Christmas Recipes...

I love the food preparation but now our kids are in their early twenties, it’s been a long time since Santa visited. That magic feeling when your were wee certainly returns when you have wee ones in the house. We’ve been living in Sweden for the last 14 years and my husband is German. So we have a blend of Irish/Swedish/German foods at Xmas. Mince pies are in the oven as I write this! We’re having a nuclear family Xmas in Sweden with the 4 of us plus our cat Lilly. Then we’ll travel over to Germany for a week a few days after Xmas and spend time with my husband’s side of the family. My MIL was recently diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer (was totally asymptomatic!). Lots of emotions at the moment and have been back and forth to see her over the last few months. Looking forward to spending a week with her and the kids. Trying to make good memories while she’s still able to.

I've always loved Christmas but this year I'm not sure how I'm going to feel as we went away as a family last year and had a lovely Christmas day but Boxing day morning awoke to find my wonderful Mum unconscious, I spent all that day in hospital with her and sadly she passed away late that afternoon. Mum loved Christmas too so I'm going to try my best to enjoy the celebrations and produce the best dinner I can . Jonny you've helped me so much this year with your reels and inspiring words around mental health and as my Mum loved to bake I've carried on baking all year using a lot of your wonderful recipes. Happy Christmas to you all hope everyone whatever their situation can make the best of the festive period ❤️

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you enjoyed your evening Jonny and love the Christmas recipes ❤️. I am a mixed bag of emotions (as always 🤣) , as much as I love Christmas for the same reasons as Jonny mentioned I also find it all massively stressful and overwhelming, my Christmas usually involves travelling and the packing/planning/prepping and on top of getting ready for Christmas sends me in to meltdown. I am also super excited despite the stress though as i am off to London on Saturday to my brothers and then on Monday we are all flying to Italy to spend Christmas with the rest of our family! so I am trying my best to stay calm and focus on how fun and exciting that actually is as anxiety and stress can be such a joy thief if you let it! And also remember how far I’ve come as this time last year I was only a few months out of a nearly 11 year relationship, still completely in the trenches of heart break and feeling like my world had ended and now although I still have my struggles I am so happy and much more confident and enjoying life again and I am so proud of myself for that, So if you aren’t feeling it or are struggling remember that is ok and to be kind to yourself and just do what you can. I always feel like the over sharer of the group 🤣, but after discovering Jonny’s page I’ve found it such a comfort knowing I’m not the only one who feels like I do about things and learnt that it definitely can help both yourself and others to talk and be open as someone will always either be or have been in the same boat, so I hope no one minds my rambling’s!! 😂 I hope everyone has a great Christmas though, Can’t wait to see what we all make! 🫂❤️