Christmas Nostalgia

What do people think about when they think about Christmas?  I bet most people are like me and hanker after the perfect Christmas from years gone by.  They never really existed though, we only remember certain parts of them.

Here in London we run around like headless chickens trying to buy headless turkeys that are just perfect.  Oh they must be free range and they must be organic and of course if they can't come direct from the farm they must be from Waitrose.  Oh how we scoff at those turkey crowns in Iceland.  But does it really matter to anyone but us?  No of course not.

Christmas lunch is one meal.  We have 3 meals a day 365 days a year.  This one has to be perfect but it takes weeks to plan, costs us a fortune and takes us stress, swearing and Champagne to cook it.  Then we just eat it, wrap the rest up in foil and eat it later with mayonnaise in front of Doctor Who.

I am one of those people who enjoys the anticipation of things much more than the event.  Usually.  Sometimes the event outshines the planning.  Our latest holiday to Florida was one of those such events but they are rare.

So, how would my perfect Christmas go in my ideal world.  Well it has to start on Christmas eve.

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It is late in the evening on Christmas eve.  I am lying on the floor wrapping the last of the Christmas presents.  I carefully wrap the presents in single coloured metallic paper, adding a contrasting ribbon and bow and of course a gift tag stating the gift is from Santa.  I have either the Christmas number one's on TV, a blockbuster fun movie such as Pirates of the Caribbean or am listening to the festive music of Dean Martin.

Our tree is festive and brightly lit and I can trace all the years I have been in this house by looking at the decorations on the tree.  I can remember where and when I bought each one.  I always try and buy something new every year.

Perhaps I will have a glass of wine and a mince pie.  The house is warm and my daughter is sleeping silently upstairs or perhaps just pretending and lying awake listening for the sound of sleigh bells and santa.  Her stocking sits at the end of her bed expectantly waiting for small parcels to fill it with the obligatory chocolate coins and tangerine.

Late at night, my and my husband creep upstairs and fill her stocking full to the brim and gently lay it down where we found it.  We also leave out a nice stocking for the cats.  After all it's their Christmas too. I always feel a bit weird about giving the cats gifts but I think it's nice to buy them the special Sheba turkey flavoured cat food.

In the morning, we are woken up by a jumping girl landing on our bed with her stocking.  She opens it in the middle of us both, far too early in the morning.  The bed is covered in wrapping paper and happiness.  My husband takes photos and I don't even mind that I haven't brushed my hair.

We make our way downstairs where she gasps as she sees the presents underneath the tree, shining brightly in the dark of the morning.

We put on the TV to a soundtrack of early morning Christmas cartoons about reindeer who want to be Santa's next reindeer.  We start to open the gifts and the room fills with little piles of stuff.  If we having Christmas dinner here then I will start to cook.

The smell of a Christmas turkey in the oven is a lovely smell and I always like to have a glass of Champagne at 11am on Christmas day - just because I can and because it helps de stress me for the work ahead.

I am an organised person and I usually like to do as much prep the day before as I can.

The potatoes have to be perfect as does the turkey and usually I forget the sprouts or something but I have learned to keep lists and work out timings in advance so I don't get flustered.

I love my dining table to look amazing.  I love candles everywhere as well as festive napkin holders and real napkins as well as the best china to come out for it's annual appointment.

Crackers pulled, hats worn it is time for the meal to begin with lots of handing of bowls across the table and much appreciation for the chef.  We drink more wine and bring in the pudding complete with holly and burning brandy.  We cheer it and turn off the lights for it.  Once we have eaten it (there is always more than you need because most people don't like it) we drink more and clear away.

I stick on the dishwasher for load one and then we start playing games.  I love playing games at Christmas.  I don't really care what we play as long as we do something.  I am happy with charades, Trivial Pursuit, even kids games.  I will play anything.  Then there is more drink and perhaps returning to the kitchen for cheese and biscuits.

Later on in the evening after people have either been for a healthy walk, sat drinking the rest of the wine an putting the world to rights, watching the festive movie, being virtuous and clearing up or just having a sneaky nap on the sofa we gather again.

This for me is the way that the turkey tastes best.  On your lap cold with some nice bread, some mayonnaise and bits and bobs of left over crunchy bacon or cold chipolata sausages dipped in mustard.

We sit and we enjoy this informal dinner, talking about the Queen's speech or how this year's number one is an X factor offering again and was it really better when the Spice Girl's monopolised the chart.

We go to bed, a little tipsy, very happy with more food in the fridge than we know what to do with.

Unfortunately I hate the next bit.  You've been so worked up to this one day that on Boxing Day when the TV has nothing but adverts for the sale of the year at DFS or get ready to stop smoking for New Year.

