The Christmas Tag: What I LOVE about Christmas

I saw this tag and I just had to do it. I LOVE Christmas. I think Christmas is the time you can really feel magic come alive. I love the run up to Christmas, the fun of Christmas day and the lazy. snoozey days following (yip you guessed it we don’t have kids lol)

1. What is your favourite Christmas movie?
My favourite newish film is Elf. I giggle so much at it – Buddy the Elf, what’s your favourite colour? But White Christmas with Bill Crosby is my all time favourite, love a bit of old Bill crooning away – “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…” Love it!

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
We do both! We each open a small one of Christmas eve, then open the rest of our presents in bed on Christmas morning – you can definitely tell we don’t have kids yet.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
I have lots of amazing Christmas memories, mostly just the time spent with family, amazing presents, great food. The best were when we were kids, playing on our new bikes, eating sweets till we were sick, playing monopoly with the family, watching Christmas films, spending all day in pyjamas. The simple times and things are my favourite memories.

4. Favourite festive food?
Vienetta mint chocolate ice cream. Yum yum yum! Only time I ever eat it as well.

5. Favourite festive gift?
Pyjamas – I always have to get a new pair and I always put them on straight after Christmas dinner.

6. Favourite Christmas Scent?
It’s got to be Apple & Cinnamon – Paul’s gets the air freshener out and always says ‘I’m spraying Christmas’

7. What tops your tree?
A little gold angel

8. Do you have any Christmas eve traditions?
Mine and Paul’s favourite Christmas eve tradition is ordering a domino’s pizza and watching a stand up dvd. We have done this every Christmas eve since we started dating. This year our chosen stand up comedian is Jack Whitehall.

9. As a kid, what was the one Christmas present you wished for but never received? 
I think the only thing I have ever wanted since I was a kid until now is a polaroid camera. To be honest I never remember thinking that I didn’t get what I wanted. My mum and dad didn’t have a lot of money when we were growing up so myself and my brother never made crazy demands on them, but they always got us amazing stuff, I still have no idea how they managed to surprise us every year.

10. What’s the best part of Christmas for you?
Getting to see people open their gifts, especially Paul – it’s like having a kid with him he gets so excited and hyper. Also lazing about, Boxing Day sales and eating lots of yummy food. Worst part is taking the Christmas tree down; hate how bare the house looks then.

Do you love Christmas? What’s your favourite part?

Home is where the heart is…

This week has been rather emotional as I helped my parents pack up 25 years and say goodbye to my childhood home. Sure I haven’t lived there now in over a decade, but it didn’t make locking the door on that happy home any easier. After days of packing, lifting and moving you would have thought we would have been glad to see the back of it, but as my mum and myself locked up for the last time, the both of us walked away with tears in our eyes.

We moved into the house when I was just 7 years old and boy was it a great house to grow up in. Its garden backed onto fields, which as a child I explored every inch and had lots adventures with my brother and friends and climbed many a tree (from which I have many a scar). I never hesitate at saying I had a great childhood. True we had problems like many families (broken home, money worries, loss of family members etc.) but when I think back to my time in that house I can only think of the good times. From a young girl the house saw me grow into a woman, from my first Barbie doll to my first love and then onto being my haven after my first big heartbreak. It also saw my journey from primary and secondary school, onto college and university and finally it welcomed me home after a long week at work.

The move hasn’t been all sad. As they say move onto bigger and better things, well in my parent’s case it’s actually smaller and better – a 2 bed new build with a back door which is easy for my elderly dog to get in and out more. I was worried about how our wee dog Cassie would manage the move but she seems to have settled well and loves her garden, it’s going to be pretty hard to get her to come in this summer! I did get my mum and dad some Jan de Vries Animal Emergency Essence – a Bach flower remedy for pets for Cassie and they added it to her water for a week before the move and will continue to use it for a few weeks until things had fully settled down. Whether this has help or she is just happy not to have to climb stairs several times a day I’m not sure – am just happy she is happy.

The one thing I did love though was the crazy stuff my parents found, especially when clearing out the loft. Not only was there a mammoth amount of Bunty & Mandy annuals (who else used to get one every year?) but there was so many teddies and the best find of all was a big box full of my old Nancy Drew books. I used to really want to be a police woman and was convinced I would be a great detective like Nancy (pity about my lack of height). I may even give a few of them a read before I pack them away again in my own loft (I don’t have the heart to give them away, took me too long to collect them).

So as they say, home is where the heart is (which I truly believe), and although we have closed the door on my childhood home, wherever my parents live I know I am always welcomed and loved there and I can always call it home, so here’s to many years ahead of creating more great memories in their new home.

Anyone else had to say goodbye to a childhood home? Or have you done a big clear out and found something you forgot all about? I would love to hear about it.

Annmarie xx