Christmases....

I hated Christmas after my father died (I was 14 at that time). In my dreams I am a part of a 'big' Christmas with lots of people around the tree. But I was not too lucky with this. I was an only child with only one living grandma, so the maximum was 4 people (mum, dad, grandma and me). After my dad's death it became 3.

Some years later I got a stepfather and some more years later when I spoke about my dream Christmas to his mum, she came to us, so we were 4 again.

When I met my B and started to live with him, we had our 'small and special Christmas'. We were only 2 but with 3 soft toy friends it can be a crowd. :D (Once we could invite a friendly family and we were 6, but I think I have to make my own family to have my huge dream Christmas)

So these day we are only 2 around the tree, but it is very good and intimate. It is very special and I like it this way, too.

But the really best part is Advent for me. I have the craziest best friend ever. (Actually I have two as they are a couple.) She has a little souvenir shop, so she is busy just like all the other shopkeepers. Plus they have big families (OK, big for me), five people on both sides. And they usually buy about 20 presents to everyone. of course it is not a rule, just an average number. You can imagine how busy they are before Christmas. And we (me and my B) are with them because we are good friends and because we love to be together and it is very entertaining to go with them. We usually make pairs and go shopping in 'these little groups' (it is not clever to go together because then you cannot make a surprise).
Pungi (the girl of the couple) is a 'carpe diem' person. She goes into shops happily, we made a marathon shopping this year (more than 11 hours). It is not only walking, but having fun and food together. It is a tradition made by her. She wants to kill me with food on this 'shopping tours'. We eat very nice things and simple ones, have coffee and ice cream sometimes, or other things we like.
And then the wrapping comes. She usually decorate presents to her customers and the huge amount of pressies for the families. And she is usually in trouble (the biggest enemy is time for her), so I am there helping. Actually it is fun to wrap together, we are chatting, laughing and wrapping, but at the end it is very tiring. (Last year we finished at 5.30 A.M. on the 24th, but this year we stopped at 3. 00 A.M. and started again on the 24th in the morning and finished everything at 6.00 P.M. - which is awfully late if you imagine that in this country we have Christmas dinner around 6 or 7 and then open the pressies with our families, so Christmas Eve is very important here...)
Their rule in wrapping is that they make a pack of each object they have, so 20 presents mean 20 wrappings. Can you imagine? Hundreds of presents to wrap!
It is fun but at the end it is usually a fight against time. I made lots of designs this year (which I really enjoyed), so I have some more pics for you, maybe tomorrow.
And these are pictures of our Christmas:

Our Christmas tree (the nicest in the world for me):

My presents (some of my presents, Orangina in cans, about 20 cans :D I love it, and it is not easy to buy them here.... luckily the angels and little Jesus thought about me and brought me some)And this is Monkey in B's new cap. Isn't he cute?

And this is a 'before Christmas' present I got from Pungi, I sometimes called her 'Sweetie' so she found this fruit and bought it for me. I hope it tastes good, I have never tried it.


Plus I had my Advent Swap before Christmas, so with all these funny and unusual things I had a beautiful Advent and Christmas again, but I was extremely tired after working, shopping, wrapping and being excited all day. But it was a really good time again!