmas traditions in themselves as we all imitate them at appropriate moments! Presents from us were laid out downstairs in neat piles and we got straight to opening them when we were all down with cups of tea made.
2010 - a really snowy Christmas - Grandma and Grandad couldn't join us then down to Dorset. I remember this Christmas as one which was actually white. In terms of traditions... there were now stockings that I had made for the girls. Andrew was living in Bristol so was able to make it over for the pre-Christmas Christmas lunch we cooked, but we had far too much food as my parents had been unable to make the journey due to weather. We went down to Dorset for Christmas and it was pretty magical. We followed Mark's family's traditions with mass on Christmas eve and opening one present and then presents given out around the tree later.
2011 - a pre-Christmas at home with my parents, then Christmas day with Mark's parents here and lunch at Marians. Woo/Fidget was also now in school so there were new traditions of being bemused at the Church/School for the nativity.
The blog runs out in 2012. I think that year we went up to my parent's for Christmas and celebrated following my families traditions. I recall a wonderful picture we took of Bunnykins wandering around with teddies in her dress and my mum completely cracking up at her. I think this was also the year that we were all sleeping in one room. My brother's old room had a double bed and a bunk by this point. We woke the girls in the morning and said "Santa's been!" but Bunnykins just stuck her tousled head up and complained "Who turned on the light?!!"
I had been thinking about what my Christmas traditions were growing up. Most of my memories are from Westfield Road and really my favoured memories are later after Mum got remarried to John. I mean I remember visiting my biological father's parents at their strange house above a boat workshop and filling station. It was out in the flat middle of no-where opposite a refinery. A bleak and blasted place smelling of oil and hot, welded metal. The sitting room had no external windows and the kitchen that ran alongside it had only skylights. The stairs leading up to the house were narrow, steep, and dark. There would be a lot of other kids there, other cousins. We would be sent off to play in the other bedrooms off a long corridor, all cold rooms away from the main sitting room. I was afraid of both my grandparents and have very little memory of them. My Grandma May died when I was fairly young. My Grandad always seems, in my memory, to be wearing an oily cap and have his wrinkled face covered in grime. I was thinking how I don't really remember him ever talking to me. If I try to remember his voice, it isn't saying any words, it's a collection of gruff, emphysemic, cracked grumbles.
I remember Westfield Road while my biological father was there. I remember asking him to put White Christmas on the record player. He turned it up so loud. I can feel it reverberating around my head now and how magical it seemed. I remember going over to my Grandma's for Christmas day and the crush of people in the small house. We would arrive just in time to eat, followed by all cramming into the living room to have presents handed around. Later, Grandma would put a buffet spread back on the dining table that would be full of wonderful things like pork pie slices and sausage rolls and crisps! I remember my Grandma's voice easily, with her singsong Hull accent.
I also remember the year that my biological father disappeared after my parents split. We had a large house that my mum had no job to pay for. I remember that Christmas and my mum buying us presents that seemed horrible. I was old enough to know I had to smile and accept the school bag even though I wanted to cry about how much I was going to be made fun of and how there wasn't anything else. I remember my aunty scolding both of us for being ungrateful kids and didn't I know that my mum wasn't getting any money from my biological father to look after us. I remember my mum crying a lot that Christmas.
But Christmases post John are where my traditions come from and where my happy childhood Christmas memories come from. My brother and I had our own rooms. I would put my stocking on my bed as I liked to poke it with my toe in the morning to feel the weight. I think I would take my stocking into Andrew's room or he would come into mine and we would open things together. Then we would wake Mum and John. We would all go downstairs where the living room door would be shut. Mum and John would take what felt like an absolute age to make cups of tea. Meanwhile, Andrew and I would stand at the living room door bouncing with excitement. Only when everyone was ready and gathered would we be allowed to open the door. Inside the room, each of us would have our own pile of presents, wrapped in our own unique paper. So while mine might all be silver stars, Andrew's might be green Christmas trees and so on. We would all take our spots and start opening. We would take our moments to shout our thanks across to Mum and John. They would have piles that they would have bought for each other....I don't think Andrew and I were that good at present buying until rather late in life.
