Hello, and I hope your Christmas went well.
We had our proper family Christmas on the 14th December, which was so lovely. Everyone came, it was incredibly magical.
We’re not religious, so Christmas to us is a family feast day, a celebration of how lucky we are. It’s not necessarily on 25th December.
We had a lot of prior warning that neither of the boys would be with us on actual Christmas. Ben and Erin decided that from this year on they would alternate where they spent future Christmases, and they very kindly gave us a year to get used to the idea and plan something of our own.
I spoke to someone who said “oh, that’s the trouble with being a boy mum” when I said Ben would be in Liverpool and Sam would be in Hampshire.
But it’s not a boy mum thing at all. It’s a distance from home thing. In my opinion it’s fair that Christmases are spent with alternate families if you are in a relationship. (That’s what Chris and I used to do before it was only my mum and dad in our life).
I explained to my mum and dad that we’d be booking something to do, to keep us occupied and distracted, because although I utterly approve and support my boys doing whatever makes them happy, I knew Chris and I would be incredibly sad and miss them.
So he came up with an unexpected and amazing plan! (He is the best, I will be keeping him on past his probation period). I was laying on the settee with Chris, fretting about it just before New Years last year (like I said, Ben and Erin gave us plenty of warning), and Chris just exclaimed ’BOOKED IT!!’
Booked what I had no idea, but he then said he’d booked us into The Savoy in London for Christmas 2024.
He felt I wouldn’t want to go away anywhere too far away, which limited the scope of our travel plans, as I would still be visiting my parents at some stage over the Christmas period.
I let my mum and dad know the plan, and that we’d visit them on Boxing Day evening, which would be different to normal because we’ve hosted everyone at ours for the most part in the last 28 years of having the boys on earth.
Mum and dad decided that they fancied doing something different this year too, so they booked to go to Malta for two weeks over Christmas and New Year.
So with everyone sorted with their own plans, Sam, Mils & Zak in Hampshire, Ben and Erin in Liverpool, and my mum and dad in Malta, we set about our plan to ward off any sadness and checked into one of the best hotels in the world, and one of our favourites in the UK…and we were having such a nice time we had forgotten we had kids anyway! (I’m jokkkkking of course)
But my heart was happy that everyone was with the people they love, doing what makes them happy. That’s the only gift a parent really needs, for their children to be happy, loved and cared for, living independently, bold and confident enough to go out into the world ~ we were all exactly where we were meant to be.
We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve Eve, when Chris and I went to the beach at Frinton for fish and chips.
Gilet from Max Mara Weekend, Hat from Aime Leon Dore, Jumper from Gyles & George, Jeans from Topshop, Shoes from Gucci
And then it was on to our main plans for the festive period…
As distractions go, this plan was absolute heaven. We arrived to check in, and The Savoy had very kindly upgraded us to a suite for free, and decorated it with a tree, for free (they’re quite expensive to book one for the room, I had enquired about decorations before we came, but I couldn’t really afford to add to our already expensive festivities. (but obviously I couldn’t cope without having a tree and our Christmas our decorations with us, so I bought a pop up Christmas tree from Amazon for £24 and packed some of my favourite decorations to take with us, and felt that they would have to do.
But The Savoy gifting us one of their beautifully decorated trees was amazing, and very gratefully received, and much appreciated.
Funnily enough I didn’t bother getting my shiny little pop up tree out this time. But I will save it for any Christmas where we are away from home (which will be every other year from now on).
Plus the fabulous Belinda, head of flowers at the Savoy, who you might have seen on The Savoy television programmes, did the most beautiful festive flower bouquet for us, I felt very lucky and very blessed, and very spoiled.
Christmas will at times look different to what you are used to, the key to navigating it is to do something that makes you happy. Not necessarily booking into a hotel, but there are plenty of options and opportunities available, with a bit of googling you can find them.
If I, for whatever reason no longer have anything to do at Christmas, I think I’d either take up the offer from friends to visit with them, or volunteer at a soup kitchen somewhere. I’d make sure whatever I was doing I was doing because I wanted to, to put a positive, where I might struggle. (Not done because I like helping others particularly, but from experience knowing that doing something to help someone else lifts my spirits).
