When we purchased Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we opted for the season pass to include a handful of future downloadable content releases. Two additional tombs were available by the time we settled down for our Christmas break, and it was 100% our plan to raid them over the festive period. Except, then, Sony had a sale and we bought Spiderman and now it’s like Lara who? I had heard people raving about this game and was interested to see what it was like, but I am really so very fussy when it comes to Playstation Games, there’s not a lot that holds my interest.

For the second year in a row, Mr C’s top five lists have been limited to songs rather than both music and films - and that’s partly because we spent a lot of the year watching 80s movies, and partly because he could only think of Black Panther as a stand out watch. I don’t think film-land is so bad but hey, this is his space to get listing so please find below, Mr C’s thoughts on the year in music, followed by the top five songs from the past twelve months, and finally the shortlist from which he was choosing.

The BBC aired a one-off hour-long comedy this Christmas, starring Stephen Merchant and Asim Choudry as an unlikely duo travelling hundreds of miles to find a sought-after toy for the former’s kid, and featuring plenty of humour and emotional moments along the way. I loved it so much, I wished I was Film Watching it as I went along - then I realised, I can sort of do that anyway! Ah, having a blog is excellent.

Hooray and eek in equal measure, it’s time for a round up of my year in albums! Another 100 albums listened to and enjoyed (for the most part), hours of songs consumed and pretty much the same amount of time deciding which belong in my top five of the year - and which, if any, can break through into my top ten. I feel like it’s been a good year for music, perhaps not as strong as last year, but solid. Lots of good albums were released but I found there were many that I enjoyed but had just one or two things that sort of put me off: too short, too long, one dodgy song, a change in tone that didn’t fit, that kind of thing. It’s interesting for me to feel this way because the whole point of this adventure was to teach me about the concept of an album, and to be picking up reasons why it’s not quite working for me means I’m obviously starting to understand what an album is.

Really loved this! It’s one of those adorable but quirky rom-coms, where you can’t quite believe what is happening but are completely swept along for the ride. I fell in love with Jude Law a little bit, but was bowled over by the concept of Jack Black as a romantic lead - and he pulled it off!

I had to put my ’learn Swift’ project on the backburner for the last few weeks but I’m catching up again now we have a few festive days of freedom. That’s what most people do, right? Spend Christmas afternoon digesting mince pies and learning how to code? Last time I wrote about finishing up the first course on Ray Wenderlich’s iOS path and moving on to the second which was more about Swift. I’ll admit, I found that one a touch harder than I was expecting - some of the concepts seemed a bit unnecessary for this stage in the course (still being a total beginner), and they also used not-so-simple maths concepts as a way to demonstrate some of the coding tricks. It was hard to relate, so I had to keep stopping and pausing and thinking about what it would mean if I was making my own app.

Well, yea, this one wasn’t as good as the first one. We watched them back-to-back on Christmas Day, and that probably didn’t help because we liked the first one so much (rubbish but great!) that the second one just didn’t live up to its predecessor.

Was absolutely expecting this to be one of the rubbish but brilliant Christmas movies and that’s exactly what it was. The story was far-fetched, but kinda fun, and it was a laugh to guess the twists and turns and how the story might unfold (we also managed to write a better twist ourselves as we went along, but hey, simpler is probably better).

So, I’ve never cooked Christmas dinner before. To be honest, my experience of cooking roast meat of any kind is limited. A chicken or two, maybe a ham at some point, and that’s the limit. I’ve really tried to up my cooking game this year, though, as we start to focus on our health a bit more than we have previously. With that in mind, when HelloFresh started advertising their Christmas box, I was keen to get involved. Family logistics meant it would have to be devoured before Christmas Day rather than on the big day itself, but I was still up for the challenge. The benefits of getting the box are everything you normally get with HelloFresh but amped up for Christmas:

Blimey, this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Things to like: that it’s about two princesses, and they aren’t squabbling or fawning over a prince (well, kinda are but not in the way most Disney’s go). Also, the snowman, who I loved except am also traumatised by because his one desire is heat and that bit by the fire, oof, no.

We’re totally on board with the Netflix Christmas Universe and were happy to settle in for another relatively cheesy movie about kids and Santa and Christmas. This was a complete revelation - it was brilliant! I knew we were in for a better than expected time when it became clear these were two child actors who could actually act and weren’t going to be annoying.

Somehow, I managed to miss the fact that Amazon launched their new Wardrobe service for Prime members a few weeks ago. Instead, it only popped up when shopping for something else, but it was very quickly apparent this was something I wanted to try. Shopping is not one of the most fun experiences for me, particularly for clothes or shoes or anything like that, so whatever can make that easier, quicker, just less hassle, then I’m on board.

Aww, a nice Christmas story to read over the festive build-up, only actually there’s quite a lot of darkness in this one. A war reporter is travelling long distance by train across America, and finds himself not only finding interesting characters that he can make a story out of but becoming part of the story himself. Long-lost faces, surprise visits, a thief, and some severe weather all play a part in the narrative.

When I read Not Going Out were doing a Christmas Special episode, I was very happy. Love this show, and any excuse for some more of Lee Mack’s fun wordplay is good enough for me. When I read on to see it would be a live show, then I was in two minds. Live shows are good, the additional adrenaline of ‘will they, won’t they mess up’ is an intriguing extra element, and it’s something to talk about whether it goes well or not.

