Christmas Day

Well it's been a lovely day, it's been a long day but lovely.

The day started at around 9.30am when I got up.... some people had been up
since 7am but the rest of the family decided to stay in bed....

When we had all assembled in the lounge - all six of us (mums and dads and
me and Mark) we started the mammoth operation that was present opening. I'm
sure there will be photographs posted in the next few days of the mountain
that was our presents but until then you're just going to have to believe me
that It was huge.

I had no idea of any of the presents that I had received this year, which
was really nice as it was a genuine surprise and a bit like being a kid
again....

It was nice to spend quality time with my parents as its not something I get
to do often, and having them in my own home and seeing them relaxed helped
the situation. Seeing both families together also made it a nice day. The
nice thing about today is, my dad was completely relaxed and had a nice
time. There is no issue of me and Mark from my dad like there was a couple
of years ago, but today really proved that he has no issues, he even managed
to get a couple of cheeky banters in with Lawrence and Mark.

After we had opened all our presents (and had a cuppa, we are British after
all) Michelle and Dave arrived, so we did it all, more presents and more
wrapping paper.

Mark, has done a sterling job this weekend of preparing and cooking the
dinner (although some fairies did peel the vegetables this morning when we
were in bed so thanks to them for that) We managed to get the dinner out in
a speedy fashion between me and Mark, and the whole process was pretty
simple. I even had the dishwasher running after the starters with the first
load of dishes, (I had already done 3 loads earlier in the morning) The
dinner was lovely and again it was a nice time to sit around the table and
laugh about things.

Lawrence thanked mark and myself for doing the dinner, but then also said
how proud he was of me for going through what am going through, and proposed
a toast. This got to me slightly and also got to my dad, so I tried to move
on as swiftly as possible, The Xmas dinner table isn't somewhere to be
dwelling on things like my illness.

Of all the things I wanted today, my illness not being centre stage has been
one of them, I haven't purposely mentioned it, and if people have asked me
to stop or sit down I have just said I am fine and carried on, although I
have at a couple of points today had t just sit and take a breath as I have
had an achy body, which is now becoming a regular occurrence, its just my
body's way of saying "slow down" I think, so I'm just going to have to
listen to what its saying.

Today has been nice as I have (and me and Mark collectively) have received
some lovely gifts from friends and family. We will be saying a personal
thanks to you all in the next few days and will ensure that we enjoy your
gifts. One in particular we will be enjoying at the start of next month,
which will be nice as its the day before my treatment starts again so will
be a nice "take your mind off it" experience.

I received loads of lovely gifts from Mark too, I think the nicest of these
is the Ruby ring. For those that don't know what Ruby signifies is Love, and
as he has already bought me loads of diamonds which signify forever, now he
can say he has given me love forever (mushy isn't it, but its really touched
me)

One thing we have both done today is thonk about memories, I bought Mark an
aftershave, which reminds me of the first few meetings with him, and he
bought me an aftershave of the first aftershave that we bought together.
Sounds daft but its these things that mean more to the two of us than other
gifts to each other, but was also sweet that we both did the same thing.

Its nearly 4am now as we haven't long since come back from Nick and Geoff's,
where we spent this evening, it was nice to let Tanja and Lawrence have time
with Michelle and Dave, and also for us to get out of the office. Nick got
an IPad for Christmas, and now I so want one, I want on a lot, and am sure
Mark does too, as he can play bejewelled on it in a much bigger format. I
will have to wait and see what the sales have to offer to see if I can
replace my laptop. I will see.

Since I started writing this blog about half an hour ago, Mark has been
playing with his Flashes that I got him for his camera. He's like the David
Bailey of Salford now, and has a choice of two Flashes' bith with different
uses, so in the last 30 mins I'm sure he has taken about 1000 pictures of me
and the lounge, I'm starting to feel like Cheryl Cole at the weekend.....

Anyway I'm tired now, and its the sales tomorrow so were off to go buy a
Sofa and a new floor, a VAT free bedroom and a Moben designer Kitchen
(that's all the adverts I have seen anyway).

Would just like to sign off and say I love all my friends and Family and
although I don't say it often, I should. It's been a lovely day and have
really enjoyed it.

Steve xx