Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

To call it a holiday would be doing all my holidays in the past a disservice. I don’t think we stopped the entire time and Vonnie was going into this with all the present buying etc already behind her so she deserve extra praise for lasting the distance.

To put the last ten-fourteen days into context I can’t actually remember much except for the long nights. I was up until god knows what time on Christmas Eve wrapping presents, baking a cake and making a trifle. Christmas day itself was a complete blur with family visiting and then Boxing Day was similar but for that we went to my parents but after about 8pm I haven’t a clue what went on through sheer exhaustion. The rest of the time just blended into one day with periods of restless sleep and zombie like movement about the house. And to think I managed just 4 beers this entire time. I then spent until 2am on Saturday night stripping the wallpaper in the living room and until after 1am last night painting said living room. Roll on Saturday is all I can say!

I don’t know whats been up with me over this time but somethings stressing me out and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s not the wedding. It’s not work. It’s not the kids and it’s not the house. I really don’t have a clue One minute I’m fine the next I’m not and the main problem I get from stress isn’t anxiety but lack of energy and grumpiness. Never a good combination.

So to sum up apologies to all that have had to deal with me over the last two weeks. Apologies to those I’ve not talked to over the last two weeks as well as if you’ve tried talking to me in person I’ve been spaced out and if you’ve tried to instant message me I’ve been lucky to sit staring at the screen and actually be aware of what I’m doing for maybe 5 minutes during this time. Apologies to the kids for being an a-typical bah humbug type of person this Christmas and apologies to Vonnie for having to put up with my sorry arse.

So work for today…get away from the office asap and get the downstairs tidied up for tonight.

By the way, those that haven’t been invited yet but think you’d be on the list at the door we’re having a soiree tonight to celebrate the bringing in of the new year. Feel free to pop along for a while and say hi.

No tag for this post.

Tags: Boxing day, christmas, Christmas day, christmas eve, energy, New Year's Day

Well christmas and new year sort of faded into one as per usual. Call me Scrooge but I normally cant get that excited about Christmas but historically I’ve always found a way to enjoy Hogmanay.

On Christmas Eve we went down to an italian restaurant in Cambuslang for Dinner with Vonnie’s mums side of the family. Was very nice but I think the food didnt agree with me as I felt a bit dodgy on Christmas day despite not eating anything else by then. Funniest moment was Davie accusing folk of drinking his wine despite noone else touching it. He’d been constantly topping up his glass and didnt realise how much he’d actually drank by the time the meal was finished!

Christmas day was nice but very stressful. Managed to make it down to the parentals in the morning but by the time we made it back home I was struggling to make dinner in time for Finn going to his Dad’s. In the end Finn spat carrot soup over the table and Vonnie was that worked up about alot of things she could barely eat anything. The food was nice though

Boxing day meant the annual family get together which this year was at my Uncle’s in Hamilton. We made it down there for about half 5 and had a very nice night. Its a complete change these days now that the kids have all grown up and don’t really come along and now they’ve built a conservatory theres space for everyone for a change.

With my week off the idea was to get the house completely sorted but between Christmas and New Year my sleeping patterns been completely off and although Vonnie’s only worked a few days we’ve really had very little time to get anything done. Made a start on our bedroom the other day but we got half way through it and had to leave it for the next day. The problem with this is that we never managed to do it the next day. The house gradually got worse until I had to redo the kitchen a wee bit in order to get my work surfaces back. This meant the living room wasnt tidied though for New Year. We werent expecting anyone over though as our plans were changing right up until the last minute. First off we had to go see family and then round to Daves to see the bells in but at first we didnt have a baby sitter. Then Dave’s party was cancelled just as we got a sitter so we decided to go into Glasgow and see our friends band play in Rockers for the Bells. It came to 7pm and Vonnie was feeling ill and I could barely stay awake so we cancelled everything and decided to chill in front of the TV. That was until Heather came in to say that Georges parents had an open house and wanted to know if we wanted to go over. Finn got his shoes and jacket on and dissappeared with Heather and Kylie over there until 1am while we stayed at home. At was at this point that Vonnie started to Worry about first footers. We spent the 45 minutes before the bell cracking up trying to tide the house. We managed it though but there was several fallings out before collapsing on the couch knackered. And no bugger first footed us!

New years day was round at my mums for dinner where Sasha snarled at Nairn. Shes snapped at him once already so we really need to get something sorted.

