I still do get some childish excitement from opening presents especially when I don’t know what I am getting. To keep things simple my brother got me some Amazon vouchers so I can buy some new games or some new tech.

One gift I wasn’t happy with was a onesie from my wife, she found it hilarious though. Needless to say I still haven’t tried it on yet! She also got me some WiFi bathroom scales. These ultra-sleek looking scales record your weight, fat mass and BMI and then beam the information to your computer or phone. Unfortunately for me quite a lot of weight is being beamed to my computer at the moment! One thing which is really good about it is that you can use it in conjunction with some weight loss programmes.

Although it may seem like the wife jibbed out on the gift front we are looking online when the sales hit to buy me some new camera lenses and cases etc. its just before Christmas the prices can be quite high. So because there are a number of thinks I want for my camera we thought it would be best to order them when sales start.

When my mother did the Christmas shopping the shop assistant thought that she was doing it for her teenage son (She doesn’t do online shopping). Apparently Farcry 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Xbox Live 2100 Microsoft Points and Bradley Wiggins: My Time: An Autobiography is what many parents have been buying for their teenage boys.

Since our house had been slowly done up over this past year and we have our garden room, we decided it would be ‘nice’ to have the family round. Next week my brother and his partner are coming up to stay. They will be leaving before Christmas Day itself, so we will be have a pre-Christmas, Christmas dinner with them two.

My brother and his partner are moving on and spending Christmas day in a log cabin in the Lake District, weather permitting. They have been together for 9 months now at least and this will be their first Christmas together since meeting on a dating site. I am honestly surprised that he met someone so normal on a dating site, but you never know!

My mother and her partner will be round on Christmas Eve hopefully before my brother goes so they can have a catch up, then we are ‘lucky’ enough to have them for Christmas dinner before they bugger off on boxing day and not a moment too soon that will be! Unfortunately with the festive season it does involve a trip to see the mother in law (MiL), unless I’m really sick there won’t be any getting out of it for me! The MiL doesn’t like me that much, thinks I’m lazy well I worked hard when I was young so can damn well be lazy now. Anyway she can’t moan too much since I’ve cut down on the pot.

Anyway after that torture is over, comes the highlight of my holiday season, my dad is coming over from South Africa for New Years. I am so excited, it’s been over a year since we have seen him and I can’t wait to catch up. Have a load of beers and ring in the New Year in our typical sizzled state! It will be hard seeing him go; although SA isn’t too far away it’s quite a ball ache getting over there. I just wish he lived closer but my damn mother drove him away! And now I’m stuck seeing her on a far too frequently basis grrr!

So I dragged my arse out on Friday night to go watch the bonfire display at our local football club again. It was a big turn out like last year which is really good. I forgot to check to see who the effigy was this year as I was in the club house having a few beers so missed the lighting of the fire. I did get out for the display though which was a showcase. The wife didn’t go this year as she is sick with some sort of cold/flu but she did have dinner waiting on the table for me when I got home slightly pissed (good woman).

On Friday Leeds travelled to Brighton which saw us draw 2 each, Brighton nearly did get a goal by us in the 74th minute thanks to a penalty but it was saved, phew. It’s a shame we couldn’t get a win, but a draw is better than a loss. Still in 12th place with three other teams on 20 points too. We really need to push ourselves up. It’s like we have the capabilities but always fall short when we shouldn’t be, typical Leeds.

Halo 4 will be arriving on Tuesday, so that’s me fixed until the 13th when Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is out. Think I am going to aim to get as much of this game completed as I can before Call of Duty comes out otherwise it may just get left to the dust, as F1 seems to be, although the F1 is on tomorrow so no doubt I will have a little play after like I normally do!

Anyway with bonfire night out of the way, next up is Christmas, so I really should get myself sorted or at least get the wife to sort me out!

Fireworks Bang!

Well we have had the first signs of spring and so arrive the wedding season. Luckily the friends of ours who are getting married this weekend will most probably enjoy really good weather, not something they expected when booking, hence the day was planned inside. The country house where it is all taking place will no doubt be making the most of the seasonably warm weather and allowing drinks on the terrace (that sounds so posh).

The wife has had a busy week preparing for this wedding, as most women do, she had an outfit all ready but the change in the weather changed her mind on it and she went and bought a new outfit. Not to mention visiting hairdressers in London to get a new do! It is such an expense well for me as the new dress came out of my pocket because I made the mistake of accompanying her (never again).

Me? Well, all I need to do is pull out my good old suit give it an airing and I’m ready to go. It should fit last outing was to some fancy Christmas ball and it was fine then and I have been quite healthy recently. Oh I also went to get my hair sorted, only a trim though and can guarantee it cost a lot less than the missus trip cost!

Forgot to mention she also needed some new jewellery (note to all men never question why), the stuff she had didn’t go with the outfit so there was a visit to the jewellers in Sheffield (again I should have stayed at home), honestly I can see why weddings are expensive not only for those getting married but for the guests too!

One final gripe and then I’m done is how expensive peoples wedding lists are, some of the stuff they wanted was better than what we have, I tried to put my foot down but it did no good as the wife put us down for some fancy kitchen mixer! I wouldn’t mind but both these people have been married before and already have their own home, surely they already have this stuff?

Okay over for now, we have at least another three weddings this year, god help my bank balance!

After sorting out our insurance this I thought it was time that the wife and I sort out our wills. We don’t have any children to leave our stuff to but there will always be family around and to make it easy for them we want everything sorted out in case the worst happens. Our grand plan is to spend our fortunes into old age so no greedy government or council can get their hands on it and just leaving the bare minimum such as personal possession and trinkets etc.

The thing is we don’t want our family to fight over what we leave so the hard task when doing our will, will be deciding who gets what and who would want what! We have an appointment at our solicitors in Birmingham tomorrow who will help us draw up our wills. It’s not a cheap process using a solicitor but we feel in the long run will be the safest option because of all the different legalities that come when you dies, especially the biggy, inheritance tax!

Although we are both hoping to live into old age, you never know what might happen so all eventualities have to be covered, at least knowing our wills, will be safely stored at our solicitors Manchester for when the family need them and for when we need to change them.