Day Twenty-four: It’s Christmas Eve, my favourite time of the year! I still feel all the excitement for the day before Christmas as I did as a child.
There’s nothing better than to sing Carols around this time of year, which is why we attended the recent Carol Service at the local church. It was a bit different from services I remembered but still a nice way to celebrate the season.
Christmas 2014 for me started in mid November when I sat writing my Christmas cards while David played console games with his friends in the living room downstairs.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited and really looked forward to Christmas. Perhaps it’s because I am in my own home? Or that I am in a better place, emotionally and mentally? Either way come the 1st December I put up my new (muchly contested) Christmas tree.
Christmas Tree
In the weeks following, I busied myself making the obligatory mince pies and Christmas cakes, of which I made 40 individual ones!
Mini Christmas Cakes
Since the middle of December, I’ve been listening to Christmas carols and songs. I remember as a child, listening out for Father Christmas’s float as it passed our road, and of the carol singers who came knocking at our door. It’s a shame they don’t visit any more.
Whilst enjoying the festive music, I made a playlist, with such tracks as:
1. A Christmas Overture (Hess.)
2. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! (Andy Williams)
3. Sleigh Ride (Anderson)
4. The Snowman Suite (Blake)
5. A Christmas Festival (Anderson)
Artie will be witnessing his first Christmas with us. He has had an Advent calendar with chocolate catnip treats daily and has a stocking full of toys from Santa Paws!
Santa Paws’s stocking
With Christmas Eve upon us I am more excitable than ever. Christmas day is an anticlimax in contrast to the eve when my child self comes to the fore, all excited and nervous, hoping to hear the pitter patter of Rudolf’s feet on the roof!
Christmas lunch will be a concoction of Quorn roast and vegetables for me and a gammon joint for David.
I was all excited for Christmas this year. It was my last under my mum’s roof before David and I made the move into the new house next door!!
For Christmas Eve, I listened to Classic FM all day. There were four hours of Christmas carol requests, while I made fat cakes for the wild birds. Then there was the narration of ‘The Snowman’ by Aled Jones, the story gave me memories of when I was a carefree ‘happy’ child!
Christmas day was a quiet affair were I drank a bottle of cava (as no one else liked it!) and I sat watching ‘Insidious 2’ with mum and brother Daniel. In the morning we all opened our Christmas presents together, Riley was funny taking his gifts and ripping the wrapping paper off them!
I seemed to have an endless supply of gifts from the family!! I even grew quite bored opening them all!!! Mum got me a bottle of brandy. Daniel got me a crystal nail file and David got me amongst others, diamond earings and a bucket of actual poo from Colchester Zoo!!! At least the flowers will grow next year!!
Boxing Day was all about visiting family and in-laws. In the morning we visited my brother Stephen and my two nephews Nathan and Aaron and in the afternoon we visited David’s family where we had salmon salad for dinner and played ‘Pictionary’ on the Wii ’til 1am!!