JYC 2010 6th December - A Tale of Two Christmas's

As a child I remember Christmas being very much set in stone and merging together, with only two years being completely different and therefore more memorable. We normally stayed at home and had my mum's parents around for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, with my uncle to stay for the whole 3 days. There was 1 year when I was five or six, when we went to their house, and one year when I was eight, when we went to stay with Dad's parents for a week. They were very pleasant years, and there are very good memories, although some are from things that people have told me, rather than ones I remember. Like the year my grandad made me a dolls house and I had managed to rip the front door off by the end of the day. 

The strangest Christmas I remember was the first one after my parents had split up. We went to the grandparents for the day, and had a lovely time and lots of wonderful presents but I remember that it didn't quite feel right. For starters that was the first year that we had to do multiple Christmas lists and find ways amidst the normal routine to try and see Dad. Overall, my least favourite. 

The addition of a long term boyfriend also caused a change, the first 2 years we did our own thing, and from the third year onwards we have stuck together, just moving about the different houses as necessary. My brother always said that my OH had a certain look about him on Christmas Day, which was normally resigned and tired; a look that I have tried not too successfully to eradicate.

But now my Christmas's are completely different, and rather than things being over in 1 day, the holiday lasts for many days, as we try to fit in all the different parents. Being married to someone whose parents are also divorced, means that you do get 4 different days to celebrate, and normally 4 different ways to celebrate. Each different year now sticks out clearly to me. And though I do look back in fondness at the childhood rituals, I enjoy this prolonging of the season and the festive spirit just a little bit more. Though less driving would be prefered, thank you! 

Love Elliefantasy xxx

JYC 2010 4th December - Perfect Christmas

Hmmm, a tricky tricky thing to pin down really. For me, a perfect Christmas really is the happy bouncy tingly feeling that lasts through the holiday. But below is a list of things that would help contribute to the perfect Christmas:

• Seeing all the family groups in 1 place at 1 time, even if it is for just a while.
• Having a cuddle with my nephew on his first Christmas Day.
• Spending a relaxed Christmas Day with my OH.
• Having lovely presents.
• Having a lovely Christmas dinner and getting up from the table feeling like I couldn't eat for the next week.
• Having a stuffing and gherkin sandwich for Christmas Day tea. 
• Spending time with all my family and friends.
• Not feeling like I'm trying to hit a series of appointments, but instead drift from day to day enjoying the company. 
• Having sparklers to play with on New Years Eve. 
• Watching Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas morning. 

Looking at the list, most things are new to this years Christmas, except for the feeling of rushing from person to person. And next year, I imagine that this definition will change. But all that means is that a perfect Christmas is easily in my grasp, year after year.


Love Elliefantasy xxxx

JYC 2010 5th December - Advent

I have to admit to being one of those very lucky children whose parents brought them a Chocolate Advent calendar. There was always something wonderful about coming home from school on cold December days and having a guaranteed chocolate waiting for you. There were some years that we had Mars calendars, which had 3 fun-sized bars in at certain lucky points of the month. Weekends where always a waiting game to see how long my brother and I could last out before we ate our chocolate for the day. 

I remember there being a few years that it was decided that we were too old for advent calendars, and then I passed through to that point where it was up to boyfriends to buy them rather than my mum. I also remember having an advent calendar at junior school, and the magic of being able to light it, and the wonderful glow it gave whilst having a lesson.

Since I have been with my OH, most years his mum has brought us a calendar, or we have got them ourselves (and a couple of years we did both.) That led to a discussion over the different ways to deal with an advent calendar. I am a traditionalist; I open each door for that day, eat the chocolate and then leave the door open. My OH likes to close the door up at the end of the day so that he can open all the doors up to the current day every day. 

Last year I broached out and brought a Karen Foster countdown calendar, 25 little drawers that you can put sweets into. I went to our Cadbury outlet store and brought Roses chocolates only to find that the drawers weren't big enough. It will got used, but unfortunately was damaged by the leaky garage roof we had at our previous house. I didn't have time to make a new one this year, so I have a Malteasers calendar with a satisfyingly large box for the 24th. But I intend to make a new, personal one for next year to be re-used and become part of our Christmas tradition.

Love Elliefantasy xxx

JYC 2010 3rd December - Christmas Greetings

I am a crafter, cards and scrapbooks and other bits in between. So I do feel that for birthdays and Christmas I should be making cards to send. In 2008, when I was just starting out, I made a few designs and loads of them. Last year, I went in for card making massively, starting loads of designs, complicated ones that needed the Robo, and covering the dining room table with all my stash. I had so many, that in January of this year, my first crafting project was to finish off as many as I could manage before my Christmas Spirit ran dry. So this year, I had a lovely stash already made, some that needed small finishing touches, but not a lot of work for me at a period when time is restricted.

Most of them are now written. I dug out a pen and sat for 2 hours, writing standard greetings and a fair few notes. We have had another big year for weddings, and the first big year for babies so there are lots of wishes for lovely first christmas's, either as a married couple or as parents. This year included a family wedding, so there are lots notes to say, "glad to see you at the wedding, it was lovely,  hope to see you soon" A few notes to distant friends to tell the news of the year, "busy year, but we've finally brought our own house" and lots and lots and lots of love, winging its way across the county. 

