Sorry for disappearing for almost a week, exams took over. Sunday’s Christmas dinner was lovely if I do say so myself. We all got drunk and continued eating and drinking into the early hours of Monday morning – much the way Christmas Day goes normally! Pictures will be down below for anyone who wants to see. We took the opportunity to exchange our secret santa presents, Nuala had me and bought me an awesome mojito making stick thing that I can’t remember the name of right now but it is awesome. There’s a measure, a knife, a muddler, a bit for bashing up the limes and ice and mint and finally a mint cutter that looks like a mini pizza cutter! So excited to use it.
Monday was spent cleaning up, watching romcoms and revising and similarly Tuesday was spent revising and watching Downton Abbey. Mary and I went to Irish Dancing and I came back and ordered myself some shoes so I can do it properly. Wednesday’s exam was awful, I didn’t know what I was doing at all. Yesterday was slightly better in that I at least knew half the paper.
Today I am meant to be focusing on writing my essay but I have absolutely no motivation to do anything. So if anyone can send me any that would be great!
Can’t believe how close we are to Christmas now. I want to be able to do everything and yet at the same time I want to do nothing. Is this what studenting is?
Anyway, have a good day!
Turkey is in the oven – my first ever turkey!
My first ever apple crumble – gluten free I might add!
Apologies, I missed you all yesterday because I was back home. The song that should’ve been yesterday was Let It Snow! I am kind of disappointed to have missed this as it is one of the traditional Christmas songs that everyone knows.
Home was great. I got to see my dog, everyone was shocked at me showing up and it was brilliant to see everyone. On the way there my flight was delayed by an hour due to a computer problem but I arrived just on time for the starter being served. Don’t think I’ve ever seen my Uncle Brian speechless except for Thursday night!
Today has been a mix of revision and being Christmassy. As I type today, I am sipping on some mulled wine while my home made pot pourri is in the oven. Yes okay I should probably eat dinner soon but the oven is slightly preoccupied now. I had offered you all photos of the Christmas decorations within the flat and here they are! Please remember that we are students so while it’s a little sparse, we are delighted with how well we’ve done.
Our Christmas tree in the corner with a bit of a colour schemeThe sofa needed a bit of holiday spiritMeet Frosty – he doesn’t stay like this for long!Our hall table still has some Halloween decorations on it… Can you spot them?Even the toilet is festive!We added fairy lights just to add a little somethingAnd now to put my feet up
So this brings us to the end of Saturday 5th December. Tomorrow is our flat Christmas dinner and present exchange so hopefully I will be a good chef!
Obviously this is not your normal version however I thought we could all do with a different video tonight. Also, I may have been side tracked by Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana… I just discovered an entire season I didn’t know existed!
Today I am rushing off to fly home as a complete surprise to everyone, only my flatmates know that I’m going home. Unfortunately it’s only for 24 hours because of exams but I feel like it’s better than nothing! Mum had better appreciate this or else…
The countdown is real and it is on! Today’s song was Santa Baby and while there are many versions I think it is safe to say that only the original will suffice. I found it interesting that there is no official music video available for this song. It was quite hard to find a version that was considered acceptable for the blog without adding an age restriction considering we’re all aware of how sensual the song really is.
I didn’t post anything yesterday as a result of what turned out to be a wild night out on a pub crawl. Suffice to say I will not be drinking again this week… However, we did put up our Christmas decorations – I’ll share some pictures with you later in the week!
