Neglect

Oh my poor neglected blog! My intentions of blogging everyday in December are completly dashed due to being taken to bed with the consumption - alas! Ok, I may be overdoing the dramatics there a little bit....not like me at all! My mommmy says I'm 'expressive' not the 'drama queen' my colleagues refer to :-)

Well, today was my first day back at work after feeling apalling all weekend so I have been fairly miserable with no festive excitment going on at all! No Dickensian Christmas Fayre for me on Friday....boo! No festive wrapping of presents whilst supping mulled wine and listening to Christmas music...double boo! And no Christmas craftiness at all...triple boo!

Very miffed about the whole thing - especially when my workload always triples after being away. I would have been in danger of being completely grumpy and very bah humbug if it wasn't for this lovely lady....


Ah Kirstie! I love you! An hour of watching Kirstie's Homemade Christmas is enough to rekindle anyones flailing festive mojo. With my snowball in one hand and my notebook in the other I'm now feeling lovely and inspired again - just need to finish all my work and get on top of the household chores before finally I can get started on enjoying my advent.

You can catch up on Kirstie's programme on 4OD if you missed it (yay!) she is also on tomorrow night too (double yay!) AND on Thursday as well (triple yay!) Wahoo!

Mmmm....maybe I've had too much advocaat now... :-) x

If I could have three wishes...

There is something so lovely and British about going to the pantomime. How did men in drag, corny one-liners and audience interaction become such a traditional way to entertain yourself at Christmas?

I don't remember going to the pantomime when I was little, in fact the first pantomime I really remember was the Footlights production of Sherlock Holmes at University (but that was far too grown up and satirical to be a real pantomime!). My first proper pantomime was when I first joined my present school about 5 years ago. I wasn't that keen on the idea - the whole school? Cheesy dance routines and bad jokes? Who wants to spend an afternoon sitting through that and doing dozens of toilet runs? I remember feeling pumped full of adrenalin and constantly counting the number of children I had with me....1, 2, 3, 4, 5....1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... as we walked from the coach, through the foyer and into the auditorium. Once we'd sat down I felt like I could breathe again - now there was no need to worry until the lights went up and we were on our way home again. It would have been easy to sit and fret about all the other things I could be doing with my time - the planning....marking....end of term assessments. As I sat thinking through my to do list I was physically shaken by the child next to me rocking in his chair, he was doubled over and giggling. Next to him was a wide-eyed girl absorbed in story. As I looked along the row I could see similar expressions....laughter....amazement....joy

Today's pantomime was Aladdin and on the way home we talked about what we would wish for if we had a magic lamp. If I had three wishes I know that one of them would be that every child had the opportunity to enjoy a pantomime at Christmas....why not spoil your inner child this year?

Or if that sounds completely horrendous to you there's always an adult pantomime like this one!

Magic

Christmas starts for me the moment that I put up my tree. Some people think the 1st is too early, others put there's up earlier, but mine always goes up on the first day of December - because that for me is when the magic starts.

I have a fake tree, I would like to have a real one but I find it so depressing to see all of them abandoned by the dustbins in January! I know I could plant my own one but I once bought a tiny 30cm spruce from a market back home in Birmingham for my mum - it cost £1.99 and was covered in fake snow. After the holidays she planted it in the rockery...big mistake. That little tree grew and grew until my dad had to try and 'trim' it. He cut off the branches that he could reach and it ended up looking like a giant topiary lollipop!


I love getting down all my decorations out of their boxes, unwrapping the tissue paper and enjoying finding things I had forgot I had. I was so pleased when I pulled out this felt snowflake - I'm going to attempt to make my own versions of these, I think they'll look lovely as coasters, what do you think?


I had hoped to make a layout today for my journal but I'm feeling very under the weather at the moment. Instead I'm going to enjoy one of these wonderful hot toddies and go to bed with my hot water bottle.

Excitement

December is finally here and I couldn’t be happier.

This is my absolute favourite time of year – I love the weather, the celebrations, the traditions but most of all the excitement. Today at work there were definitely two camps of people, you could hear the murmurs everywhere… I haven’t even started my shopping yet….There’s too much to do…Its turned so cold…And on the other side….I can’t wait to put up my tree…There’s only 3 more weeks till we break up…I’m so EXCITED!!!!

I’m definitely in camp two. Who am I kidding? I’m the camp leader :-)

I don’t know what shapes our views about this time of year, and I’m not sure if I’ve just been really lucky to have so many happy memories of Christmas, but I do believe that those people who express such stress, anger and bitterness towards the holiday have either misunderstood, or forgotten what it is about.

There are many reasons why Christmas can be stressful, and its no surprise that all of the comments in Camp Humbug today were from staff members and not the children! So what stops us looking forward to Christmas? Well, I’m not going to dwell on that – I’m going to focus on everything that makes this holiday the BEST and I’m going to record it so that should I ever get close to the gates of Camp Humbug I can look back at my memories of Christmas past and remind myself why I feel so excited today!