All I Want for Christmas (that money can’t buy)

I was lying awake the other night thinking about all the things I’d like for Christmas that money can’t buy. I thought it might make a good topic to blog about. So imagine how crabbit it made me when I turned on my computer the next morning and there was already an email in my inbox titled ‘All I Want for Christmas that Money Can’t Buy”.

Bless though, it was from the lovely Donna at Mummy Central, and she’d done a brilliant blog post on the topic. She was then kind enough to open the subject up as a linky, and has tagged me to take part. Like Donna, you can take it as a given that things like world peace and medical advancements are on my list; this is more about things that are personal to me. Here’s my wishlist.

Crispy Roast Potatoes: I had Jamie Oliver’s awesome crispy root vegetables down to perfection by last Christmas…. but now we’re dealing with a new oven and things have gone a bit awry. I did them for our Thanksgiving dinner last week, and they till tasted great, but the crispy crunchy factor just wasn’t there. DorkySon is going to be eating a lot of practice roasties over the next couple of weeks while I fiddle with timings and temperatures and oven settings… in the hope that by December 25th I’ve got it cracked again.

Family Time: The things I am most looking forward to this Christmas are not the tree or the presents; it’s the family time. Adjusting to life in commuterland has been a big change, and a challenge for us. DorkyDad is out of the house by 7.30am most mornings, and has recently been working a lot of evenings. His new job is so exciting, and well worth that small sacrifice, but we are a family that really likes to just hang out together – not necessarily doing too anything too exciting – just spending time with each other, eating popcorn, going to the park, taking naps on the sofa… I’m really hopeful that we’ll get to do a lot of that over the holidays, and in doing so we’ll also work out how to carve out more time for ourselves in a normal working week.

A Long Lie: I love sleeping. Gosh, darn, do I love sleeping… and although we are ridiculously lucky with DorkySon, who has slept 10ish hours through the night fairly consistently since he was about nine months, I would love some more sleep. It doesn’t make any difference how early I go to bed; I always want more in the morning. I would love a day when I could wake up, peek at the clock and see that it read 6.30am or 7am, and then smile, put the pillow over my head, and shut my eyes for another three or four hours at least. I suppose I could finally be persuaded to wake up at about 11am with a large cup of hot coffee beside the bed. DorkyDad, are you reading this?

A Creative Achievement: I always start out the year by stating something that I want to achieve in the creative part of my life over the following 12 months. Being a parent is undoubtedly the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done, but it would be dishonest of me to say that it’s all I need. A little bit of my head still wants to have other projects on the go, which is why I started this blog at the end of last April. In 2011, I said that I wanted to be published in a national newspaper, and I was. (Thank you, Guardian!) The year before I said wanted to focus on photography; to be a finalist in a Pioneer Woman photo competition, and be featured on the Shutter Sisters site, and I managed both. I haven’t yet got anything so tangible that I want to achieve in the next year, but I’d like to continue writing and hopefully step that up a gear. Watch this space, I guess.

A Campaign Success for Save the Children: It has been too long since I’ve been involved in any campaigning. It was my life for a few years – through my students’ union, my work with the Climate Change College, my involvement in party politics, and then through my job with an NGO – but then DorkySon arrived and it all got pushed to one side. I’m so pleased that organisations like Save the Children give stay-at-home parents like me the chance to get involved in campaigning without necessarily having to get out on the streets. Lots of parent bloggers are currently getting involved with the Save the Children #66cities campaign to help End Extreme Hunger – you can read more about the campaign in my piece on Huffington Post if you’re interested – but if I had to distil that down into one wish, it would be that every single person reading this post signs the Charter to End Extreme Hunger online petition here. Make a girl happy this Christmas, would ya?

The folk that I’m tagging to do their Money Can’t Buy Christmas List are:

Michelle at Mummy from the Heart
Bod for Tea
Frances at Motherventing
Rhiannon at A Hell of a Woman
Molly at Mother’s Always Right
Not Just A Mummy