This trip was dreamy, for the most part. There were moments throughout Christmas Day I felt a little sad, and at times it didn’t feel like Christmas Day at all, but they were short lived flashes. I acknowledged those feelings, it wasn’t just me that felt it too, Chris was having the same pangs of separation, and then we reset and got on with enjoying ourselves.
Christmas Eve we arrived at noon and checked in, our newly upgraded junior suite was available straight away, which is always nice.
The receptionist took us to the room and it was glorious! The decor in this particular part of the hotel is art deco, one of my two favourite styles (the other being Moorish architecture).
*The other option Chris had considered for our Christmas was Burgh Island Hotel, but as it’s down off the coast of Devon it wouldn’t have been possible to visit my parents on Boxing Day.
Burgh Island Hotel is a breathtakingly beautiful Art Deco hotel, we have stayed a few times and it’s stunning.
So walking into a deco suite in The Savoy was such a delight.
We unpacked, and decided to head downstairs for a spot of lunch.
We gave the newly refurbished Gallery restaurant (formerly The Thames Foyer) a try. The maitre’d asked us what we’d like to eat, at the same moment some else said to the staff member next to us that they were checking in for afternoon tea.
And I thought “oh yes, that’s what I had wanted for today” but hadn’t wanted to pile on more stress of pre-booked things. I was already stressed about being well enough to do the trip we had planned (I am a monstrous ridiculous germaphobe with health anxiety).
Anyway, I tentatively asked if they had availability for afternoon tea, and after a bit of checking and conferring she said yes they did!
Usually you have to book months in advance.
So what I had wanted to do came true! This day was going incredibly well. A free upgrade, free Christmas tree, now availability of afternoon tea. I felt very fortunate.
I made a decision that I would not buy anything new for this trip. It was already costing enough, without needlessly spending on clothes I most definitely don’t need. I own lovely clothes. So I used what I already had.
Usually my insecurity about being dressed for the occasion would take over and I’d buy indiscriminately, but I really want to be more careful with purchases in future.
The jumper and boots are years old. The boots were bought in a moment of rashness, I thought I’d get a lot of wear out of them. But realistically how much wear would you get from burgundy velvet boots? They are basically Christmas boots.
Jumper from Kate Spade, Boots from Ralph Lauren, Skirt from M&S.
The afternoon tea was festive themed and utterly delicious. What a treat! How lucky to have availability left.
We felt completely stuffed from all the extremely delicious carbs, so Chris suggested a walk, and very kindly he walked us to Covent Garden tube station, for the Piccadilly line…to Harrods. Which came as a great surprise to me, as we had both decided that we’d be mature enough to accept the expensive trip to the Savoy as our gift to each other.
He’d bought me a few things leading up to Christmas, so they were wrapped and placed under the tree. But he didn’t buy me anything to open as a surprise, and usually I’d have the right hump about it, but this trip was spenny. And this year has been ridiculously expensive in general with one thing and another, so I was gracious enough to accept the trip was the gift. (I knowwww, right!! I’m maturing maybe!?). 😂
I’d bought Chris some Lego sets to open as a surprise, but no big purchases were made.
So him taking me to Harrods was a bit of a shock. But he said he had wanted to get me something little, and that I might as well choose it.
I didn’t see much I fancied, I am trying to be more conscious of what I buy, running the computer program in my head of cost versus wears.
He picked up a dress and said how gorgeous it was, and that I should try it on. Plus it was in the sale, happy days!!
I wasn’t quite sure but I tried it on at his suggestion…it fit like a glove! Felt like a dream! And looked great in our opinion, which are the only ones that count anyway.
And I could see plenty of wears in it.
We took it to the checkout to pay for it, and it had a further £40 off!! This day was just getting luckier and luckier!
So under the tree were the wrapped, but previously received gifts to me, Chris’s surprise Lego sets and my new dress.
We headed back to the hotel to have a chill out and go for a swim. The hotel has a pool so you might as well use it.
Christmas Eve evening we decided we’d had a big enough day, and a long enough walk, and swim, so we spent the evening reading books I’d bought for us, in the matching Christmas pyjamas I’d bought to bring with us (the only new clothes bought for the occasion), in our room.
