My Christmas Day | 2018

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I love the music, the cosiness, the family coming together, the food, the drink, the laughs and of course, giving and receiving presents. As a family, we do basically the same thing every year which I love and this year was no different. I thought I would share my Christmas Day with you as I have heard many different stories of how my friends celebrate it.

The first thing that we do in the morning is gather in the living room and dish out the presents. Once we all have our little piles, we will begin opening them one by one so that we don't miss anything and we can all fully appreciate what we have been given. I prefer this to everyone opening their presents at the same time even though it takes a lot longer to get through them haha. 
I also love watching Sammy open her's. She gets so excited by everything that is happening and it is definitely one of the highlights of the morning for me. 

After presents it is breakfast time. I look forward to this breakfast all year, honestly. We have smoked salmon, blinis, scrambled egg, sausages and bucks fizz. It is my favourite breakfast.

This year I decided to introduce something new for the stockings. We each had to buy everyone a gift or gifts to the value of £5 for our stockings. As you can see, some were way too big to actually fit in so had to sit on the floor but I thought it was a nice little addition as these gifts would be a complete surprise. I was quite proud of mine; some of the things I bought were big bottles of beer, a 2019 pocket diary and a reed diffuser. 

It is then time for dinner. Every year I set the table as I have a system and I am quite OCD about it haha. When I was younger I used to make little name cards to show people where they were sitting but that has stopped now obviously. 

For our starter we had paté, for the main we had a roast dinner with turkey and ham and for dessert we had Christmas pudding and cream. I was so full afterwards but everything was delicious! If you are wondering what the green stuff is on my plate, it is brussel sprouts that have been mashed with cream and garlic. I love the recipe so much that I could literally eat it every day.

My Mum does such a great job with the food; I can only hope to make a Christmas dinner this good when it's my turn. 

Once our stomachs have recovered from the surge of food, we get the board games out along with the after eights, matchmakers, quality street and a cup of tea or coffee. This year we went through quite a few games including the logo game, smart ass, word search and trivial pursuit. Quiz games definitely bring out my competitive side and I love this part of the evening. 

Me and my mum made the Christmas cake this year and for our first time I don't think it went too bad. The only issues were there was too much fruit even though we followed the recipe and I accidentally poured a little more brandy over the cake than I should have so it was still a bit wet in places. But we have learned something this year which should mean our next attempt will be a better one. 

What I Got For Christmas

I thought I would add this in at the end as I love and appreciate everything that I got. I'm in no way trying to brag, but perhaps it will give you an idea or two of what you would like to ask for next year! 

• Cosy microwaveable slippers
• Adidas sliders
• Socks
• Lush bath bomb
• Pop socket for my phone
• Phone case
• Timberland original boots
• Sims 4 PS4 game
• Soap & glory gift set

• Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks
• ABH contour palette
• Pandora charms
• Pandora safety chain
• Zoeva brush set
• Milk_shake incredible milk
• Tubes of sweets
• Mamma Mia dvd box set

• HP sprocket and case
• Baylis and Harding hand creams
• Zoella comfy socks
• Body shop strawberry shower gel and body mist
• Jack wills body mists
• Selection box
• Box clever press 2019 diary
• Ted Baker shopping bag

So, that was how I spent my Christmas Day! I hope you all had an amazing time as I definitely did. I just cannot believe it was all over so quickly! 

Now on to 2019.

xx

My 2018 In Snapchat Photos

I am always uploading to snapchat. Whether I am on holiday, out with friends or chilling at home watching TV. I tend to save my favourite ones to memories and I always think it is nice to scroll back through them every now and then. I was looking at all my memories from 2018 and thought I would do a post dedicated to my snaps from last year. I haven't edited any of these photos and they are definitely not to a professional standard haha, but enjoy nonetheless. 

My 21st Birthday. The traditional best friend and boyfriend photo. I was heavily under the influence of alcohol when this was taken haha. 

Taken before my Dad's 50th birthday in Ireland. 

My cousins and one of their friends at my Dad's 50th in Ireland. (I'm not short, I was just on a lower seat haha)

Whenever the sun came out, the mini bbq came out haha.

When me and Keiron went to Gran Canaria in the Summer, this is the amount of space we had because we booked extra leg room! 

I burn so easily....

This was my life for 2 weeks haha.

Couldn't believe it. The gym is actually paying off.

Now I love it and get it whenever a restaurant has it on the menu!

Me and Keiron on a boat to Mogán.

The biggest meal that I had out there haha.

This was in a big shopping centre in Gran Canaria.

My first outdoor cinema trip.

Lunch and Love Island haha.

This is what I do when I go to buffets; get loads of plates with little portions so that I get to try everything. This was taken in a JRC restaurant.

I dyed my hair red earlier this year but I didn't really like it as much as I did when I was younger so I was happy when I dyed it back dark again.

She loves the Summer when this sofa comes out.

Oh my this water is gross. It tastes like thick sea water.

Love these smoothies.

This was taken on a family holiday in Tenerife. Can't believe the park allowed people to get so close!

Best book I have read in a long time.

About to leave Tenerife.

Me and my old boss at our Christmas conference in September.

I am becoming obsessed with Starbucks haha.

Best flavours!

I wasn't actually aiming for it but still an achievement!

Little game of bananagrams in the mobile home when me and Keiron went on a short break in October.

This was taken after my operation at the end of October when it was just me and Sammy most days.

Although I was on crutches, I still wanted to make an effort for the Halloween party I was invited to. So I decided to go as Jigsaw. 

It actually tasted quite nice if I do say so myself.

It took me 6 hours to wrap all of my presents this year because I was watching Christmas movies at the same time. So I ended up finishing at like 3am haha.

My first time driving after almost 2 months. We went to Jimmy Spices which was my first time and had a nice catch up with everyone. 

Went to see the CocaCola truck with my Mum and Dad. It would have been better if it wasn't raining but still made me feel Christmassy.

All of our presents ready to go under the tree.

One of Sammy's Christmas presents was this blue dinosaur. She protects it like it's her baby haha. 

Me and Keiron took a trip to Southbank to visit the Christmas market. We were a little late this year so quite a lot of the stalls were shut but the main section was still full. We enjoyed Jamaican food, hotdogs and mini pancakes and had a couple of cups of the mulled cider from the Rekorderlig Lodge. 

My best friend came down from uni to exchange our presents so I had a nice little catch up with her and one of my other friends at our local shisha bar. 

My little collection of PS4 games that I have built up now that I have actually started to use it properly. I definitely need the practice haha. 

So, that is my year in snapchat photos. I think that photos can tell a really good story and I think looking at these, I have had a good year overall and I can't wait for 2019. 

xx