Well it seems a very long time since I put pen to paper, or in this case finger to phone to write about what I’ve been up to and what clothes have been successful.
So, let’s start by saying I really hope you have had a wonderfully happy Christmas, I personally feel far more positive and far less stressed than I did leading up to Christmas.
I had an incredible Christmas period, plenty of love and laughter, and food, oh God, soooo much food. :)
Which brings me swiftly on to successful dressing. I measure my clothes not only on the aesthetics of an outfit, and the comfort of it but my top priority for dressing well is bag leak prevention.
An outfit that I can spend all day in and eat to my hearts content (although that maybe be an oxymoron as I ate turkey dripping on toast at one point and I have a sneaky feeling that my heart was less than happy about that) is classed as a success.
I‘ve not only had a very happy Christmas I’ve had a bag leak free one too.
I’m Suzanne and I am a worrier, I can usually go right off track and find things to worry about that really don’t even need a second thought. I fret at Christmas time, always have.
I get myself in such a pickle. It’s not even about trying to create the perfect Christmas, that part will be what it will be. I just get worried about my friends and families health and safety…not in the work place sense. I just have this worry about people getting poorly or in accidents. It’s really weird. It happens during the year but my goodness me it hits a peak at Christmas time.
For obvious reasons this year my main area of concern is Sam, and his biopsy results from the oncologist.
We’re all pretty confident that seeing as his follow up appointment isn’t till 29th Jan it can’t be anything too worrisome, but there it is in the back of my mind, popping up at inopportune moments.
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t keep it under control, this worry (this anxiety) usually leads me to having horrific bowel ache and eventually savage indigestion…it makes for a pretty miserable time, trapped wind et al is no laughing matter.
But this year things have been different. My bowels/stoma have behaved like an absolute dream.
Guts of steel this year, even under genuine provocation. The only thing that’s different, the only thing I can put it down to is that seed mix I mentioned a few weeks back. That’s the only change I’ve made to my diet. And in my 46 years of getting anxious at Christmas this is the first time I’ve had bearable bowels.
I feel I should become an ambassador for “D mix” hahahahaha. It’s revolutionised my life.
I noticed it’s power over my temperamental belly whilst we were in Austria at the beginning of December.
I don’t ski (although I can stand up and move down very slight inclines as of December 2019 thank you very much), I don’t apres ski as I don’t drink, so the only thing I can join in with is a hot chocolate up a mountain, but, I have a food intolerance to chocolate (yes, I agree I’m quite the pain aren’t I), but this trip instead of the usual colicky/gripey pain I usually get after an over indulgence of hot chocolates thousands of feet up a mountain I was completely gripe free.
D mix again. That’s all that’s different this year.
The marketing team should get in touch, I’d happily sell this stuff! It’s just works.
My friend that bought some at the same time is having the same success on it too.
A couple of friends have suggested it’s a placebo effect, and even if that’s true I’d be happy to recommend it because I’m gut ache free for the most part.
In fairness it wasn’t able to cope fully with the mince pies, Christmas pudding or Christmas cake…but I fared a hell of a lot better than most years (are you noticing a general trend that even though a particular food gives me rotten gut ache I still partake…and that ladies and gentlemen sums me up to a tee! I am a greedy, foolish glutton and Christmas time is my season. Hahahahaha).
All joking aside though, if you can get bowel pain under control you have the golden ticket.
Oh and another knock on effect has been sleeping better. I get about 5-6 hours solid sleep now!! 5-6!!! I was getting maximum of 2 solid hours, with regular, wakeful interruptions I’ve even been able to reduce the amount of phenagan (an antihistamine used as a sleep aid) I use too.
So what is D mix? Well that bit I’m not really sure about, it’s a mix of seeds and powders, all of which individually help sooth bowels, but together seem to work wonders.
Chris hates the flavours, he’s not a fan of some of the ingredients, but I really love it.
Not only is it full of soothing things, the idea is to chew it thoroughly, I’m a terrible chewer, my teeth don’t line up so it makes it more of a challenge but on top of that I’m greedy and lazy.
You take the mix after each meal. You chew it 30-40 times, that action alone leads to digestive juices flowing freely which in itself aids digestion.
No, I don’t work for the company, I buy mine from Amazon like everyone else but I thought I’d share this little find with you as it’s helped me and my friends.
Right so that’s how I managed to have a happy Christmas and now on to what I was able to wear, with comfort and aesthetics in mind.
This dress has been an absolute God send.
I bought it in Primark for £15 a few weeks back but it’s a great all rounder. I wore it to Chris’s birthday meal, dressed up with fancy boots and jewellery.
I wore it to a meeting in London with casual boots, and I wore it to lunch Christmas Eve with in between boots, and just to be clear, yes, I wear my clothes time and time again. I have this wonderful invention called a washing machine. Hahahahaha.