Then it would be time to play with stuff, leaf through a book given, get showered and dressed. Of course Mum and John would be busy in the kitchen after they'd taken her opportunity to get washed and dressed. My Grandma had got a bit fed up of cooking the Christmas lunch for all the family, so as the oldest child with the nicest house, the role had fallen to my Mum. We lived across the river from the rest of the family, so that would be a source of grumble, but my Mum was always a great hostess.
A great hostess, but not always a tolerant one. Pretty much every year, the family would arrive later than they had been requested and Mum would always express anger that it was because they were all opening presents without her. The dining room/conservatory would have been set up with the dining table extended plus the kitchen table and still it was a squeeze to get everything on. There would be loads of food and it would be wonderfully cooked.
There were always 3 phases. Usually phase 1 was eating; we were all ushered around the table and food would be brought out in some kind of huff, until someone (probably my uncle Ian) made a joke and made Mum laugh and do her smiling/growling face that meant she wanted to be angry but she would rather just laugh and shout instead. And then the meal would always be in good spirits, enjoyed by all. It would be loud, tasty, warm, cramped, funny and delightful.
Sometimes phase 2 would come first, and that was that everyone would sit in the living room. Always with some on the floor and some on the footstool and arms of the chairs. There was no point me or Andrew trying to get a seat on the sofa - we would just be shoed off. Presents would be handed around, again, the atmosphere was loud and jovial; "Thank you!"s being yelled across funny anecdotes of why so and so had chosen this present for such and such.
Then the day would turn into phase 3. There would be two factions. One faction was in the living room with the TV on, sitting slack jawed and sleeping infront of the Queen's speech or whatever other telly was on. It was quiet in here and if it wasn't then that was quickly "shushed" out. Occasionally Andrew or I might have to do a drinks run for this crew, but we always sat with faction 2. Faction 2 set up in the dining room. A game would be brought out, something like Pass the Pigs. The ideal game was simple but raucous. There would be snacks and chocolates and drinks. The atmosphere was loud, my Mum always the ringleader, with her laugh ringing out. People would be objecting and protesting in jest, or celebrating their victory noisily. There would be music on too, it always felt like a party.
The only thing that changed as we got older was that we weren't sent to bed as the guests left!
Mark's traditions I know in less detail, but it would also depend on whether they were in Ireland or in the UK. There would generally be mass on Christmas eve, then opening a present when they got home. On Christmas day, present opening would happen a bit later when everyone was dressed. All presents would be under the tree and there would be a person giving them out. When I first went down for a Dorset Christmas, I think there was an expectation that I would help with food prep while the men (Mark, his Dad and whoever Marian had brought) got on with whatever. I soon turned that on its head by pointing out that Mark was the main cook in our house...so Mark then generally got stuck in. Though to be fair I always volunteered for a low skilled task such as peeling. I don't mind working, but I mind the assumption that because I am female, my place is in the kitchen. Anyway, enough politics! Christmas....
So yes, this year was just us and proceeded to tradition. The girls put out their stockings in their rooms. They left out a drink of milk and a mince pie and carrot. This year it was in Bunnykin's room. I tend to be the one waking them up in the morning. I could hear Bunnykins shuffling so went in and she was just waking. She started with Big Rabbit's stocking and by then Woo arrived.
Then we started opening presents from other people. John had sent Mark some Bourbon, which caused amusement at the time. I knew it was coming as John had warned me I would probably be ID-ed by the delivery driver! 😄 Oh, John had also got me a new Curious George. He is small, so he is Little George, but I was really touched. The George from Ben is called George II. The outpouring of George love has been really uplifting. 💗
The aftermath!....
In the evening I got on with a repair project. I had got a lovely book about visible repair techniques so decided to give it a go on a jumper I have had for ages. I even wore it with the big hole in.
It was a big job, I decided to darn it in this yellow gold colour. As I did it, I had an idea that I would turn it into a tree shape.
Meanwhile, Mark was cleaning stickers off my brother's bass guitar. We are organising for it to be serviced and re-stringed in January as his Christmas present. He did a good job.
I was really pleased with how Christmas had gone. I know it wasn't what I would have expected at the start of the year, but actually it was really nice. I feel very grateful to have such a lovely place and lovely family to relax with.
Happy Christmas to you all.
💗
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