Advent Calendar. Day 11. And breathe.....

What do you have to help you cope?

to remind you to care for you?

to help you to keep pushing forward?
what keeps you safe and warm?

As I write this post I am aware it is Dec 19th and I am in fact 8 days behind!!!  

I look around me and I see ironing that is piled up waiting to be done, Xmas presents that still need to be wrapped, a spare room awaiting visitors that hasn't been tidied, a shopping list that hasn't been written!!

My mother-in-law needs her medication ordered, I haven't bought a raffle prize for the skittles match tomorrow evening, if I don't get back in time from bathing the Mother-In-Law tomorrow I may not even make the skittles match!!!  I need to call the GP tomorrow whilst I am at work to speak about Mum In Law, cant do it in my lunch break as I'm working through so I can go home early in order to do the bathing!!!!! Its only 5 days until Xmas and only 3 days until my Sister and her 4 children come to stay.

I have a hideous cold, feel like utter shite, am anxious, stressed and could scream!!!

So today's topic is 'What do you have to help you cope, to remind you to care for you.? As I sit here with a very large glass of white, my initial response should be wine........ what I do is try and put things into perspective and prioritise. I need to learn to ask for help and really mean it when I do ask.  Maybe that way I will get the response I need and the response that takes just a little off my shoulders.

Until then i will have my wine, the ironing may end up hidden in a cupboard until the visitors have gone but that's OK.

Advent Calendar. Day 5. Gifts.

"Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy - forgiveness.

To an opponent - tolerance.

To a friend - your heart.

To a customer - your service.

To all - charity.

To every child - a good example.

To yourself - respect."

~ Oren Arnold ~

Back in the day when I was a girl (ahem, a few years ago) Christmas gifts were very different to how they are now.

We had our Christmas stocking with a satsuma, nuts and sweets...with the threat of a lump of coal if we were naughty, which of course I never was.

One year all I wanted was a Sindy doll (much prettier than Barbie) and I had a readicut rug making kit!!  I tried so hard to look happy.  It took me a good 12 years to complete that damn rug!!!

Mum and dad would hide the presents around the house and one year mum hid them in the ottoman where she kept the clean towels.  We of course found them and by Xmas day had read our new Beano annuals from cover to cover!!  No fun to be had that Xmas day. Serves ourselves right for being so nosey.

I have always enjoyed buying gifts for others  and even as a child I remember saving up my 60p a week pocket money to buy things for my Parents at Xmas.

We had a gift shop locally that ran a Xmas club and I would pay so much each week to save up for Royal Doulton figures and jars which Mum loved. Dad would have another addition to his model car collection.  I now have all the things which myself and my Sisters bought Mum and Dad after they died :(

So what is the perfect gift? I'm the sort of person who if I want something I buy it. (if I have the money of course.)  So I try and buy gifts for people that they probably wouldn't buy for themselves. Something that shows that I thought of them, not needing to be expensive but bought with love.

I do have a tendency to go a bit bonkers at times and have to reign my Xmas shopping habit in!!

I'm sure that I don't get it right all the time, but I love trying.

So If you are in receipt of a pressie from me this year, just remember, I thought about it :)

Lovely faces receiving presents....

Advent Calendar. Day 4. Keep Calm Its Only Xmas

"But what minutes!

Count them by sensation and not by calendars,

and each moment is a day."

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~

Its that time of the year again when its rush, rush, rush.  Last pay day before Christmas, so many shopping days left.  Trying to find the time to shop, write cards, wrap presents, get to post-office, visit family, plan a menu, the food shopping, defrost the turkey, peel the sprouts, get up at 3am to baste the bird.....and breathe!!!!

Then there's the socialising. Fitting in the works Christmas party, the Hubby's Christmas party, Childrens nativity, make the nativity costume, buy a new outfit, get your hair cut, nails done, eye brows waxed, perfect shoes, matching bag....... 

Where does the time go?

OK that seemingly endless list may be an exaggeration but its a true reflection of many households, but why?  Its not as if Christmas has jumped up and slapped us all  in the face, we know it happens at the same time every year.  We all have busy lives, trying to balance our work and personal lives, maybe were trying to do to much, trying to please others rather than be mindful of what we actually need.

Before we know it next year will be here along with the massive credit card bills.....

Take some time for yourself, sit, chill, who gives a flying fig if the sprouts are soggy, no one likes them anyway!