When life gives you snow, make a snowman!

When life gives you snow, make a snowman! It comes to something when your mam sets you a challenge to build a snowman, basically for no reason, apart from the fact that she is a big kid really. Also more proof that the midlife crisis is definitely here, as I actually have built my snowman, I mean he has a face and everything, granted I had no carrot, so his nose is a mini pepper and I only had pebbles and leaves for the rest. I feel like my Fine Art degree has been put to amazing use. Oh yes people I have a degree in Fine Art, I studied long and hard for it, even if people do think you just paint a few pictures and you have passed.

I am loving the fact that it actually feels like Christmas is coming, because of the snow we have had the past couple of days, but I do hate snow. Why do I hate snow? It is cold, sends the country into a standstill and I am so useless that I am normally he first person to fall flat on my arse! I do attempt to walk “normally” like everyone advises. Somehow though my legs just tense up on their own and I am left uselessly walking like a demented penguin and slip-sliding my way through the day. The amount of times I have managed to go arse over tit is so many I can’t even count them and to be honest I am pretty clumsy without the added danger factor of the snow.

I love how snow makes you feel Christmassy and gets you ready for the festive season. I am counting down to going home for the first time in months, which means I am mega excited. I really can’t wait to see everyone and for all of the things that Christmas brings. Christmas presents, the food, the drinks and the warm fuzzy feeling it gives me. It feels like the ultimate holiday, where you are “allowed” to do nothing, be lazy and switch off completely from everything. I don’t have my phone on throughout Christmas day, I don’t check social media, I just enjoy the moment and love it. I think this is something I have recently started to do in my everyday life too. This comes from a feeling that life is too short to be attached to a screen, you just have to enjoy it.

I love all of the traditions and rituals that we all seem to have around Christmas too. Christmas crackers, paper hats and crap jokes before prawn cocktail, then turkey and all the trimmings. Pass me the stuffing and the pigs in blankets, like now! Get in my belly. Don’t even start on the fact that breakfast is always bucks fizz and it is all good, it is Christmas after all! Then pigging out on the sofa with some wine, before the huge cheeseboard, cold meats, picky bits and even more wine and port. It is like my face is a vacuum for food and I will not care, not at all, I will enjoy each and every bite, savour each and every drink, because it’s Christmas. I will keep looking at my presents and loving the fact I have new things and appreciating the thought behind each one. I will love the fact that I am with my family and even the fella ha. The fact I can wear my Christmas jumper with pride and feel dressed up while at home, even though I am being a slob.

When the day is over and done, me and the fella will head off to the bnb and watch more Christmas specials on TV, well I will he will sleep I am sure. But the adrenaline and excitement will keep me going well into the early hours, with the hope that I can stretch the day out as long as possible. I am so excited now just thinking about it. What are your Christmas traditions?