It's gone - it's done but we're still sitting there going - but it's still Christmas!  Our tree is still up, the cards are still there and we still have a fridge full of turkey but it feels like the rest of the world has moved on.

I wish it could be more gradual or that we could make Christmas Day last for a few days at least.  I don't think bosses would like their staff taking that much time off work though.

This year I will be happy to see the face of my daughter as she opens her presents, happy to see my family enjoy my fabulous roast potatoes and hopefully to persuade some people to play a board game with me.  Perhaps I will hold the pudding hostage until they agree - sounds like a plan to me.

Zynga games

I have created a second blog to deal with my Farmville 2 current obsession.  I also have been in the past addicted to the old Farmville but I got fed up of it after I became a gazillionaire and had more money than I could shake a stick at.

I also play Pioneer Trail (formerly Frontierville) but the missions have recently been coming so thick and fast that I can no longer keep up and feel like it is more of a part time job than something enjoyable.

The OCD part of my personality finds these kind of games very good for dealing with my sorting out compulsions.

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2

I came to the Twilight Saga quite late on.  I had attempted to watch the first film when it was on TV because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  I think the fact that I was watching it with my husband didn't help my enjoyment of it because he hated all the talky romantic bits.  I found it a little dull I have to admit and I think because it had been hyped up so much by the media, other people I knew and the general teenage population I was expecting something - well, better.

My 9 year old daughter asked in a slightly embarrassed way if she could watch Twilight and I recorded it for her and we watched it together one night after school.  She felt like she was now part of an exclusive club at her school - the girls who had seen Twilight.  She started talking about it and I realised that it had caught her very young imagination with the idea of perfect love.

One day when she was off school sick, I downloaded the other movies and we watched them back to back via our Apple TV.  It made the day go quickly and to my surprise, I started enjoying them.  At then end of Breaking Dawn part 1, I made the decision to pre-book tickets for the showing on the Friday night when it came out.

So, we trudged down in the rain to our local Odeon cinema, spent as much on popcorn as we did on tickets (won't gripe here) and went in.  We counted 5 men in the cinema and the rest were made up of teenage girls and a few mums like me.

We sat through the ads and trailers and eventually it started to a large round of applause from the audience.  The best thing about seeing a film like this in the cinema is the reaction of the audience to what is going on.

When the credits came on at the beginning and Taylor Lautner's name came up - there was a loud cheer of approval from the audience so mainly people seemed to like Jacob over Edward.  I have always thought that Jacob was a better bet but what do I know?

Similarly at the point where he strips off in front of Bella's dad there was a fair bit of whooping going on.  Other reactions included screaming at the beheadings which seemed to go on for far too long for my daughter's liking.  She did not care about the vampires being killed but could not seem to cope with the wolves being killed.  All in all it was a pretty amazing film although one review I read said that the first half was a bit like an extended Next advert.  When I thought about that I remembered all the beige Ugg style clothing that they seemed to wear.

I also had a problem with the cottage that Bella and Edward were given.  They seemed to have a perfect cottage stuffed with everything from books to bedding - I know vampires are supposed to be fast but this seemed to come out of nowhere.  They then say that they will all have to leave.  So why did they buy them the house in the first place?  I don't understand what was going on there - my personal gripe only I think.

I would say that this was a very good movie and we both enjoyed it immensely.

To blog or not to blog

Why is it that when people suggest starting a blog you are full of ideas.  The fantastic notion that people might actually read the insane things that are going on in your mind is a wonderful one.  The reality is, however that as soon as you start to think of ideas you get blog-fright.  This is the same as stage fright when you know all your words and you have rehearsed your lines a thousand times but as soon as you step up onto that stage, all the eyes are upon you and you can't remember a single line.

So, what is the theme of my blog?  Well to be honest I am a bit of a dual personality person so I guess it will be a rather eclectic mix of going out in London and staying home and being a mum.  Is it possible to be a London It Girl as well as a mother?   Yes, of course it is.

My blog will be updated whenever the mood takes me so don't be surprised if I do an onsalught of loads of articles as well as some pictures and then don't do things for a while.  I'm a bit like that.  When I like something I love it and then I get bored and go onto other things.  Very few things hold lasting interest for me.  I am very jealous of people with hobbies and passions that they know everything about.  I have never been one to have a "specialist subject".  I always like the idea of things and try them out for a while and then never return to them.  Piano playing was a great example.  I bought the keyboard and the books and every night for about 3 months slowly learned to play the piano.  Then, when it got too hard for me, I simply quit and never went back to it.  This is sort of how my life goes - liking something and then giving it up.  I hope I don't give up on this but previous experience has taught me that unless I get something back from it, it will be a short lived thing.  I like to think that in a year's time I will come back and look at this article and say how wrong I was.  I really like that idea in fact.  It's a goal now.  I almost typed "goat" now that would have been confusing.