Far Too Quick :(

It doesn't seem two minutes ago that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement on Christmas Eve and now it's all over! Dinner has been demolished....

The presents have been opened...

And some presents are close to being gone already....

It was a lovely Christmas, the girls were on wonderful form, Hague got to talk to his boys lots over the holiday, including a short but fantastic call on Christmas morning, everyone loved the presents we got them and we got some lovely presents in return. I've been in a really good mood as well. Full of the spirit of the season if you like - with a smile on my face and a spring in my step!

Present wise, I got my main present in August (my new camera) so wasn't actually expecting anything, but I ended up with loads! Hague's Mum had treated us to a lovely food hamper and some delicious cheeses, money was also forthcoming from some and from my Parentals we got a new printer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, socks (ongoing family joke...) a really cute Basset figurine and a gorgeous Gok vanity case full of shimmery smellies :) Lucky old me :)

How cute?

With Boxing Day also spent at The Parentals it seems to have all passed in a bit of a whirlwind and so yesterday was spent relaxing in front of the TV with nibbles, but now....it's time to go back to work already. Sure it's only two days, but it's the signal that Christmas is over. New Year is obviously still to come, but the end of the year is very much nigh. I am 4 pictures away from the end of my 365 project, and my mind is now focusing on the turning of the year and everything that 2012 will bring, but that's a whole other blog!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that Father Christmas brought you everything you wanted!

It's Christmas :)

I suppose Christmas starts at different times for different people. For children, Christmas is already here, starting when school finished. For some it's when they finish work, or put the decorations up. For some it's not Christmas until December 25th.
For me, Christmas begins when I finish work. That's when I can feel relaxed and festive. The busy parts are usually done by then....
Presents wrapped...

 Decorations up....

So the only thing to do is to embrace the season. Tonight's dinner shall be party food nibbles, and the drink of choice shall be eggnog. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the day when traditions take over. To the Parentals as they cook the turkey and to indulge in my Mum's Fish Pie (not me obviously). It's also a chance to enjoy the super-mega hyperactivity of my Nieces. They are 8 and 5 and so time is short for Father Christmas, but they still believe this year - and it's beautiful to see the sheer excitement in their eyes as they wind themselves up into a frenzy over his visit!

Christmas Day will also be at The Parentals, after a nice relaxed morning of just me and Hague (and hopefully a phone call with his boys - double dose of mega excitement). My Mum never knowingly undercaters and so we will be rolling out of there in the late hours of the 25th.

So for now, I shall sup on my eggnog, in a room lit with fairy lights looking forward to the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Christmas to you all, I hope each and every one of you has a magical Christmas full of joy and love.

Let Battle Commence

At this time of the year there are many traditions. Turkey, tinsel, cards, presents, shopping etc. One that is more recent is the race for Christmas Number One. Back in the days before X Craptor et al it was always an interesting race, would it be something Christmassy? Or something a bit more boring?

Once Cowell got involved it turned into a stream of nameless faceless nobodies who had their 5 minutes and then disappeared forever, until Rage Against The Machine made it there backed by a huge campaign. It's now become a sport to try and spoil the Cowell domination. I'll admit to downloading RATM and I was so chuffed that it was top of the charts for Christmas.

This year there are a hell of a lot of alternatives out there, The Only Way Is Essex, Military Wives and Nirvana. I had thought my download would be Smells Like Teen Spirit, but then for the first time in ages I was in the car early enough to listen to the Chris Moyles show, and was reminded of one of the best Christmas songs ever....

So there you have it. The MinxyMissK vote/download belongs to little Dominick the Donkey, so if you want to keep Little Mix (seriously....WTF have they done to Cannonball o_O) away from the top spot, get yourself to iTunes and download a proper Christmas song that will make you smile right through into the New Year :)

Download Dominick :)

SO Much Progress!

Wow, what a whirlwind few days! I was incredibly nervous about going back to work. It's been so long since I've been in that I was in a right old state at 2.45pm on Monday as I made my way into my new department to meet my new manager...He really couldn't have been nicer, and in the two 4 hour shifts I've completed so far he has been amazingly supportive. I guess that's in everyone's interest but it's nice to know that I have people looking out for me in my family AND at work. I did have to change the pattern we had decided on, as I'd planned to go into work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, however I woke up on Tuesday feeling utterly drained, but a quick chat with my manager and it was all changed. I have one more shift to do this week, on Friday, but after how this week has gone, I know I'll be fine. It's a nice feeling to have, and a nice place to be on my road to recovery.

Progress has also been made in the Christmas department. ALL the presents are now bought! I'm glad they are all done and dusted now, I just hope they are all liked! We also got all the wrapping gubbings and the cards so that side of Crimbo is all done! Yay us!

Dan's contact over Christmas and New Year has also been sorted, so everyone knows what's happening, so that's another tick on the old To Do list.

The only job left to do now is to get the decorations up. Now I'm back at work I'm looking at Tuesday to get that done, as we have a few bits to do on Thursday and on Saturday I'd like to try and get up to Horsey to see the baby seals. I think me and Hague might just have this Christmas thing sussed already.

With my return to work progressing, as is Dan's CRB check it looks like (fingers very much crossed) that 2012 might just start off on a good foot - here's hoping eh?

Milestones

I AM finally feeling Christmassy. After much delaying I have finally written out the cards and they are ready for posting. I have to admit that I was aided and abetted by Elf, which happened to be on the telly and has well and truly switched on my Christmas Spirit! So from here on in I'm hoping this good mood lasts for the remaining 2 weeks until the big day :)

A second, way more scarier milestone will be passed tomorrow. I have been absent from work since August 4th after suffering from an apparent breakdown caused by stress and depression. With help from two counsellors, my doctor, a healthcare advisor, my family and of course Hague I am now in the position where I will be going back to work. Tomorrow...

