It’s Monday Jim, but not as we know it.

Ady’s work closes between Christmas and new year so depending on which days of the week the bank holidays fall on he gets up to 2 weeks off work but has to keep back however many working days that is from his annual leave.This annoys me as much as it is nice to have a proper break at Christmas having worked in retail for so many years (finish late Christmas eve when all the sale is set up ready to open early on Boxing Day so only the one day off) we tend to stay home for Christmas so it is days of his leave stolen from other times of the year when we could be away on holiday instead.

Also – and I’ve said this before and I’ll no doubt say it again – much as it is noce to have him around it upsets the dynamic between me and the kids which means we are all stressy with each other, everyone feels a bit ‘not normal’ which coupled with the feeling of the house being smaller anyway (influx of stuff, decorations making it feel cluttered), there being too many people in it all of the time and the children being full of chocolate, over excesses of gifts and not enough sleep there are always a few blow outs and tensions. This year we’ve also had low level illness (them and their fucking coughs!) and my own hormones added to the mix. It came to a head tonight with Scarlett and me and the children had a bit of a chat about it all while Ady was washing up and agreed that while Christmas is nice it comes at a bit of a price and goes on far too long and we are all pretty happy and content with the rythym of our days normally and don’t necessarily welcome all this upheaval to them.

I have been plagued by really vivid, really disturbing dreams every night for the last week or so. Ady’s blaming all the cheese I’ve been eating and who knows he may be right. I can’t remember any of them in the morning but wake feeling exhausted from all the activity during my dreams. Consequently I’ve been sleeping in in the mornings. On the plus side Ady makes me a cup of tea and Scarlett brings it up to me in bed and wakes me so it’s not all bad ;).

One of Ady’s Christmas presents was a top from Asda which he liked but noticed a hole in the collar, either where the label had been sewn in or perhaps where a security tag had been. So today we went to Asda to return it. I’d lost the receipt (I’m crap with receipts and never keep them) so he got the refund price for today rather than what I paid for it, which would have been fine if they’d had another to swap but they didn’t. Never mind, he got two other nice tops, also in the sale for not much more to pay. Davies got a couple of pairs of jeans and also swapped a Doctor Who figure he had a duplication of for 2 WALL.E figures (WALL.E and Eve).

We came home again, had lunch and then Ady and I decided to tackle our wardrobes. We had been planning to tidy up the playroom but there is still loads of Christmas food and craft kits that will probably get done over the next week so we decided to give that a few more days to clear stuff that will go anyway and do the wardrobe instead. Our wardrobes are built into the eaves of the roof and go back about 5 foot and are fronted by 3 full size internal doors so is quite a big space. Consequently it gets used as a dumping ground (mostly by Ady) which means when I want to find something like a pair of shoes or a bag which should legitimately be in a wardrobe I can’t because piles of stuff fall out on top of me instead. Behind the wardrobe, through a smaller door is the loft space (it is a truly Narnia-esque arrangement) which was mostly empty.

So we spent a few hours dragging out all of the stuff that was in there – proving my point about Ady shoving stuff in places there was a pc monitor, the portable tv I got for my 17th birthday, 2 (yes 2) DVD players, a box for a camera that has long since died, the tent, our sleeping bags and camping mats, 2 suitcases, 3 holdalls, boxes and bags full of outgrown kids clothes, 4 boxes of disposable cameras, loads of games and all the clothes and shoes that should rightfully be in there.

I sat and listed a pile of stuff on freecycle – some of which has already been collected, some of which is being collected tomorrow and anything left will go to the tip on Wednesday. I have a smaller pile to ebay – two motorcycle jackets that realistically we are not going to be using due to a) not having a motorbike b) not fitting in them anymore and c) having lost the nerve to be on motorbikes since becomming parents and realising our own mortality, a photo printer that connects direct to a camera and came with mine but I’ve never used, and a wetsuit that’s too small for anyone who lives here. I’ll get them listed tomorrow and if they don’t sell they can go on freecycle too. My car is loaded with stuff ready to go to the tip and the wardrobe is all neat and tidy with only clothes and shoes and the tent and sleeping bags stacked neatly at the back, easily accessible for when we next need them.

Ady went off to cook dinner while I finished sorting it all out and we all sat down to roast beef and watched the Northern Lights thing with Joanna Lumley together.