All I Want for Christmas Is ................

Now that shopping and all the preparations for Christmas are in full swing I find myself thinking longingly of the days when I the children were little and shopping was so much easier. Back then money was still tight but almost everything wanted could be bought in one visit to Toys r Us, and when they woke up on Christmas morning their stockings were bulging. Now if their wish lists involve more effort in terms of shopping, have a bigger price tag and when the presents are wrapped and tucked under the tree they don't look very impressive, they certainly wouldn't fill a stocking! 

I still have younger children to buy for, three nephews and a niece and I have to admit that shopping for them has been the most enjoyable part of Christmas for me. My niece is 10, very grown up and very interested in fashion, so the main part of her present had a fashion design theme. She also loves reading, so I decided to buy her two books that I loved when I was young. It was hard to choose just two books, but it was very enjoyable to remember so many of the books that I enjoyed as a child. In the end I chose Charlotte Sometimes and Tom's Midnight Garden, both books had a similar theme, the connection between the past and the present. I hope she will enjoy them as much as I did.


My three year old nephew will be getting books as part of his present too. I bought him a set of Richard Scarry books and when Robbie saw them I thought he was going to burst with excitement. Apparently 'Cars, Trucks and Things That Go' was Robbie's favourite book when he was little, so I am sure he will enjoy reading the books with Oliver. The other part of his present also caused Robbie to reminisce, I bought him a Tonka truck. According to Robbie they were much better in the old days, but when he thought I wasn't looking I caught him admiring the new truck which makes realistic engine noises and has a special tool to change the tyres. 


I also caught my son looking longingly at my 5 year old nephew's present. I had chosen Transformers for him because he is car mad and I remembered how much my son liked Transformers. My son commented that it made him feel like adding a transformer toy to his own Christmas list - I wish he would, it would be a lot cheaper and less complicated than some of the things he wants!


It seems to me that part of the pleasure of Christmas comes from remembering the things and the people that made past Christmases special. I wonder what we will remember when we look back on this Christmas?

A Family Christmas

We have had such a busy few days that we are both exhausted. We spent the day before Christmas Eve with my mum, stepfather, and my brother and his family, it was such a lovely day. My nephew is 20 months old now and he is so much fun, he was the centre of attention and he enjoyed making everyone laugh. We spent Christmas Eve at my mum's house, it is a family tradition to have steak and chips on Christmas Eve and it was wonderful. When I saw how much Robbie managed to put away I thought he would never walk again, but like the bumble bee he defies the laws of nature!

The evening of Christmas Eve was a mad rush of getting the house ready and the last leg of the wrapping up marathon. I seem to have been wrapping presents for weeks, why does it take so long to wrap everything up and such a short time to unwrap! On Christmas morning I think Sam broke the record for the fastest ever present opening and the girls were not far behind. Sam had a coat (the type he wanted), a graphics tablet, very expensive photography books (from his wish list), various DVD sets and a whole ocean of smellies - we will need breathing apparatus for months! The girls had GHDs, DVDs, books perfume and countless other things.

My mum and stepfather spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with us, the cooking was hard work but we all had a lovely time. Robbie behaved himself except for the little interlude on Boxing Day afternoon when he has a tantrum about somthing so trivial that I can't even remember it. He sat on the kitchen floor with his arms folded an his lip sticking out, he looked just like a toddler with an attack of the 'terrible twos'. We just closed the door on him and enjoyed a cup of tea while he regained control of his inner child. I have just remembered what caused the strop, it was because we wanted to make a cup of tea before we did the washing up and it messed up his routine!!

I have to make a bit of a confession, I bought Robbie two railway books because I wanted to read them! I knew that he wiould like them too. I scoured the town to find his favourite aftershave for him and I also bought him some other things, but I think he will write about that later.

Christmas Day - by Robbie

Well it was Xmas Day, and yet again I was being the usual mardy-arse (nothing new there I here you all say..........), so Christine got up and went down to see the children open all there presents. In hindsight I should have been there for this and felt EXTREMELY guilty afterwards, as I do not see my own children much these days, let alone be part of such an important essential Xmas activity!

As I had been such a bar humbug I had to wait until the evening to see if I had even got any presents, and to my total surprise, a stocking appeared...

Gosh Santa has been good to me yet again.........I have been commenting (more like moaning.....lol..) to Christine for a while now that I would really love a digital camera, something that is small enough to take anywhere, even to work, so what a surprise to get a rather nice Fuji 8.2 mega pixel camera....its GREAT!! Small, fast, brilliant pictures, just perfect............but this was just the start of my presents!!

