Before I launch head first into my waffling post, I just wanted to say a big Thank You to all the lovelies that commented on my last post! It means a lot that you took the time to so thank you very much indeed!
Well, it's well and truly 2012, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas time and are enjoying the new year so far. I must confess to being struggling to get back into my pre-Christmas routine, of getting up at 5.45 each morning to get to work, after a week off and loads of lovely lie-ins!
So, back to Christmas, belated as this post is! Would you believe me if I said that in the real world I hate being late, I'm the kind of gal who turns up and hour early to an appointment rather than be a minute late yet in the blog- O-sphere I'm always running to catch up?! Anyway, I travelled up to Liverpool to my parents for my Christmas holidays and had a really lovely and relaxing time, this has to have been the first year in a while that I have not been sick so I actually got to enjoy it!
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My Folks Christmas Tree |
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One of the many windowsill snow scenes my Mum creates each year (Can you guess which little girl had a Sylvainain habit?!) We don't do understated decorating in our house! |
We ate lots of fabulous food all cooked by Mum (I did offer to help!) Ate way too many chocolates and Worcester sauce flavour Twiglets (I have missed these) we also took our yearly family photo... of which my brother usually picks the one he looks best in and we look shocking then posts it on his Facebook page in a folder called "You can't Choose your family" Charming!! No different this year but at least I can post my favourite here!
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Dad, The Brother, Me and Mum all of us looking vaguely respectable! |
On Christmas eve my mum donated me a fabulous 40s style maxi dress which she made herself back in the 70s, it is such a lovely green with red and pink roses all over it, I was rather relieved that I fitted into it, as back then my mum was much more svelte than I am now, but luckily it was the perfect fit, and I have to confess I was much more excited about wearing said dress on Christmas day, than I was about opening my gifts!
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....then we go and spoil it all! |
So on to the gifts...
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My brother gave me my very favourite album on vinyl and signed no less (eBay does it again) and an utterly fabulous Ukulele which I can't wait to have a proper go at playing. |
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My parents gave me some money (shall show you what I bought soon) and Land Girls on DVD! My Boyfriend gave me The Big Bang theory box-set (loove this show a bit too much! |
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and this amazing vintage-styled record player (which also plays mp3s and Cd's.) Finally, I can listen to all of the records I have been buying in the Charity shops! |
Though I was not really at home for Christmas I still made an effort to decorate our little place, as The Boyfriend was staying behind to work. I went a bit wild making loads of paper snowflakes, my they are seriously addictive!
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Just a few of the many snowflakes which adorned our home / Christmas Tree with Christmas Ted (A birthday gift from a few years ago lovingly made by Mum) |
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My Nan's old mirror looks great above a very 70s fireplace / My Mum made me this fabulous Angel Christmas sock for my Birthday! |
I spent New years back home in London, oops Essex, with my lovely mum who came back down with me to spend New years together, we saw in the new year with Snowballs in very large glasses many more chocolates and then promptly went to straight to bed worn out from all the excess! (rock and roll I know!)
The only resolution I made was a bit different to the gym joining, salad-eating, nail-not-biting resolutions I usually make and never keep. This year I want to try and like myself a bit more and enjoy what already have, rather than looking inwardly for places to improve. Early last year I had counselling for my ongoing problems with panic attacks, one of the questions my counsellor put to me was " Give me three (positive) words that describe you?". Now I never realised before just how negatively I felt about myself, It genuinely took 20 mins for me to think of anything - Organised, generous and polite, in case you were wondering, still it's a pretty pathetic offering for 20 mins soul searching & ceiling gazing. It really made me think; it is so very easy to list your bad traits, we do it all the time, but listing the positives is hard and it really shouldn't be!
So for me this year it's going to be about appreciating the positives, what I do have rather than over analysing what I am lacking, and try to make each day a little bit special. I loved this post by Retro Chick it really struck a chord, my lovely dad had major heart surgery last year which really shook our whole family. As trite as it sounds, it was a wake up call for us all to make more of an effort to spend time with each other and to enjoy every moment that we do, even the arguments, and it being my family there are always going to be plenty of those!
I could think of no better way to end this post than to leave you with Louis Armstrong, and a song which has been going around in my head on a loop whilst writing this!