Dressed down with casual biker boots…
With a slightly dressed up Tory Burch boot.
The dress below is the similar style to the leather look one, but is made with sparkly thread, but disappointingly, no pockets.
Sparkly Dress from Primark, also £15. Perfect Christmas Day attire. New Choos care of my lovely hubs.
Wellies from Le Chameau, Coat from Belstaff
With the new found sleep I’m getting I feel pretty darn perky, which is good news for Pepper dog. We very much enjoyed our Christmas Day walk together.
Christmas Day was a quiet affair, we had invited some friends that are over from Mumbai to us for the day but they were unable to get to us from a very closed down London (no transport at all runs, who knew?) so in the end it was just Chris, Ben and my mum and dad over for lunch.
The highlight of the day being a FaceTime chat with Zak, Sam and Milly.
Yes, you read that right, I did indeed get all dolled up to just sit in my own living room with just my own close family, it’s really a Christmas tradition. Hahahahaha
Then Boxing Day our friends and their twins came over, which was great fun.
I dressed in casual, stretchy trousers and nice top. I had eaten mince pies and Christmas pudding by this point so I wasn’t feeling as chipper as I had. ;)
And then the day after Boxing Day is when the spirit of Christmas really came to visit us! Zak arrived!
I’m going to go full on boastful Nana now but he really is the most beautiful, incredible baby, as well as being a literal miracle baby.
One of the loveliest things we were able to do is take Zak to the Nayling Road lights, we’ve been taking our boys to this local Christmas attraction since they were tiny, and now we have a new tradition of taking Zak.
Making memories has been the most incredible experience.
Then Saturday, I believe it was Saturday anyway, all of my family are in construction so they pretty much have two weeks off at Christmas every year, so I have no idea what day or date it is.
So, Saturday Chris, Ben, Kaitlyn and I went off to London to meet with our friends that are over from Mumbai, while Sam, Milly and Zak visited my parents.
Dress from Michael Kors, Boots from Russell and Bromley.
Cape from Burberry, Bag from Valentino Rockstuds.
I wore a dress for brunch with our friends, as I’ve said many times before dresses are the easiest thing to eat in. Why make life difficult for yourself, why take the risk of leaks when you don’t really need to.
I wore my beautiful Burberry cape because I’m totally in love with it, yes, I’ve had comments (from family (insert eye roll here) that I look like an extra on Call the midwife…or my personal favourite a witch, well, so be it, I look like a classy witch at least. Hahahahaha
We had brunch at a place in London called Duck and Waffle, we’d not been before but it’s got great views of London as it’s on the 40th floor of an office block near Liverpool Street station.
Unsurprisingly to some their signature dish is duck served on a waffle, it’s not for me but the others seemed to enjoy it.
We had such a lovely time, it was so good to see our friends again, although I talk to Seema on a regular basis, it was so good to see them in the flesh again.
We had a very leisurely brunch. It was great fun. The restaurant was great and I would go back, I just wouldn’t order the Duck & Waffle…
Then Sunday came (it’s all felt like a Sunday to be honest) and it was time for a slothing day.
Some days are just baggy clothes days. I love getting dolled up and going somewhere nice but sometimes it’s just as lovely to stay home in your comfies, especially with your grandson staying (I thoroughly recommend getting some of them hahahahaha).
We had a fantastic day, my friend Kim came in the afternoon with the twins, and we all walked to the local park.
I had to restrain myself from knocking on the doors of everyone I know in the village to show my boy off. Hahahahaha
Then it was back home for a vat of hot chocolate with accoutrements.
I can’t take credit for this idea as my hairdresser told me about what her mum does on Boxing Day.
She makes up a large slow cooker full of hot chocolate, leaves it on the go all day for people to help themselves. She has a whole hot chocolate station with marshmallows, mini chocolates and squirty cream… I loved the idea so much I stole it! Hahahahaha
Zak had some friends come to play.
Then Monday came and with great sadness it was time to say goodbye to Zak, Milly and Sam (did I mention how clever my grandson is, if you say ‘bye’ he waves, even without prompting, so so smart that one).
But one final task that needed to be done was planting out some of our Christmas trees, the kitchen one and the one from Ben’s room.
With Zak and all heading home after the tree planting, and getting no lunch from us (can you believe it, with all the food that’s been through the house in the last week I didn’t even have any bread to offer sandwiches for lunch! Hostess with the most-ess I ain’t! Hahahahaha), it just seemed like the Christmas celebrations were over for another year. So they were packed away ready for the early start again next year. I put them up at the end of November so I’m done by now. Hahahahaha
The year is fast drawing to a close and I’m excited for the roaring Twenties!
Wishing you and your family and happy and healthy new year. xxx