The Christmas blog

These blog posts seem to be getting further and further apart . . . perhaps it’s just that not much happens from day to day in the holidays for me, because I’m very much a stay in and watch TV/ Youtube/ read a book/ pointlessly surf the web until the wee hours of the morning/ play on the Playstation kind of person. All the days become a blur, and then there isn’t much to write about.

But it’s almost the end of the decade, and I want to write one of those long and reflective posts in a couple of days time, which I’m sure will even make me fall asleep when I read it back in a few weeks time :) So I feel I should fill this in with everything that’s happened recently. Which actually won’t take that long:

1. Snow – and lots of it! Perhaps three or four inches, which I think is more than I’ve ever seen before, and it’s not melted in about a week now. For a few days it was amazing, and magical, and we built a snow-thing, took tons of photos, had snowball fights. Now it’s just icy and a little annoying – we’re not exactly snowed in, but we live on a hill, and both driving and walking down it feels a little scary at the mo. Everything takes twice as long.

2. Christmas!!!! I still manage to get excited, more with the anticipation of it than anything else. I think it was Michael Buckley who said it feels different every year once you’re older, and there’s no point in forcing yourself into holiday giddiness that you don’t really feel – just go with the flow. He’s totally right. I still insist on ‘tradition’, as do my siblings, much to the amusement of our parents. There’s a set list of Christmas Eve Christmassy videos to watch (the tape is from 1998, and wobbles like crazy!) – The Snowman, Father Christmas, The Bear and The Tailor of Gloucester. We eat fish on Christmas Eve, turkey and trimmings, then Christmas pudding for Christmas lunch, smoked salmon and salad, followed by trifle for tea, and cake for supper. We get ‘Christmas sacks’ instead of stockings – pillow sacks full mainly of numerous but cheap goodies from charity shops and joke stores – at the end of our beds on Christmas morning. Mum used to buy all the stuff for them, but now we’re given the money to each buy the contents for each other – it becomes a competition to make it the best. Dad still puts his Santa hat on to deliver them – the only night of the year when we’re all in bed before 11.30pm. So it’s the sacks in the morning, usually some Christmassy film (Muppet Christmas Carol is fast becoming a new tradition), lunch, very slow present opening afterwards – we all go one by one and oooh and aaaaah over each gift we’ve got. There are seven of us, so this takes a long time. My nan died earlier this year, but she used to insist that we stop to hear the Queen’s Speech at 3pm. I missed it this year, it felt a bit strange to watch it without her. And then it’s the Christmas tea, and usually a full schedule of TV specials to watch afterwards. This year’s line-up could have been jaw-dropping, and was still really good, even if it didn’t quite live up to expectations. Doctor Who was brilliant up to the last five minutes, which just seemed to push it a little too far . . . . but I can’t really decide until I’ve seen the second half (on New Year’s Day – I have such crazy mixed feelings about it at the moment. There’s so much David Tennant stuff on tv at the moment that it’s as if the nation’s gone into mourning. He’s everywhere. And however much I tell myself it’s a TV show, I know that whether it’s a brilliant, emotional final episode, or a stinker of a let-down, I’m going to be in a bad mood because of it all weekend :) ). Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special was nothing too exciting, and Poirot was a let-down, mainly because it was such a dark, grisly episode that it felt totally inappropriate for festive viewing. It was probably the gloomiest Poirot I’ve ever seen, so it was strange to show it on Christmas Day :-s
But, overall Christmas was great. Present highlights include some awesome kids’ books (Morpurgo, Snicket, Gaiman) from my parents, one of my favourite films (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) on dvd from my brother, and lots of other bits and pieces – chocolates, bath stuff etc. Good times.

3. Project for Awesome – the nerdfighters taking over Youtube by spamwowing charity videos to get them into the most discussed list – awesome. So, so much fun. It was the first year I’d got involved, both making a video and spending a scary amount of the 48hours tuning into the livestream and commenting away . . . my parents thought I was slightly mad, but it really did feel exciting, like properly being part of the community :D Especially when Maureen Johnson encouraged us to the top of the twitter trending topics for half an hour or so – wow in so many ways :)

4. Total lack of work so far :-s Well, I’ve done a little, but I’m pretty much going to have to write a couple of thousand words every day from here until I get back to get that first draft in when I said I would :(

That is actually pretty much it :-s The last two weeks. Doesn’t seem like much when you put it like that. I’ve read a couple of (mainly trashy) books, watched too much TV, spent too long online. And I’m going to work for the next ten days, I have a dissertation to write.
*crosses fingers in hope*