Look What We Did over Christmas 

This year has easily been the most enjoyable Christmas I have ever had. There are a couple of reasons why. One reason is I have worked less leading up to Christmas and over the Christmas period which has made the usual chore of Christmas shopping a task that is usually very rushed. 

I was fortunate enough to secure a very large job just before Christmas which was decorating an entire four bedroom house inside which took about five weeks and was very well paid and this consequently allowed me more time for family over Christmas. 

One of the first things to do was to drive to Southampton to pick up my 19 year old daughter from university. This is usually something that I have to fit in at the last minute but this year it was a pleasure. Also it had been a while since I had seen her so it was lovely to catch up with her in the car journey home. 

In the week leading up to Christmas it’s always been difficult to fit everything in, but I had a lovely day Christmas shopping with my 19 year old daughter. It was lovely having the time to pick more carefully thought out presents for my loved ones.

A few days before Christmas we took our four year old twin girls ice skating at winter wonderland in our city. This is a first time for them and it was brilliant fun although back breaking when you are holding on to somebody half your height and your back is in a permanent arch. I was amazed at how quickly the girls took to it and none of us fell over once, which was quite an achievement as none of us are Olympic ice skaters, or likely to be haha! The twins then had a few goes on the rides which will always be a winner with them. 

We had time to go and do our Christmas food shop Asda, which was again actually a pleasant experience, and was good to make sure we got everything we needed for Christmas Day. 

Although I have not worked for about 2 weeks it has been great to have family time and just take it easy and watch the twins play with toys that Father Christmas brought them without having to rush off anywhere. One of my favourite moments was R changing into all her   new costumes and the one picture showing M driving behind her in her new car also wearing one of new costumes. Priceless memories. 

We are hoping to go to the cinema in the next couple of days as a family to see Ballerina. 

So many of these things in the past have been impossible to do because usually I have been working. It has made me realise that having family around you is far more important than earning the mighty dollar. 

In today’s world life moves at such a pace that you can forget the most important things in life and having all this family time has taught me that I will in future be changing at certain times of the year to savour and enjoy the company of my family.