Jessica: family

This year Christmas has been brilliant this year because I've got to spend a lot of time with me immediate and close family. As I've now moved 2 hours or more away from my hometown, Doncaster, its quite hard to keep in touch constantly with family but Christmas, its the time of year for family togetherness.

Well Christmas Eve, we have a tradition that me, my mum, sister, auntie, uncle and 3 cousins all go to 'The Cumberland' which is a pub just up the round from me. We've been going there for a good 7/8 years and its always a right laugh (my Yorkshire dialect really came through in that sentence haha). Well this year was no different, we went up early afternoon and stayed till early evening (haha, no we're no alcoholics). But, it was also a little more special as my loooonggg childhood friend, Charlie, came up especially to see me know I was back from uni for a while which was great as I'd not see him since my uni leaving party. We played the usual card games, Chase the Ace and Snap, and like usual, I was out first and lost (I'm not all that good at card games haha). Unfortunately, I didn't take any photo's of it as I was too much into the family time.

So onto Christmas Day the biggie - as you can see from the size of the writing haha. Now both me and my sister are older, we don't get up as early as we used to on Christmas to open presents however, I do have the thing where I have to be asleep before midnight on Christmas Eve cos I like to wake up on Christmas (I'm strange haha).

So onto the presents I got off Santa ;) aka Mummy :D - it was good getting presents this year because I haven't been at home so meant so much more...

I actually bought this necklace for my sister but looking at it, you'll realise I have my own half to. Its so cute! We were wearing our necklaces all day yesterday and they'll be handy when I'm at uni and separated from Beth, my "lil sis"

New heels and there nude in colour so will go brilliantly with everything AND there wedges so there comfier that heels like stilettos which I sometimes struggle to walk in haha

A wonderful new collection of children's books - all of which will contribute to my Christmas work (my English journal). Also, being a trainee teacher I have to start my collection of quality children's literature so I think this is definitely a good, standard start to it.

[All Dinosaur] Calendar, Dot-to-Dot book, Top Trumps cards, Planet Dinosaur DVD, Jurassic Park DVD Triology, Volcano Making Kit

Now here is the collection of dinosaur items my mummy got me. I've always liked dinosaurs but since going to Natural History Museum and watching more documentaries on dinosaurs, I've become more and more obsessive with them so I got all this. I've always been a little geeky and dinosaurs and volcanoes are particular interests for me including any other natural disasters (don't laugh at my geekiness haha.. I have to be slightly childish to be a primary teacher haha).

This was a surprise and I know we have the Harry Potter collection in the cupboard singularly because we've bought them as family presents each and every time they've come out because we're big Harry Potter fans but mum surprised me with my very own HP collection. As the DVDs at home of the "family" DVDs I've not been able to take Harry Potter to university with me so this was perfect and I can take it back to uni with me :D

Tom Daley Calendar and Autobiography

No need to say anything else other than... OOOOOOFFFTTT!

Discovery USB Microscope

This was recommended by my Science tutor at university because it would be a good addition for my teaching supplies collection. Its a microscope which attaches to any laptop or computer and magnifies whatever you put under it (just like a normal microscope).. this is going to be useful in the teaching profession as it'll allow me to magnify children's work and other small things.

New ankle cowboy style boots!

Eyeshadow palette fro my sister :)

I GOT MY CONVERSE! There so gorgeous! Just the right colour for me, I absolutely love them! And will probably wear them all the time haha - both me and my sister got Converse for Christmas this year :)

Well we alternate where we have our Christmas dinner each year, normally its at our own house or grandparents. This year, it was our house as our grandparents were heading to my auntie and uncles house therefore, we had my other auntie and her 3 kids round for dinner, it was all quite hectic as we don't have a very big house.

Pictures from the day.. I didn't take many as I was too busy.. Less and less photo's are being taken each year at Christmas now :( ..

