It's Christmas! It seems on my twitter feed that the vast majority of people relax in pjs for most of the their Christmas day. I have never ever been allowed to do that!
In the Rockette family, Christmas has been a time of 'best' clothing. We are required to make an effort, and we get dressed pretty early on.
We actually don't open our presents until after lunch, so we have a lot to look forward to. I actually love this tradition, as it gives the whole day a structure, and as children meant that we didn't burn out too early!
I am actually surprised by how many of you stay lazy - Christmas is definitely not a lazy day at my family! You only know what you know I guess!
This wasn't at all the seasonal post I had planned, but here we go - a rather different one from me today!
I had been out having a couple of glasses of mulled wine with an old friend, and was walking home on my merry way. I passed my local church and noticed that people were going in. The notice board showed that in ten minutes the Nativity play would be starting.
I walked past, vaguely tweeting that I had been tempted to pop in. However, I am not someone who likes to regret not doing something, so I swiftly walked back and entered.
Now, I do not come from a religious background, and wasn't christened. I don't believe in God, or a god. But I do love the culture of the nativity.
When I was a primary teacher, I was actually a little bit of a rebel (shock horror I hear you cry). A lot of schools these days no longer teach traditional carols, and there are many 'modern' carols that largely sing about winter and snow. I hate these. What on earth is the point of learning carols that you will never ever hear again once you leave primary school?
So I taught Christmas carols. We would practise them every day of December, and I would send the lyrics home to learn. At one point, my class was the only class who knew any, so we did a mini concert for the rest of the school. Some teachers told me they were worried about getting in some sort of trouble. I explained how ridiculous I thought they were being, and that in my class (where English was not the home language for most of my kids) they all loved it. Carols, and the nativity are simply part of English culture, and it used to make me so cross that so do-gooders somewhere and decided that carols offended people. They simply do not.
At school we celebrated all of the main festivals, and the children were excited by all of them. Christmas is just another cool thing to celebrate, and it saddened me to think there are now many children who simply do not know the traditional carols. Embrace them people! Make sure we continue sharing and loving our carols.
Anyhow, so I watched the nativity and sang every single carol. I have a terrible voice, but I decided to just enjoy it. Working with children makes you lose your fear of singing very quickly! It certainly made me feel Christmassy!
On the way out I decided to give the money I would have spent going out again for another glass of wine tonight and donate it to the night shelter they were collecting for. Charity certainly isn't religious.
Which is your favourite carol? Why not look it up on youtube and have a quick sing song to get you in the seasonal mood? Go on....you know you want to.
Oh, I may have also taught them the lyrics to Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas. It's part of our culture now too! Children don't sing enough at school, and watching them forget themselves, and start hugging each other as they sang was certainly magical.
Merry Christmas!!
P.s - Once Christmas was over, we all loved singing as a class so much, we continued singing. I may have randomly chosen this song to teach my bunch of 8 year olds.
As well as this one, which would cause most of them to start swaying with their arms around each other. Bless.
A year ago on Christmas day, having lunch with my family. My pink hair was quite hard work, but I do miss the 'fun' it brought with it!
Wonderful Women: Minding Our Own Business really started finding its feet in 2011, and the group of women that were attending the meetings were varied and awesome. It definitely felt like something amazing was happening for all of us.
Feburary was the very first Rockalily Lipstick photoshoot! It really felt like the Rockalily plan was coming together! I had such a great day, with a great bunch of ladies.
March was the month leading up until launching Rockalily Lipsticks, and I was working hard on preparing, networking and promoting.
April was launch month! Definitely a time for celebration!
It was time for a new tattoo! This one was to celebrate the journey I had embarked on, and my commitment to making my business work. I was so pleased with how it turned out.
Chap Olympiad month! One my favourite events of the year! The Chap Olympiad was a wash out this year, but I still adored spending the day with people dressed to impress.
October was a good month for achieving goals! This photo is me doing an underwear shoot in More Magazine which was certainly a personal challenge! Luckily I was pleased with the end result! Phew!
I have had a blast in 2011 and am itching to get going in 2012. Without sounding soppy, thank you to everyone who has bought a lippy, read my blog, or interacted with me on Twitter and Facebook. It would be pretty dull without all of you!
Last night was the Wonderful Women Christmas Party. Obviously if you are freelance or self employed you don't traditionally get a Christmas party, so the #wwmoob party is our very own celebration!
There were two rules. Christmas jumpers would be rewarded, and you had to bring a secret santa gift (which would be randomly assigned to a reciever).
Here we are, aren't we a gorgeous bunch of christmas jumper wearing joy? This isn't all of our party, but only those in christmas jumpers were allowed in the group shot! Ellen won best jumper for her red reindeer number - she knitted it herself for the occaison! Genius. It makes me want to learn to knit.
It was a great chance to let our hair down, have a good catch up chat, and celebrate all that 2011 brought us. We really are such a warm and fabulous group, and having most of them (some were sadly ill or having to work) in one room.
Due to popular demand I now offer giftwrapping, to make buying a Rockalily Lipstick as a gift super easy.
Your lippy will be wrapped in paper and ribbon, and a small card handwritten with your message. There may even be some glitter thrown in too!
This way, you can send it direct to the reciever, which is great if you don't get to see them at Christmas time.
Please do note that the envelope that I send the orders out do say Rockalily on the outside, so your receiver will know roughly what is inside! But the price will not be included anywhere in the package.
This service is provided as an add on at checkout and the wrap, ribbon, glitter and hand-written gift card will cost £2.
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