Day 649 - Boxing Day 2021

Day 649...

The day after Christmas and as it is known here in the UK, Boxing Day. A day to either catch-up with those you missed yesterday or as was the case here to chill out and pretty much do nothing.

We had a lovely day yesterday that was spent with Molly and Dan home for a few days and my dad joined us for some of the festivities.

After the traditional Christmas Day breakfast of Mickey waffles (well the 'kids' indulged) it was a civilised approach to opening presents which we spread throughout the day. This gave us all chance to enjoy the exchange whilst also allowing me time to cook the dinner.

In the lull between present opening and eating Molly and Dan were able to load their car up with the remainder of Molly's stuff that they hadn't yet been able to get down to Dan's house. This involved loading the car with a kick bag, a mountain bike, resin craft making supplies while at the same time making sure there was room for their overnight bags and Christmas presents and goodies.

Simon fetched my dad just in time for Christmas Day dinner; a traditional affair with turkey, pork, veggies, pigs in blankets, stuffing and even mashed potatoes! The only time that I ever make mashed potatoes, and again this is for the benefit of the 'kids' (and my dad)!! Pudding was a choice of traditional Christmas pudding or chocolate sponge pudding and custard!

The remainder of the afternoon saw more present exchanging, grazing on food and after Simon had take my dad home we opened up the board games. Ethan had bought Molly a Disney themed drawing game for Christmas so we gave that a go which led into us playing the classic Pictionary! Much laughter was had by all.

Christmas Day 2021

Today we got up steadily but with purpose as Molly and Dan were heading back down south and wanted to leave in good time to be able to spend the remainder of the day with Dan's family.

This left the remainder of the day very quiet. I was able to sort through my Christmas presents and just as I was going through them Simon disappeared only to reappear with two more presents for me! He'd suddenly realised that there were a couple of items missing and so had dashed off to retrieve them from their hiding place! 

Suffice to say Disney featured pretty heavily in my haul!

Nightmare Before Christmas poncho

Mickey hoodie

Frozen earrings

Apron - Disney style

More earrings...because a girl can never have enough!

Cute Mickey sweater vest (or as I would call it a 'tank top')

Disney Villains Bag

I have been a very lucky lady as Simon went out of his way to get me this gorgeous, limited edition, Loungefly bag...

...plus this very stylish and amazing leather jacket...

Then it was time to sit in front of the TV, complete some more of my latest jigsaw, drink coffee (with an odd splash of Kahlua!) and simply doing nothing.

A time to stop and recharge ones batteries so to speak. A time of year when there is really nothing to do, or nothing that can't wait until the new year. It is strange not to have Molly here and I miss her so much. I think it is times like this that we have the space to consciously appreciate those around us and miss those who live far away or who are no longer with us. I miss my mum even more at this time of year as she would always embrace Christmas with such vigour and she is one reason why I love this time of year so much. So I will continue to love all things Christmas and keep her with me and keep traditions going while creating our own new ones.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 648 - Christmas Day 2021

Day 648...

Just a very quick post to say Merry Christmas to one an all.

I hope that everyone has been able to enjoy the day with those they hold dear and that Santa was kind.

We have had a day filled with family, food, presents and silly board games.

See you all tomorrow.

xx

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Not going to bother with a long post today but just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and hope that you have all had as good a day as you possibly could under the circumstances.

Living in a Tier 3 area we are 'allowed' to mix with up to three households (I think!) for today only. Where other areas have had that privilege revoked completley...so sad!

But for us we have done what we have done for the last few years and just had my dad visit and had a quiet family day. Presents, food, a little drink, random tv programs and family.

So we will make the best of what we can this year and hope that the coming year brings a brighter and safer future for us all.

Take care,

xx

Out with the old and in with the New!

Here we are nearly at the end of one year and the beginning of another.

The run up to Christmas was a mixture of last minute shopping, present wrapping and catching up with friends. We finally got around to seeing friends Phil & Lauren who we had met for the first time during our visit to WDW this past Summer.  We had met during a WDW Radio Meet of the Month at Blizzard Beach and discovered that we only lived just over an hour away from each other!  It really is a 'small world after all'!

I then spent a few hours chatting with my good friend and podcast co-host Michelle as we recorded our second official podcast for the Disney Dream Girls podcast.  We talked Disney Dining plans and took a tour of the New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom...go on have a listen :) find us on i-tunes and subscribe for future episodes!

Christmas Eve is a special day in our house as it's our eldest's birthday so to celebrate we had a trip to the local cinema where we divided and conquered...the boys saw the next installment of The Hobbit whilst us girls saw Frozen - which we both loved! Fabulous music, beautiful storytelling and enchanting animation; a winner all round.  We finished the day off with a gigantic chocolate cake!

Christmas Day was a day for family as we all came together to celebrate the season, exchange presents and eat too much food.

Our Boxing Day (for any non-British out there this is what we call the day after Christmas Day, it has its origins in days of old when servants who had to work Christmas Day would be allowed home the following day carrying boxes of gifts)...anyway this Boxing Day we jumped in the car and headed a couple of hours South to see some more friends made through our love of Disney to partake in a BBQ!  Yes that's right a BBQ in the middle of Winter...thankfully the food was brought inside to eat so we all stayed nice and warm. A big thank you to Mark and Tara for providing the hospitality, food, drink and Disney based games :)

The last few days have been a lot quieter and have given us all the time to relax and chill out and enjoy a few days not doing very much at all!  Although Michelle and I did manage to get together to chat all things Disney and prepare for our next podcast, I even had a few lessons in audio editing!

And that brings us to today...New Years Eve...and the end of 2013.  We have an evening planned at my best friends New Years Eve party which should be an evening of fun, laughter, food and drink and I can't think of a better way to see one year out and another year in than spending it with people you love and care about.

I don't know what 2014 will have in store but I do know one thing it will be shared with friends and family who mean the world to me.  So wherever you are I wish you all every happiness for the year ahead, I hope the year is filled with dreams come true and spent with those you love - see you in 2014 and whatever it may bring xx