I've thought long and hard about this and to be honest i don't think that i would want to spend christmas anywhere else other than home. I don't know if it's a female thing or just me but i love the homely feel about christmas - you all know how many kids we have, and in the run up to christmas its hard work - it takes me a good 5 night to wrap their prezzies, i have a rule that they all get the same amout (even Latch) it usually means that im wrapping about 125 prezzies (25 each).
Then theres the tree - well im a perfectionist when it comes to my christmas tree, but we still let the kids decorate it, saying that i do spend that evening re-placing some of the baubles or beads, and hope that they don't notice the following morning.
Christmas eve is the hardest day (for all women) theres food to prepare, people to see and of course the traditional prawn cocktail to make (that Latch gets) after the kids have gone to bed, since we have a nine year old, twelve year old, fifteen year old and an eighteen year old - the dbed time is getting much later, the older two tend to go to bed around midnight so we have to wait for them to be sleeping before we can get the prezzies out,
Last year we were down till about four waiting for no movement from upstairs
before we could start bringing them down - only to be woken up at about 7 to get up again, kettle on, fag lit and camcorder out - spend the next couple of hours watching kids ooing and ahhing at what they've had.
Then its lunch time - too much food, sprout challenge (kids wont eat sprouts so they get a quid if they can swallow one - aint happened yet!) by the time i get to eat my dinner they're already half way through theirs. then you get the arguement about who get what out of the crackers.
Spend most of the afternoon picking up games, clothes and chocolates which have been left out, get visited by the relatives - cool down the usual arguement that kids have over who had what.
Tea time - plates of food that don't usually get touched because they've all eaten too much at lunch
Eventually get to relax early evening - when all the excitement is over and kids have quietened down, sit down in chair - fag in one hand cuppa in other planning what we're going to do for next year.
So as for going away for christmas well thats not for me - i may moan that i do too much at that time of year but i wouldn't change it at all. So there you are - i'll be home for christmas!!
