(no subject)
I hope everyone had a good Christmas.
I was woken up at 7am, at which point I flatly refused to get out of bed before 8am. My sister and I had stayed up late discussing the less-than-virtuous woman in the marching band we were once part of who was caught having an affair with someone else's husband recently so I was tired. There were no stockings as last year we were decreed to be too old, but as the family tradition states we congregate on mum's bed first thing in the morning we have substituted the stockings for a small present that we open before breakfast. We then carried on opening presents from each other and dad's side of the family before dressing and heading out first to the cemetary to lay some festive flowers on dad's grave and then on to my grandparents to prepare for Christmas lunch.
We'd planned to eat shortly after 2, when my uncle and his partner S would be arriving from her brother's. He is mentally and physically handicapped and also in the late stages of cancer so not only did she want to be aorund to care for him but also because it is likely to be his last Christmas. I guessed something was wrong when my uncle walked in about 1pm and sat down huffing. He hadn't slept due to S's brother being ill and the man in the flat upstairs screaming and shouting all through the night. He had also been involved in conflict with S's two ungrateful, grown up daughters. They are incredibly spoilt by their father, who will have spent over £1,000 on each of them for Christmas and as such were just opening other presents and throwing them to the side, often with disparaging comments, which wound him up. Then the eldest, who is 24, made snide comments about how nice it must be to spend Christmas with your children. My uncle's children disowned him during the messy divorce about two years ago and he hasn't seen or heard from them since. He would give anything to be able to spend Christmas with his own children and does not need bitterly reminding of this by her. S turned up at 2pm as planned and for the rest of the day the atmosphere between them was not pleasant. It was probably not a good Christmas for either of them which is a shame, they both have things to find difficult about this time of year and hopefully will realise this and support each other rather than fighting.
We had a lovely lunch, then sat down to open more presents, playing various family games well into the evening when my nan typically tried to feed us again with another spread fit to feed an army. We were, howver, not an army, but 8 people who had already had too much to eat.
I got more theatre tickets from my mum, some to see Lion King in February and some to see a pantomime in North London on Friday. These are a bit of a mistake as my mum didn't realise they were just for a random pantomime in a random area of London as opposed to a big show, but I'm sure it'll be good. I have candles, chocolates, cosmetics from Lush and the Body Shop, a book about the origins of language, a cup, a purple scarf, a random kitchen gadget, a calendar and some jumpers too. I also have a watch from my nan that will have to be changed as it is unfortunately not to my taste. I have money from my dad's side of the family that I will wield in the sales tomorrow, as this is when most shops in Basingstoke will be opening it seems.
Today is just a lounging day in our household, so brother and sister are watching a DVD and I'm about to go and curl back up with an old paperback I found on Sunday when I returned that is a long term favourite and one I have not read in years. Sometimes old is just as good as new!
I was woken up at 7am, at which point I flatly refused to get out of bed before 8am. My sister and I had stayed up late discussing the less-than-virtuous woman in the marching band we were once part of who was caught having an affair with someone else's husband recently so I was tired. There were no stockings as last year we were decreed to be too old, but as the family tradition states we congregate on mum's bed first thing in the morning we have substituted the stockings for a small present that we open before breakfast. We then carried on opening presents from each other and dad's side of the family before dressing and heading out first to the cemetary to lay some festive flowers on dad's grave and then on to my grandparents to prepare for Christmas lunch.
We'd planned to eat shortly after 2, when my uncle and his partner S would be arriving from her brother's. He is mentally and physically handicapped and also in the late stages of cancer so not only did she want to be aorund to care for him but also because it is likely to be his last Christmas. I guessed something was wrong when my uncle walked in about 1pm and sat down huffing. He hadn't slept due to S's brother being ill and the man in the flat upstairs screaming and shouting all through the night. He had also been involved in conflict with S's two ungrateful, grown up daughters. They are incredibly spoilt by their father, who will have spent over £1,000 on each of them for Christmas and as such were just opening other presents and throwing them to the side, often with disparaging comments, which wound him up. Then the eldest, who is 24, made snide comments about how nice it must be to spend Christmas with your children. My uncle's children disowned him during the messy divorce about two years ago and he hasn't seen or heard from them since. He would give anything to be able to spend Christmas with his own children and does not need bitterly reminding of this by her. S turned up at 2pm as planned and for the rest of the day the atmosphere between them was not pleasant. It was probably not a good Christmas for either of them which is a shame, they both have things to find difficult about this time of year and hopefully will realise this and support each other rather than fighting.
We had a lovely lunch, then sat down to open more presents, playing various family games well into the evening when my nan typically tried to feed us again with another spread fit to feed an army. We were, howver, not an army, but 8 people who had already had too much to eat.
I got more theatre tickets from my mum, some to see Lion King in February and some to see a pantomime in North London on Friday. These are a bit of a mistake as my mum didn't realise they were just for a random pantomime in a random area of London as opposed to a big show, but I'm sure it'll be good. I have candles, chocolates, cosmetics from Lush and the Body Shop, a book about the origins of language, a cup, a purple scarf, a random kitchen gadget, a calendar and some jumpers too. I also have a watch from my nan that will have to be changed as it is unfortunately not to my taste. I have money from my dad's side of the family that I will wield in the sales tomorrow, as this is when most shops in Basingstoke will be opening it seems.
Today is just a lounging day in our household, so brother and sister are watching a DVD and I'm about to go and curl back up with an old paperback I found on Sunday when I returned that is a long term favourite and one I have not read in years. Sometimes old is just as good as new!