Sunday 28 December 2014

Christmas 2014

So, Christmas is finally over.

I was up as early as usual on Christmas Day. We were cooking a whole leg of lamb as well as the chicken, and someone had to get it in the slow cooker at 5am so it'd be falling apart by 1pm. The lamb was kept simple, while the the chicken was done up with homemade stuffing and seasoned with fresh thyme and garlic. I also made duck fat potatoes and from-scratch gravies, both chicken and lamb.

The day itself was stressful. A lot of cooking and feeling exhausted. My brother's fiance came over, which was the first time we've had people in the house for a long time. There are a lot of contributing factors, but I just feel too vulnerable when there's so little safe space left in my world.

We had these new Christmas crackers this year, and as it turns out they're quite tough to break. Mum and I were holding hers, and I was like 'okay, just hold it still, pulling it will only lead to disaster'. But of course it led to disaster anyway.
When it did snap, my wrist flew back, whacked down on the wine glass on the table, sending the glass flying to the fate of smashing and spilling all over the carpet.
...and I never even got to open my cracker.

For the last week I've been falling asleep sitting up, unable to stay away for the duration of the day. I've only been getting on average 5 hours sleep the past few weeks, so I guess it's catching up.

The last few days have been pretty flat. I'm just too exhausted to do much at all. Time has come to mean nothing for the week surrounding Christmas. No meal times, no bed times, too many missed meds, cleaning at 5am, wrapping presents at midnight... no routine at all. 

I didn't end up doing as much baking as I'd planned. I skipped the sponge and cookies, and just made the two chocolate cakes, a triple batch of chocolate truffles, and a quadruple batch of caramel slice. We've also had so much chocolate around these past few weeks, it's unbelievable. We still have a lot left, but there's been 2kg of choc-coated peanuts, 2kg of Maltesers, 1kg of peppermint creams, a box of Favourites and a box of Roses, not to mention the chocolate for baking (the cakes alone had 1kg of chocolate between them)... so baking more wasn't a huge necessity.

I spent the day jingling as I walked, which is apparently nothing unusual on Christmas Day, as it was several hours before anyone noticed. I had a belt hidden under my cardigan, which I used to wear as a kid. At some point I put all these Christmas bells on it, and so it became my Christmas belt. My jingle belt.

Yesterday I looked through our old photo albums to find a photo of me wearing it as a kid. After much searching, I was starting to think that maybe there just wasn't a photo of me wearing it. Then I started looking earlier, and lo and behold, the very first photo in the album marked "1996-1997" shows me and my brother standing in the backyard of our old house, me wearing my red belt and him wearing a matching yellow belt, aged 3 and 5.





I gave my brother a Game of Thrones letter opener, but it makes the perfect sword for Sir Mini Milo


xxBella

8 comments:

  1. Aw Bella you look so beautiful in those photos, your hair looks amazing too, it's so long! And you were so cute as a kid too :)
    Christmas is always a stressful time for a lot of people, it's a relief that it's all over, but I hope you did have a nice day :) xx

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  2. You know what, sweetie?
    You've made it through!!

    So nice to see so much photo's ...I like seeing how people on the other side of the world live...

    Try to get a little rest sweetie, a little of your routine back, you seem completely exhausted

    (L)

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  3. You look BEAUTIFUL. Those photos of you outside, wow...just...wow!
    Also all of the food looks really delicious!
    Sorry you haven't been getting much sleep tho : / I'm sure when things get back to normal because christmas is over you'll start feeling more like yourself. I always get so stressed with the holidays, I think it's all of the food, as much as I wanna say I've recovered, after my millions of christmas meals because my family is so broken, I always torture myself by weighing myself, and this year seeing a 5 pound gain has just thrown me into a tizzy. I am so glad I can get back to normal pattern again. I'm very organized and I don't like it when my routine gets messed with.

    Anyways look at me over here rambling! Glad you had a good christmas and hope you start getting some more sleep my dear.

    <3
    Kay.

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  4. Glad you survived Christmas dear Bells
    It seems to have wiped a lot of us out
    Please continue to fight
    You are a friend for life
    And I want you around for a long time

    The photo of you and your brother is too cute

    Take care angel x

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  5. Omg the GoT letter opener is adorable, I need one of these!! You look so lovely playing with the bubbles :) I too did soooooo much baking. Dozens and dozens of cookies, banana and pumpkin bread, made two pans of stuffing on Christmas day..I'm so tired of cooking. I'm glad you survived, it sounds like we all need a rest though. Oh, and I'll facebook message you about the new boyfriend ;) Love you dear, take care. Merry Christmas!!

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  6. You are so beautiful Bella. I hope you managed to have a little of fun even with all the Stress.

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  7. Thank the gods it's only Christmas once a year. Well, we survived, at least.

    (and you are so utterly pretty)

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  8. I know Christmas is tough for us, I've been thinking of you from icy Wales. I can completely relate to no routine at all over Christmas - it usually takes me months to get back to 'normal' whatever that is, after the chaos of Christmas, and I'm worried about that again this year to be honest, but I'm trying my hardest not to get too out of control this Christmas.

    Your photo of you and your brother as kiddywinkles is adorable!! Look at your rosy cheeks! I love your Christmas belt, and your bubble machine, how awesome is that?!

    Take care love
    xxxxxxxxx

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