We then got a bit peckish, and ordered room service.
We both fancied the chicken curry. So that’s what we did with, in our suite, in our matching pjs.
And it was heaven. It was only Christmas Eve and we’d had a fabulous time already!
We had the entire pool to ourselves. Which was such a treat.
This was our first matching pyjamas Christmas.
(The Savoy have a snow machine every ten minutes at lunch time and between 5-7pm).
Christmas Day arrived, I unwrapped my wrapped up but known about gifts, while Chris unwrapped his surprise Lego (I say surprise, but he loves Lego and I buy loads for him, so I imagine there was some small expectation on his part).
And then we headed down to breakfast. It felt weird. It didn’t feel like our normal Christmas, but it was nice enough.
We ate loads, if carb loading was a sport we’d have won gold! We assumed everything would be closed on Christmas Day in London, so we stocked up on breakfast to see us through till dinner.
…we also, quite wrongly, thought we’d have London to ourselves, we assumed it would be like during lockdown when we used to head up to town to Fortnum’s to do our supermarket shopping, where there was not a soul to be seen.
I imagined the scenario where we’d be one of only a handful of people, the streets would be silent and it would look like a scene from the film 28 Days Later.
Think again my friends, think again. It started off relatively quiet, but soon became the bustling metropolis that it is!! The only difference being not much is open, although, surprisingly more than we expected to be open.
Pret was open, a couple of Costa’s were open, Bella Italia, and a few London souvenir shops were open. So you had a normal Sunday amount of people, with very little to eat or do.
We were planning on going for a walk, with our expectation of being the only ones there. But as that wasn’t panning out as we had thought it would, we noticed that the London open top bus tours were running. So I said let’s do that! So we did!
Which was most definitely different to what our normal Christmas Day would look like.
It was really good, even though we’ve been on them before.
The tour guide was actually very knowledgeable, interesting and engaging, probably one of the best we’ve had.
He gave lots of facts we’d never heard before, can’t remember much of it now, but a few that stuck were; There is a bridge over the Thames, which was pretty much constructed only by women, during World War 2, which came in on budget and on time, make of that what you will…and that Florence Nightingale introduced the world to nursing and nurses during the Crimean war, introduced hand washing before seeing to patients, and that she carried her pet owl round in her apron pocket, an owl no less, that she had taught to bow and courtesy, all very cute but probably negates all the handwashing hygiene practices. ;)
All interesting stuff. We stayed on for a couple hours whiling away our very different Christmas Day.
I have some very specific requirements of Christmas weather. It needs to be snowy, or at least very cold, preferably that sunshiney, cold frosty weather.
Well, it didn’t live up to my hopes, but it was nippy, and it didn’t rain, so I felt it was acceptable enough. Hahahah, like I have any say in weather fronts!
We then got off at Trafalgar Square and walked back to the hotel, I can’t believe I’m saying this but it was just too busy out there, which is weird because we spend a lot of time in busy London. But I think it was our expectation verses the reality that was off.
So we went back to the hotel, stood outside to enjoy the ‘snow’ again for a bit and then headed to the guests lounge to enjoy the mince pies and hot chocolate (which were actually free as it turned out!! Happpppy dayyyysss).
Then we headed back to the room to get changed for swimming. One of the things I was determined to do on Christmas Day was swim. I wanted to do things that were completely different from the usual routine.
And we did.
Top and trousers from M&S, Shoes (my new ones Chris bought me for Christmas from Kate Spade), Scarf from Hermes.
People are often surprised that I wear a bikini. Age seems to be a main reason for consternation, and then stoma owning.
Add to both those factors that I have two hernias too, and you think I’d not want to wear one myself.
Age is but a number, and life is way too short to give a flying fuck about other people’s expectations and general thoughts.
They are welcome to their opinion, they just don’t need to share it with anyone. It’s okay to have an opinion on something, on anything come to that, and it’s also okay to hold it within, or gossip with your friends about it like normal people. ;)
I noticed on twitter recently people give their two pennies about things that are nothing to do with them, I thought it was a bit tragic actually.
