For the last two years Christmas has been different. The family home is now in St Ives in Cornwall rather than Batheaston. When I started this blog I remember writing from there when I was on holiday. Now its home when I'm not in London! The 5 and a half hour train journey isn't so fun…especially as it always turns into a 6 and a half hour one when I'm on it. But then I arrive in St Ives so who cares?
Christmas is officially my favourite time of year. I love carrying big bags of wrapped presents for some reason. I should take over from Father Christmas when he retires. I've got a red coat already so I think I'll have an advantage when applying for the job.
When I get to the house in St Ives it's always already Christmassed up. All the decorations are up unless the cats have pulled any down again. Even the cushion covers and some of the pictures on the walls get changed to their once-a-year Christmas versions.
The old plastic tree we used for years has now been replaced with a driftwood version which is topped with a star that's been handcrafted by my Dad out of twisted wire and pieces of glass found washed up on the beach.
I suppose we're a bit of a creative family really. My Dad has made all sorts of different driftwood things for about the house. He made a little box out of slate for each of us for Christmas too. My Mum makes a Christmas wreath every year and handmade crackers including the bang. She made the personalised Christmas sacks we get our presents in when we were tiny and we still use them now! Joe's has a Father Christmas on it, Laurie's has a Christmas tree. I have an angel on mine because I clearly am one… I was actually an angel in the nativity in my first year of school. I remember peeing on the stage during a rehearsal… Those were the days!…
Joe's the writer and film expert of the family. He provides the Christmas entertainment with a batch of films and big bag of boardgames. We never really used to play boardgames at Christmas when we were younger. We were all too distracted by the toys and/or getting Dad to put together our toys. The record was possibly the 3 hours he had to spend putting together my Barbie Picnic Van. It was amazing though! A people-carrier with a sunroof and a boot that opened out to become a kitchen/BBQ with about 100 little objects like cooler boxes, camping lanterns, suitcases, picnic basket with little bottles of drink, radio and every single cooking implement you could ever need. I wonder if it still survives in the loft or whether it was given away…
Anyway, these days we play things like Settlers of Cata, Ticket To Ride and Cranium around the kitchen table.
Laurie is the budding chef of the family. He cooked the roast beef with all the trimmings this year. We don't necessarily have turkey on Christmas Day. Every year its something different but with all the traditional additions. Apparently the brussell sprouts were done to perfection but there's no point asking me as I went nowhere near them. Everything else was good though!
I'm the nuisance of the family, getting in the way by taking photos of everything, including action shots of things being taken out of the oven.
After munching down a massive Christmas lunch, its the brand new tradition to walk down the hill to Porthmeor beach, 5 minutes away. In coats and hats and wellies we have a paddle in the sea and wander on the sand. The winter is a good time to scavenge so we look out for driftwood or anything else good for Dad to make things out of.
Another tradition now is to make a sandman while we're on the beach…I say tradition…I did it on my own last year but this year was a team effort and I'm going to make it a tradition. This year was definitely one to beat. A lovely pirate sandman decorated with things found on the beach.
Then its time to go home to warm up and eat more food! Even if everyone is only back home for 2 days, my parents pack the house full of things to eat. They make shortbread, mince pies, Christmas cake, reindeer shaped cookies, Malteser fridge cake, Christmas log and ice-cream as well as buying Christmas pudding and cheesecake…not to mention the popcorn, peanuts, jelly babies, After Eights…and the rest. By the time Doctor Who comes on we're generally all collapsing of death by Christmas.
Tune in next week, folks, to see if I survived.
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