Now that christmas is over and done with its back to sorting the house out properly. First up this year is the kitchen. Ours is currently crap and we have no storage space or work surfaces. This has to change so we got the designer guy round from Vonnie’s work to see what he could do. Has he put it there wasn’t much he could really change but he’s fitted in a few extra bits a pieces so it should be all good. Hopefully we’re ordering it within the next day or two so we can get it in the sale. The only problem with this is we can’t afford to get someone to fit it for us. Thats just giving money away so hopefully between Vonnie’s dad and a few folk we know we should be able to get folk willing to help us out for beer hopefully. I’d intended on trying to get some leave to help out over the next couple of weeks but Jenna in work has broke her foot and has a sick line for the next 3 weeks. This means Im by myself until then as Ians got a line until then as well for his broken ankle. I’ll need to talk to my bosses about this as soon as we start thinking about delivery and installation dates

And now onto the bit nicked from Dave Hogg…

Favourite Moment of 2006 - No hesitation its got to be Nairn’s birth. Was a very strange and long few days runing up to the moment but walking out the front door to phone my parents to tell them the news was the first time I can honestly say my face hurt from smiling.

Favourite Book of 2006 - Fatherhood: The Truth by Marcus Berkmann. I can honestly say that without this book I think I would have cracked up. Its a no holds barred look at kids right through from conception to thier first birthday. All the bad bits he actually manages to make you laugh and when they happen to you you end up with a smile on your face. If it wasn’t an audiobook I’d have chosen Bob Brier’s History of Ancient Egypt thats speard over 48 lectures. I need to have another go at that btw as I’ve yet to read/hear anything thats so well done on the subject without getting too technical.

Favourite Gig of 2006 - I went to a gig in 2006? Actually now I think about it I did manage to one gig. The Bloodhound Gang at The Garage was fantastic. Seen them before but theyre support Electric Eel Shock made my night!

Favourite Website of 2006 - I struggled with this one. It shows just how much time I spend on thte internet these days when I pick Alternative Nation for this. Its not that its my favouite its just that thats where I spend most of my time when I am online. Hell I even gave up my supermoderator status in there and I still put it as my favourite. Someone shoot me

Favourite Country of 2006 - Would have to be New Zealand. Looking to the future and emigration is a definate possibility in the coming years with NZ and Canada being the front runners with Cananda edging it in the doability stakes. New Zealand has stolen my heart though in regards to my choice.

I’d originally intended on adding a few more categories but it’s taken me about an hour to type this up so far and i’m fecking knackered. And besides I’m supposed to be dong work

Tags: Bob Brier, Boxing day, Canada, christmas, Christmas day, christmas eve, Dave Hogg, food, food didnt, Glasgow, Heather, Kylie, Marcus Berkmann, Nairn, New Year's Day, New Zealand, the Bells, Then Dave's party, thte internet

If you ever have children or ever look after children on christmas eve night…do not under any circumstances let them sleep in your bed.

For an xmas treat Finn was allowed to sleep with us now that we’ve got the mattress for the bed. I was knackered after the xmas eve assault course but I think I managed 30 mins sleep before Finns windmilling in bed and constant moans to get a drink (he’s not allowed anything after a certain time as he sleeps that soundly he sometimes has trouble getting up and awake enough in time to make it to the toilet when he’s really bursting…depends how deep a sleep he’s waking up from…and he will kill me for this when he’s older) before Vonnie snapped at 4.30 and gave him a sip of her juice. He still kept windmilling though so I was still awake at 5.30am.

I decided enough was enough and went through to the couch after moving him to my side of the bed to let Vonnie get a bit of sleep. I stuck on my Long Way Round DVD in an attempt to numb my brain enough with the scenery that I would fall asleep. It didnt work and at 5.45am the neighbours downstairs kids woke up and started playing with a musical instrument they’d been given and then at 6.30 put on thier new cd/turned on their new hifi. Luckily a cluster headache had hit me before 6am so I had something to take my mind off the noise…

We had trouble waking up Finn after 8am as he was ‘tired’ but as he was ‘a good boy Santa would have came so the presents would be there’ when he eventually decided to wake up. You cant fault the kids logic…

Lots of ’s becuase there was no Thunderbirds stuff (which we didnt really know he wanted as he’d only told his dad) and lot’s of ’s when he found out how much Lego he got.

I made Xmas dinner and for someone thats never cooked a whole chicken before or used a steamer I was impressed with how it came out. I wish my cooker had one of those warming sections on it though as the dinner suffered from the usual ‘too much food and only a small cooker’ speedy cooling down once it hit the plate. Loads of leftovers though so I think a homemade curry is on the cards one night this week.

Most impressed with my presents this year although the scarf Vonnie made me and the greenday DVD Scott gave me are fighting a losing battle with my new dressing gown for the spot of favourite present. I’ll see how they get on once I actually get dressed though as I get the feeling they might get back into the game then

Tags: christmas, christmas eve, cluster headache, food