Festive Family Fun

Unlike last Christmas, when I’d to rush through everything during a quick visit back to the UK from Spain, I had the chance to take things easier this year as the festivities began!

Things kicked off with a visit back over the county line to Yorkshire (see the end of my last blog post for my soliloquy on the county). Heading back to Leeds, this time I had to haul with me my DMX lighting desk as I headed to Izzy’s studio Atypical. I’d brought the controller along as they had a plan to utilise some DMX-enabled studio lighting to film some videos for a client, and so I was drafted in to help with the lighting side.

Drawing on my experience using lighting in strange ways, we soon wrapped the shoot up for the day and I bid Izzy farewell – but this wasn’t to be for too long, as a couple of days later we were reunited once more, but this time in Manchester!

One Saturday we, along with Rhea, Luisa and Declan, had arranged to meet up in Manchester for a quick snoop around the Christmas markets and a proper catch up coffee in the Northern Quarter. Braving the cold, we spent a good while enjoying a coffee and then a cheeky glühwein tipple on the market, before reverting back to our days as design students and winding up ordering chips in a pub. I guess some things never change…

Safe to say that my coat bought in Oslo came in pretty useful.

Once I’d caught the X43 bus back to Burnley (and enjoyed fond memories of my high school and college days doing the same), I spent a few days relaxing and attending the odd festive party. With Ellie’s return back from Sheffield for Christmas, the two of us have been making the most of our surroundings and going on the odd wander when she can allow herself a couple of hours away from revision.

Sooner or later, however, I found myself being invited back over to Leeds in order to have a pre-Christmas send-off meal at home with Em and Lincoln. After a lovely pasta dish and an evening chatting away in their cosy house in Horsforth, I made good use of being in Leeds to scoot around a few of my favourite spots and pick up a few last-minute presents.

The ceiling of the Cotton Exchange in Leeds really is gorgeous.

Once back in Burnley, it was finally time to begin settling down, as Christmas was just a few days away! My mum had been feeling under the weather for a spell, and as Christmas day approached she only seemed to be getting worse, so we all prepared ourselves for a relaxed day.

Being the strong (and very prepared) woman that she is, though, my mum wasn’t for giving in to illness! We had a lovely morning unwrapping our presents, and after we’d all had a little mid-afternoon nap to sleep off our delicious cauliflower soup lunch, she beat the odds and pulled off yet another delicious Christmas dinner with all the trimmings…

Once stuffed with stuffing, we all collapsed into the settee for an evening together playing Heads Up and other festive novelties. After a relatively early night, Boxing Day had come around, and three of us set out for a walk through the wintery chill.

I guess that the Christmas period is now winding to a close, but whilst there’s pines on our tree and leftover Christmas food in the fridge, I’m determined to carry on enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. I’ve also got an end-of-year special post coming soon which will look over a crazy fun year full of frivolities, so keep an eye out for that!

Right now I find myself sat in my room as I push ahead with the coding for my new site, a design which I hope to have launched in the coming weeks, so watch out for that too! For now, however, I’m going to head downstairs and gorge on some of those leftovers — well, we don’t want any soggy breadsticks, do we?