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 613

Day 613...

The day started off like most Sundays do with a trip to Asda to collect our weekly grocery shop. Slightly infuriating as their app wasn't working properly so I couldn't 'tell them I was on my way' but when we got to the store the colleague on duty recognised us and we seemed to get our shopping before anyone else...obviously pays to be a regular!

After we'd returned home and put all the shopping away we decided to have an afternoon out in Nottingham and popped online to buy ourselves some cinema tickets.

Arriving in the city we were greeted by their annual Christmas market; so nice to see it back as last years had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour, although they haven't got the ice rink as in previous years.

Everywhere looking very festive and busy

We had the obligatory look around Primark and was able to pick up a Christmas present as well as a pair of Disney slip-on sneakers for me. In fact they are the same as the pair I currently have which I use for around the house, so wanted a back-up pair for when they fall apart!

We then went in search of coffee, finding our usual Caffe Nero to pop into, and remarked how much busier it was today than past weekends. On our way back to the car we decided to visit Forbidden Planet, not somewhere we visit that often and was an impromptu decision to do so with the aim being to have a look for possible Christmas presents.

And then I saw the section of Loungefly bags, the large amount of Disney Loungefly bags and then I saw just the cutest one and fell in love with it straight away. I picked it up and then put it back as I just couldn't justify what I deemed to be a frivolous purchase but Simon had other ideas. He insisted that I bought it...I said okay but only as an early birthday present...

How cute?!

We then headed just slightly out of the city centre to a small cinema that has been in existence since 1935. It is a great venue and with prices that are not as steep as the major chains and it was our first time in a cinema in forever. Although to be fair we were never regular cinema goers and only ventured out when something really compelled us...like a Star Wars or a Marvel or maybe a Pixar movie. 

But today it was Ghostbusters Afterlife; we'd seen a few reviews online that were really positive and remarked how much the fans were liking the movie so we decided to give it a go. Both of us are eager to make the most of opportunities to do 'normal' things like this before we are faced, yet again, with more draconian and intrusive measures especially as we hear about more lockdowns across europe along with the horror of vaccine passports and even worse mandated vaccines. But for today we were able to enjoy a little escapism.

And this was a good film, in fact we both absolutely loved it. It respected the original movie and honoured the ethos of films made around the mid 1980's. It was a great ride, it had all the effects you needed, a fabulous cast, it had laughs and it also made us both cry. I would recommend anyone to go see this movie, take some tissues with you and then stay till the very end...the very end of the credits...don't be fooled by the 'post-credit scene' stay a little longer!

And there we have a very enjoyable Sunday. See you tomorrow.
xx