Part of me sort of feels like it's not quite happening, I've been away for so long that it seems unreal to be getting back to normal. Another part of me is absolutely bricking it about going back to the place that laid the final straw on my overstressed back and knocked me for six. I know I won't be sleeping much tonight, but I'll do my best. I'm pretty sure my work trousers won't be fitting me after 4 months of eating crap, but that's a minor issue. I have silly things whizzing around my head, where are my keys? Where is my clocking card? Work shoes? Hat? Will climbing the four storeys of stairs kill me on the first day? How are people going to be with me?.....It's going to be a hard day, but...I have a new Christmassy spirit, I have support from my family and I will have Hague to wave me off and be there with open arms when I get home

How bad could it possibly be? 

Ups and Downs!

December has so far been a bit busy! The 1st is always exciting as it's Hague's birthday, tight funds meant that we couldn't really uber-celebrate, but he loved his pressies (Two and a Half Men box set and a Karl Pilkington t-shirt). We managed to scrape together enough for a Chinese and some alkyhol and we had a lovely evening watching trillions of episodes of TAAHM :)

 Pressies!

The Birthday Boy!

The next day was a bit of a bummer. I woke up with a horrible sore throat and a headache, never fun - and it meant that I spent the day indoors rather than outside at the Christmas Fayre!
With the continuing down theme, I still felt rough on Saturday and despite getting up late was in bed at 8pm, partly as I felt poo and partly as we had to be up early to go to Barnsley so Dan could see his boys...

Sleepy, Grumpy Karen!

Unfortunately his youngest was a bit under the weather, and so Dan made the decision not to go up. It's not fair to drag a 6 year old who's feeling icky away from his Mum and then on buses, hopefully he'll see them next weekend.
Surprisingly we didn't go back to bed, despite being up at 7am, we'd both showered, and by the time Dan had made the decision it was past 8.30 and although we stayed in bed for a little while longer, sleep wasn't forthcoming and so we had that rarest of things....an entire Sunday spread before us, with nothing planned!
It made sense to finally head for the Christmas Fayre, it usually contains lots of foodie stalls with noms to taste and the odd crafty stall. This year was a bit naff to be honest, but it was being held in the church. Now, Great Yarmouth's Parish Church, St Nicholas is ENORMOUS, it's the largest Parish Church in England and as such it was rather lovely to have a wander around. There are displays and information boards all around the Church and we spent quite a while exploring and finding out little known facts...

1. The church was founded in 1101
2. Nelson returned in triumph after battles to the church to be blessed.
3. Bodies were stolen from the graveyard and taken down to London
4. In the 1500's 5 men were banned from the Church after bartering for Herring during a service.
5. The church was all but destroyed during WWII, but rebuilt in the 1960's

Fascinating :o) Of course I took lots of piccies too...

It truly is a beautiful Church, despite me being of Pagan persuasion, I can appreciate the beauty of the building and the various altars, chapels and windows.

So, not a bad morning at all really, add into that a rather impressive haul of 3, yes THREE fleeces and a bad day has turned out not so bad after all. Tonight we also have chocolate cake which was supposed to be a part of a birthday surprise for Hague, but now has to be eaten by us.....I've had worse days!

'Tis the season to spot fleeces...

Finally, I know I'm late with the Book Club, I have been a major slacker and only read 3 books this month (and I only finished one of those on the 3rd of December)....but I will let you know what I thought very soon!

A Surprisingly Good Day!

When I woke up this morning after not enough sleep the day didn't promise much...It was only 9am, and ahead of me was a meeting at work, a counselling session, trying to remember my Mum's enormous order for my company shop and trying to juggle the finances as I'd managed to leave the Sky bill out of the monthly budget :(

But...

The work meeting went well. My new manager (another one) seems to understand that my return has to be handled carefully and together we have worked out which days and shifts I'll be working. Planning ahead seems to be the key to keeping me calm and so this was a perfect way to achieve something quite difficult. So, I shall be returning to work on December 12th and right now, I feel just fine about that :)

My counsellor was up next, and she was really pleased with my progress. It will be my last face to face session with her, and she has helped me so much over the last couple of months - even a month ago returning to work seemed miles away, but now I'm well on the way to recovery, able to cope much better with problems and much closer to the person I thought had gone AWOL for good!

After such good results from unexpected places the draw of going into town to see the Christmas lights switched on was just too much to resist. I love Christmas, and I love fireworks and this evening the two combined. I rather like the fact that it is practically December as well before the council switched on the lights - keeping it relatively special. The marketplace was packed, and the mood was joyous, little children everywhere festooned with reindeer antlers, santa hats and various neon crapola :) I managed to forget my tripod, so any technically perfect pictures were never going to happen, but I liked the results.

Due to the lights being switched on, the shops were open late and so we were able to pick up another present, the list is getting much shorter now :) Finally, when you're out on a chilly night, all wrapped up, literally NOTHING warms you up like a portion of market chips, fresh, delicious and hot! Me and Hague got a portion each, and wooden forks in hand devoured the paper wrapped morsels of nom. Just sitting eating the chips next to Hague, all cosy and with his birthday tomorrow just made me happy. Happy that I have him, happy that my life is getting back on track and happy that simple Christmas lights and fireworks can still create childish wonder in me.