This next load of ramblings should've been posted last week - I just never got round to publishing it and it's been languishing in my Drafts folder since last Saturday! So, I've dragged it out and pasted it on here - which means that this post's a wee bit ass for elbow! However, it means that I don't have to think of too much else to say this morning and can get back to lounging around doing very little before we head off for our traditional steak pie dinner at my wee mum's!
Saturday 29 December 2012
I'm enjoying a lazy morning playing around with the new toy that Santa surprised me with. Everyone else in the house is still in bed (after late night partying shenanigans) so wish me luck with my first attempt at writing a post from my shiny new iPad - without any help from my children! (I feel so old....)
Well, that's Christmas over for yet another year and yet another lovely one it's been too! I'm knackered this morning (and my brain's struggling to keep up with even the slightest movement of my head...) after the afore-mentioned late night partying shenanigans, but I'll do my best to string some words and a few photos together to give you a wee flavour of some of the things that made me feel really good during my festive season!
Twas the Friday before Christmas and Santa Linda had called for help with the collecting, transporting, unpacking and stacking of many, many boxes of food and toiletries that had been donated by the kind people of Dunblane following an appeal by local charity 'Start Up Stirling'. Many elves from the Dunblane, Stirling and surrounding areas turned up to help and that, in turn, meant that many of Stirlingshire's most vulnerable folk would have a more hopeful start to their new year, with at least a few nourishing meals to put on their plates. And that made Santa Linda and her elves feel really good!
The Saturday night before Christmas involved a heady mixture of Prosecco, cocktails, good food and lively chit-chat shared with some of my old girlfriends from Central AC. Most of us aren't actually running very often (or, as in my case, ever at all) nowadays -but I love that our friendship's transcended that and, although we don't have that one thing in common any more, we do have a shared passion from the past that binds us together...along, of course, with our shared passion for good banter, good food and wine...!
Christmas Eve Eve came next and with it came a truly fantastic evening at The Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. The Glasgow City Chorus and the orchestra of Royal Scottish Opera had joined forces to perform in 'A Christmas Cracker' and the audience, with my mum and me included, really were treated to a cracker of a concert! Aw man, my spine was tingling along to the glorious harmonies and I loved joining in with the choir during the Christmas sing-along. Just the ticket to really set the scene for the next few days' festivities!
One of my annual tasks on Christmas Eve is to make up and stick up Gargunnock's Alternative Christmas Card. I can't remember if I've ever mentioned our village's Alternative Christmas Card before here on my wee blog. It's really simple; instead of giving our neighbours cards, some of our village's residents make a donation to a chosen charity. I started the initiative off back in 2004 and I love that our village folk are still so enthusiastically joining in! Once the money's been collected, I make up a poster (the 'Alternative Christmas Card') on Christmas Eve wishing everyone in the village a very merry Christmas from everyone on the card. Thanks to the wonders of Just Giving and social networking, this year included some very generous folk who don't even live in our village, and we raised more than ever before; over £1200 for The Scottish Cot Death Trust. Well done Gargunnock, and friends!
Later on Christmas Eve, we had our annual Milne family trip to the movies.This year it was spent with 3D glasses on being thoroughly mesmerised and entertained by the magic of The Hobbit. Then, while we were demolishing our Chinese take-away, we had our annual get-together round the telly with The Grinch.. "it came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags..." Aw man, I love it! A few beers, a few games, a good few laughs later - along with the thrill of seeing one of the wee lads, who came and played for the patients in Strathcarron, performing on the telly with the Big Noise Orchestra during the Midnight Service from Dunblane Cathedral (we'd only shoved the service on for my wee mum's benefit - but I'm so glad we did!) - and it was time for Santa to come!
We did a kind of split shift of opening pressies during Christmas Day this year - it's good to spin it out! Alex and Ross were joining some of their chums from Central AC for their traditional Christmas run up Dumyat (a local hill) in the morning, so we opened some bits and pieces before they left and the rest when they came home. Hm, that makes it sound like we all get loads of pressies! It's not like that at all; we take turns to open one thing at a time and, with six of us in the room, that can take a while!
