Christmas Round Up

I'd like to firstly apologise for the lack of blog posts in the last week or so, as you would imagine things have been a little bit manic with the end of the school term for Ruby and a certain event called Christmas.

This Christmas I have struggled to get excited about the festivities, especially in the last few days towards Christmas when I noticed on various social media platforms people complaining that they hadn't been able to get the food they wanted or telling the world how many hundreds of pounds they had spent on food and drink, some of the amounts really shocked me because as a family our monthly food budget is around £250, I can't imagine spending that in just one shop! 

On Christmas Eve I looked at the presents that were under our tree and started to feel guilty as to how much family and friends had bought us, when there are so many people who live without food, water, heat and washing facilities. I find it so hard that some children in third world countries have never had a Christmas present and how amazing it would feel for them to just get some colouring pencils and colouring books in some shiny Christmas paper. 

I have always tried to teach Ruby the value of money and to be thankful for what she has, although we don't have a great deal, we are happy with our little lives. On Christmas Eve I spoke to Ruby about how some people don't have any presents or food and asked her if next year she would like to come with me to a homeless shelter to help out, I explained that together we could bake some mince pies or gingerbread and offer them to people who don't have any food. So next year we have a plan, I'm going to search for somewhere that would be willing to hand out some home baked goods. 

A friend posted this on Facebook and it really gives something to think about:

The girls woke up at around 7.30 on Christmas morning and opened their stockings from Santa in our bed. We had breakfast in bed before heading downstairs to see if Santa had delivered any presents. Santa of course had delivered lots of presents and whilst I'm grateful I shall be talking to family next year as there really is very little the girls need and space is becoming an issue.

As a family we received so many lovely gifts, Ruby's favourite was her Playmobil camping set, Lottie loved her Peppa Pig camper van play set. Both girls have loved sharing and playing together with each other's toys. 

I was not feeling 100% on Christmas Day and now we know it was the start of a nasty kidney infection, I was unable to eat my Christmas dinner and just wanted to go back to bed, so that is what I did on Christmas afternoon, and have pretty much remained there ever since, it's not been a particularly good Christmas but I'm hoping for a better New Year, and then I turn 30 on the 3rd of January! Has anyone set any New Years resolutions?