So another Christmas has passed*, we are now sat in the no man’s land that is ‘the bit between Christmas and New Year where no-one really knows what to do, or where to go, what is open or if it is still acceptable to be having brandy butter on toasted panettone for breakfast anymore’.
I had a brilliant one this year, not that it’s over but the bit so far has been fab. There were however, as always, a few things that weren’t quite how I’d imagined them being.
So here is my expectation vs reality post, let me know if any of these resonate with you!
Expectation Big girl, (who you may remember has moaned incessantly about having to go to school each morning), would be so thrilled that it is the holidays that she would be an absolute darling all holiday.
Reality: She was bored and edgy from day one. I think she realised from the minute she woke up that first morning, that school is actually far more fun and engaging then busy parents trying to prepare for Christmas. There followed a week of over-excitment, over-tiredness and sibling arguments a-plenty.
Expectation: A whole week off between the end of school and Christmas Day!! That will be lovely!
Reality: See above!
Expectation: The Santa experience/grotto/train ride will be as magical as they describe it on the website!
Reality: Of course it won’t. You will yet again find yourself queueing in a tunnel stuffed with fake polystyrene snow with bored kids and very bored adults, attempting to stop them pulling the arms off the fake snowmen.
Expectation: You will eat yourself silly and enjoy every minute of it.
Reality: You will get serious indigestion in Christmas Eve after going slightly crazy at the buffet and never quite recover fully. You will still eat like mad but always dogged by the slight discomfort of heartburn. You will never learn that as you get older, your body can’t process the sheer volume of festive stodge it used to be able to!
Expectation: Your jeans will most definitely be a lot tighter.
Reality: Oh, yes well this one does meet up to the expectation!! 😀
What would you add to the list?
Despite my tongue in cheek moaning, I really have had the loveliest time so far and I hope you’ve all had fabulous ones too. Almost New Year’s Eve! I’m hoping to make it to 12 this year!! 😀
*Christmas 2015. Looking back on this post, the week that I was really looking forward to between end of school and Christmas itself is starting to look a little daunting! I’d better fill the days quickly!!! 😀
Glad to hear it was a nice Christmas, despite some things not being as expected! Chuckled at the image of children trying to pull the arms off the fake snowmen (it’s easy to laugh when you weren’t there…).
I love you new header, particularly the little birds in the tree for some reason I can’t explain 🙂
Hope you have a very Happy New Year! (not long to go to back to school now) 😉
Thank you! It is funny now but in the claustrophobic, overheated tunnel it was just stressful!! 😀 Glad you like the header! I love the birds too. And the snail! 🙂 Hope you have had a wonderful time too, & a happy new year to you too lovely. May 2016 be fabuloso for you!xx
Happy New Year to you. I’ll probably be drinking a glass of wine while talking to family on the phone!
That sounds good! Do you not Skype? I love it, but I think it will be very busy at that time. Hope you have a lovely one & that 2016 starts wonderfully for you! 🙂
I regretted all the shortbread I am eating and still eating…ssssshhhhh…I still have left overs from Christmas!!! It’s funny how I am regretting it yet still eating.
Mmmmmm I love shortbread!! I am on a real healthy eating kick and would kill for something really naughty like that!! 🙂
The santa line is the worst!! Everyone ends up disappointed and on the edge of out of control. #bigpinklink
As soon as my kids break up from school they are driving me potty. whining and whinging all the time! #BigPinkLink
We are having our first family Christmas Day at home… my exoectTions of cooking all day for the shortest Christmas Day dinner at the table ever are probs quite realistic 😉 #bigpinklonk
Ha ha this is so funny! I can’t wait to hear how this year goes xx #bigpinklink
Haha this made me laugh! Our first Christmas with the girls, I was SO excited thinking they would be in their element, that it would be totally magical and amazing. Instead we got up no Christmas morning and when we came downstairs to see all of the presents waiting….they both lay down on the floor and sobbed! #bigpinklink
brandy butter on toasted panettone is def acceptable 🙂
We also anticipate a lovely family day, where in reality we end up snapping at each other and we rush to get food on the table and keep kids entertained! I usually prefer boxing day #bigpinklink
I always have expectations that it will be marvelous with no moaning children etc but in reality there isn’t a day go’s by when my daughter doesn’t have at least one madam strop so I’m sure Christmas day will be exception lol! #bigpinklink x
Haha! This is so funny for me because I always have such lovely expectations for Christmas that then falling flat on their face! I’d add Decorating the Christmas tree to the list. I always picture this amazing scene of a cosy hallmarkesque quality where we are all decorating a perfect tree with perfectly spaced decorations with a roaring fire and Bing Crosby spouting out white Christmas or even a nice Christmas film playing in the background… but it’s always a chaotic scene of old boxes that smell slightly damp with a wonky fake tree who should have been retired years ago being adorned willy nilly with ornaments I can’t recall buying. My OH gets bored after 5 mins, last year my son was a baby so was watching nursery rhymes on YouTube and not fussed by Christmas in the slightest and I think I was hoovering up bits of tree and tinsel at 11pm. Hallmark eat your heart out! #pinkylinky
Oh yes get filling those days but not with santa visits perhaps! Ahh I’m looking forward to chrimbo, I look forward to reading about your sparkly adventures! Oh and festive craft ideas! #bigpinklink
Love it, all too true! Mine would be: Expectation: Children love all their presents you spent time and effort planning and saving for. Everything is stuff they will love and get excited over.
