So I'm feeling a little festive this morning trailing through the internet writing my Christmas list for the husband. I did already tell him all I wanted for Christmas was a tummy tuck but at the risk of getting nothing or worse still a bunch of random stuff I won't like I thought I'd better make an effort.
My Christmas list is pretty much the same every year so you'd think after 6 years he wouldn't need the list but he is a man after all :)
I've always been a huge fan of Christmas, my birthday is on the 22nd of December so there's only been December to look forward to all my life. Growing up, mum would refuse to put up the Christmas tree until after my birthday, (I have no idea why, I'll have to ask) so I always felt like I hadn't had enough time to enjoy it before it was over. That said I remember mum making quite a bit of effort with the decorations, we always had the garlands on the ceiling and the big bells that were sort of opened up from a flat shape, I can remember how they smelled :) I always remember how long it took until you got dinner, you could smell it from about 9am and it seemed a lifetime until it was finally ready. We weren't allowed to open our presents until after lunch so I was always keen for lunch to hurry up and arrive, I even had to wait while they did the dishes afterwards!
As soon as I moved out I had my tree up on the 1st of December, just because I could :)
I used to make a lot more effort than I do these days, perhaps it's because we've moved about so much, nowhere has really felt homely. We've had years where the stockings were hung on the stairs which were part stripped and on random nails whacked in, last year the lounge was being plastered on the 23rd so the whole place was filthy and just looked awful, this year I still haven't got the skirting on, there's exposed pipes because I can't find anyone to box them in and the nice wooden beam I promised myself I'd have by this year to hang the stockings from is still not up.
I like to have 2 trees, I have done for some years now because otherwise I think it only feels like Christmas in one room but this year we definitely haven't got room, I don't even know where the main one is going to go, there's no space to move things about when your husband needs access for his wheelchair everywhere. It could go under the tv but that would mean getting a tiny one and that doesn't feel nice :(
I get cross with myself about my choice of decorations, last year I bought an igloo and 2 polar bears and then I just kept looking at them thinking how childish I am. I love the wooden houses with lights in but they're quite expensive and with Freya and Lucas being expert demolishers we've learned by now we just can't have nice things on display.
The wires are also always a problem, I don't know how other people manage, we've got loads of plugs but we always run out or the wire doesn't reach and you end up with an extension lead hanging in mid air between the plug socket and the window sill!
I soon find the effort of going round switching them all on and off too much and by boxing day I want to take them down as it feels so messy with so much stuff around and also it's all over then isn't it, I don't want a Christmas tree up at new year, it's not Christmas anymore!
Lucas was born on the 28th of December so we always have trouble arranging something for his birthday, most people refuse to do anything in December at all, we were very lucky last year that quite a few of his friends came to his party but this year I thought it would be easier to have it at the start of December thinking no one would be booked up by then. He's very confused by this idea and I wonder if it's going to cause more problems than it solves.
On the whole the kids are fine with Christmas, I've met some people on the autism courses whose kids can't cope with the changes or the flashing lights or things being wrapped up in paper. I'd find that really hard.
We don't have a huge amount of traditions, we generally take them to see Santa, they are both still a little wary of him, last year Lucas just grabbed his chocolate coins and was heading out the door without telling santa what he wanted! There's been a lot of talk about santa this year, lots of questioning how it all works by Freya. Lucas actually liked santa more after watching stick man last Christmas, he's been playing the game for the last few months on his kindle.
I don't like the whole santa thing, (despite still telling my husband we don't really know it's not a group of elves in Taiwan who make the toys in the shops!) I feel like I'm lying to them and I know at some point they're going to be heart broken. I have always told them that we buy the presents and santa delivers them, they've never questioned this despite the obvious. As far as they're concerned santa just fills the stockings and that stops any ungrateful behaviour of santa can get anything I want.
For example this year with the hatchimals, Freya saw them and asked for one but it was in with a bunch of other stuff she'd like, she knows her list is just ideas and she may get a few things from it. Lucas on the other hand is expecting everything on his list and everywhere we go he asks daddy to put it on the santa list! For the record she would not be getting a hatchimal even if I found one for the original selling price as I thought that was extortionate enough. I think it's important to teach them to be grateful for whatever they get and I explain that we don't have lots of money so we can't buy things that cost lots of pennies and I think she is starting to understand that, she often asks what she could get with different amounts of money. Her money from the tooth fairy helped with that, another horrible lie in my opinion :/
We usually go to the Christmas light switch on although I feel less excited about it this year, it's always stupidly busy and they have a fair that the kids want to go on everything and you end up stressed and frozen, and why are they always late switching them on?!
