So, once again we've survived another Christmas in one piece, although the house is in many pieces and desperately needs tidying. I'm currently procrastinating for England while staring at the laptop screen instead of the room behind it...
We were late putting the decorations up, only a week or so before the big day, but we finally managed a reasonable job of it, leaving quite a bit in boxes as nobody could be bothered doing all of it. I even found a bag full of very old decorations, along with a card and photo of Littleque when she was small, meeting Santa at nursery, which was nice. I also decided it was time to chuck some more junk up in the loft, during which time I managed to slip up and put my feet through the ceiling, almost falling through in the process. Fortunately I wasn't standing up straight, otherwise I'd have had a nice visit to A&E to celebrate! Shaken up, and with a huge hole in the ceiling, I decided to abandon any more loft based activity and simply make sure that everything was wrapped and ready for the big day.
Littleque came home the day before Christmas Eve and we had a nice afternoon just doing her normal stuff, watching her awful DVDs and playing on the laptop. The decorations threw her a little bit so she was slightly wary of change and we kept things quiet and stress free. Too much change all at once for a person with autism can cause major upset and sometimes violent outbursts, so I am constantly aware of doing things little by little with her.
We had visitors on Christmas eve, my sister, brother in law and little niece, who is 2 years old. She and Littleque have not met each other before this, due to me not seeing my sister too often, so Littleque was very wary and sensitive at these intruders. Especially the little one who was touching her toys. She yelled a couple of times, but I managed to contain her so she didn't physically do anything. I could see in her face that she was really upset and worried by this young invader, she doesn't like kids because they are unpredictable and noisy, and this one was in her territory. Eventually she took herself off upstairs out of the way, which I was very proud of, because it means that she is handling her stress in a way which won't harm her or anyone else. This is something she has learned over the last couple of years when she has been living in a residential place with other young people, and I am so pleased that she has.
They didn't stay very long as they could see that Littleque was distressed, which is really saddening from my point of view, but good for her because I don't think she could take much more. My niece got upset though, because she likes coming here to play with the toys, and Littleque screamed and got upset when she heard my niece cry. Once they had left, she calmed down again and we could get back to normal.
Christmas day began at 5.30am, simply because she decided to get up at that time. She's not aware of when Christmas day falls, and we can't prepare her for it, so it really is a surprise when she sees the presents. She got stuck right in, opening her presents and chucking them aside to grab another gift wrapped parcel. I was amused to see that she'd left all the soft presents, which were obviously boring old clothes, but she seemed to like what she got. It's hard to tell, usually until quite a bit later, because it's so much for her to take in, she opened the presents, then went back to her DVDs and laptop. Over the next few weeks she will explore them bit by bit, and we'll see what is her favourite present.
Christmas lunch consists of lots of nibbly buffet bits and bobs, I can't cook a huge dinner and take care of Littleque, so it's quick and easy and means that we get a good share of Christmas junk food. I try to make a point of having a proper turkey dinner before the big day with friends, which I did a couple of weeks ago.
Later on, Littleque's dad came to pick her up, which gave me and Dear Son a chance to relax and enjoy our own presents. I got books, smellies and other bits and bobs, as well as the ticket to see Pendulum, that I got a couple of weeks ago, so I did well out of Santa. DS got clothes, smellies, a new bag, chocolate and other bits and bobs, which he was well happy with. Oh yeah, and we got a Wii, so we spent the evening playing on that and watching TV.
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