Christmas 2012

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree- the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other"

Christmas is the time of year when you tend to reflect on the good times and the bad times over the previous year and appreciate what you have before enjoying a nice Christmas dinner with the family. However, it is also the hardest time of year should you have lost a family member or friend, have been struck by an illness or in our case, suffered a tragic accident with life-changing consequences.

I'd forgotten what it had felt like to smile and be happy until Lauren was moved back to WHH just in time for Christmas. It was the first time I'd felt happiness in weeks. As selfish as it sounds having Lauren in Ashford meant that instead of the 2hour car journey to London, it was 10mins up the motorway to see her Christmas Day. The thought of Lauren being alone on Christmas day was heart wrenching. I hated leaving her everyday anyway but Christmas Day was just different. Nobody wants to be alone then and thankfully Lauren wasn't. Christmas this year, however different it was, seemed to play out just like any other year. I woke up to my usual "Merry Christmas Leah" text from Lauren which was the best text received, went downstairs and opened presents with Dad, we had our traditional 'joint present'. One year Dad got a pair of socks and just split them so we had one each, this year it was shampoo for Lauren, conditioner for me.. except I opened both. Then we had breakfast, followed by a visit to Grandmas before I went to see Mum & Mark up Mark's mum with his family to play with Laurel's toys which this year was table football.. previous years have seen us launching toy rockets in the garden or playing on a pogo stick! Everything was normal except Lauren wasn't there and it was so hard acting normal and carrying on as best as you can. Then there was Christmas lunch with Mum, Mark, Abi, Sara-Jane & Tim. Again just a normal Christmas dinner but you couldn't help but notice the empty seat where Lauren was supposed to be. During dinner it got me thinking about past Christmas and how fun they used to be and a trip down memory lane was definitely required...

Christmas when we was children was always a big family affair, a proper traditional Christmas. Instead of stockings on the end of our beds we would have football socks, Lauren was always awake first and would come rushing to wake me up before rushing downstairs for presents. Bar the football socks this was how Christmas morning would play out every year until 2012. Lauren really is just like an excitable puppy when there is presents and food involved! We would then go round Grandmas for presents and then over to Nans for the rest of the day where we would have Christmas dinner and play games in the evening from charades to pictionary to trivial pursuit. One of the funniest times I remember is we was playing pictionary and Lauren had to draw a "Black Ball" so she attempted to draw the Black Bull Pub. I know this story bears no relevance to what has happened but it made me laugh when I just thought of it! There was also the 'annual' play that Lauren, Abi & I would do & record us using the camcorder for the evening entertainment, Grandad falling asleep in the chair, a usual Christmas day argument between the 'adults' before we would all crash & burn at Nans. Boxing day would be spent round Grandma's with Liam & Jack where we just ran wild playing hide & seek, 'crocodiles' over the kitchen floor & in recent years playing with those crazy fun balloons. These were the days when Christmas was just simply Christmas- food, fun and family.

I couldn't wait to get to the hospital once we had eaten to see Lauren. Dad and Sophie had been with her in the morning so she wasn't alone and then we arrived to see her in high spirits, complaining at her Christmas dinner. You may have realised that we like to take photos when the three of us our together so Lauren, Abi & I needed the annual Christmas photo. Naturally we all complained, Lauren's hair hadn't got any better, if it was possible it had gotten worse so we put a Santa's hat on her.. bless her! She may be complaining about the Santa hat now but back then she enjoyed wearing it. The rest of the afternoon just passed so quickly watching her open her presents and just generally chatting. It may not have been the Christmas day we had all planned but being together and having Lauren awake and conscious and in Ashford was the best present Santa could have brought :) In the evening her friend Steph came and kept her company until visiting ended. I've said it before in the blog and I will say it again- Lauren truly has some of the best friends you could possibly hope for. Steph spending it with her friend and not her own family just goes to show how much love and support Lauren has from her friends.

With Christmas day drawing to a close for another year I spent the evening not playing  silly games but spent it was Mum writing a list of what Lauren needed for when she got moved to her new home in Stoke Mandeville on the 3rd January 2013...