Reality: It’s all too much, the kids can only cope with a couple of presents before becoming overwhelmed and agitated. The favourite present is the 50p pack of hair clips in their bloody stockings!!!
I love Christmas… Honest! Kids make it so magical 😉
#BigPinkLink
I always manage to overeat on Christmas! But then again, isn’t that what it’s all about! #bigpinklink
This did make me chuckle! I think my biggest disappointment is usually expecting my husband/niece/brother/friend to react as if my present is the best thing they’ve ever been given and then them seeming pretty underwhelmed… my husband is the worst for that! I also think it’s going to be the most fun, leisurely week or however long and then it completely flies by! #bigpinklink
Oh so true especially the jeans. As I usually stay with family I would say: expectation: You will have lots of laughs and fun, playing games and watching old TV shows with your family. Reality: After 2 days you are really getting on each others nerves! #bigpinklink
Ha ha ha, this is so true, especially about the tighter jeans! My reality was that Christmas day could actually be quite dull – once you’d opened your pressies at 6am it was a long slog til lunch and Top of The Pops. My reality now is that it won’t be bloody restful at all and will just be as manic as ever, only booze-soaked #bigpinklink
I have super low expectations for Christmas this year – days trapped with the Outlaws With now trains running for ages to enable my escape because Christmas is on a Sunday this year. All I can hope is the reality is not quite as bad as I’m imagining… #bigpinklink
Hahaha expectations ruin everything don’t they? Funny post and a good reminder to keep expectations in check. #bigpinklink
I love Christmas, but I usually end up feeling tired by about 2pm and then just want to snooze for the rest of the afternoon! #bigpinklink
Oh brilliant Lou…!! I can imagine it panning out very similarly in our house-especially as we’ve bogged up taking the children to a ‘different and much better’ grotto to see Santa this year-I know they’ll probably moan and be disappointed!! And I know I’ll step on the scales with the expectation that I’ll only have put on 1lb maximum… well, it’s inevitable where that one is headed!! At least the boys nursery stays open over the holidays-thank god!! X
Erm hello? “brandy butter on toasted panettone for breakfast” ?? Why have I never thought of this? Is it acceptable to start this tradition in November? Sounds amazing! So pleased that you had a great Christmas – and I love love love that the 29th is still Christmas for you! I get really stressed out when everyone starts to insinuate that the festivities are over once we’ve seen out boxing day. Christmas is Christmas until 2nd Jan people!! Crack open the brandy butter I say! #bigpinklink x
Putting new jeans on the Christmas list now… good thinking. #bigpinklink
I am seriously thinking of sleeping in my jeans the day before I want to wear them so that they are nice and stretched out- they are THAT flippin tight already!
#bigpinklink
This is why I don’t bother with Christmas, I just sit back, shout humbug every now and again, and have zero expectations of joy. Then when something good happens I can really appreciate it. lol
You will eat yourself silly and enjoy every minute of it cracked me up. Last year my husband got the stomach flu just before Christmas and this was his thought right until that hit. And then of course he didn’t enjoy any of it. But I had totally forgotten about that until I read this.
Haha, this made me laugh! My jeans are always tighter!
