Sunday Snippets - 3rd January 2016

Happy New Year! I apologise for not posting a Sunday Snippets last week. The Christmas period has been crazy busy with seeing various family and friends and I just ran out of time to sit down and write anything. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas though and are feeling energised and ready for the year ahead. I thought, as I didn’t post last Sunday that I would give you a quick update of my last two weeks of Instagram photos so you know what I’ve been up to. I’m really hoping to get my act together with blogging and YouTube this year, as I have so many ideas!

On Sunday 20^th December a lovely surprise arrived for me after lunch. My friend Charlie’s Mum knocked on my door and presented me with this box, along with strict instructions from Charlie to open it as soon as I got it. She had kindly filled it with Christmas/belated birthday presents, which were all along a pampering theme, which was just what I needed! It completely brightened my day and I feel so lucky to have a friend like her. Apart from that I had a pretty quiet day, but managed to go to a Carols by Candlelight service at Church in the evening.

Monday 21^st was the day we finally finished decorating our two Christmas trees. For the last few years we have had real trees and I just love the smell they fill the house with. In the morning I saw my mental health care co-ordinator, then managed to do a bit of blogging before an appointment with my GP.

On Tuesday 22^nd I had a quiet morning wrapping a few presents and putting up a little Christmas tree in my bedroom. I then went to see my friend Katy, who did these lovely nails for me, as I always treat myself to a manicure at Christmas. My friend Katrina then picked me up and we had a nice catch-up over a Costa. We usually go to the cinema every Christmas to see a Christmassy film, but the choice was so rubbish this year!

On Wednesday 23^rd I managed to do some more wrapping. I had hoped to pick up some more wrapping materials in Paperchase, but never got round to it so had to make do with what I had left from last year. I’m pretty happy with them though. I had a pretty bad night, so my care co-ordinator rang me in the morning to come up with a management plan. In the afternoon I had an appointment with the nurse at the Pain Clinic to review my medication and come up with a plan for increasing my Pregabalin. She also said she would ask my physio if he can try acupuncture with me, and also talk me through how to use a TENS machine to see if that might help.

Christmas Eve is always pretty busy in our house, and this year was no different! I spent the morning wrapping the rest of my presents while watching some Christmas TV. In the afternoon I dressed all in white and donned my glitter bow from Crown and Glory, ready to be an angel in the Church Crib Services. They have three services now as so many people want to go to them, and although it was absolutely exhausting; I managed to take part in all three, including reading for one of them. In the evening I had a relaxing Lush bath, got into my Christmas pyjamas and watched some Christmas Eve TV.

Our Christmas Day this year felt a bit strange. With my Gran not being with us any more and then my brother, Richard, celebrating with his fiancé and her family, it felt very quiet. We all went to church in the morning, then came back and opened our stockings. Richard and his fiancé Lisa FaceTimed us and we had a chat with them, which was really lovely. After lunch we all sat in the lounge to open our tree presents. I was very spoilt, but might do a ‘What I got for Christmas’ post if anyone is interested, so won’t go into that now. But what I most enjoyed was seeing the others open their presents. In the evening Richard and Lisa came over and we all sat down to watch Downton Abbey.

Boxing Day felt a bit more ‘normal’ as both of my brothers and their fiancés were with us. We had a fairly quiet day recovering from the previous day! In the evening we all had a family dinner then sat down to play some board games, which led to lots of laughs!

Last Sunday we had our annual family get-together, where we meet up with my Dad’s side of the family. I spent some time doing my make-up and wore my new dress from AX Paris. My Aunt, Uncle and cousin from London, my Aunt, Uncle and cousins from Wokingham, my Grandma, Lisa and Emma (David’s fiancé) all came round, so it was a full house along with our immediate family! My Dad did a fantastic job of cooking lunch for all of us and we spent the afternoon chatting and catching up. In the evening, after everyone had left, some of us chilled out in the lounge and watched The Lego Movie, which was brilliant!