Imagine in real life someone you don’t know coming up to you in the street and giving you their unsolicited opinions of you?! You’d think they were quite mad.
Imagine thinking so highly of yourself that the person you are giving that opinion to would care. Hahahaha.
So yes, if I feel like it, I’ll bikini. I do most everything because I feel like it. Strongly recommend it too, life is incredibly precarious, and precious to worry about other people’s opinions.
Swim finished - we were exhausted by the way, we’ve never done so much exercise, ever, let alone on Christmas Day!
We chilled out in the room before we got all washed, and gussied up for our Christmas Day meal.
Our booking was for 5.30pm, not a time that we’d usually have it, but we left it too late to book anything, plus we thought it would work well for our stay, to maximise the use of our time there.
This trip cost a lot, sacrifices had to be made to pay for it, not getting extravagant gifts being the main one. This trip was the gift to each other. I’m very grateful to Chris for arranging it.
Usually, I’m like a magpie, I love shiny things. But I also knew that if I was sat at home with a new shiny thing, but alone without the boys I’d be absolutely in pieces, so a decision was made.
We booked The Savoy Grill for our dinner. If I’m being completely honest, the meal was monstrously overpriced. But you are paying for where you are, on the day you are (I’d like to think the staff were well paid for the day, I hope so anyway), rather than what you eat.
And we’d left it a bit late in the day to book anywhere else before we realised the price. All learning experiences, we’ll know for next time.
We’ve been to The Savoy Grill before, we know the food is okay, and it’s a roast turkey dinner on Christmas Day, so you can’t really go wrong.
We were full and satiated, but not blown away. But it’s great people watching, and we had a fab table to be able to do so. (Would I pay all that money out again for people watching? No, I’d rather have a pair of shoes. But you don’t know what you don’t know. And we now do know there are things we’d do differently for Christmas 2026, when Ben will be in Liverpool again).
We could have gone for a week in the Caribbean for the same price as this mini break, so who knows, maybe next time. 🏝️
This year was a success because it achieved what we had hoped for. I’m so happy with how it turned out. It was weird to not be with Ben, but we were very happy that he was happy where he was, and we were happy and occupied too.
We spoke to Zak, Sam and Milly on FaceTime, and Zak said he’d had the best Christmas ever! And that he’d got everything he’d ever wanted. He was so adorable. What a gift he himself is.
We spoke to Ben who was having a lovely time too.
And in fairness we’ve had weirder Christmases, we all went down with real flu one year, which was an absolute disaster, the one where Sam had cancer was a doozie, and the Covid years were proper grim too.
This Christmas wasn’t awful at all, far from it, it was just different, and different doesn’t mean worse…just…different.
We are very lucky that we were fit and healthy enough to enjoy the Christmas period. So many of our friends had been struck down with many and various lurgies. If you ended up with the norovirus or flu that’s doing the rounds, or the myriad of other diseases, I’m very sorry to hear that. There are few things more miserable than a sickness ruined Christmas. Sending love and wishes you a speedy recovery.
Christmas Day outfit…
Dress from Ralph Lauren, Shoes from Jimmy Choo
All owned prior to booking the trip. There is no need to buy for every new occasion (I was telling myself that, I appreciate you already knew) ;)
Chris said I shouldn’t play with my food, but little Gordon and I disagree ;)
The likeness is uncanny.
(The Grill at the Savoy is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant).
We had a really good time, we ate a lot, we laughed a lot, we were happy for the most part and loved that it was something utterly different to normal.
I think we both felt that this Christmas - Operation Occupy, was a roaring success!
We still had Boxing Day to go yet.
We had a very leisurely lie in, with breakfast in bed, then got all dolled up for lunch at our favourite restaurant Chutney Mary.
We love curry at any time. In India we had it breakfast, lunch and dinner.
When we arrived back to London from our trip to India, we put the suitcases in the car and drove straight to Chutney Mary for dinner….So it was the most obvious choice for Boxing Day.
Again, I wore my already owned clothes. Just tweaking it by styling them differently to how I’ve worn them before.
A very nice lady on the stairs in the Savoy stopped to tell me how utterly glorious she thought I looked in my festive outfit.
