it's a week before Xmas .......

It’s a week before Xmas and all thru the house things are pretty normal.

Dec 1 arrived and I was shocked. How on earth did that happen so quickly? I've been so quiet these past few months that time was moving so slowly. How many days have I wasted at home, doing nothing more than playing on FB, emails and the occasional Skype session between school drop off and pick up? 

We exchange gifts with immediate family only these days, and thank goodness for online shopping and the Winchester Christmas markets. 

Hopefully the gifts from here will arrive there in time.

It's been a weird lead up to Xmas as mum and my in-laws independently suggested/decided (not really sure what the right word is) that only MissM will receive Xmas gifts as postage is high and 'who needs anything, really'

It's a sensible suggestion, and yes, they are right - no one needs anything these days. How petty does it sound to say 'actually, no, we still want presents' or 'ever heard of online shopping?' or 'are we being punished for living away?'

We don't need anything but receiving something, however small from loved ones at home would be nice. MissM has two huge boxes courtesy of Amazon.com hidden in the cupboard.

My handwriting has become so illegible that this year we opted to design our own Xmas card with the message printed clearly, along with address labels. So while we don't exchange gifts with friends these days, we still love sending and receiving cards.

I’m seldom jealous, it’s such a wasted emotion and much prefer to be happy for friends when they are doing amazing things, however my generosity of spirit has diminished somewhat as I admit I am a teeny weeny bit jealous of what friends are up to over the next few months.

Most are going to be surrounded by family and friends, some are going out for work functions while others are packing suitcases and going away.

We’re home, just the 3 of us, and looking forward to quality family time while DH is on official annual leave from work (which should mean no phone calls, texts or meetings unless something goes ridiculously wrong)

The smallest turkey has been ordered from our wonderful butcher; we’ve tickets for Aladdin at the Winchester Theatre Royal on Xmas Eve (our UK Xmas tradition); we’re making our annual chocolate roulade for desert; presents are wrapped and in hiding, and the forecast is sometimes for snow and sometimes not, so we’ll see.

Before we know it, it’ll be 2013.

We’ve got DH’s birthday in January and MissM’s god parents are here for 5 nights; my writing course starts late January (finally), Ikebana resumes and DH’s new project has it’s first deadline!

With Friendship

x