The Christmas That Was & 2014 All Wrapped Up...

Hey there guys and gals, a bit of a long time-no see! How was everybody's festivities?! As the usual life/blog balance went a bit astray over December and this post has even come pretty darn late, I thought we'd have a wrap up of Christmas and New Years Eve all in one. I'll show off my snazzy time and you can all "ooh" and "ahhh" at the generic festive photos, ok? Deal. 

*All photos were taken on my phone because I was too busy having a good time to grab my camera. That's a good thing though isn't it?

The three stages of a staff Christmas party. 1) Looking a little creepy but relatively put together *and promising
myself not to drink because I need to bake 9 cakes the next day. 2) Someone gives me a unicorn style crown
and almost immediately plan 1) goes out the window. 3) "I'm a drunk, sparkly unicorn- take a photo of me dazzling
whilst I can't stand still."

Christmas snowballed quicker then expected, just like every year and with lots of baking promised to my nearest and dearest it meant a very hungover Sophie crawling around the kitchen and emerging no less than FIVE hours later in a cloud of icing sugar. Luckily I'd had my annual Christmas lunch with Stacie (honestly it was disgusting how much food we ate) to keep me going. Working full time, I wasn't off much over Christmas, I'd always rather that people with little-uns have that time together. Besides a few drinks on a work night with friends that are home for the holidays is what it's all about?But soon it arrived- Christmas Eve. 

1) Christmas dinner traditions with my bestest- both hungover as every year. 2) Hours later than planned and with a much bigger hangover than planned-BAKING COMPLETE. 3)Bimble on Christmas eve with my Text Santa hat! 4) More Christmas gift giving with my brother and sister in law.

I finished work at 2pm and headed over to my parents to wait for my brother and sister in law to arrive. We sat chuckling and opening gifts and had a generally splendid time, before I headed home to Harps/Batman, festive films and too much chocolate...

1) A wonderfully creative melted snowman bauble from my sister in law. 2) Batman receives gifts from his pet friends. 3) Harps marvelling at how long his beard is. 4) Christmas lunch table.

We make a point of alternating who's house we spend Christmas lunch at (we're far too lazy to host it ourselves) and this year it landed at my parents house. We headed over to see Harps's grandparents in the morning (honestly they're just incredible at holding Christmas!) and opened lots of lovely gifts- including some generous funds for our wedding and a few treats for Batman! Can we just take a second to shout "OUR WEDDING IS NEXT YEAR PEOPLE!"

A few festive selfies...and some spaniel selfies obviously.

Let the dinner commence!

Christmas dinner began and we all tucked into portions that were enough to feed a small colony. Mother had downloaded some kind of Downtown Abbey Christmas album which meant Bimble and I  singing the operatic parts as loud as we could, interrupting whatever kind of 'traditional, quiet, family Christmas' anyone might have been expecting.

Bellies full, none of us could leave the table for more than 37 seconds and settled down for a few games of Kerplunk. A game I was sheltered from as a child *scowls at mother* and with a few glasses bottles of wine down my competitive side came out. Luckily my mother has the worst luck in pretty much anything she plays so I only lost once and Bimble teamed up with Harps which is a pretty unfair advantage- I think they won the most. 

Traditional family Christmas photo.

Hours later, still barely able to move, Harps and I took the decision to begin the pilgrimage home (it's about a 10 minute walk). We still had a few more gifts to open, we make a point of dragging them out all day, does anyone else do this? 

 Some of the amazing gifts that we opened included a hilarious book about crappy children's art, a cute art print, some baking goodies, lots of lovely bits to learn to crochet with and Cookin with Coolio recipe book which is both brilliant and delicious looking. 

And so New Years eve drew in and as usual we visited Harp's cousin who was turning 16! After gorging on buffet and playing with their Christmas presents, we ventured home for a night of drinking and playing with Batman. I decided to learn the basics of crochet and after popping an expensive bottle of champagne, I'm surprised I did as well as I did! Batman fell in love with his Christmas present from us, a giant Batman 3 Level castle that he seems to enjoy jumping in and out of the middle windows in a way only Batman would!

Happy New Year to all of you. I've grown very fond of all you little blogging lot and have made a few lasting friends that I couldn't be without. This year I intend to use Twitter a little bit more, I'm pretty scared of it but it's the best place to talk to you all! May 2015 bring you all great health, lovely memories and fun adventures. Lastly, let us not forget...I GET MARRIED NEXT YEAR!

Love Sophie Xx