Cousin Dan not liking the fact he didn't win the cracker haha

I also never win these :( I have to cheat just to earn my Christmas hat haha

Cheers everyone! (Dan is so cute with his juice in a wine glass -.-)

Julie will hate me for uploading this but it makes me smile and shows how mad my family is haha

A nice photo of us :)

Cheese and Biscuit course like a picnic on the rug haha

The annual sister Christmas photo <3

Posing as usual ;)

Love this photo - I love my mummy <3

This is a corker of a photo too :D - pulling faces, typical us :)

Family photo <3

Christmas Pj's! - Its tradition to be bought pyjama's for Christmas.. As you can see, my sister has 1D ones *rolls eyes*

Now as a family we have a few traditions round Christmas which are highlighted in this post but another one is what we do on Boxing Day. On Boxing Day we traditionally remain in a pj's all day and watch films and mainly just chill, recovering from the hectic day before.

This year was slightly different as the films we've watched in years previously as normally, we'd begin to watch any DVDs we got for Christmas however, this year we just watching films that were on the television. So this year we started by watching Land of the Lost which was the first time we'd seen it, it was hilarious haha.. Love Will Ferrell! Next, we watched the last hour of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging which is something we went to the cinema to see as family but its still just as funny each time you see it haha (if your reading this and haven't see it, I recommend you see it!). The Spiderwick Chronicles followed this on E4+1 which was again, a brill film and we really got into it even though we were meant to be playing a game we'd got for Christmas, Call 'Em All (you probs wont know that but I'll take pics of the whole family playing it on NYE). Miss Potter was the next film we switched on which was a gorgeous film portraying Beatrix Potter's life and tribulations in being an author in the early 1900s. Hitch ended our film marathon which was played on Watch but Will Smith is a fantastic actor and I seem to love anything hes in like MIB 1,2 & 3, I Am Legend and of course, Hitch haha.

We had a little snack picnic feast on the carpet and it was funny because my mum was struggling to sit on the floor and eat.. It was the standing joke at this time but these are the pictures of our Boxing Day picnic feast:

A selection of garlic mushrooms, onion rings, mini fajitas, chicken satays (which Beth ate most of), potato skins, crackers and cheese, chips, pasta and sweet treats. It was all just so yummy!

And you can see my present stack in the distance haha.

However the bad news is that I'll be leaving you all hanging until the new year as I have a lot of uni work to complete and very little time to attempt to complete it. I'll be seeing friends back home and spending more time with my family.

I'll fill you in with all the news on the new year and all my new years resolutions in the new year.

Until then :)

I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you all the best for the New Year!

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer

What a weekend its been returning back to Doncaster for the first time since I left for university; its definitely been a roller coaster of emotions. The reason I've come back to Yorkshire this weekend is for my sixth form's presentation evening which is basically where everyone returns to school for one last evening of speeches and the presentation of our A-Level certificates.

So lets first tell you all about my journey back to Doncaster on Friday. Well, as you all know, Friday's are empty for me as I have no lectures so due to packing my suitcase the night before I got up, got ready and left my flat at university at 9.20am (pretty early for me!). Firstly, I was required to take the EdgeLink bus to the bus station and walk to short distance to the railway station. On arrival at the station I realised that I couldn't use my 16-25 railcard before 10am, fortunately I only had 15mins to wait until 10 so got a return ticket to set off from Ormskirk at 10.05am. The train required me to make 3 changes :( and by 11.22am I was only just setting off from Liverpool Lime Street station towards Manchester Piccadilly! By now, I was getting fed up of switching trains, having to find seats and lugging my suitcase around that I honestly.. nearly fell asleep on the train and would've missed my stop if my grandad hadn't rang me. So, my final train was from Manchester to Doncaster; the ironic thing was that I met with a friend from sixth form at Sheffield stop, who was changing there to come home for the same reason I was.

So, the presentation evening was interesting. It was brill seeing my past year; music friends; childhood friends; there was a substantial amount of people there which made it worth the while for going. After going up onto stage to collect my certificates and be congratulated my former teachers it was time for the traditional post-presentation evening event of going into town with all old friends and partying!

So, lets see the photo's from that night! By the way, according to my auntie, I'm starting to lose weight and she can tell now so I don't know whether anyone else can but I thought I'd share that with you as I'm proud that my cheerleading is finally taking its toll :D