Which more than made up for the delightful one on Twitter who thought I was a “badly dressed, nasty smug woman”…
I mean, she’s not wrong on the smug bit, but it’s rude to assume! Hahahahah
Top from Sandro, Skirt from Ralph Lauren, Shoes from Aquazzura.
My legs (shins) are trashed, what with the skin cancer removal scar, and the dishwasher injury, but I decided to ignore them and wear my skirt with pride anyway.
We had a delicious lunch, and really good value too!
We will probably swap our meals round next time and have the curry Christmas Day. Seeing as we had our Christmas on the 14th December it was a bit silly to pay so much to have another one.
We know for next time. Every day’s a school day. ;)
After our lunch, we walked back to the hotel, it’s only a mile or so, which was much needed because we were stuffed full by this point.
I took foldable shoes in my handbag if you were wondering how I manage to walk over a mile in these shoes).
Then it was time to head home, back out into the outside world, back to reality, leaving our very enjoyable Savoy bubble behind…I did not leave willingly I can assure you. 🫣😂
Friday was just a normal day here in England, it’s not a bank holiday, but Chris works in construction, so he’s on leave still until January.
We decided to do our annual trip to Anglesey Abbey (we usually do this pre Christmas, but I had put us in lockdown beforehand to make sure we were virus free for our trip).
So the very happy town mouse had to become the country mouse again…
I bought this hat last year, and have worn it a grand total of once. So in my endeavour to re wear what I already own I got her out of her box.
Hat from Lairds, Coat from Max & Co - Max Mara, Boots from Penelope Chilvers, Jeans from Topshop, Jumper from M&S.
The Abbey was a delight as usual. But then Chris suggested we visit another stately home, as we were out and about anyway.
We really got our money’s worth out of our National Trust membership cards this day!
We headed to Wimpole Hall, and it was fantastic! We’ve not been at Christmas before. Definitely worth a visit.
It was a really nice way to spend the day. Chris asked what I wanted to do next, and I said “oh, nothing, I’m good”
He replied that he thought he could guess what I’d actually like to do. And I felt confident enough that he really wouldn’t.
…but then he followed it up with “You want lunch at the Carpenter’s Arms”…
And I was stunned, because that was exactly what I wanted to do! It’s usually part of our pre Christmas tradition, but because it was way over by the first stately home we’d visited in the morning there was no way I expected him to suggest we go back there for lunch.
So that’s what we did. We drove back to a pub near Anglesey Abbey for lunch.
It was the most perfect way to finish off our Christmas period.
We’ve had a fabulous time, it was definitely different to our previous Christmases, but different doesn’t mean worse! Far from it, it’s been an absolute blast.
(We did miss the boys, but our children grow up and live their lives. And what a blessing that is. I am very lucky to have them).
Plus I have these gorgeous little critters to come back to.
People ask me why I chose budgies as a pet. Well I wanted something to bring life and company to the home.
But I didn’t want the responsibility of anything furred.
Budgies are fabulous companions. And pretty easy to care for. (Apart from having to throw away or discontinue use of, all Teflon pans, candles, wood burners, perfume, hairspray etc because it kills them).
I stocked up their cage with food and water. I had a CCTV camera on them, I have two way contact with them via the CCTV camera. So I checked on them constantly. I played music on Alexa for them. And chatted to them throughout the time I was away.
Plus my friend, Sue was on standby for coming and seeing to them should it be needed.
Companionship and flexibility. They are the perfect pair.
It was lovely to come home to them. They seemed genuinely happy to see us too. Which was really nice.
A few thank yous needed as this is my last blog of the year;
Huge huge thank you to Chris for being my photographer. A job he didn’t ask for and doesn’t actually enjoy doing, but does it anyway. I will be forever grateful.
And big thanks to my mum for correcting my spelling and grammar, punctuation etc etc because I have dyslexia and zero understanding of any of it, and my mum loves grammar. Which is very handy.
Last but certainly not least,thank you to you for stopping by and reading my ramblings. You will never know how much it means to me.
Thank you for your messages of kind words and support. My heart is full. Xx
2024 was incredible, here’s to a very Merry new year all. Wishing you health and happiness for the year ahead. Xx