Hello lovely people! Now you may be looking at the title of this video and
thinking: wow Jessica what a downer of a way to start your Christmas uploads and
you're not wrong, but you're not right either let me explain.
I have two pretty complex disabilities that intersect and that come with a
range of symptoms I tend to group these symptoms- chronic fatigue, chronic pain
brain fog, memory loss... under the heading of chronic illness because they affect
my daily life and they're changeable. Whereas my disability itself doesn't
changes it's always there i.e my chronic illness is good today but
my disabilities still just as their as it was last week and just as bare as it
will be next week.
Neither my chronic illness nor my disability or things that
normally stop me from doing anything
That is not true! I just like to think it is
I've been releasing two videos a week
since January I mean sometimes three sometimes one but
it all kind balances out not important Jessica and I was really looking forward
to vlogmas even though having done it twice in the past I do know it
is a lot of work [sight]
I planed to film throughout November making sure that I
had so much content and I'd be really ahead of myself and and I'd pushed
through and I'd go above and beyond to make this year the reason amazingly
Christmas thing ever and I was pushing and pushing and
pushing and I started hand-drawing Christmas cards in the middle of packing for a
transatlantic flight that was a very last-minute thing anyway
I mean I think
even by the standards of able-bodied people I've had what some people would
call a year!
Stuff just keeps happening and exactly four weeks ago today I was
planning to go to a vintage fair I was going to film b-roll for the many
Christmas videos that I was going to put out and also get some outfits for my
Christmas Advent outfit challenge that I do on Instagram
You can follow me on
Instagram here but I woke up feeling like my head was exploded vomited
everywhere and then had to be rushed to hospital and was then forced to take
three weeks off so I couldn't film ahead anyway I've been pushing myself so
hard that I effectively shot myself in the foot
Again I've had a year that even abled-body people would think was punishing
I wanted everything to be great and perfect but in the end it
almost didn't happen I messed up and I think that feeling is
pretty common around Christmas
We so want everything to be perfect and
the way we think it should be that we push ourselves to the limit and then
beyond and that isn't fun for anyone
My wife Claudia says I didn't mess up my
body just rebels against me but I am taking this one personally in a good way!
I'm learning a lesson and being kind to myself I'm going to make great content
but not be a perfectionist about it I'm going to make a lovely Christmas but
not insist on hand making everything
Did you know you can buy ready-made mince pies Jessica?
Did you also know that no one in your family likes mince pies?
Chill woman!
It's disability History Month so for the Friday's in December
I'm going to be focusing on different disability related topics they're going
to be two profiles of amazing disabled people and also live streams yay one of
which happened yesterday you can go watch that back if you haven't already
I'll also be releasing videos every week as I was going to but you know not everyday
Not everyday...
And then I'm going to do a really special new thing that I'm
incredibly excited about called Christmastide where instead of making 25
videos in a row for vlogmas and getting really stressed about it i'm going to
make 12 videos in a row following the original days of Christmas which is the
25th of December to the 5th of January.
12 videos one every day and they will be
wonderfully exciting I am sure and based on a range of topics.
So not just blogs more kind of thinking pieces but with a bit of blogging mixed
in because Christmas.
My plan is to keep you updated on exactly when videos are
coming out and what they will be about using the community tab here on my
youtube channel which you can find by going to my youtube channel and clicking
the community tab...
I will be posting daily throughout December you can also
find out what's going on by clicking on Twitter or following me on Instagram
Instagram, where is this going?
As I mentioned on Instagram I'm going to be doing my Christmas Advent outfit challenge where
I wear a Christmas themed outfit every single day of Advent that means starting
today you can go and see what I'm wearing today on my Instagram
I'll admit that is a lie
I'm actually on a plane right now as you watch this and you can
join in using the hashtag #festiveJKF and I want to see all of your Advent
based outfits please make it as Christmassy or as holiday-ish if you
don't celebrate Christmas as you possibly can
I'm very excited, other fun ways you can get involved in Christmastide through my
PO box because as part of the Christmas tide there will be a PO Box
unboxing video where Claudia and I will open the wonderful gifts that you have
sent by the way if you don't want them on camera please do write that on the
outside on the letter thank you
Ahh and finally thank you so much for sticking
with me through everything you are the best I do love you with all my heart
Dear Lord...
Also subscribe if you haven't already I love you I hope you're having
a wonderful start to your festive season [blows kiss]