I hope you all had the Christmas Day you were expecting. My day started at 6 am, whilst the rest of the family were still sleeping I got up (I still get excited about Christmas Day) to bake bread. This year I made bread rolls after my less than successful loaf last year. As it turns out they were quite nice. By 7:30 am everyone was up (Lisa was at work yesterday), and by 8:30 we had, opened our presents and was tucking into our bacon sandwiches, with my homemade bread rolls, washed down with Bucks Fizz (apart from the working girl).
At just gone 9 am Lisa went off to work and started on the prep for our Christmas Dinner. So I prepared the vegetables, made the Yorkshire pudding mix and the broccoli and sprouts in cheese sauce (to be heated later). What a lovely morning I had, I sang, I danced, and I drank Bucks Fizz, oh and cooked and washed up. I do love cooking, I am not the best cook in the world, I make a lot of mistakes, normally because I am trying something new, but I have loads of fun. The first part of the preparation was finished by 12:00.
I had 2 hours before I needed to put the Turkey (crown, there is only 4 of us). I spent those 2 hours drinking stout eating fudge and watching 2 episodes of House of Cards Season 6. The boys went out about to the pub to support their friends who were working there. So I found myself at home on Christmas Day by myself for the first time since 1990. It was strange, but I did not mind at all I had Netflix to keep me company and I had cooking to do. I also knew that they would only be out for a couple of hours.
2 O’clock came round and I started all over again, Turkey went in the oven and I pottered around the kitchen watching TV and singing along to Jungle Book. I am not sure how, but I manged to string out cooking for the next 4 hours until Lisa go home from work.
We then sat down to our Christmas Dinner, pulled our crackers told each other jokes and wore our paper hats. We talked about Lisa’s day at work, the boys’ afternoon in the pub and my day cooking. I realised as I do every year, that I had slightly over catered, and none of us managed to finish our food (bubble and squeak for lunch today). We didn’t even bother cooking our pudding.
We left the pots and table to sort out today (I am currently avoiding tidying and ashing up by writing this blog) and collapsed in front of the telly watching the obligatory Call The Midwife and Eastenders.
So I had a slightly different Christmas Day now my boys are older and that Lisa was at work. However the important parts of the day remained as they have always been since the boys have been born. I got up super early, we opened our presents and we ate far too much food and watched things on the telly I would never normally watch.
What is important is that we use holidays to spend some time for ourselves whether that is in groups, by ourselves or both. It is too easy to get caught up in it all and not pay attention to ourselves. Remember you are a participant in the story that is being played out in front of you, so take part, and don’t miss out on the fun because you are too busy worrying about what is coming next.
Have a fab Boxing Day.
Connected Coaching 