But back to the nice stuff. I’ve had such a fantastic time with some of my best friends (though missing El who’s out in Australia, but before we know it she’ll be back!) In previous years I’ve always organised big nights out, an unofficial annual school reunion of sorts. Inviting everyone I still had email addresses and mobile numbers for, the past couple of years it’s been a Facebook event too. But I think it finally lost it’s appeal last year. Spending more quality time with my favourite girlies was so much more fun that trying to make conversation with people I don’t really know any more. And it was quality time with lots of chatting, silliness and even some dancing (even with the worst DJ in the world playing the music!)

Liz and I braved the sales in Liverpool, getting there early and then heading home just after lunchtime when the full on madness and crowds descended. I actually managed to make sensible purchases, although the sparkly purple & lime flats could be seen as a frivolous purchase!

As we all head off to our various corners of the country, more than ever I’m going to be sad to not see all my lovely friends for a while.

Family has been lovely too! It’s great having everyone together and this year we’ve avoided big arguments (*touch wood* there’s still a few hours to go!!!) We’ve had some fantastic food courtesy of the parents and many many giggles. After umm-ing & ahh-ing I finally bought Trivial Pursuit on Christmas Eve and it has been worth every penny. The only problem is that my brother-in-law seems to know EVERYTHING, so it isn’t much fun asking him questions!

I do love Christmas. There’s something so magical about this time of year and I’m a bit sucker for all of it. New Year on the other hand I’m not so sure about… but that can be my next blog!

I’ve had a rather wonderful Christmas Eve. Firstly I recieved the Kreativ Blogger Award from Katie McCullough (I’ll follow up with a post on it after Christmas). Secondly I was made up to hear my friend proposed to my other friend! They met at my Birthday party two and a half years ago and though we knew that he’d pop the question sooner or later it’s no less exciting!!! I am so happy for them, and looking forward to the wedding planning ahead! They live over in Sydney at the moment so it’ll be a while until I get to give them hugs in person, and admire her Tiffany engagement ring!

Today’s ‘Five…‘ has a rather predictable Christmas theme to share with you the wonders of my Christmas Day!

1. Christmas Eve
We have a Christmas Eve tradition that has evolved over the years but always involves dinner at one of mum & dad’s best friends. The great thing is that it means I’m guaranteed to get to see my friend, their daughter, Lucy every Christmas Eve and my friend Dave too (they got married this year – another couple who met through me, I have a better success rate than match.com!!!) There’s always lovely food, conversation and a silly game or two, usually including an epic quiz of the year. This year I invested in Trivial Pursuit, which provided the necessary levels of discussion, giggling and completely wrong answers! It was ‘juveniles’ vs ‘oldies’ and we won! This is followed by my yearly topping up of Catholic guilt at midnight mass, the carols from 11.30pm are lovely though.

Also in the past few years from lunchtime onwards I keep my nearest and dearest updated on Santa’s progress by following the NORAD Santa Tracker

2. Christmas Morning
There has always been a rule in our house that you have to eat breakfast before presents are opened, though my first present was always a box of Coco Pops (I had to have sensible cereals throughout the rest of the year!). Now we’re older it has got later as we wait until my sister and niece arrive. Nothing in the way of present opening commences prior to 11am, which makes it perfect timing for Bucks Fizz & Mince Pies too! This is the Thornber household so of course there is order in the chaos!

3. Top of the Pops
I’m so glad TOTP still exists in Christmas form. TV is pretty much ignore until 2pm as I blast Christmas music through the house, but TOTP is a good transistion from music to TV… and these days lets me know exactly how out of touch I am with the charts. I just hope I don’t say “Who?” too often!

4. Christmas Dinner
There’s only five of us so of course we cook enough to feed ten. I say ‘we’ I actually mean Mum & Dad. The weekly Sunday Roast is always Dad’s domain so of course with both parents in the kitchen there is usually at least one argument that is hilarious for the onlooker. Sis and I pitch in by setting the table and selecting the wine, and of course by demolishing the fantastic food and saying a big “Thank you!” This year Mum has decided we won’t pretend it will be on the table for lunchtime and deliberately plan for it to be in the region of 3-4pm… I think this is a dangerous move and hope to be proved wrong and eating before 7pm! As long as there are pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce all will be okay!

5. Christmas Cocktails
As the day draws to a close somewhere around ‘The Royle Family’ and ‘Gavin & Stacey’ I will raid the alcohol cupboard (my fantastic father managed to procure some half price Absolut Vodka!) and make a wonderful cocktail for my sister and I as we hurtle towards Boxing Day. This year I’m thinking Cosmopolitans to start followed by something involving Baileys and Amaretto… and hopefully minus a hangover in the morning!

