Well the christmas bit is all behind us and now we are launched into a very cold winter. For me, this time of year is always a bit of a challenge and I am sure that I am not alone in this. I really look forward to christmas but I think we have lost the point of it all and it no longer is a time of celebration but one of pressure, consumerism, competition and rushing about more than usual. I found the whole lead up exhausting and dissatisfying and many other things that are negative. Still I feel like I have survived it all but only just!
The lead up to Christmas I love, the speculation about presents, where we will spend the time, who with etc. However, very quickly I started to feel that this time would not be so great as my husband wanted to spend it at home - just us. To make things worse, I had decided that my mum and brother who usually come between christmas and New Year should not come until New Years Day. I could have predicted a quiet time for the whole week without any contact with anyone else other than the children and husband - who incidently hates Christmas. Great!
So of course I intended to do the Christmas shopping early - thought about it in November but then had the great idea to do it all in one day in December. Bad idea - it snowed so then I had no free time without the children in tow to do it again. My husband would point out that I had a full weekend in London without any of them but I didn't really want to do shopping that weekend and then have to take it all back on the train! So then online shopping commenced..... what a nightmare when you are under pressure with only a couple of delivery days left. I did lots of research but no real action until the weekend before the big day. In the end I did get everything for the children but felt a failure with everyone else. Even hubby got nothing this year!
Christmas day did not start too well. Husband hung over, myself tired and cross. Children high on chocolate and excitement! Husband not wanting to take part in present opening - me not able to make them wait and very cross with husband! Husband cooking the dinner eventually at 11 o'clock so that nothing was ready until at least 2 pm! Husband goes to pub until 2 30 pm
and I sit at home with children. We agreed that we would eat when he got back which was fine. However then his mum, dad and sister turned up as we were finishing off the preparations so no dinner yet then! I fed the children theres and made cups of tea and polite conversation and tried not to seethe with husband. It was a tall order! I seethed and bubbled and resented and cursed until he noticed and started retaliating. So we hissed at one another whilst finishing off the preparations for dinner and eventually sat down to eat at 5 pm with his parents and sister. We actually ended up having a good laugh but all in all not a day I would like to see repeated ever!
After the dinner which he did fully prepare and was wonderful, we had christmas cake and wine and watched TV. We ended up watching Alan Titchmarsh somewhere climbing hills and talking about history of the uk which was quite good -especially when I thought it was a special edition for christmas day. Not so great when I realised it was a repeat on sky! We then watched only fools and horses which seemed to suit everyone and caused quite a few chuckles. They did not leave until 9 pm.
The rest of the christmas period passed without much of a problem. Watched flushed away and played bingo. Watched the "March of the penguins" which i thought was fantastic and actually made me feel alot happier. So in the end we had a good time - we didn't see anyone until I went to work on the tues /wed and then it was New Year! Had a lovely time with mum and brother as always it went far to fast. I have plotted already to spend next christmas with them!
No comments:
Post a Comment