Have a great Xmas!

So Christmas and New Year:

Original plan was to go home to Sheffield first to visit my parents and sister, travel with mum & dad to Belfast on Boxing day to see my Brother and his family go back with them to Sheffield for a night then off to London to visit my girlfriend's family over New Year.

What actually happened was:

Firstly my sister had come off her medication for Christmas so she could have a few drinks and not worry about it. She got pretty ill just before I got home and could barely eat by Christmas.

Secondly, my uncle died on Christmas eve. I wasn't that close to him but my mum was pretty upset so Christmas wasn't that great. Instead of relaxing on Xmas day, we had to plan for them travelling up to Shetland for the funeral. this also meant I would be going to Belfast by myself for the second year in a row (my sister was even more ill the year before so we had to cancel the trip over then as well).

My parents drive me to Manchester airport before they depart for Aberdeen. I make it over to Belfast, quite enjoying my stay, Lianne has come over to visit as well but about the second day we find out Catriona (my sis) was in hospital. It's not too bad but she has to go back on steroids which are pretty awful in high doses. Her boyfriend is around to take care of her so we're not too worried and she gets out of the hospital after a couple of days.

Next I fly back to Manchester, take the train to Sheffield and spend the night there. Catriona's boyfriend's dad rings in the middle of the night, sounds pretty serious but I don't get the message till the morning and ring my parents to let them know as I don't have his number. I head over to London on the train, say hello to Lianne(my girlfriend)'s family and relax.

I speak to my mum who's a little shaken as it turns out Catriona had a bad turn and is back in hospital. My parents, upon hearing this, decide that since the funeral has been already, they will travel back to Sheffield ASAP to be with my sister. On the way to get the ferry, they have a blow-out and go into a ditch, trashing the car and narrowly missing a road sign and lampost. They are all right but will obviously need to get the flight in the morning instead...

Oh, and this is about the third car they writen off in about 4 years. Only one of them being their fault, honest!

Catriona's out of hospital now and should be back on the appropriate medication quite soon.

So, although I wasn't heavily involved with much of the mayhem, it was still quite a hectic Christmas. I hope it'll be quieter next year!