One of my favourite moments of the day was watching the kids' reactions when they opened their respective 'special' Santa pressies (yup, my kids are 21, 19 and 17 - but you're never too old for a special present from Santa!!) I love the challenge of finding things that might be worth nothing or seem naff to everyone else but mean something special to the kids. Aw, it reminds me of something someone said in a film we were watching recently: "You should try to give your kids enough to help them do something but not enough to make them do nothing". OK, so this was some rich American character talking about how he hadn't spoiled his kids so that they understood the value of doing things for themselves, and I'm talking about how you don't have to spend a lot of money on gifts for them to be valuable, but I'm sure you'll get the gist!
Anyway, I loved watching the kids' reactions when they opened their own wee special things this year. First, Gemma. After a bit of hunting around on Google, I found this charity called 'Common Hope' that's supported by Marcus du Sautoy (that geezer from Oxford Uni that makes maths appeal to the masses and makes maths interesting, even to the likes of me!). If you made a donation to his charity (which uses education as a tool to try to break the cycle of poverty) you could put a name to one of his recently discovered new symmetries (a mumble jumble of numbers and symbols that looks like a load of gobble-de-gook to the likes of me..."!). So, what better present for my maths student daughter - who much prefers the 'interesting' way that Professor du Sautoy portrays maths than the boring way her subject's taught at Uni - than the knowledge that she's done a little bit towards helping some kids with their education and gained a certificate recording the new Gemma Milne Group symmetry in the process?!
As for Ross. Well, I think I've mentioned before that Alex and Ross have this project on the go which involves drinking 1001 different beers from thier '1001 Beers To Drink Before You Die' book. There's a lot more to it than just drinking the beer, but I won't go into that just now. One of my friends, Brian, knows a lot about local breweries and he'd suggested I visit The Bridge of Allan Brewhouse for a special gift for their Christmas. Aw, it's such a cool wee place and the guy that runs it couldn't have been more helpful. So, Ross (and Alex's) special pressie was a gift box containing local ales that I'd named and designed the label for, using photos and text all relating to the project. These beers obviously won't be in their book, but I'm sure they'll enjoy drinking them just the same!
And then Gordon. Well, Gordon loves the movies, but I wanted a gift that wasn't just another DVD or a gift voucher for VUE! I found a website that makes up pretty realistic personalised movie posters, and had really great fun choosing the photos and making up the text to go on the poster. So, keep your eyes peeled for the up and coming blockbuster 'Wolfman' starring Oscar-nominated Gordo Milne! Ocht, I know it must sound a bit naff, but Gordon loved it!
Amongst the other moments that made me feel good on Christmas Day were things like going for a wee walk with Gemma and Mum,
the turkey turning out just right,
being round the table with the people I love most,
and playing silly games..
Boxing Day brought more of the same, but with even more of the people I love most! Alex's family, some more of my family and our oldest and dearest friends came along to help us eat more food, have a few more drinks, enjoy more banter and - the highlight of every Boxing Day in the Milne Household - try to win Gordon's quiz! This year, the ladies managed to draw with the men (we get tanked every year), so there was a big celebration in the wifey's camp - even though we were marked down for being cheeky to the question master and for not knowing that naked tiddlywinks was an extreme sport...
The rest of the festive season has been pretty chilled out. It's been really lovely to do very little and just make the most of us being off work and having the kids around for the holidays. We had a great night out at a party in the village (last night's shenanigans) and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with some old friends and being introduced to some new - but most of my festive season's been spent just enjoying being at home with my wee family. And that, more than anything, has made me feel really good.
....and that, dear readers, seems like a good place to stop this first post of the year and wish you all the very best in whatever lies ahead for you and yours. I hope that you all have a healthy and a happy 2013 and, of course, I hope that lots and lots of things happen this year to make you feel really good!
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