As you may know from previous postings, I have collecting the 'British Transport Film Collections' since they have been released, and for Xmas I had Volume Eight 'Points and Aspects' & Volume Nine 'Just the Ticket'. They are a great collection of various films all produced by the in-house production unit of the British Transport Commission that was originally set-up in 1949. Even if you are not that mad on trains, some of them can be really enjoyable to quite a wide audience.....

The rest of my Xmas stocking contained a number of GREAT DVD's, Spooks Series 1 box set, Shameless Series 3, Branchlines of Britain (a box set of three DVD's covering all branchlines of the UK, although I have not had chance to watch this yet, this does look GREAT!!), and also a very interesting BBC DVD called 'A Picture of Britain' presented by David Dimbleby, based on the TV series. Oh and I could NOT forget the 2009 edition of Who's Who in The Archers, as I have been dropping Christine hints for a couple of years now, and finally I have a copy, although I bet I know who will be reading it more than I will............lol...........:)

The Incredible Sulk!

I have been feeling really rough, I just don't seem able to get better despite antibiotics, steroids, inhalers and various other pills and potions, I am so frustrated with it. I would have liked to postpone Christmas, but it wasn't to be. I wasn't as organised as usual and we had a number of last minute preparations in order to be ready for the big day. Robbie had a strop because he wanted to set the kitchen out slightly differently and I wouldn't let him because it just wasn't practical. Robbie is so closely in touch with his inner child that he is capable of a 'terrible two's' style strop whenever the need arises, and since I have no need of an extra child I usually just leave him to it until he manages to recapture his inner child and behave like a human being again.

Unfortunately when Christmas Day dawned Robbie was still in a strop, he had most of the bed, and the whole duvet with covers pulled over his head and his rear end sticking out. My attempts to communicate were rebuffed so I left him in bed while I went down to watch the family open their presents. I knew it was going to be one of those days when I found the treat left for me downstairs – a pile of dog sick! Meg had stolen some chocolates the day before and obviously it didn't agree with her. Not only had she chosen to target the only piece of carpet on the ground floor, but everyone else seemed to be wearing blinkers, they managed to avoid stepping in it without even seeing it. After that glorious start to the day I stank of disinfectant as I settled down to watch them open their presents, but it was still very special. I had put hours of effort into wrapping everything up, but in a matter of minutes everything was unwrapped and the lounge was a covered in wrapping paper – more cleaning up! When sanity was restored to the lounge I plodded upstairs to see if 'the incredible sulk' had become human again, but he was still talking out of the only visible part of his anatomy so I left him to it and after a bath to get rid of the disinfectant smell, I got on with the cooking.

We had my brother and my parents with us for the day and we had a lovely time. It was tiring and by the end of the day I was so fed up with listening to Guitar Hero on the Wii, but it was a very special day and there is nothing nicer than being surrounded by your family. Thankfully Robbie got his act together by lunchtime, and he joined in with the day. He had to wait until everyone had gone home to get his presents, but I think they were worth waiting for. He gave me several nice things including a signed copy of Pete Waterman's book A Train is for Life. It is nice to have the adult Robbie back!

Christmas Morning - by Robbie 26.12.07

Well, its Boxing day and we have had a brilliant Christmas. We all gathered in the lounge early on Christmas morning to watch the children open their presents. For weeks now Christine has been reminding me that we were not to buy each other anything for Christmas, not even anything small. The trouble is that Chris does SO much for me throughout the year it would be impossible for me to not buy her just a 'little' something. After everybody had opened their sacks Laura came down with a red Santa sack...for ME!!! OMG, she's done it again (I refer to Chris doing the same trick last year, think I'd learn by now...lol..) There was one big present sticking out of the sack and the shape of it set me thinking ....had she remembered my comments re the M&S Hornby limited edition Night Scot train set? Yes, you guessed it, she did! ....what a FANTASTIC surprise! But there were also another couple of surprises lurking.....two railway mugs! Chris knows I have a bit of a thing for railway mugs so she bought me TWO class 170 railways mugs, one for home and one for work (she thinks of everything..) they are GREAT mugs too!! I also got several railway videos, a book called Along Lost Lines which is packed with loads of information and photos about railway history. I opened two other packages and found 'lounge wear' (or PJ's according to Christine). I was initially dubious because I like to choose my own 'lounge wear' and these were not a brand I had bought before, but when I tried them on they were a perfect fit and really comfortable, for someone who hates shopping Christine had done an incredible job!