Month: December 2025

Life lately 50/52 : Vorfreude

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The German word vorfreude is perfect to describe this time of year, the joy of the anticipation of happy times. It’s been a lovely festive week, I’ve sung and signed Christmas songs in performances with our school choir, enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner with my class and team and made a gingerbread house from scratch. I’ve also pottered around our town’s Christmas market before heading over to see the lights in Bournemouth. All the festive feels ..

This week I’ve finished putting up all our decorations. We did the tree last Sunday and I added my new decoration, a robin from the Eden Project. I love to have a new decoration from our year and this is from our wonderful break in Cornwall at Easter. It was a memorable purchase as I bought it as I walked through the gift shop having finished the parkrun there, one of my favourite ever runs, such a stunning location.

I put a lot of time and effort into my little tableaux over the house, the rainbow tree and disco lights in the kitchen, my gingerbread village in the lounge, my bay window lights and snowflakes and a nativity window with simple lights too. It took a couple of evenings but I am happy with the results, the house feels Christmassy, warm and welcoming. My energy levels are way higher than last week, I’ve been buzzing and doing lots of things to prepare for the season. I got a final few things in the Christmas market yesterday and am now ready, presents are wrapped and those needed have been posted today. It’s a lovely feeling, I can totally embrace the season now.

Among all the busyness this week, I had my Christmas nails done. It does not show well in the photo but they’ve been painted with a beautiful sea green opaque and are perfect for the season.

For parkrun, I went to my old home parkrun, to celebrate my friend who was doing his 250th run there. It did get me thinking that for those of us who started pre pandemic, milestones will take a lot longer. On current timings, mine will be due in early ‘27. This also made me reflect on the last and first parkruns around the Covid pause which I ran at this venue and remembering the atmosphere. The venue also got me reminiscing on the old route, running through streams on wet days, my daughter running her first parkrun, a crazy New Year’s Day run as part of the now defunct NYD double. It is a stunning course and one I really should do more often, it was a lovely, warm and friendly morning.

Saturday was full of Christmas cheer and we finished it in Bournemouth for the lights and Christmas market. It was a different setup to previous years and the traditional tree lights have gone with more futuristic designs instead. It was lovely but I did prefer the more traditional lighting of previous years. Surprisingly we didn’t have our spectacular, but v pricey, hot chocolate but ended the evening in a cosy pub instead. There was more Christmas fun today when coming home from a football tournament we saw many decorated tractors ready for the annual Christmas drive this afternoon. It’s all these little local traditions that make this season special.

Life lately 49/52 Champagne Memories

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This week was one in which I was really out of sorts. There was lots in the diary so I knew I would be busy both at home and work, however normally I thrive on this busyness. This week I couldn’t sleep properly and my body ached so much that I had to take painkillers most days, which is most unlike me. As the week ends and I’ve had a day to relax I am feeling more me but it’s been a hard week.

The week started with a new month, December. I had such a lovely and unexpected treat from my friend who had bought me a tea advent calendar, I am taking half an hour each evening to sit and enjoy my tea, a perfect bit of self care. The advent calendars I bought have been a hit too, Candy Kittens for my daughter, Cadburys’ Heroes for my son and although my husband insisted he didn’t want one he’s happily munching through his Milky Bar calendar.

Tuesday was a wild day, both weather wise and for the amount of planning required to be everywhere at the correct time on a ridiculously packed day. I did skip my gym session as being out of home from 6am to midnight seemed too daunting. It was an important day at work but that went smoothly and then I had to pick up my son ready to go to football for a midweek home game against Everton. Unfortunately we lost, I’m not a good charm this year as they’ve lost both games I’ve seen. Fortunately Mr S was back on football duty this Saturday and it was a draw against a strong team. I do like the evening out with my son, relaxed chatting, Premier league football and football banter. He was excited to watch the World cup draw on Friday and plan his summer. It was an awful spectacle but at least we have the dates and times. Personally I’m relieved there are no England games on our daughter’s 18th birthday celebration weekend as that would have needed some careful negotiation with our football mad son.

As usual, I’ve been busy listening to my audiobook on my commute and finished my 40th book of the year Some Bright Nowhere. The plot sounds sad and depressing, as a woman lives through the final months of her terminal cancer diagnosis, yet it is anything but and makes you consider a ‘good’ death and the power of love and kindness in all relationships. It’s such a good book and the inevitable ending is handled beautifully.

I needed a homely day on Saturday and after a dry and breezy parkrun I settled down to present wrapping and a Christmas film, Champagne Problems. I loved this film, France looked so beautiful and magical, there’s lots of spoken French and it’s a lovely little story. Fun fact is that I spent a year living in the Champagne region of France when I was 20 and as a result, whilst I am nearly tee total I do enjoy a little sip of champagne. The film brought back many happy memories and inspired me to search out my old photo albums to reminisce. I look so happy and carefree in the photos from the year in France and yes there are plenty of photos with friends visiting the different Champagne houses and enjoying a glass of champagne. Most of the photos are in black and white, I must have been going through an arty phase. For balance, I should add there are quite a few Malibu bottles featured in our photos from weekends in Paris too! I deliberately chose a language degree as I knew it would make me spend time abroad and it was one of my best life decisions. Back to the film, Champagne Problems was a delight and definitely one to rewatch on future Christmases. Although I loved it, it still doesn’t replace A Muppet Christmas Carol as my favourite Christmas film, the perfect Christmas tale.