My Christmas Countdown

Well, somehow it's Christmas Eve which is slightly concerning because it feels like only yesterday I was putting up my advent calendar. But the presents are wrapped, the cookies have been baked and the Muppet's Christmas Carol has been watched so I guess there's no denying that it really is Christmas. So I thought I'd mix things up and give you a rundown of my '12 days of Christmas' as a kind of overview of how the festive season has gone so far.

12 Beacon Inquiries...
You really don't realise what a small town Port Talbot is until you come home and everyone knows your business. I seem to have become at least 70% more interesting since my last visit home and the question on everyone's lips is "When's he coming?" And they don't mean Santa!
I was a little surprised when I ran into my cousin a few days ago and she informed me that the entire family had watched a video of the Beacon on Youtube ("Beacon, I'd like to introduce you to my creepy, stalker family"). I was downright confounded when a women I didn't even know tapped me on the shoulder and asked when my 'young man' was flying in from Germany. I suppose in a place where nothing has changed in the last 30 years except the names of the bargain shops, an American pilot from Germany is going to cause a stir. And some doubt apparently.
"I mean, is he even a real person?" Asked my friend, Chris.
Yes! Yes, he really is!

11 Shots of Whiskey...

This year, my best friend, Hayleigh, happened to have her birthday on Black Friday. For those of you who, like the Beacon, have never heard of it, Black Friday is the Friday before Christmas and the basic idea is that people start drinking at 12pm, drink until they can't walk, continue drinking until they can't see, and stumble home the next day somehow or other with little or no dignity. I had no intention of being a part of the madness.
Unfortunately, after a few drinks at Hayleigh's house, my friends decided it was time to head out. Not just out, but into Port Talbot town, which is a great place for a night out...when you're 17. Wetherspoons had to shut midway through the night due to an emergency. No one had a clue what the emergency actually was (although rumours ranged from a cat fight in the toilets to a tragic death) and, try as I might to convince staff that I was a member of the Exeter press and needed the details, no one would tell me anything. The night did not pick up when a 39 year old DJ with a very questionable haircut told me I was 'too old' after I requested a Britney Spears song, and when I found the birthday girl vomiting into a gutter I was ready to call it a night.

10 Yards of Ribbon...
I love wrapping presents. I make my own gift tags, glue on pom-poms and bells, cover everything in glitter, and have perfected the art of ribbon-tying. So my mother kindly left all her wrapping for me to do when I got home from Germany (it has nothing to do with the fact that she hates wrapping and can't do corners properly, I'm sure). Trying to squeeze all that wrapping into a few days was a festive challenge. Perhaps the most stressful part was wrapping my nephews Furby, which my mother insisted had to be wrapped with the batteries already inside. Trying to tie a bow around something that keeps moving around and complaining that it's hungry is not an easy task.

9 Hours of Gluing...
For Christmas my niece wanted a dress like the kind her newest idol, Eden Wood, wears. Naturally, those dresses start at about £200 and the one she had her eye on was going for more like £500. My budget was £30. But, being Super Auntie, I was determined to make it work. I ordered in a cheap dress in the right shape from China and several hundred rhinestones. And so I've spent the last few days peeling super-glue off my fingers and trying to make a replica of the infamous Eden Wood dress. Next year I'm just getting her a Barbie.




8 Dodgy Cookies...
After the carnage that was my attempt to make gingerbread cookies with my niece and nephew last year, we played it safe this Christmas and bought a pack of precooked biscuits with icing and sprinkles to decorate them with. Ellis took the whole thing very seriously. Lauren, on the other hand, covered each of the cookies generously in icing and then licked them clean, one by one. Needless to say, those ones did not make it onto the Christmas tree.

7 Stolen Crackers...
When the children had finished decorating/ destroying the Christmas cookies, they turned their attention to the crackers on the tree. Long story short, we have one Christmas cracker left. And a draw full of tiny sewing kits and keyrings.

6 Secret Santas...

Ok, so this is going back a bit, but before I left Exeter we had a house Secret Santa. In reality it wasn't a secret because Kirsty and Sophie spent weeks figuring out who everyone had. At one point algebra was involved (see, they said it would be useful one day). When I found out that Kirsty was my Secret Santa (long before the present-swapping took place, of course), I was thrilled. I knew I'd be in for a treat because that girl is a talented shopper. And I was not disappointed when I unwrapped my Minnie Mouse slippers, fairy lights, and pink, sparkly hip-flask. Apparently the latter is exactly what I would be if I were an inanimate object. Girlie, over the top, and full of whiskey.


5 Days of Drilling...
As we all know, the best time to do any major remodeling of the house is just before Christmas. That way everyone can enjoy the immense stress, struggle to do DIY during the dark nights that start at 4pm, and postpone putting up any kind of Christmas decorations because a tree is hardly appropriate in a room that has no flooring. Luckily, by the time I got home, the majority of the building work was over and I was able to come home to a beautiful new living room. However, it was slightly inconvenient that for 2 days the only furniture we had was a Christmas tree. But at least it was festive.

4 Quirky Decorations...
While we're on the topic of the Christmas tree, I want to show off the decorations I bought while I was travelling during the summer. Our tree has always been a place for memories and it's full of decorations from all over. Some are particularly ugly. For example, my mother forced me to hang the one I bought in Poland at the back of the tree. But each year she is forced to endure the Christmas decoration she hates above all others. The slightly creepy angel I made for the top of the tree when I was little. I think it's a beautiful tradition. Mam thinks it's some kind of Christmas curse.

"Christmas curse"

3 Thousand Words...
This is basically the point in the blog post where I complain about the fact that I have a 3000 word essay due in January...and an exam. Way to be Scrooges, University of Exeter administrative staff.

2 Crazy Children...
Earlier this evening we called into my brother's house, aka Bedlam. Lauren has turned all of the Christmas trees in the miniature Christmas display upside down. Perhaps it was meant to be some form of protest? I am just grateful that we've made it passed the years when they were babies and there was a threat that they would pee under the Christmas tree...which, unfortunately, did happen one year. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that we won't have a repeat of last Christmas Day, when Lauren projectile vomited all over me and the majority of her new toys. Barbie has never been the same.

And a festive photo of me...

Merry Christmas everyone!