Palette cleanser
The week that was
Dear diary,
Hello from the other side! Well, hello from the bizarro time between Christmas and New Years. I’m very glad to be here. I’ve used the past few days to do as little as possible, and have napped nearly every time Seren has napped. I actually got 8 hours of sleep last night which is UNHEARD OF and truly the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received. Hallelujah!
Christmas was a success this year, but it was still a lot. We invited both our families over on Christmas Eve and hosted a BBQ dinner. Simon has worked all year to finish our garden, and he got it done at about 7pm on the 23rd of December. It was a really hectic lead up. He also cooked the entire meal for everyone on our new BBQ. Unfortunately the weather was much cooler than we’d hoped, and our evening in the new garden was seriously chilly, but it was fun, and we were so happy to have had people at our place.
On Christmas Day our only plans were to go to my parent’s house for Christmas dinner with my family and some extended family. We spent the day at home cleaning up from the night before, playing with Seren and his new toys, and getting everything ready to pack the car to go to my parent’s (a big undertaking) We were so happy we had a quieter Christmas Day this year - the year before had been too much, going to lots of different places, and this year we decided to keep it a little simpler for the sake of our mental wellbeing. We actually want to have a chance to enjoy the day too.
I think the effort of hosting Christmas Eve, and the sleep deprivation in the weeks prior to Christmas really caught up to me, because on Christmas Day night at about 8.30pm I was seriously ready to hop into bed. My cousin’s baby was still awake, though, and I thought I couldn’t possibly be the adult to go to bed before a baby, haha, so I persisted for a while longer. My extended family and I do Bad Santa (also known as White Elephant) which we have fun with.
I do find Christmas pretty overstimulating, socially draining, and sometimes anxiety inducing when Seren’s involved and I have a lack of control over a situation. My favourite day of the whole ordeal was actually Boxing Day, where I didn’t get out of my pyjamas all day at my Mum and Dad’s house, napped twice, and played with Seren and his new toys. Seren also slept in to the insane time of 7.30am which has never in the history happened before, and also illustrated how tired he was after the whole thing, too!
A big win for me from the Christmas period was on Boxing Day, taking Seren out to dinner with Simon and my family to the local pub. I think you guys have picked up on this, ha, but my anxiety (and trauma) around Seren’s sleep has resulted in me being the regimented parent who follows his bedtime routine to the enth degree. My Dad suggested going out for an early dinner, initially I was like “Hmm nah” but then everyone convinced me it would be fine, and it totally was. In fact Seren literally loved it. He ran around on the lawn, did colouring in, and even tried his first pub chippies. I had a drink and a half and a meal out with my husband and my son. A small step for (wo)man, a giant leap.. yada yada.
My sister texted me offering up one evening of babysitting this week, which is so lovely. We chose Tuesday night, so she’ll come round in the afternoon, we’ll put Seren to bed, and Simon and I will head out for a meal somewhere close by. Again, another best Christmas present ever that wasn’t actually a Christmas present : )
Other than ALL of this. Nothing much else to report. Hoping for a few more days of relaxing mixed in with some chores - cleaning out the freezer, cleaning up my studio, just the blah things that I’m hoping to get done while Simon and I can tag team. Although. The pull of doing absolutely nothing is so strong at the moment!
This amazing shop window really got me in the spirit!
Seren’s latest, and biggest, Jellycat edition from his Aunty. So cute.
Ad hoc little Santa set up ready for Seren on Christmas morning!
My Christmas gift from Simon!
I bought a new dress for occasion by Alemais. I have one other dress of theirs. This one is so beautiful but for the price I’m surprised it’s not lined or anything.
My Mum’s amazing Christmas decorations!
Me too Seren.
Also I did a couple of relaxing, quick paintings : )
Watching/Listening:
Okay strap in because there has been much watching over this period of time!
Firstly, we watched Weapons with Julia Garner. I initially thought I’d be too scared to watch it but I saw the trailer and thought I could handle it. For the most part I could, mainly because it was like not an amazing movie. The set up was totally up my alley, but from there it kind of descended into absurd. It was funny in parts, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. A few plot holes, but overall a fun watch. It didn’t blow my mind though.
I finished the Taylor Swift documentary too which I really enjoyed. I found the last episode a little repetitive but other than that it was super feel good and inspiring. I loved the themes of family woven throughout. The format stayed a little jumpy for my taste but that was easy to overlook. I do maintain though - definitely not a documentary! Which is fine, but important to remember. We are still seeing the most tightly curated snippets of a larger picture. Doesn’t negate the massive undertaking of the tour, or the amazingly positive impact it had overall, of course!
We’ve also watched more of Pluribus, and honestly when I’m watching anything that’s not Pluribus I’m just wondering why I’m not watching Pluribus and why everything else isn’t as good as Pluribus. Ha. It genuinely is the best show I’ve seen in ages. We have worryingly few episodes to go, though, and the thought of waiting for another season distresses me greatly!
On the list still to watch is the new Knives Out film, and I really want to watch that trashy The Great Flood on Netflix (Simon doesn’t!)
Wishlist:
Here are some of the amazing Christmas gifts I received!
I got these Jellycats from my sisters! I also received a new set of pyjamas from Mum and Dad. Of course I received one night at the Langham hotel from Simon (CANNOT WAIT!) and I got vouchers for a massage, a Savers voucher, and Mecca vouchers! So lucky. I’ve heard good things about the new Mecca makeup lesson. I feel like I might try to book one in so I can get a handle on doing my makeup as a 35 year old. I also have had very bad skin lately (not unusual for me…) but my rosacea is super flared up at the moment. So need some tips for concealing and helping redness and texture.
The biggest hit for Seren has been the Toniebox! He loves it. And has mastered putting them on himself! The baby Dyson vacuum is also a massive hit!
Inside a book/magazine from my collection:
This is the ultimate kitsch summer companion - one of the two Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Books that I have. Funnily enough I doubt that canned pineapple is a big enough industry now to warrant funding and producing multiple hardcover books of recipes specifically to use canned pineapple. Now that I think about it, I wonder if canned fruit will be something that slowly disappears. Do young people buy canned fruit? Anyhow. Enjoy this masterpiece. It doesn’t have a year of publishing listed anywhere but I’d say mid 1960s. It’s full colour too, huge budget production from big pineapple! Oh this is only half the book, I’ll share the second half next week.
Best wishes and happy new year!