The first day I got back my sister talked me into going on a night out with her and her partner as one of our local nightclubs does a specific xmas night and this was it. I was tired from having my exam the day before but figured it would be a good night, and it was good fun.
The following day I went to visit Dad to take him a home made wreath which my Mum had put together and a xmas card. It was freezing out and all of his little leaves have dropped off. I'm just hoping he recovers well in the spring and hopefully has a good growth spurt too!The next day I headed into the city with my Mum to make a start on my xmas shopping. Yep, it was the 16th December and I hadn't started yet. I hadn't had time during revision season and was starting to feel slightly stressed about it at this point. I didn't actually get much done that day but eventually I got it all finished!
I honestly spent most of the holiday being my Mum's little shadow. I went everywhere with her, to see family, to go shopping, to run errands, the lot, and it was really nice. I'd been used to being so busy for holidays that it was nice just to have some time to spend doing normal things with my Mum and my family.
I did squeeze in a couple of short days at work, not actually working, but shadowing with the urgent care team and GPs, and I was even given a chance to practice taking a couple of ECGs and manual blood pressures. Naturally I had to get that shameless stethoscope selfie with my work lanyard on.
A few days before xmas it was my brother's birthday, the big 21! He recently received a place to study at a language school in Tokyo and is due to move out there in April so we had to think carefully about what to buy him. It needed to be small and light enough to be packed to go with him, and it needed to be special enough or practical enough to make it onto his packing list. I chose a matcha tea bowl which was almost identical to one he used in Japan when we travelled there in 2018, and some matcha tea powder and a matcha tea whisk. When I was wrapping them up I pulled out a couple of tourist magazines we had picked up in Japan and cut out some pictures and stuck them all over the presents! 
His other presents also included some guidebooks for Japan and Tokyo and a matching set of suitcases.My Mum also made him the coolest Japan themed cake! It had Mount Fuji, cherry blossom, a Torii gate and a bamboo forest.
As soon as my Brother's birthday is over it is always a slightly mad rush to get xmas finalised. But we still had time to pop out and visit Dad again on xmas eve.
I think I mentioned it last xmas on this blog but every xmas since 2014 we have chosen a theme. This means that the house is decorated to the theme, the presents are wrapped to the theme and sometimes even what we wear on xmas day is influenced by the theme. Previous themes have included:
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Narnia
- Harry Potter
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Star Wars
This year the theme was The Hobbit, which was a relatively easy theme to do as it was just a cosy and homey vibe. The colour scheme for the tree was a classic red and green, the presents were wrapped in brown paper or paper with trees on, and we wore xmas jumpers on the day.
My sister decided to make xmas eve bags this year for me, my brother and my little sister and we got the cutest sloth pyjamas, slipper socks and blanket... not my brother, I can't remember what he got instead! But it meant that on xmas morning all the girls had matching pjs on and it was adorable.
I feel like this photo of our living room should come with a warning. The presents in here were for ten people (including the dog) so it looks more excessive than it is... but also, we like xmas I guess!We had our grandparents, and the dog, round on xmas day, which is something we've been doing for a good few years now, and it's so lovely to have everyone together.
After opening the presents we got dressed and put on our cozy xmas jumpers.
We sat down for dinner while the dog enjoyed one of his presents!After dinner we usually have a xmas game which wasn't part of The Hobbit theme. This year the game was Disney Brainbox.
Then we usually start a xmas jigsaw puzzle so we started that and after some time to digest dinner my Mum brought out the Hobbit themed xmas cake she had made.
We also received a game for xmas from my Uncle. It was an escape room board game, and it was actually really immersive and good fun. It came with 3 scenarios to solve but there are more available to buy. We played the first two scenarios within a couple of days and played the final one recently on a day when my Uncle came round.
This year I decided not to go out for New Year's Eve, I stayed home and spent time with my little sister and watched the fireworks on the TV. On New Year's Day my Grandparents came over for dinner again and after dinner we played Newmarket which is a New Year's Day tradition in my family.
Before I headed back to uni I made time to visit my Dad's work. They had installed some pieces in their new memorial garden and they wanted us to see them. So I went with my Mum and siblings to take a look. The pieces they had chosen were just perfect and we loved them.
I headed back to uni at the weekend and prepared to head out on my second immersive week. In the next blog I'll finally be caught up to this term so I can start talking about how it's going.
Thanks for reading!
Katherine x
