Life: my Christmas Day

So, another Christmas is over with. After all that planning and preparing it goes by in a flash and all that madness and enjoyment seems to all come to a sudden halt. I do think the build up to Christmas always seems better than the day itself but having that one day of celebrating with the ones you love the most and realising what really matters , makes it all worthwhile. There's nothing I love more than seeing my family happy; the long awaited get togethers, the noise, the mess, the drunkards, and the duped gifts just add to the appreciation of the finer things in life.

I've had another amazing Christmas this year. Waking up on Christmas morning and still feeling sleepy is a sign you're getting old but that nostalgic excitement still niggled as I eventually realigned to earth and registered that it was the 25th. As always, once we'd all risen from our pits, me, my Mum and Brother opened our presents from each other and cherished some mother-children time before the day grew busier. I spent half of the day with my main ones (Mum, Brother, Grandma), devouring a beautiful Christmas dinner (with the decorating the table duty completed by yours truly may I add) at my house with just the four of us and finishing off by (again) opening our gifts from each other. This year, I spent a lot more money on my Mum and Grandma because of how much they do for me all year round and I was so pleased they loved all their presents. In my eyes, knowing someone is so grateful is often more rewarding than the receiving of gifts. In the middle of opening presents we were pestered around 3 times via the phone by my little (when I say little I mean she's 10 going on 40) cousin, wandering how much longer we'll be before we go round to her house because she couldn't wait to see us and give us our presents. Finishing off as quickly as we could, we spruced ourselves up, carted the 10 bags of gifts into the boot of the car and headed off to my Auntie's for the continued fun.

Before the small ones arrived and the chaos began, we once again exchanged gifts (there's a lot of different present opening moments in my family) and then we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Once the children dived through the door in excitement, that's when I really did feel the Christmas magic. My second cousins, now 3 and 4 are at that adorable age where they can sit down and open presents, take notice of what they have been bought and say thank you themselves. Hearing what Santa brought them, sitting and playing with them and seeing them giggle and smile from ear to ear is seriously heart melting. Christmas is so precious when you're a child and it sucks that you have to grow up.

As the night went on and the love and laughter from all generations kept growing, we decided to sit and watch some camcorder tapes which we have just recently had put on to DVD's. Christmas is always a hard time when you have lost loved ones but reminiscing on the special memories and looking back on the brilliant Christmases we've had the privilege of celebrating with them makes it easier and it was lovely to do that as family. They never really do go away and the emotion bouncing off each other makes up for their absence. 

You may have noticed 70% of these pictures feature some kind of nibble. I open handedly admit I have consumed way too much food this Christmas and New Year period and it doesn't stop there. Along with the boxes of chocolates I've had bought, the Celebrations and Heroes, the ice cream, the cakes, the boxes of biscuits, nuts, and the huge Christmas dinner, there's the snacks I've been grabbing for two days non stop now. On Christmas evening and Boxing Day, we had the luxury of the best kind of food possible (buffet food) and took advantage of the many sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, cheese and pickled onions, crisps, pastries, garlic bread, chicken skewers and of course the left over turkey (I really don't think there's a limit to how many meals you can make from one turkey). Today I'm heading off to my Grandma's for another roast dinner and on Wednesday I'm going out for ANOTHER meal to celebrate New Years Eve and my Mum's birthday. I just can't seem to stop eating. I feel so disgusting and bloated, I know I shouldn't be doing it, and my skin isn't responding well but I just can't stop. Someone please send help.

From then until now, all I've been doing is trying to recover from the sudden laziness and lack of motivation I've developed. The only motivation I have had was dedicated to catching up on the ever so dramatic soaps and taking a look through my many amazing presents. I'm not one of those to desire designer gear, I'm definitely not a cliche Michael Kors/Pandora/£700 handbag kinda gal and my family don't go overboard but I'm always appreciative for what I get. This year my gifts mainly included skincare and beauty sets, some personalised bits, and vouchers and money but I will be doing a full round up post of my Christmas gifts and buys once I round them all together.

Speaking of Christmas buys, the bargain filled Boxing Day/January sales are becoming dangerous and I'm still in the midst of browsing websites and hesitating whether to click on the add to basket button. So far I've purchased this Mango dress, this New Look dress, the Alpha H Liquid Gold, Origins Energy Boosting Bests, Soap & Glory Think Pamper Gift Set and the Dove Be You Gift Set and No7 Protect & Perfect Gift Set for my Mum. Have you picked up anything nice in the sales and how was your Christmas? I can't believe there's only 3 more days left of 2014, let's make those count!

Bridie x