#bigpinklink
Last year I was excited about giving my three children under four years old their presents. Reality: they weren’t interested in the presents, one of them liked the wrapping paper, one of them wanted to watch Peppa, one of them cried. Another year on, we are getting them one present each, something they really want, and then doing some ‘fun’ activities. Yes, Santa, and also a trip to the Nutcracker for my now 4 year old. Could be a disaster! Off to the shops to buy some bigger jeans…. #BigPinkLink
I can’t wait for the festive cheer again this year. Brandy butter on toasted panettone? Now why didn’t I think of that sooner? #bigpinklink
Was confused for a momento & thought I’d missed Christmas reality vs expection can be dramatically different. I’m worried my son will cry at not getting the £300 car he wanted!!! #bigpinklink Lifeinthemumslane
So true! I’m already planning for that week before Christmas! They are always so excitable, we have to get out of the house!! bigpinklink
Thankfully my daughters too little to know about Christmas as she’s just turned 2. Of course that hasn’t stopped me booking TWO trips to see Santa this year (spot the overexcited adult). Post Christmas, I’m sure I’ll be able to add to your list a truth about the first Santa meet – not awe and wonder, but tears and fearing for her life! LOL
Hahaha! Oh man, the holidays are always so exciting and so DIFFERENT than our dreams of them! Great post! #bigpinklink
Ha ha! Reality is always different to expectations. Last Christmas was great, with family at the beach, but this year is going to be very different; my husband will probably only get one day off work. Apparently, my two and a half year old wants a bag of marshmallows for xmas, so presents will be cheap!! Better make the most of that while it lasts! #BigPinkLink
Haha, love this!
Every year my expectation is that we’re going to have a lovely family Xmas meal and every year the reality is that there is always an argument at the table about something or another! Maybe if I swap expectation and reality around then it might work out the other way around! #bigpinklink
I cannot believe how quickly it is coming. Not one present sorted; though my expectation is to be sorted by the start of December. Reality; no chanceroo! #bigpinklink
Sometimes, in the moment simply sucks ducks, but in the rear view mirror, it was magic. Making memories… #BigPinkLink
This makes me excited for Christmas! The jeans thing doesn’t make me excited though, I have consumed so much cake on maternity leave that they only just do up anyway so I have no hope after Christmas! #bigpinklink
Aargh the Christmas dream vs yhe reality – gets me every time. Especially the thing about the kids being off and no school run, then within 24 hours I am wishing the days away because they’re all trying to kill each other…. need to remind myself of the realities this year xx #bigpinklink
Hehe – it was our first Christmas with a nearly 1 year old last year and I was all for going to see Santa… of course she cried! I’m now expecting the same this year… she’s still too much of a scaredy cat for strange men! #bigpinklink
Oh expectations v reality – I’m dreading the reality already. I stupidly overthink things and know in years to come the excitement of presents and sugar overload will be horrendous #bigpinklink
it will be our first Christmas with our 7 month old (he will be 8 on Christmas) son! 🙂 I can;t wait
#bigpinklink
Yes the tight jeans and it takes till April to shift the muffin top, oh and of course the boredom, we’ve had enough of presents and Christmas TV! Can’t wait for this Christmas though! #bigpinklink
My birthday is in that lull on 30th, Evie is always away from boxing day until new years day so I’m going to celebrate with a cheeky Nandos for the day I turn 28. Woohoo. I can’t believe it’s only three weeks until Evie finishes school for Christmas though, this half term is going by so fast! #BigPinkLink
Ha ha, this is all so true, especially the heartburn and indigestion. I would also add:
Expectation: the kids are going to love their presents and spend all Christmas Day playing happily.
Reality: they’ll rip all the paper off pile the presents in the corner then play the iPad/say they’re bored all day
#Bigpinklink
It’s not long to go now. I build it up in my head so much, and the day just goes so quickly. Then it’s time for bed and another 364 days until the next Christmas. I hope you have a fab Christmas this year. Claire x #BigPinkLink
I must confess I really dont like that week between christmas and new year. Its so boring!! I have had enough of junkk food and begin craving salads, the christmas decorations suddenly just look a mess and there are no more presents to give out. Basically I morph into the grinch at 12 midnight on boxing day.
#bigpinklink
And this is why I have learnt to lower my expectation 🙂 It’s not worth it. I’ll take whatever comes and do the best I can with it x #bigpinklink
It’s so easy to big these things up – better to start with low expectations so the reality can only be better!! #bigpinklink
Oh there is nothing like a few expectations not living up to reality especially at Christmas. I still yearn for snow, a beautiful house with a sweeping staircase and a huge fireplace with a real fire to hang the stockings from!
Every year I say I will be more Christmassy, I am not actually sure what I mean by that!
#BigPinkLink