What a mental Christmas break this year.
We all came up to Richmond on the 18th Dec from Derbyshire, and moved into the guest room at my parents' house. Me and Dad went to see my grandad, who is now in a nursing home and is very frail indeed. I was honestly scared to see him because he was always my favourite grandparent and to see him in a deteriorated state would be too upsetting, but he was surprisingly himself. He was very shrunken, and his responses were slower and sleepier, but that was definitely my Grandad, he was still totally himself and totally there. It was a bittersweet experience but I am glad we visited him.
Christmas Eve was an emotional rollercoaster ride; mid afternoon I was on the verge of a full-blown anxiety attack because for 6 days I had been unable to escape continual noise (house full of family), excessive heat (everyone else likes it toasty), and clutter and mess (a 2-person house is now holding 5 and one of them is a toddler). For someone who gets an enormous sense of wellbeing from a tidy, quiet and cool room, 6 days of wreckage, noise and sweltering temperature was taking its toll.
We then went to a local church (which shall remain nameless) for a Christmas Eve service, which was literally the dullest thing I have attended in my entire life. There were about 15 over 60's in attendance, and one family, and the service was 1 carol followed by a long meandering story which could be permanently filed away under the 'dreary' category. Joel went home with his grandparents, and me and Sydney went out to meet up with a bunch of friends in the Black Lion pub, where I caught up with about a dozen old school friends, some who I hadn't seen in over 10 years! It was a great time, and well worth enduring the church service for. Later we bought and ate a kebab, and made our way home. Then at 5 in the morning, delirious with tiredness me and Sydney lapsed into unstoppable, uncontrollable giggling because she said out of nowhere 'what about team sleepy?' with wide puppy-dog eyes. You had to be there for that one I think. Married couple in-joke. But wow. I laughed hard. For a long time.
Christmas morning came, and I made Christmas dinner again this year. Turkey, ham, stuffing, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, fresh vegetables, rissoles, gravy and cranberry sauce. Definitely a success on the cooking front this year - I reccommend (of all the bizarre things) using goose fat to make your roast taters and parsnips. 'Tis righteous. We opened our presents and then at 3 watched the Queens speech. She kinda preached this year, she acknowledged how much suffering the world is enduring at the moment, and then basically pointed to Jesus as the answer. The experience of sitting there hearing her say those words, and knowing that probably almost every other TV in the country was tuned in and hearing the same thing was a deeply spiritual experience. I know my faith is all topsy turvy and being worked out again from scratch at the moment, but hearing Queen Elizabeth say those things to millions of people brought tears to my eyes, it was inexplicably beautiful.
The last 2 days have contained a bigger range of emotions for me than a year usually does. Pretty wild.
Well, anyhoo, here is the rundown of this year's present haul.
An Xbox 360! (my mate Jono gave me this because my old one broke and he had a spare. Awesomeness!)
Skyrim (I expect to be posessed by this game for the next 6 months ala Oblivion GOTY version)
Michael Buble's new Christmas album! (I will also be pointing and winking at people while saying 'bada-bing')
Harry Potter 7 part 2 DVD (expelliarmus)
Avatar DVD (blue meanies)
A notebook (good for writing in)
Some hair wax type product (good for frying an egg in)
Shower gel (good for making me smell like man)
Gourmet choccys (good for making me fatter than I already am)
and generic Boots anti-perspirant (good for informing me I smell a little too much like man on occasions)
Berry Crimpmas Everyone!
We all came up to Richmond on the 18th Dec from Derbyshire, and moved into the guest room at my parents' house. Me and Dad went to see my grandad, who is now in a nursing home and is very frail indeed. I was honestly scared to see him because he was always my favourite grandparent and to see him in a deteriorated state would be too upsetting, but he was surprisingly himself. He was very shrunken, and his responses were slower and sleepier, but that was definitely my Grandad, he was still totally himself and totally there. It was a bittersweet experience but I am glad we visited him.
Christmas Eve was an emotional rollercoaster ride; mid afternoon I was on the verge of a full-blown anxiety attack because for 6 days I had been unable to escape continual noise (house full of family), excessive heat (everyone else likes it toasty), and clutter and mess (a 2-person house is now holding 5 and one of them is a toddler). For someone who gets an enormous sense of wellbeing from a tidy, quiet and cool room, 6 days of wreckage, noise and sweltering temperature was taking its toll.
We then went to a local church (which shall remain nameless) for a Christmas Eve service, which was literally the dullest thing I have attended in my entire life. There were about 15 over 60's in attendance, and one family, and the service was 1 carol followed by a long meandering story which could be permanently filed away under the 'dreary' category. Joel went home with his grandparents, and me and Sydney went out to meet up with a bunch of friends in the Black Lion pub, where I caught up with about a dozen old school friends, some who I hadn't seen in over 10 years! It was a great time, and well worth enduring the church service for. Later we bought and ate a kebab, and made our way home. Then at 5 in the morning, delirious with tiredness me and Sydney lapsed into unstoppable, uncontrollable giggling because she said out of nowhere 'what about team sleepy?' with wide puppy-dog eyes. You had to be there for that one I think. Married couple in-joke. But wow. I laughed hard. For a long time.
Christmas morning came, and I made Christmas dinner again this year. Turkey, ham, stuffing, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, fresh vegetables, rissoles, gravy and cranberry sauce. Definitely a success on the cooking front this year - I reccommend (of all the bizarre things) using goose fat to make your roast taters and parsnips. 'Tis righteous. We opened our presents and then at 3 watched the Queens speech. She kinda preached this year, she acknowledged how much suffering the world is enduring at the moment, and then basically pointed to Jesus as the answer. The experience of sitting there hearing her say those words, and knowing that probably almost every other TV in the country was tuned in and hearing the same thing was a deeply spiritual experience. I know my faith is all topsy turvy and being worked out again from scratch at the moment, but hearing Queen Elizabeth say those things to millions of people brought tears to my eyes, it was inexplicably beautiful.
The last 2 days have contained a bigger range of emotions for me than a year usually does. Pretty wild.
Well, anyhoo, here is the rundown of this year's present haul.
An Xbox 360! (my mate Jono gave me this because my old one broke and he had a spare. Awesomeness!)
Skyrim (I expect to be posessed by this game for the next 6 months ala Oblivion GOTY version)
Michael Buble's new Christmas album! (I will also be pointing and winking at people while saying 'bada-bing')
Harry Potter 7 part 2 DVD (expelliarmus)
Avatar DVD (blue meanies)
A notebook (good for writing in)
Some hair wax type product (good for frying an egg in)
Shower gel (good for making me smell like man)
Gourmet choccys (good for making me fatter than I already am)
and generic Boots anti-perspirant (good for informing me I smell a little too much like man on occasions)
Berry Crimpmas Everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment