This year my Christmas was a bit different as we spent it at my grandparents' house in England, the first time I've had an 'English Christmas' since about 1998. It was odd not to be in my own home for the festive period but really nice to be spending it with my grandparents who I'm very close to and haven't seen much of this year. We did all our usual Christmas traditions - making a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve, watching Strictly and Doctor Who on Christmas Day, a Christmas Day walk, and a spread of cold meats (/vegetarian options) on Boxing day - but adapted them to their house and the luxury of being able to drive to M&S to pick up various Christmassy accompaniments!

Like last year I thought I'd share some of my the wonderful Christmas gifts I received from family and friends this year without doing a totally comprehensive haul. So here are my top five favourite presents in no particular order:

I'm mildly obsessed with Wes Anderson's films, my favourite by far being The Grand Budapest Hotel. I love the characters and most importantly the gorgeous pastel aesthetics, so this is idea. It's essentially a visual guide to his films, with artworks and photos interspersed with interviews with Anderson himself. I'm going to be honest, it weighs an absolute ton (so much so that it apparently fell out of the box and got lost on its way from Amazon so this one is actually a replacement!) so this isn't one I'll be able to take with me back to uni. It will, however, be an amazing coffee table book in the unlikely eventuality that I ever get myself a house with a coffee table.

The original Twin Peaks is basically my Favourite Thing of All Time and I spent most of the first half of 2017 eagerly anticipating the release of Series 3/The Return, the continuation of the show which was originally broadcast in 1990-91. It was broadcast on a Dutch channel that we get in Belgium so I managed to watch the first eight or so episodes that my Mum recorded between getting back from uni and heading off for my internship in June, but tragically the auto-record failed for the rest of the series so I have had to wait until now to watch all the episodes. Having had a taste of the pure unadulterated Lynchian drama that is The Return I am intrigued and can't wait to get stuck into this (although it might have to wait until I go back to uni as my Mum and I are currently knee-deep in series 4 of The X-Files).

I wasn't lying when I said it was my favourite thing... (other TP-related Christmas presents include two Funko pops, a book and a set of coasters). This vinyl is of the soundtrack to the original series in all its glory. The theme tune alone gives me shivers, but I think my favourite track has to be Laura Palmer's theme or possibly Audrey's Dance. I have been playing this non-stop on my record player since I got it and have only regretfully ruled out the possibility of lugging both of them back with me to uni in my suitcase.

This year I'll be going to Jerusalem for a university field trip as its a major part of one of modules, so my aunt and uncle got me this beautiful 'biography' of the city. It's what I call a weighty tome but the cover is absolutely stunning with the gold accents, I can't wait to learn more about the city and its history before I go in March!

In a departure from tradition here is a favourite Tech Item. This is the Rockbox cube from Fresh n  Rebel and its basically just a standard mini speaker that you can plug into your iPod or phone or whatever, but LOOK HOW ADORABLE IT IS. For scale it is about 6cm x 6cm. As a side note it matches the colour of my earphones exactly. I previously had a similar but much cheaper speaker, which I tend to use a lot because my iPod is only a nano (i.e. with no speakers of its own) and one side of the speakers on my laptop no longer work. So hopefully this will be a great new addition to my DVD watching (read: Twin Peaks marathon) set-up.