'Did someone say Fristmas?'

As if my excitement for Christmas couldn't be any greater than it had already been, my excitement for Christmas has become even greater than it had already been: I've been officially invited to a celebration of  'Fristmas' ('Friends Christmas') on the day we finish exams - we're talking the full Christmas works: the food, the presents (Fris Frindel of course), the crackers, the drink (there was even a specific reference to mulled wine somewhere, no joke), but with the added pleasure of company of friends, and minus the excruciating displeasure of having to make conversation with weird uncles and listen to nana farting all through dinner. Whoever came up with this Fristmas idea should seriously be given very extensive supplies of both mulled wine AND hot apple cider.

I'm looking forward to it soooo damn much now. Despite all my talk of Christmas spirit, I have to say I had been a little worried about being stuck with family for the entire holiday. This will be our first Christmas spent 'normally' since my Mum died, and I know though we'll try our hardest to make it as enjoyable as we can that there's going to be times when we all feel dark and lonely. It really is going to be strange... Even as I write that it's our first normal Christmas I'm amazed by how unthinkable this idea is to me, how mysteriously time works; it has been so long since it happened, and yet it could still be yesterday to me. It's been the longest and the shortest time of my life. And I don't mind that that's going to be an unavoidable part of our Christmas from now on, that it's never going to be a wholly joyous event in our house, that there'll always be a cloud. It's just that when those lonely moments arise it's being around my friends that puts a smile back on my face, and I couldn't imagine not seeing them at all, being stuck in our empty house in the middle of Winter... And aside from that, there are the more obvious reasons why I'm looking forward to Fristmas, the chance to get absolutely langered namely. So bring on the Fristmas!

In other news, I finally have an update on the Missing Artist (breath, reader, breath; I know this is exciting for you): Our Art Teacher has informed us that he will be visiting us some time in the coming year, as he is 'otherwise engaged' with art stuff in London... shit. Still, better late than never!

Propa Crimbo

It's that time of year again! And I couldn't be more full of holiday cheer if you hooked the stuff up to my veins, or if you killed me, hollowed me out like a turkey, made holiday cheer stuffing, and crammed it up my ass.

I'm just one of those people who loves the Christmas Season. I can't help it. I wouldn't want to help it. While the rest of you scrooges were moaning about how the sudden drop in temperature these last few days has been giving you nipple frostbite, I've been relishing in this winter wonderland, licking frost off the ground like there's no tomorrow (not actually licking frost off the ground, because that's just dirty, but I was licking it with my eyes, as a watched it from the comfort of a warm fireside couch indoors, if that makes any sense at all, which it doesn't). Maybe it's my memories of last Christmas, which I spent in Canada with my cousins in their big mansion (expect some kind of look-back-to-last-Christmas blog in the near future for reasons why this was so amazing), which mean the cold weather evokes a sense of joy in my usually bitter and cold heart, I don't know. Whatever the reason is, I'm Christmas crazy and I'm hear to stay.

What do I love the most about Christmas you ask? Well, I'm a self-confessed lover of literally anything and everything to do with Christmas, but this year for some reason I've developed a deep desire, a craving much like the ones I assume pregnant women get, for mulled wine. I've only ever had mulled wine once, and that was years ago. I can barely remember the taste. But for some reason I want more of it, I want it so damn bad, I want pots and pots of it right now, steamy, sweet, warming, wholesome, liquidy, tasty, alcoholic, sexy mulled wine, and I want to be sitting around a real fire with my friends and we all have mulled wine in our hands and it's just starting to snow outside and there might be carollers somewhere maybe outside down the other end of the road I don't know.

When I sit and look at the frost outside I remember coming into my cousins house last year out of the bitter cold after a morning spent skiing - the wave of warmth when you get inside, the relief of peeling off the awkward ski-gear - lying down on the couch with the Little Sis watching Christmas with the Kranks drinking 'hot apple cider' to get some heat back into our frozen limbs. In fact, I like to imagine that mulled wine tastes a LOT like that hot apple cider did, which is probably just shameless nostalgia but anyway... it's weird though, who don't I just want hot apple cider? That would actually make sense... How fucked up do you have to be, honestly?

I went so far as to look up mulled wine on the interweb: it's a lot more complicated than I thought, I thought you just fucked wine in a pot and heated it, but as it turns out there are a number of finicky flavourings you need which probably make all the difference, most of which we just don't have, no matter how many times I empty the contents of our entire kitchen in search of them. So I've decided to make the Big Sis do it (what are women for anyway?); she'll probably make it better, and it means I don't have to do anything. So expect a euphoric after-sex mulled wine blog to follow this one, hopefully with a photo of me and the mulled wine in all its hot apple cider-esque glory. Alternatively, expect this to be my last ever blog, as I may die if and when the mulled wine does not taste exactly like the hot apple cider I had one time last year in Canada.

Adieu!