Before you go I have one final treat for you… most people will have had the chance to see their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in the nativity over the past few weeks. Unfortunately I missed seeing my Dad in his, but I do have a photograph of the event (thanks to southport.gb.com) – he’s the shepherd on the right and I have to say I am very proud!

It was always going to be a fantastic night as it’s the Strictly Come Dancing final. I’m just a bit obsessed with Strictly! In week one I wanted Chris to be out as early as possible, I wouldn’t have believed it if you would have told me I’d be voting for him multiple times in the final. Chris went from novice to being an amazing dancer. This past month Team Cola (as Chris & Ola are known) have given me goosebumps every week without fail, and their Charleston is easily my favourite dance of the series.

Once Strictly had finished I could transfer my attention to the snow. We had a flurry/blizzard earlier and now have well over a foot of snow. It’s soft fluffy snow and so pretty. Unfortunately not great for making snowmen as it just falls apart. As it was after 10pm I had no one to call on for a snow ball fight so I decided to go on a wander by myself. I was so overwhelmed by the snow that I didn’t realise I was cold at all until I returned to my warm flat 20 minutes later! Of course whilst on my wander I took a few photos and listened to Christmas music on my iPhone.

It has been a rather exciting, amazing and beautiful evening! And it’s less than a week until Christmas…

It seems like I have so much more time to take in the season this year. Of course when I was in Royal Mail it was the busiest time of year and until the final delivery on Christmas Eve it was all systems go. One year I ended up sat in M&S café at 1pm on Christmas Eve trying to get some last minute figures that had been requested. I’d mistakenly believed as of lunch time that day I could relax and finish off the shopping I’d not had time to do in the previous few weeks. No wonder December flew by! But this year I finish on the 17^th December, a whole week before Christmas.

I’ve had time to watch Christmas DVDs already, I have a feeling The Muppet Christmas Carol will be watched multiple times this year. I’m looking forward to wrapping my presents at a leisurely pace. I’ll get to spend an entire 10 days in Southport relaxing and completely forgetting about work. As the entire university shuts down there’s no risk of any work calls interrupting my days off. But I really appreciate it all. As a student I spent my holidays working behind the bar in Pontin’s and that included Christmas Day and New Years Eve. Last year was one of the first in a long time that work of some description didn’t overshadow the festive season, but instead I was moving halfway up the country in the week between Christmas & New Year.

More than ever this year I’ll appreciate the time I have to relax with friends and family without any other demands on my time. I hope that my health improves over the next week or so that I can make the most of this wonderful time of year! Here are my favourite festive moments so far…

My Christmas Tree (and Jude Law being very yummy in ‘The Holiday‘)

The Library Glitter Bugs making an appearance on the Christmas Trees at Stockton

My first Christmas Dinner of the season (and a very good one too!) with colleagues at Queen’s Campus

Durham this morning looking very seasonal with a covering of frost and fog

Finally decorating my desk with tinsel (thanks to Helen Jones, our Tinsel Queen!) and a light up snowman!

On the 1st October it will be a year since I decided to quit my job in London. One of the goals I set myself was to use more of my time to regularly write. Another thing I am proud to have achieved. My persistence in blogging has stopped me from being scared of putting words on a page, I’ll now happily write something I know is rubbish and come back and redraft it later. The difficulty used to be getting the thoughts from my head onto paper. Now the longest part of the task is usually uploading pictures, adding links and the final proofread.

I am also grateful for the existence of Twitter. Without that I’d still be writing to an audience of my closest friends and family. Twitter has allowed me to share my blog with so many, and I am so pleased that people enjoy reading it. And now it seems that people are starting to find my blog via other routes. A couple of weeks ago someone followed me on Twitter because they’d read my blog first!

It’s taken me over two and a half years to reach blog number 100. During that time my life has changed in many ways. Where will I be by blog 200? At the pace I’m writing now it’s likely to be in less than six months. The next few months will be lots of fun though. From October I’ll be a tutee for a few of the students at Trevelyan College. Once I get them settled in I’ll be challenging myself to write 50,000 words in a month thanks to NaNoWriMo. By December I’ll be ready to relax for Christmas and enjoy some time with friends and family. Before I know it, January will be here and I’ll be celebrating one year since my move to Durham. And I’d like to think that by the time I reach blog 200 I’ll have had something published somewhere other than here.

But I’m not wishing my time away. The past year has flown by and I want to enjoy as much of the here and now as possible. And share it with you.

The thing that needs to be said in my 100th blog is THANK YOU! Thanks to all of you who read my blog. If I hadn’t got Google Analytics letting me know that you are all out there I might have given up before now. The more you visited my website, the more I have written. You’ve stuck with me and been the life that my blog needed to survive and grow!

Anyway enough of the soppiness… time to write Blog 101!