NotJustAHatStand

Some Christmas statistics:

Number of presents under our tree by 10am on Christmas morning:

Approx four hundred million.

Extravagant presents from Fiance, for me, in addition to books, perfume and a jacket:

One, in the shape of a mini LCD TV for our bedroom. Love. That. Boy. But damn him for spending too much, when I stuck to budget.

Guilt Presents bought for Fiance, by me, on Boxing Day:

One.

Small black bunnies with white socks and a rambunctious personality in my stocking:

Zero (waah!).

Rashers of bacon burnt to carbon by me whilst cooking breakfast:

Two.

Burnt rashers of bacon consumed by me in the kitchen when no-one was looking:

Two.

F-words uttered by sister's drunk boyfriend in the presence of both mums and an aunt:

Twenty three before I lost count.

Naps taken by sister's drunk boyfriend on Christmas Night:

One nap. Enforced by mortified sister.

Christmas quizzes won by the author and her mum:

One. Whee!

Christmas Traditions established:

One. 'Cam's Christmas Quiz' was a riotous success (despite accusations of match fixing, because the Quizmaster's Fiance and future Mother-in-Law won), and next year's is already in the planning stage.

Like last year, there were great gaping holes where our fathers should have been but there always will be, so we just have to make the best of things. Fiance's mum has two foster children staying with her, and their story (taken away from their parents and staying with strangers over Christmas) made us all feel a little luckier in what we still have.

Labels: Christmas, family, Fiance

My plan today was to get all the shit done that I needed to get done (much wrapping of presents, MUCH housework and MUCH MUCH tidying up of our piles of crap) EARLY, so that I could have a nice relaxing Christmas Eve for a change. Every year I'm full of grand aspirations to sit down to dinner in a clean and tidy house, with a pile of beautifully wrapped presents under the tree, but no matter what I do I end up battling with ribbons and bows and glittery paper into the wee small hours. I'm just incapable of being organised for Christmas. As with so many of my plans before, today's got royally fucked as well, and I have only now (at 00.14, Christmas Day) sat down, for the first time since approx 11am Christmas Eve morning. I look and feel like Quasimodo, as I've been hunched over wrapping presents for the last 3 hours, and was hunched over scrubbing everything in sight for the three hours before that.

Bleh.

Anyway, everything got done in the end, and I'm just heading off to bed with a cup of tea and my book, so all is well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Labels: Christmas

Tonight I have to brave the terrifying world of Tesco. We're going to stock up on bacon, sausages, coffee, croissants, and a toilet brush (I don't care what he says) in preparation for our Christmas Breakfast.

I am DREADING IT.

It doesn't matter what time you go to our local Tesco (and it's a big one, so it's open 24 hours), it's heaving. I've been there at 11pm before and still had to queue for a good 10 minutes at the check-out. It also seems to turn even the sweetest, most polite people into rude, obnoxious bastards who WILL ram you with their trolley to get the last bag of parsnips before you. God only knows what it's going to be like this close to Christmas.

I'm sure the Christmas Spirit will be in short supply...

Labels: Christmas, Shopping

We bought a Christmas tree yesterday, so I'm feeling rather festive today. We braved the weekend crowds and atrocious weather at a garden centre near Stirling and managed NOT to kill each other or anyone else. I think this deserves some kind of award because the people in that garden centre were not displaying any of the goodwill towards their fellow man that you might expect at this time of year.

The new tree is not real unfortunately (I love the smell of a real tree) because our cats would probably eat the needles and get sick, because I hate hoovering and because real trees are a bit more high maintenance than the fake kind. But all the same, it's lovely - it has twinkly little white lights all over it, and I bought some fancy new red and silver decorations for it. I'll upload a picture tonight if I can get a good one. Coco was verrry interested in the big green thing that suddenly appeared in the living room. Unfortunately she seemed to think the best way to investigate it was to chew the ends of the branches (where the twinkly little lights are wired on) so I spent most of last night chasing her away from it with the Dustbuster, which is the only thing that she's scared of.

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember (and, I'm reliably informed, before that as well) I spent at my mum and dad's house. Until last year, when everything in my life changed irrevocably. None of us could face a Christmas at home because my dad died in November 2005, so we all went up to my sister's. It was lovely (my sister and her boyfriend put on a good spread), but different in so many ways to the last 24 Christmases I'd had. And this year it's going to be different again. My sister and her boyfriend are coming down to Edinburgh, and everyone is coming to OUR house for Christmas Breakfast* and present-opening and then we're going to my future Mother-in-Law's house for dinner.

I'm actually really excited to be having everyone round - we're so happy in the new house it's not going to be a chore at all. We're going to work really hard to get it looking lovely, make lots of lovely breakfast food, and spend the morning in our new house with our VIP's (our mums, my sister and her boyfriend and my wee cats).

I was dreading it last year, so it's nice to be looking forward to Christmas Day again.

*Because a) although we'd like to we don't have the room to facilitate Christmas Dinner and b) the thought of dealing with giblets makes me want to vomit.

Labels: Christmas, Dad, family, Holidays