Tonight’s song had me thinking about all the presents we used to ask for as kids. The one present I always wanted but never got was a Kitty Kitty Kitten. I never asked for it for my birthday because I knew my mum would never allow it so I always asked Santa. I’m sure you can imagine the upset for 5 years in a row when December 25th came and went with no sign of the Kitty Kitty Kitten. Now I understand why but I always believed Santa hadn’t considered me good enough throughout the year to receive the one present I really wanted. Our Santa lists were always typed up on the computer and an afternoon was put aside in November for Rachel and I to look through the Argos catalogue to make our lists. Until we were old enough to type ourselves, Mum or Dad would type them and then print them – the excuse being Santa wouldn’t be able to read our handwriting. When we lived in Forfar, all the children gave their letters to Santa as he rode through the town centre on the night the lights were put on. It all seemed so magical that he was actually so close! Then when we moved to Lisburn and found that Santa didn’t collect your letter the ‘normal’ way, Dad taught us how he used to send his letter up the chimney to Santa. So that started the new tradition – we burnt our letters the way Marry Poppins received her mail. However there was one year when Dad burnt both letters at the same time and Rachel and I were worried that Santa would muddle up the letters – I wanted a bike and Rachel wanted roller blades, Santa couldn’t get them mixed up! Strangely enough he got it right and we never again had that panic.
Unfortunately now our Santa lists aren’t as exciting. Mum starts asking in mid October for us to start thinking and wants a brief list by November. From this different things are passed on to different members of the family and it means Mum isn’t running around like a headless chicken on Christmas Eve.
Part of me misses that magic side of everything – the innocence, the belief that there was a man out there who could make you anything you wanted for Christmas… If this were true then this year I would be asking Santa to make me thin, give me money and bring back the family members and friends who have died even just for Christmas Dinner so I could talk to them all again. But enough of the depressing stuff, I still have lectures to go to and a load of revision to do!
Yes it’s that time of the year again! I thought I would share this delightful video with you all that I found online the other day, I just couldn’t stop smiling through it. While we all have our favourite songs and their corresponding singers, it’s this time of year where we all look to our Michael Buble CDs and other classic CDs that take us back to our childhood memories of Santa and the magic surrounding this special time of the year.
Now, Rachel wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t at least mention the biblical aspect of Christmas so here’s my brief shout out to it. If you believe in God and Jesus and believe this time of year is special for one reason and one reason only then I’m happy for you, honestly. Until recently I had persuaded myself that I agree with you but as things have occurred over the years, I have come to the conclusion that I myself do not hold these beliefs. However, I do still think Christmas is a magical time of the year. It’s the time of year when most of us realise that all too frequently we take our families for granted. We take the time out of our busy lives to spend time with those we care about whether they are related by blood or not. Having not seen my parents since September I can’t wait to get to spend some real time with them.
What many of us seem to forget at this time of year though is that many people don’t have the chance to spend this holiday season with their family and friends. Whether through bereavement, financial problems or family tiffs, so many people now don’t get to spend the holiday season with their loved ones in a warm and sheltered house. Take a second and remember today just how lucky we are really.
Now for the more upbeat side of today’s count down! As the song above reminds us, for many children all over the world, no matter what name they know him by, Santa Claus will be coming to visit the well behaved children soon. For those of us older and apparently wiser folk, we look back at our childhood with nostalgia for the morning of Christmas day when you would race to open all your presents and to play with them as much as you could.
Rachel and I used to have a tradition that still holds slightly even now we are older. When we were younger, it was very common for us to wake early with that excited butterfly feeling. Rachel would come in and jump into my bed as we tried to guess what Santa had left downstairs for us. At 7:30 I would sneak downstairs to check that Santa had actually been. After the all clear was given, Rachel would come down too and we would stand in awe of all the marvellous presents that were wrapped and left on the sofas. We would storm back up the stairs to drag Mum and Dad out of bed to come see everything we had been left and the 5 minute wait that we had before opening presents so that they could get their cup of tea seemed like torture!
Now though, as I’m sure you’re aware, we know about Santa. Now ‘s a slightly more relaxed rush to open presents as we always have at least one Granny staying with us on Christmas Eve.
This year, we will be in Dundee for Christmas so I really hope some of the young excitement will rub off on us from our younger cousins. Although if they try and sleep later than 8 I will personally pour the bucket of cold water over them! Only joking…
Anyway, I hope for the rest of today you have a great day! Let me know of any Santa traditions you had as a child, I’d love to hear them!
Turkey is in the oven – my first ever turkey!
