You can certainly tell that I'm really behind on things with the fact that I'm writing my Christmas blog on the last day of 2012... d'oh (*´_ゝ｀) Also I would like to add this note - because strangely people have been asking me about it this year and never in the past six years? My religion is Shinto, which is a branch of Buddhism and whilst Buddhism never celebrates Christmas; I celebrate my family's and friends traditions because this time of year is not about my religion but theirs so it is a mark of respect to them that I do this. Also in Japan - where a large percentage of the population is Buddhist / Shinto it's just a holiday for them to exchange gifts. Most countries in Asia that I know celebrates it, it's not a cultural thing, just a "foreign" holiday that has been adapted. They decorate trees, exchange presents, eat (chicken), but they do not pray or anything on Christmas Eve. So after this long note; it's all basically about giving my family the presents I have bought for them... oh and the food because well I'm a fatty and I love food!
The festivities started in my house on the 21st of December as it was the last day of work for the holidays as well as in the evening we had our work Christmas party meal. What's nice about Christmas time at work is receiving cards and edible gifts food from parents and it makes you feel a bit more appreciated in this line of work. All the gifts get collected together and divided up equally between all members of staff and because mum and I work at the same place, we get given ours together! It's nice what we received this year because my dad likes to eat biscuits... a whole lot of biscuits (_ _ll) so it's like he's received something from my work too!
That evening for our meal; it was absolutely freezing outside and so I wore many layers to keep myself warm and inside the pub - we went to The Green Dragon that is located somewhere between Braintree and Great Leighs I believe - it was sweltering and I instantly regretted my leather jacket... d'oh ヽ(#`Д´)ﾉ
I also didn't get many pictures of the night but we had lots of fun! Loads of us were making paper areoplanes out of cracker cardboard and throwing them like naughty school children oh and the food was pretty mediocre... the only thing I liked out of the whole three courses was my smoked tomato and lentil soup because my main meal was too bland and I had to put extra salt onto it - and I NEVER add extra salt to any of my food!
The dessert wasn't so bad though... but it was overly sweet though and I felt like people had to peel me off the ceiling because of the sugar high ∑(O_O；) At the end of the night we all exchanged our Secret Santa gifts and I received a great pair of bed socks with 3D dogs on the front! They were so cute and my (real) dogs think they're absolutely fabulous to play with... when they're attached to my feet.
On the Saturday 22nd we managed to FINALLY put up and decorate our Christmas tree! We have a mixture of old and new ornaments in my parents 'Christmas Box' and so it was basically a higgelty piggelty of... stuff! But still, it did look very pretty and festive with the coloured lights turned on （＾ω＾）
In the afternoon; I had some time to myself to wrap all my presents to my family but somehow that ended up with me wrapping up EVERYONE'S gifts except for my own... I need to learn how to say 'no' to my parents a bit more often (；￣Д￣）
So an hour worth of work turned into eight hours of paper cutting, sellotaping and tag sticking... oh and with the result of a sore back too! But I had a 'helper' for most of the time:
Who am I trying to kid? She's no helper but she is majorly cute when she's trying to be nosy! Gah I love my furry baby to pieces - and yes I did buy my animals presents... even the horses because no one is left out in our family!
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day kind feels like that it blurred into one whole day because of how quickly the time flew by! Despite the fact that I couldn't help out with walking the dogs as I had severely cracked my toe and I couldn't wear any shoes / flip flops / slip on shoes of any kind - I thought it was broken at first but nope just cracked and bruised! So I actually thought the days would go by really slowly but because I helped out with odd jobs around the house and with the cooking; my boredom was pretty surpassed and before I knew it we had opened our presents and eaten dinner...
Despite my wishlist in another blog post; I was surprised that my mum took notice of what I had asked for from her and with a few extra goodies I was extremely happy with what I had received from all of my family and friends /throws heart shaped confetti everywhere/ （＾Ｏ＾☆♪
Oh, for once in our lives, my brother and I agreed that we liked Boxing Day food the most because it's mainly cold cuts, pickles, crisps, crackers and CHEESE. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHEESE GROMIT ʘ‿ʘ who can now guess that I am a cheese-a-holic?
All in all; this holiday turned out really well and there were no arguments and 'accidental' deaths of my uncle (I swear all I want to do is a smash a plate over his head to shut him the fuck up) and everyone had a really good time. My other uncle's girlfriend was extremely sweet and asked me if we wanted to be facebook friends and so I accepted and ta dah... now I'm hoping they don't break up because that would be extremely awkward ('-'*)
Did everyone else enjoy the holiday season and get what you had asked for? Cannae believe that it is New Years Eve already though... hope you all have your resolutions (or goals, whatever you prefer) at the ready to GO GO GO ☆彡
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
xoxo
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