Thursday 7 January 2010

Hello! Happy New Year! Merry Christmas and all that jazz!

Oh my word. It has been such a long time since I last wrote anything here. Many things have happened in that time including Christmas, Hogmanay (New Year) and snow glorious snow! I may have been absent from my own blog, but I've tried to keep up with everyone else in blog land, so I haven't felt too isolated!

So, what have I been up to? Well, life got kinda crazy int he lead up to Christmas and by life, I mean work. It was hectic and crazy in a way that was good but totally exhausting. Then we disappeared up to Scotland for the holidays. A trip we'd been looking forward to for such a long time.

The weather was exceptionally Christmassy and we shared some lovely family news but, to be honest, the whole Christmas thing just didn't do it for me this year. I'm gutted really, truly gutted. I adore Christmas, I love the glamour and the sparkle of it. The anticipation, the buying of gifts, the wrapping of presents, the bows, the glitter, the music, the stories, the cheesy films. Love it, love it, love it.

So what happened this year? Why did our Christmas feel so flat? Like a bottle of champagne that has been opened and carelessly left behind the sofa without anyone so much as enjoying a single bubble. Well, part of it had to do with a very sad and frustrating situation that one part of our family is going through at the moment. The situation is unavoidable and sadly will not change anytime soon.

But, in all honesty, I think the true reason our Christmas fell flat was because of traditions. Or more specifically, a lack of them. For the past 2 weeks I been reading about lovely seasonal traditions from all different corners of blog land, from bonfires and soltice jammies to tree decorations collected over the years. And that's when it struck me. We just don't have any firm traditions that signal Christmas to us as a family. We don't go to church, we don't go carol singing (as much as I'd love to), we don't even have a tree! (we spend so much of the festive season with relatives that it just doesn't seem worth it - the poor tree would be left all alone from half way through December!). So I'm left thinking, what are we telling Miniegg about the significance of the festive season? Sure, he knows it's a time to spend with his grandparents and gets very excited about the airplane trip. But what else is there for him apart from presents? Not a lot.

So that's going to change. I'm going to think carefully over the next 12 months and start devising a few traditions that our little family can call our own.

Do you have family traditions that "make" your Christmas? Do share!

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