This week has been fantastic. I just want to throw that out there. Yes, there have been some moments when it wasn’t, but 99.9% of the time, its been a great week! Chris was at work Monday to Wednesday and my friend Namu was here and staying with us all week too. The week seemed really busy at the beginning but chilled out towards the end – all in all, making for a perfect Christmas week.
On Monday the girls had their first day at Frozen drama workshop. They had to be there for 10am, so we headed off just after 9am and I dropped them off with plenty of time. After that I headed to do some food shopping, then some last minute Christmas shopping. I also called in with the girls grandparents, to drop off a map for where they needed to go the following day (to see the Frozen performance). It was gone 1pm by the time I got back, which was just time to watch some Catfish with Namu before heading back to get the girls for 4pm. We got back home, had dinner and waited for Chris to get home from work too. The evening was spent just chilling out, watching TV, which was pretty much the same for every evening this week!
Tuesday started off similarly to Monday, with taking the girls to their Frozen workshop, but this time I came pretty much straight home. Namu and I spent the day watching TV but I also potted around the house, doing some last minute Christmas bits, tidying the house etc. At 2pm we set off to the girls show, which started at 3pm. It only lasted 30 minutes but it was pretty good and I was very proud of the girls – especially Megan who had 2 whole lines (haha!).
It took a while for the girls to get changed and ready after their performance, so Namu and I waited outside for almost 30 minutes. After we picked them up, we headed to their grandparents to collect the Christmas Hamper which Andrea always makes up for us. We stayed for a drink and a chat, which felt like a nice start to the Christmas period. Since it was nearly 5.30pm we decided to go and pick Chris up from work, saving him the train journey home. However he was late out and we were all fed up by the time he got out – so we decided to go to McDonalds for dinner. It was actually pretty nice and the girls enjoyed the fact we went inside, instead of doing drive-thru. We then headed home and chilled for the evening.
The next day was Christmas Eve and by some miracle I managed my first lie-in, in ages. At 11.30am I was finally up and as much as I would have loved a PJ day, I’d promised the girls Subway for lunch so we all had to get dressed and go out. The girls also needed to go to the bank and deposit their latest savings, so we tied that in with getting Subway in town. Afterwards we headed home and somehow Namu got roped into giving the girls Christmas nails. She sat and painted their nails and decorated them for quite a while – my brother’s family arriving while she was doing it. My brother, his girlfriend and her son Charlie, stayed for a drink and really just to visit before Christmas. Namu even ended up doing Charlie’s finger nails too!
Once they were gone, we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol and I gave the girls their letters from Santa – or rather, placed them on the doormat and pretended they were delivered. It wasn’t long before my Mum arrived, along with my sister Pippa. She also picked up Chris from work so it was nice to have him home early too. It’s a Christmas Tradition in our house, to all get together on Christmas Eve. We also have one Christmas Eve present. When I was growing up, it was a variety of things – from PJs, to hot water bottles, to a board game, to bath products. I’ve altered the tradition slightly to always be PJs now though, so every Christmas Eve we get together and unwrap our new PJs. My mum bought for her and Pippa, but I bought for all our family and Namu. Since my life is Disney Mad at the moment, I decided that we should all have Disney PJs. The girls had their Frozen ones, Chris had Grumpy, I had Beauty and the Beast, while Namu had Minnie and Mickey.
Mum and Pippa stayed for about an hour and then headed off. We have several other Christmas Eve traditions so they came next. First is a Christmas Bath. Everyone in the house has to have a bath on Christmas Eve, then put their pjs on, so we head into Christmas all clean. I treated the girls to some Lush and they had their bath, getting into their new pjs afterwards. We then had to set out everything for Father Christmas – some cookies and milk, along with apples for the reindeer (its usually carrots but I forgot to get some in!). The girls put out reindeer food in front of the outside door and hung the magic key on the door handle so Father Christmas can get in. Afterwards they hung up their stockings and it was time for Lily to go to bed.
Megan stayed up a little longer but then eventually it was her time for bed too. At that point I went for my bath (with Lush too) and got changed into my PJs. Namu went afterwards for a shower and finally Chris went after that. Once I was sure the girls were asleep I filled stockings and then finally settled down for an hour or so before heading to bed. Chris and I have our own tradition at midnight, to exchange one gift. I always forget (since its actually a tradition that comes from Chris’ family) so I ended up giving him something out of his stocking (some Batman headphones). He gave me Maleficent on DVD.
Obviously we went to sleep then and when we woke up it was about 5am. Sadly that wasn’t because my kids were awake, but instead because next door are so noisy. It was actually almost 5.45am before the kids came and woke us (despite not being awake) and we sat together in our bed, opening up the stocking presents.
Once we’d opened up the stocking gifts, we got up and dressed. The girls had new clothes and even new underwear to put on. My morning didn’t get off to a great start, with the dress I was planning on wearing, breaking at the zip. I will admit it made me a little teary but I tried to get over it and not dwell on Christmas being a bit of a bust. We all got breakfast – a combination of muffins and crumpets – then set about opening all the Christmas tree gifts. We all got some amazing things, but I was especially pleased with all my presents. The girls bought me a beautiful Tinker Bell ornament, while Chris bought me an Evil Queen one. As a belated birthday present, Namu had even bought me a Tinker Bell one too. Chris also got me a Disney Couture necklace, a snowflake from Frozen. As well as that, I got;Lush from Namu, a Disney jigsaw, cake pan and chewing gum from Nat and a Mrs Potts ornament, a Lumiere Funko, a Beauty and the Beast make up bag, a Toy Story necklace and some Kat Von D eyeliner pencils from Amy. Between Chris and I, Amy also bought us a Beauty and the Beast print, though Chris insisted it was definitely more for me!
