Merry Christmas!

A photo of me wearing a rainbow santa hat

By the power of a scheduled post that was written last Saturday, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas if you are celebrating today. As per usual, we’re staying with my parents in York for the Christmas period, having arrived last night.

Unlike the past couple of years, my gift to Christine hasn’t been Discworld-related. Instead, I’ve bought her a gift sponsorship of an endangered frog at the Manchester Museum. At the top level, this includes a one hour behind-the-scenes tour of the vivarium for the sponsor and up to three guests. So that’ll be something to look forward to doing in 2026, especially as the Manchester Museum is one of our favourite places to visit.

As for our gifts to family, this year Christine has made most of them herself. She took up crochet in a big way earlier this year, and so our relatives will have opened a selection of blankets, hats and gloves this morning.

Christmas is also an opportunity for us to relax and recuperate. I’m off work for two full weeks, having finished last Friday. As our past two summer holidays have been a single week, this is actually the longest time I have had off work since our 2023 summer holiday. Thankfully, my workplace closed at lunchtime on the 23rd, and doesn’t open again until the 5th, so I shouldn’t have too much work to come back to.

This is the first year where our nine-year-old doesn’t believe in Santa. It means that they know their gifts were bought for them by people close to them, and not just provided by a mythical being.

Once again, I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Merry Christmanoëlavidad!

Photos of the two books that I bought Christine for Christmas: A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett, and Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld by Paul Kidby

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, a Joyeux Noël and a Feliz Navidad, should you be celebrating today.

Once again, we’re staying with my parents in York for Christmas, having arrived last night. Whilst I’ve been lucky enough to work somewhere that closed at 4pm last Friday, for Christine, Christmas Eve was a normal working day. We’re here in York for a few days.

As per usual, we’re not having turkey – it tends to fall to my mum to cook Christmas dinner and she’s not a fan of turkey. Instead, we’re having pork.

Pictured above are the gifts that I bought for Christine:

Yes, there’s a theme. My gift to her last year was Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch (sponsored link), written by Rhianna Pratchett about her father’s characters, and required a bit of a mad goose chase around the various bookshops of West Yorkshire to find a copy. Thankfully, the glorious Waterstones in Bradford came up trumps.

I’ll have probably opened my presents by the time you read this, but I’m writing this ahead of time.

Merry Christmas!

A selfie of me, wearing a Christmas jumper and standing in front of a Christmas tree at work

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, from me, Christine and almost two-year-old. We’re staying with my parents in York, as per usual.

I realise that this is the first blog post in two months, and only the second since September. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is likely to be to get back into blogging twice a week, it we’ll see.

Hope you enjoy the rest of Christmas and have a lovely time with family (or a relaxing time on your own).

Merry Christmas!

A quick blog post to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

We’re in York with my parents for what is our little cherub’s first Christmas. Alas, it’s been overshadowed by illness – all but my dad are all ill with a horrendous cold. As in, the sort of cold that’s serious enough to warrant sick leave from work.

My main presents were a new power drill, and a Google Chromecast, which I’m looking forward to trying out when we get home. Our not-quite-one-year-old got a chair and plenty of toys, and my gifts to Christine were a couple of books.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and an enjoyable festive period.

Merry Christmas!

A photo of our living room, with a sofa, TV and Christmas tree

Merry Christmas everyone!

We finally unpacked the Christmas tree yesterday evening, along with the TV and its various set-top boxes. We’ve been without a TV set since we moved at the back end of September, and it has spent its time sat in the baby cot until now. Our living room still has some way to go before it’s finished – quite a bit more painting, along with some work to fix an incoming damp problem – but we’ve made a snug corner for watching Christmas telly.

It’ll be a quiet Christmas day for the two of us, as it’ll be our last Christmas solely as a couple, what with the imminent arrival of our future child. So we’re spending time together without anyone else today.

I hope you all have a good Christmas yourselves.

Merry Christmas!

Tree up! Better late than never.

Not a big Christmas for us this year – a few small presents, and we only put the tree up yesterday. We’re staying in our flat in Sowerby Bridge due to work commitments.

But I get to spend it with my amazing wife and that’s all that matters. Merry Christmas to everyone.