My 2016 Christmas Plans

It’s 6:30pm on the 23rd December and I thought for my final Blogmas post, I would share with you my Christmas plans for 2016. As I write this, I’m sat in my parent’s living room in Essex. This means that I’ve overcome the first hurdle to our Christmas plans – I’ve been well enough to travel! Yay.

The plan for tomorrow (Christmas Eve) is to spend the afternoon with family at my Nanna’s. This family gathering will consist of Nanna’s four children, their children and their children. We’ll have four generations in one bungalow! We’ll go to Nanna’s house for lunch. Everyone pitches in with this, so lunch consists of a pick and mix buffet. I’ve just found out that Mum is making a wheat-free sausage pie with stuffing (both my sister and I are on a wheat free diet), which I’m really looking forward to. We’ll eat, play games and the children will receive their Christmas presents. I’m not sure if they will open them on the day or save them for Christmas day. I really hope that I’m well enough to make it, as I always love catching up with my family.

Christmas 2001 in Cyprus. Nanna, her four children and their children (there are more grandchildren and also great grandchildren now!).

At 4pm, Mum and Dad are leaving Nanna’s to travel to my big sister in Norfolk. Dan and I will be leaving at the same time to travel home. With my parents with my big sister and Dan’s parents with his brother, we have decided to have our Christmas day just the two of us and our cats. This is something Dan has wanted for a few years and I haven’t been keen on. This year, I’m actually looking forward to it. I think I’m going to need a quiet day because Christmas Eve and Boxing day will be busy. I would like to make it to a church service either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to manage it.

On Christmas day, Dan and I will wake up slowly and have our stocking presents. We don’t normally do stocking gifts, but I asked that we do this year. I was concerned that Christmas day just the two of us would just feel like any other day, so having stockings is me trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. Dan is planning a cooked brunch for about 11am.

After brunch, we’ll be opening our main presents from one another. Dan asked for model railway bits and want’s to play with them on Christmas day, so this will give him an opportunity to do so. Part of my present from Dan was going to be bassoon reeds and a seat strap, as I lost mine about 2 years ago. Ironically, just as Dan received the confirmation email to say that my reeds and strap had been dispatched, I found the ones I’d lost. I don’t know how they ended up in a box in the wardrobe, but I’m glad I found them. So Dan will be sending the reeds and strap he ordered back. The parcel is sitting in our hallway unopened.

That was a very longwinded way of telling you that, while Dan is playing with his trains, I’ll be having a bassoon practice. I’ve already been able to play twice and am loving being able to get back to it. Getting back into my bassoon playing was one of my goals for the year (you can read more about this in My 2016 Goals and Aims post). I don’t think I would have expected my Christmas plans to consist of bassoon practice, but I’m excited about it!

 Dan and I will be eating Christmas dinner at about 3pm. Dan will be doing the cooking and we have turkey and pigs in blankets to look forward to. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any wheat free stuffing for our Christmas dinner and forgot to look for Yorkshire puddings. I’m hoping I can ‘borrow’ some from my Mum if she has any in her freezer.

I’m hoping we’ll also be playing games, listening to music and possible watching a festive film together on Christmas day too. We haven’t bought present’s for the cats, but I’m sure they’ll enjoy playing with the many, many train boxes!

Boxing day will be spent at my parents house in Warwickshire. They have a house two doors down from us so that they can be come up quickly if I need help health wise. My parent’s will be up at about 12pm with my sister and her husband. We’ll be exchanging presents and playing games. For dinner, Dan will be cooking a Mexican.

We’ll have a quieter couple of days after that. My niece will be joining us on the 27th and I’m excited to give her her present. We bought her an Eevee plush, which I know is going to go down well.

On the 29th, we will meet Dan’s parents and siblings at a local(ish) pub. It’s become a bit of a tradition to meet up for a meal with between Christmas and the new year. After the meal, we all head back to Dan’s parents. Dan’s Mum likes to get a family photo each year, so I need to try to remember to take my camera. I’ve asked Dan to remind me!

I’m looking forward to our Christmas plans and feel that I’ve done as much as possible to pace activities so I can manage to take part in as much as possible. I’m trying to be kind to myself and accept that I might not be able to do everything. I know none of my family will mind, but I have a tendency to beat myself up.

What are your Christmas plans? Have you done Blogmas? How have you got on?

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