I’d been incredibly excited for Monday for quite a while, so when it finally came I was so happy to wake up and see the sunshine! My two brothers, their fiancés, my sister Rosiie and I made our way to Longleat Safari Park. I’d never been before, so wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it certainly lived up to the hype! Unfortunately my Mum, Dad and other sister, Bekkah, couldn’t make it, but it was lovely to all do something together and it’s becoming a bit of a tradition to have a family Christmas outing. We did the safari first, which took absolutely ages because of all the traffic, but it was amazing seeing some of the animals just roaming around next to our car. Unfortunately neither of my brothers were too happy when the monkeys took a liking to their windscreen washers and pulled them out on both cars! We even watched them pull out the parking sensors of the car in front, so if you’re planning to do the monkey safari be prepared to have your car destroyed! We then went to one of the cafes in the hope of getting some afternoon tea, but they’d completely sold out! When it got dark the others pushed me round the Festival of Lights, which was absolutely amazing and so beautiful. Once I’ve sorted out all of my photos I will definitely be doing a blog post about it.

Tuesday was mainly set aside for recovering from Longleat, but I had a couple of things in my diary to do. I saw my friend Sarah and her husband Olly in the morning for a hot chocolate before they headed back to West Sussex. In the afternoon my Dad took my Mum and I to a local hospice, who have offered us some bereavement counselling, so we had our assessments with the counsellors, who were fantastic. On our way home we popped into my brother and his fiancés new flat, which looks like it’s going to be very cosy when they’ve made their mark on it. I then had a lovely Lush bath with some of my Christmassy bits.

On Wednesday I had a much-needed lie in and spent the morning chilling out and not doing much at all. My friend Charlotte then picked me up and we went for a Costa and a catch-up. We had planned to look round Next afterwards (the Costa is in a Next store) but we chatted for so long that we ended up having to dash back as Charlotte had a plane to catch! I spent the rest of the afternoon resting (and sleeping – oops!) and opened some Christmas presents my friends had kindly sent me.

On Thursday my Mum took me into town as I needed to buy a birthday present for my Godson’s first birthday, and I also picked up some belated Christmas presents for friends (I wasn’t well enough to sort out presents for them before Christmas, so I’m spreading it out over the next couple of weeks). I was very good and refrained from buying anything for myself (apart from some stickers in Paperchase!) I rested for a while when we got home, then my Mum, Dad and I went over to Richard and Lisa’s to enjoy a glass of bubbly with them and Lisa’s parents. At about 11pm we came back home so we could see the New Year in with Rosiie, Bekkah and the friends they had over. I always feel a bit sad on New Year’s Eve, being single and not where I want to be, but Freddie and Jaffa were very cuddly and kept me company!

New Year’s Day is traditionally very quiet in our house. I got up really late (after quite a late night, so that’s my excuse!) and did a bit of work to a blog post. In the afternoon I snuggled up on the sofa under my new fluffy blanket, watched some YouTube videos and filled in my 2016 calendar. In the evening Tangled was on TV so of course I had to watch that, despite the fact I have it on DVD!

Saturday was another very quiet day. I got up pretty late again and spent the morning working on my blog. My afternoon was spent snuggled on the sofa with Alfie, then Freddie, replying to various messages and watching rubbish TV. I had hoped to be more productive, but I can’t seem to get myself going at the moment. As some of you probably already know if you’re regular readers, I’ve been really struggling with my mental health recently. I always find it very hard after Christmas and through January, and I’ve already started to feel my mood dropping more. Thankfully, this beautiful orchid was delivered as a belated Christmas present from my friend Emma. It definitely brightened my gloomy, wet January afternoon!

If you haven’t read my blog before, I just wanted to let you know that I have a second blog, which mainly focuses on my health in more depth than I talk about it here. It’s largely for friends and family to follow and keep up with what’s going on, but if it’s something you would be interested in reading as well, you are more than welcome to follow me over there. It’s called Unicorns and Floral Crowns and you can find it by clicking here. I haven’t updated it for a while, but I hope to get into a routine soon. I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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