After all the gifts were opened, the girls went to play upstairs for a while and I sorted out the lounge, the wrapping paper and gifts etc. A little while later we headed out to Chris’ Nan’s house, stopping for about 30 minutes to exchange gifts and spend a little time there. We then headed off to my mum’s house, where we would eat lunch and open a few more gifts. Chris and I got dollars from both her and Pippa, but we also got a “little extra” each from my mum – mine being a Tear and Share bowl for baking bread (which I then used a few days later). We all had lunch and relaxed, it was a really lovely lunch. I took shed loads of pictures and even let Lily have a play with the camera too – meaning even more were taken. That’s where this week’s 52 Project photos comes from!
Eventually at about 3pm we left my mum’s and I dropped the girls off with their other grandparents. We stopped briefly but Namu, Chris and I were tired and glad to be heading straight home. For about two hours we all just sat in the lounge and sort of zoned out. I played on my iPad and the other two played on their phones. Chris made me cups of tea every now and again but we all barely spoke. Eventually we seemed to find some energy and we began to chat a little, put the TV on etc. However we all headed to bed early as it had been an early start and a long day.
Friday was Boxing Day and we had nothing planned except for getting the girls back from my mum. Luckily she had agreed to drop them off and so we didn’t really need to do anything. Unfortunately I did need to head out to Tesco as Christmas Day also brought with it the discovery of headlice for Megan, so I needed to go out and get shampoo. While I was out, I bought some things for brunch and when I got back we all had a fry up.
After that Megan and Lily spent majority of the day playing on Disney Infinity, until I had to be Nit Nurse at least. I treated Megan, then Lily and then Chris, before finally doing my own. Once we were all done, the girls were in their PJs and they’d had dinner, I set to work on my Tiramisu cake. You may remember back in April that I made it for my mum, well Chris and Mum requested it for Christmas so I made it on Friday, ready for Saturday. I also made a mini one so we could sample it that night! Afterwards, Chris made quiche and a little later in the evening, Namu, Chris and I got to have a little quiche and a little cake for our dinner. Namu and I also managed to find time to FaceTime our mutual friend Jaime. While doing so, my mum phoned to say it was snowing – to which I squealed and ran outside!
By the time we finished on FaceTime, it was pretty much time for bed. We all headed up, ready for a busy day the next day. Saturday was our biggest family get-together of the holiday. My brother and his family hadn’t been able to make it for Christmas Day lunch, so we were all getting together for a buffet lunch on the Saturday. Not only was there my family (me, Chris and the girls), but also there was Namu, my mum, my sister Pippa and then my brother Chris with his girlfriend Erika, her son Charlie and my three nephews Morgan, Rhys and Ewan. Though I had a bit of a hectic morning in the kitchen, it all came together in the end. We all enjoyed a nice family lunch together and my bread came out almost perfect.
As well as making an effort to take more pictures on Christmas Day, I also made a conscious effort to take pictures on this day – as all our family were together. At one point it felt very “photoshoot” but I’m really glad we made the effort to take various group pictures, as some of them came out truly beautiful.
By far my favourite pictures are the ones of my family – both with and without my mum in them. It’s rare that we all take a nice picture at the same time and when I look at these pictures I just feel this warm and fuzzy feeling, because I know we’re all happy.
Once everyone was gone, I set about tidying up the kitchen and sorting out the dining room. Everyone else chilled out and while I did have some downtime too (uploading photos to Facebook), it was nice to feel like I was getting the house straight. Eventually the girls went to bed and since Namu wasn’t feeling very well, she went upstairs for a lie down. I took down the Christmas tree, along with the decorations and gave the downstairs a good clean and tidy.
Sunday was Chris’ last day off and Namu’s last full day with us. For the most part we all had a chilled out day but the girls and I managed to tidy their bedroom and make Mickey Mouse Oreo cookies. For lunch we all went out for Subway again – a reward for the girls working on their room and also a lazy lunch for me. We needed to pick up milk and bread too so we did that while we were out. When we got home, we sat and watched TV for majority of the evening, though Chris went upstairs on his computer. Our Disney task of the day was to watch a Disney movie and the girls picked Tinker Bell and The Pirate Fairy as we hadn’t seen it before. Once it was finished, Lily went to bed and then Megan was only an hour after that. I finally got around to watching some of the TV I wanted to watch and also tried to sew a dress Namu had brought with her. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out – though I did manage to get Twice the Mum moved to self-hosting and WordPress. It’s a work in progress but I’ll be moving this blog shortly too!
Like I said before, its been a great week. Christmas was great and so was spending time with family. It’s so nice to know I’m not heading back to work in a week, even though I know its only half way through the holiday. Mentally I’m feeling in a much better place and I can’t wait for the New Year and all the plans, resolutions and goals I want to make. This week, if I get time, I’ll be focusing my blog on rounding up my year and looking forward to the next. Stay tuned for all my plans!