I do like to write the Christmas cards. It allows me small periods of time to think about the people that I am writing to, if I have had much opportunity to think of them during the year. Either wishes that I had seen them more, or remembering the wonderful times that we have spent during the year. 

Of course amidst all this whimsey, there is a very organised system. A spreadsheet with everyones address exists, as a throwback from the wedding three years ago. This year I have added a column so that I know which design everyone had so can differ for the following year. There will be a flurry of facebook and text messages enquiring about address changes, which will last me for a whole year of birthdays too. 

So that chore is mostly done for another year. An hour spent adding addresses sometime this week, a large purchase of stamps and my little beauties will be flying across to their intended, spreading our love and best wishes for another year. 



Love Elliefantasy xx

JYC 2010 2nd December - "Winter Wonderland"

Weather for the south-west today :

Mainly dry, but cold, frosty and icy.

Picture was taken this evening. The snow fell on Tuesday in the early hours, first snow of the year, even before December had even started. Most of the ice has gone, the main roads and motorways are safe to drive but there is still a lovely wintery feel to the start of this december. 


Hats, scarves and mittens are daily accessories, and the snow boots have been pulled from under the stairs. My personal preference is for the mittens that have the fingers underneath, easy for driving but they look cute to wear. I had to change to black mittens this year as my lovely cream ones ended up with black palms from the disintergration of the rubber on the steering wheel :-( 


To end, a quote from Muppet Christmas Carol (which I am currently watching) - 
"Our pens have turned to Inkscicles." "Our assets are frozen!" Rat Clerks


Hope you are enjoying your weather, whatever it might be.

Love Elliefantasy xxx

JYC 2010 1st December - Manifesto

So, why am I dedicating a whole month and then some to a daily journal when a) I seem to make an extra effort to make myself superhumanly busy in December and b) I only got halfway through the last daily journal that I tried. 

Because a) I believe that I can do everything and b) this is such a Christmas of firsts for me that I want tto get things down. They are a lot of little firsts, but worth documenting all the same. 

This whole daily journalling/extra and self-inflicted task issue raised itself again today when I realised with foreboding and horror that it was my responsibility to run our company Christmas Raffle. I could have gotten out of it this year, claiming that I didn't have enough time with the commitments that I already had. But I love our Christmas Raffle and so put forth the extra effort during and after work and now its all sorted and will run itself for a couple of weeks. 

And that is my manifesto for this Journal. I love Christmas and would like to put forth the extra effort to document and remember it. I have an album sort of made and a few pockets here and there to make it up. But I have today decided that most of the journalling will be done by my blog, which can be accessed anywhere, so I make sure that I catch all the memories in between the parties and the work and the family time. So enjoy what will be a month of regular posts and a look into the madcap world that is me at Christmas. 

And for those that wondered, here is a hipstamatic picture taken 5 minutes ago, with my elephant who stars on my blog and as my avatar and who is patiently waiting for me to get the decorations up so that she can get into her elf costume.

Happy December 1st, I'm off to start the advent calendar!

Love Elliefantasy (& Elephant) xxx

A quick catch up

Hello to all. Been very busy over here, haven't been posting but have been keeping up with everyone, and plodding along with all the crafting. I'm getting ready to do Journal Your Christmas, though hoping that I do better at this than I did at Learn Something New. I have made my album in advance for this one, and have a neat table with all my bits laid out for ease and convenience. 

Trying to get things tidied up as well, some of my projects have gone on a back-burner until after the xmas hols, and some have been moved forwards, mainly my Christmas cards that need to be finished off. I started loads and loads last year and have enough left over that with a bit of tweaking here and there, I can do for this year with a quarter of the effort. So all I have to worry about is the main family cards, but they always take just a bit more effort. I will post up the general cards later this week so you can all see. 

Other time has been taken by some planning for next year (next steps for me and OH and a fabby girly holiday to Turkey), some visits and an awful lot of work. The run into December looks very very full but full of lovely stuff (a shopping trip to london, Clothes Show Live @ the NEC, a lovely winter wedding and then XMAS! Its my nephew's first Christmas, which is why I'm taking the plunge with JYC, it will be a whole year of firsts, his first, our families first with a baby to think about, first time I am staying with my brother and his girlfriend, first year I have helped to organise a works Christmas Party, as well as all the things I love about Christmas, which should make for a really good album.

I am finding that this time of year is very hard for crafting decisions, and then blogging decisions. I can't mention some things because I know that certain family members are going to read this (that means you Mum!) I don't know whether I should be doing Christmas craft things or should I be doing things for me for the new year. How many presents should I hand make/have I got time to make them all? So much to consider. 

One present, all done and sorted, which is for a more distant family member is a collection of parts of my stash. She is a beginner crafter and hasn't got the means to go and blow a load of money on paper etc, and instead uses a lot of my MIL's. So I have sorted all my stash from top to bottom and come up with a very full RUB of paper and misc embellishments which should see her through. All I need to add is a few card blanks and a bit of glue/DS tape and she's good to go!


So there we have it. A little round up of news for you all. I will be aiming to get a few things posted up as they become finished, and from 1st December I hope to be doing frequent JYC posts. See's you about soon and good luck with all your Christmas preperations, crafting or otherwise. 


Love Elliefantasy