Growing up there were two birthdays in December (2 days apart!) in my family - one of them being mine, the other claimed by my older brother - and Christmas didn't excite me like it does now.
Yes, when I was small it was exciting. The anticipation the night before, belly full of my birthday cake (Christmas Eve baby over here and society will never let me forget it!), the snow that fell on the roofs and the belief (until I was 6) that Santa would have dropped off my presents by morning.
Then on the morning of Christmas it was this whole stop start production of tradition and excitement. Our family of 6, all piled into my parents bed, listening to the radio; Christmas songs would be playing, of course, and then at 8 or 9am we'd go down into the hall, my Mum going into the living room to switch on the Christmas lights and turn on some Christmas music. She'd return to take photos, a good few. Then gently, perhaps one at a time, we'd go into the living room to open our gifts.
But then Christmas would end and it would feel like a whole year was so far away. Each year I got less and less bothered with it all and always felt like my birthdays were just drawing me another year closer to getting older and dying. I was such a happy teenager, can't you tell? ;).
During our first Christmas of being married we ran out of money to live on (but luckily had paid our rent and bought shopping AND presents first. Christmas Miracle of 2009 I think!) and ultimately couldn't afford to buy each other anything nice...or, you know, anything at all. B did get me a game, after insisting upon it and spending the rest of our money to buy it, but asides these things we didn't buy each other much compared to the previous year and we didn't have any kind of tree, decorations or anything. I couldn't be bothered at all and B is a little Grinch-y.
Also, in 2009 I was 8 months pregnant and my ankles were swollen - you know how it goes if you've been there before - and I was so tired of the 'are you having twins?' questions every time we went out shopping.
Fast forward to 2010. Roman's first Christmas. I was excited. Even though he was only 11 months, we bought him some small gifts and went to B's parents for dinner - then a Chinese take away when we got home (after skipping on lunch.) It was a calm and happy Christmas and it was amazing.
I'm hoping for the same this year (although without the Chinese. Damn you Christmas on a Sunday!) and a wee bit upset I won't get to spend it with my parents - but with Scottish public transport, travelling 9+ hours with a toddler on a packed train and Scottish winter weather we didn't want to take the risk.
Also...my immune system + winter + public transport + millions of people with colds = hell on roller skates. Sometimes you wish the challenges were mole hills instead of mountains, am I right?
So this is how we rock around the Christmas tree this year:
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| Six huge vegan Christmas {almost sugar free} cookies full of everything yummy and a messy kitchen. |
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| I LOVE this book. Hours of fun with it. Serious. |
___ and a little something extra ___
An early Christmas present: I was asked to do the front cover image for a book and happily accepted the offer. I was delighted to get a copy and delighted it all came out so well.
Also, I am celebrating my 6th vegan Christmas this year. 'Tis Roman's 2nd and Bryan's 3rd.
Oh how I love vegan Christmases - they fill you up, but there's not much chance to over do the eating. And that's mostly because we can't be bothered to eat lunch, knowing we're going to be fed up by dinner time.
Also, I'm running an extra special 'Vegan Series' next week and I'd love for you to come back and read about that - and for those who aren't all caught up parts one, two and three can be found here, here and here.
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Email: carakirk@hotmail.com
