T’was the night before Christmas…

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, except a rather fraught mother of two frantically trying to wrap the last of the Christmas presents (…and hubby finishing off preparing his array of festive vegetable butters, signature stuffing & basting the turkey!)

I must admit I absolutely love Christmas and am generally Little-Miss-Organised throughout they year, so I’m typically known to begin my Christmas shopping from 1^st September most years and have the Christmas tree up for 1^st December without fail… yet each & every year I find myself still wrapping the last of the presents on Christmas Eve!

This is generally due to the fact that we have two children who still firmly believe in the magic of Santa Claus, and the miracle of wishlist toys & perfectly-wrapped presents appearing from nowhere at the stroke of midnight…

In previous years, I have found constructing a dolls house at 9pm on Christmas Eve, and trying to fathom the workings of a Scalextric track before the clock strikes twelve, frustrating and stressful to say the least…yet in recent years I have learned to embrace the chaos that comes with late Christmas Eve in our house, and now find myself singing along to Christmas-classics with a glass of festive Baileys in hand whilst putting the finishing touches to our family Christmas.

The events of last December had particular impact on Christmas for us as a family as our lead-up to the big day was very different to previous years…

I found myself unexpectedly in hospital in November resulting in a quick operation & recovery… and just a couple of weeks later on 4^th December 2017, our world was turned upside down as our little girl (Kayla, aged 8) suffered a childhood stroke and underwent emergency brain surgery; fighting for her life through the first couple of weeks of December.

Thankfully Kayla pulled through the operation, started to gain back the movement in her left side, and learned to walk again; she responded well to treatment and was allowed home two weeks later, with follow up treatment and rehabilitation scheduled thereafter.

We cancelled our dream Christmas holiday to Walt Disney World and our Caribbean cruise (due to travel on the Saturday), and began to quickly plan for a Christmas at home…

…not an easy task given that we had planned to be away, so there were no presents under the tree, we had no turkey or trimmings, and had no form of transport to rush around; as my gearbox had failed from the twice daily trips my husband and son were making back and forth to visit us in hospital, and my husband’s management system on his car had failed a few days earlier!

Despite it being a difficult time, we found there to be love and laughter in our home, we truly felt the love and good wishes of family & friends, and with the help of loved ones we managed to get out and about to grab a turkey & trimmings, and ensure there were a few pressies under the tree (wrapped up on Christmas Eve of course).

We all agree that having our little girl home was the best Christmas present ever and that even though we’d had to cancel our Christmas holiday and pull together a make-shift Christmas at short notice, our Christmas at home was truly magical…

So reflecting this Christmas Eve on years gone by, it is not the gifts under the tree that make for a good Christmas, it truly is the loved ones gathered around the tree that make Christmas special.

…Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!