Christmas with a Difference

On Saturday we returned from a 2-week stint in South Shields where we stayed with Graeme's parents for the Christmas and New Year celebrations. It was certainly different this year, not least because it was our first with Francis.

It was the first Christmas we'd stayed with Graeme's parents. In previous years we have always stayed with my folks as they had ample room in their 6-bedroom house. Sadly, my parents went their separate ways in 2007 and neither really has the space to put us all up. While it was nice to see my parents getting on reasonably well over the festive season, I did find things a bit emotionally stressful and hope the dust will have well and truly settled by next Christmas.

It was also the first time in a few years that Paul and Becky did not spend Christmas with us. They were in cornwall staying with Becky's sister Helen and baby Isabella. Paul and Becky were a big miss on Christmas Day and, although they came to visit the following weekend, it wasn't quite the same. It's a shame everyone lives so far apart, as I'm a big beleiver that family should be together at Christmas.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from Christmas Day, but I was certainly not expecting Francis to start cutting two teeth! I'd had visions of this lovely, exciting, serene day, with Francis playing with lots of new toys. What I got was Francis being a complete grump and crying at alrmingly regular intervals. I know it wasn't Francis's fault, but after the umpteenth time of Francis crying after being given a new present, I couldn't help but feel stressed and demoralised; I was convinced he didn't like anything we'd bought him. Once his teeth had cut through a few days later, Francis was finally able to enjoy his presents.

Other than the teething, the day went pretty smoothly. After Francis had opened his presents, Graeme and I took Francis to my Mam's flat for a few hours to see my family. I only see my brother David at Christmas so I always make sure I spend some time with him. Afterwards, it was time to head to Graeme's parents for lunch. Francis had more or less what we had, minus the gravy. It was great watching him shovelling vegetables and yorkshire pudding into his mouth; little did I realise at the time that Francis's interest in solid food was really going to take off, big time!

As we do every year, in the evening we went to Auntie Val's for tea. Val and Allan never fail to put on a fantastic spread of food and always seem to have whichever alcoholic beverage you ask for. They moved house recently, so that was something else different about Christmas and another reminder about how desperately I want to move out of Anfield. Francis was really able to join in with the tea, munching his way through breadsticks and cucumber; I even gave him a mini chocolate eclair as a treat (which he devoured pretty quickly!). We'd usually stay at Val and Allan's until about 11, but having Francis meant we had to say our goodbyes early so we could get Francis to bed before he got narky.

As we were back for two weeks we had the chance to meet up with some friends who we'd not seen in years. Richard and Rachel had recently moved back to South Shields and I was thrilled to be able to see them again. We met them, along with another friend (who we'd not seen for 10 years!) Emma, for lunch and did some serious catching up. A few days later we visited Richard and Rachel at their new house, which I fell completely in love with (mainly because of the number of storage cupboards... how sad am I?) and which made me even more desperate to get on with our own house move. Watch this space.

New Years Eve was a quiet affair. Neither Graeme or I are big fans of December 31st and prefer to spend the evening in front of the telly, going to bed pretty much as soon as thr clock has struck 12. The end of 2007 was not much different. We had the house to ourselves as Graeme's parents had gone out so we elected to watch a DVD and glug on a few bottles of Smirnoff Ice (I swear that stuff is just lemonade). Unfortunately, thanks to Francis's new teeth, we'd had very little sleep the previous night and Graeme fell asleep about 10 minutes into the Jimmy Carr DVD he'd got me for Christmas. We were in bed well before the turn of the year and wished each other "Happy New Year" when we could hear all the fireworks exploding outside.

On our last night in South Shields Graeme and I thought we'd take advantage of having family around to finally have a night out together. I'd ummed and ahhed about doing this for a while as I really didn't like the idea of leaving Francis. However, after talking to my Mam, I realised I was being silly; Francis would be in bed so wouldn't even know we were gone. So, on Friday night, I put Francis to bed, and, once we were sure he was settled, left him in the capable hands of Graeme's Mam Sandra and went out for a meal. The culinary choice is a bit restricted in South Shields, but if you love curry, you're in for a treat. We went to our favourite Indian restaurant, Cafe India, where the service is always fantastic, and spent a very reasonable £22. It's just a shame we didn't go midweek for their special offer menu because it would have only been about £6 a head! Afterwards we went elsewhere for a drink, which turned out to be a very quick drink once we realised that it was karaoke night... We got back after 2 hours to be told that Francis hadn't even stirred. Even so, I'm not sure I'm ready for the full babysitting experience yet.

We headed back to Liverpool the following day, with the intention of havinf Paul and Becky over for tea, but Becky was ill and Graeme and I were too tired, so we cancelled. Hopefully we can do that soon though. Saturday evening was spent watching telly and eating chips as there was a serious lack of food in the house. This meant that Sunday involved a stressful trip to ASDA to spend a ridiculous amout of money replenishing the cupboards.

So that's it for another year. Next year will be different again as we'll be in a new house and maybe Francis will be at a stage where he will actualy want to open presents. At least he'll have all his teeth by then so we won't get any nasty surprises!

Lisa xxx