We try to take them up to Milton Keynes to see what's on in the centre, last year we just did the train and carousel, they're not good at queuing so that limits what we can do as the average event won't make allowances for kids with special needs, especially invisible ones.
We don't make the kids wait till after lunch for presents, they open their stockings as soon as they come down and then when everyone's up and ready we do the presents. Freya likes to read the labels and hand them out and we try to wait until everyone has one and open them at the same time but it always goes a bit mad and they always have more than anyone else. Like most kids I expect, they want the toys out of the boxes asap and so begins the joy of working out how the hell to get them untied and the hunt for scissors, tiny screwdrivers and batteries (I'm never organised enough to prepare all this stuff in advance)
Mike likes to leave it until Christmas eve to wrap his presents which drives me absolutely nuts! Last year I was still unable to go to bed at 11pm because he was busy wrapping my stuff in the bedroom!
I usually get lumped with wrapping everyone else's stuff, even stuff my mum buys because they say I'm good at wrapping, it's not hard really is it?! I like to wrap as I buy to stop nosey children finding their things.
I like a real tree, I like the smell and the fact it's always a bit different each year and I like the whole process of going to choose it. We tend to buy our trees from ikea as they sell them for £25 and you get a £20 voucher for money off your shop from around mid January, so effectively the tree has cost £5, we like to shop at ikea anyway and there's always something we need.
Fitting in seeing everyone when you have such a large family is always a struggle, the older girls want to be with their partners or sometimes at their dads. There's grandparents and now grandchildren to visit!
If I'm honest I am wondering whether to have our Christmas dinner out somewhere this year, I've always thought it was a horrible idea but as mum has decided to go to see her sister in Germany for Christmas it just doesn't feel like it's going to be quite right anyway. She drives me nuts of course when we do have her, she doesn't eat turkey so shows up with a little bit of pre cooked beef wrapped in tin foil, she makes comments about everything imaginable and monopolises the tv the entire time she's here BUT I love seeing her little face when she opens her stocking and her gifts and it's nice to have someone who can cut up the cabbage nice and thin :) it just won't be the same without her.
I'm a big fan of Christmas movies, well lots of movies really, I'm one of those people who quotes from films all the time and it's just so cool when someone gets it :) I can also find a song for most sentences people say but I digress.... my favourite Christmas movie is the muppet family Christmas because it's got the muppets, sesame street and the fraggles, there's lots of festive cheer and singing without the misery of the Christmas carol and the scary ghosts!
I also love miracle on 34th st, we are always subjected to the queens speech when mother is here, and that doesn't thrill me at all! (see what I did there??) I love the predictability of seasonal tv, you know there's going to be home alone and die hard, the snowman and for the last few years, downton (sob) I miss downton.
For me Christmas starts when the kids break up from school, that's when I crack open the tins of sweets, (if I haven't secretly eaten them all already) that's when the movie days start with lots of snacks of course, the buffet dinners that we never do at any other time of year?! The cheese and biscuits, the bowls of satsumas, the salted peanuts :) ahhh I love Christmas.
Last year we introduced the kids to the kindness elves, I didn't like the elf on the shelf, I think he's creepy looking and the kids don't need to see an elf being naughty to give them ideas, and wanted them to do a kind deed each day. It started off well but I soon ran out of feasible ideas for them to do and the kids wouldn't leave them alone so I ended up putting them up on a high shelf and saying they were watching them for santa! Freya has already asked if they'll be coming back again this year, I really have no excuse for not making more effort, I manage to sit and write this!
I'm pretty much done with my present shopping already, I don't do crazy, busy last minute shopping. I've even had my paper a few months now, although I always see something I'd rather of had once I've bought it. I can honestly say I haven't seen one pack of cards that have taken my fancy, though I was amused by the buy 24 cards get another 24 free offers, I don't even know 12 people I'd want to send a card to!
So that's about it for our run up to Christmas, of course there will be school plays and dinners and parties and overtime at work and birthdays as well but it's the one time of year I really look forward to spending time at home as a family and I hope that wherever you are reading this, that you can enjoy the festive season with your loved ones too, as the years fly by so quickly, and before you know it those little people have their own plans and their own families, maybe that's when you take a trip abroad for Christmas :)
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