Christmas Traditions!

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all having a wonderful festive season and are all prepared for Wednesday! I just finished my Christmas shopping yesterday - oops! They are all wrapped and under the tree; including three of my friends' presents which I reeeaaaly need to deliver to them soon!

Whilst laying in my bed tonight, going through in my mind if there was anything needing to be done before the "big day" I started doing what I normally do when I'm either nervous or excited (obviously, I must be talking about the latter in these circumstances!) and that is plan out the day. (Do any of you do that, going through what needs to be done and going through the day in your mind?)

It got me thinking about what Christmas Traditions my family and I have. The one that sticks in my mind the most is definitely the Christmas Eve present. Every year without fail, I get to open one present - which is typically one my mum has bought specifically for this purpose - just before I head off to bed. Nine times out of ten this is usually a pair of [Christmassy] Pyjamas for me to wear that night. I say nine times out of ten because last year I got toothpaste and a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush hahah!

For the first eight or nine years or so of my life, I would (beg my parents to) get up early and open my presents from my parents and, of course, Santa. I can't quite remember when/if I saw my grandparents from my mums side during the day or not but I definitely remember the Christmas afternoon/evenings being spent at my dads parents with all of his side of the family: all my aunties, uncles, cousins and for a time, second-cousins, all being their for Christmas dinner. There were literally fifteen - twenty of us packed into one room and my gran and my aunties trying to cook the dinner in a kitchen that could barely handle one person! My gran had the inside and the outside of the house COMPLETELY covered with decorations. There was not one bit of clear wall - or ceiling! - space. I think the Grinch would have a heart attack if he saw it. She's like all of the Who's in Whoville rolled into one!
My fondest memory of Christmases there is actually the only one I really remember: we were all sitting at the table, Christmas hats on everyone's heads and party popper streamers hanging from the ceiling light and drowning in the gravy boat, the noise was unbelievable! I must've been about six years old and I just sat there watching everyone having about ten different conversations at once. My dad's dad was sitting at the head of the table and clearly had had enough of everyone's lack of table manners (talking whilst eating!) so he screamed "STOP TALKING WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!" to which everyone stopped, looked over at him and burst out laughing for he had just forced a huge forkful of roast potato into his mouth and subsequently was not "practicing what he preached"

However, around eight years ago my parents split and I believe for the first year or two, I continued to go to my dad's parents house for Christmas dinner, but for certain reasons I stopped this and since then I visit him for a few hours on the day, see the family and then come home for Christmas dinner (with my mum and her parents) which is cooked by my mums new husband.

I'm not going to go into my plans for this Christmas as 1. I will possibly do a post on my Christmas day and what I got/gave for Christmas and 2. I actually don't really know! It will be a strange Christmas this year as we will be missing a very special member of our family.
Benji, our 17/18 year old cat had to be put to sleep at 9:38am on December 21st 2013 as he had taken what we believe was a seizure the previous night and there was nothing we could do for him. It's definitely a relief as we didn't think we'd get him to last until last Christmas and he's definitely not been himself.
Whilst we will miss his, wonderful, constant meowing and his never ending scrounging for food, the money saved on buying his cat food will be wonderful (the skinny little thing never stopped eating!)

Sorry to end on a slightly sad note but anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! love ya!

~Emma xx