This was a surprisingly good thriller, I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t expecting too much because I’m sort of over the genre where an ancient something is detected through a series of puzzles so that the good guys get it before the bad guys do. This was that genre but it was a good story, told well, and a fun ride.

It’s only natural that with a growing interest in the South West Coast Path, I sought out books from those who have walked it already. There are a few, but this one seemed like a good place to start. Here we have tales of a walk split into two sections but still done properly - walking miles each day and stopping at B&Bs each evening.

A good book, this one, a guide to living life in a calm and happy fashion - acknowledging that there are bad times as well but they can be dealt with. Fearne leads us through various topics, like being kind to your body, meditations, recipes, good friends, work/life balance, with a scattering of activities to be that bit more interactive.

Ooh, loved this. I’ve seen it once before, a long time ago, and I remember it being good but vaguely being disappointed by the ending. I think that might be why I’ve never suggested we watch it before and Mr C has never seen it. But it arrived in a film bundle and we needed a brief respite from all the Christmas stuff.

Let’s start at the beginning, Mr C is absolutely fuming at the title and it’s fair to say that the movie is mis-named. Charlie didn’t invent Christmas, more like brought it back into fashion.

I desperately didn’t want to give up on this one because I gave up on Blues Brothers early too, but unfortunately it seems John Landis just isn’t for me. The story is so slow, it took ten minutes for three characters to get up and say good morning to all their people.

This was good, we’ve waited a whole year to be able to watch it so thankfully it wasn’t a disappointment. It was funny in places but it wasn’t perfect. I don’t remember if I thought this during the first film, but Mila’s character really was the weakest one. And has anyone counted the number of times she said ‘guys’ in this?

I really liked this! Mr C has been talking about Peter Gabriel for a while now, every now and then pondering whether to pick this album and finally it gets its chance. There’s a nice selection of songs, most slightly different from each other, but with some really good ones tucked away. Sledgehammer is the main one, of course, but I thought Don’t Give Up was just lovely.

I’ve been looking forward to listening to this since it was released, but it’s always dropped down the order because I knew exactly what it was going to be like - and it was as predicted. Another solid Imagine Dragons album, stacked full of great songs, but sounding very much like the previous work. If you bundled Evolve and Origins together, they would make one cohesive mega album. Still good though!

This wasn’t quite as good as I hoped it was going to be, but it was entertaining enough and certainly one of those schmaltzy Christmas films that we were looking for.

I haven’t seen the original cartoon version since I was a kid so I’d actually forgotten a good chunk of the story, although remembered how lovely some of the songs are. Great cast, lovely story, quite a lot of shots where you just know nothing you’re looking at is real but I guess that just adds to the magic-ness of it all.

Mm, disappointing. Good cast but they don’t have a lot to work with here. The film can’t quite decide whether it’s a comedy or a drama. It’s not funny enough to be a comedy, but not intense or moving enough to be a drama. There are moments of both but it feels a bit disjointed and odd.

Thoughts on this one: The trailer makes it look terrible, but actually it’s a really good film. Don’t get me wrong, it’s derivative of everything and barely has an original idea in there, but it’s still very entertaining and a very well-made adventure. Sometimes you just want to watch a film like Die Hard.

Really lovely film, this one. A beautiful little indie work featuring the wonderful Nick Offerman. I liked that his character had plenty of challenges to work through, and had his moments of sadness, but it wasn’t a morose film, there was a lot to like and be happy about.

We watched this film last year, one of those that we put on the TV as background noise and ended up for the most part just sitting and watching. So this Christmas, we made it an official Film Watch entry, and loved it all over again!

Lovely Shania produced another album with lots of great crossover country/pop tunes, and there’s not a lot to dislike about this. The only thing that raises question marks is why there are three different versions - country, international, and your regular pop. And the mix and match that goes on in Apple Music is crazy. But I like what I heard and I still love her.

I have mixed feelings about The 1975, they make good songs but I don’t like the quirky edge they force upon themselves. The name of that last album gives me rage every time I see it. However, this is a new one with a reasonable album title and some really good choons included. I love the songs that sound like real songs, they’re right up there with some of the best of the year, but then the weird stuff just isn’t for me at all. The ‘song’ that is actually a tale about a robot was even less fun second time round.

I really enjoyed this film, even though there weren’t very many likeable characters in there. Usually that would turn me off, but the story and twists and turns were so interesting that it kept me engaged.

Somehow I’ve never seen this before, but it was quite entertaining as it goes. I’ll admit we had enjoyed a glass or two of wine as we settled in to watch something, anything, to get Mammia Mia out of our minds.

Just awful. Was I watching the right thing? I don’t get why people love this so much? The audio was terrible, the ADR incredibly distracting. There was a hint of a story there but the songs didn’t make much sense in situ. How could a cast this brilliant create such a terrible movie?

Well, this was an adventure. I was scared by how long this movie was when we first started watching but actually it didn’t feel that long as it unfolded. There were certainly plenty of twists along the way, and we audibly gasped a few times. Mr C was very good at not trusting anything he saw, where as I did get sucked in to a few of the face-swapping traps.

I’d never even heard of Taskmaster until this latest series, and it only crossed my path because I follow James Acaster on Twitter, and he was a participant in the latest series. I like Acaster’s work, and some of the clips and gifs I’ve seen have made me wonder what all the fuss is about. I had to do a bit of digging to find where I could watch this show – it’s broadcast on Dave, which means it’s part of the UK TV family. There’s an on demand app called UK TV Play (I do not recommend this app, it’s very poor compared to other video streaming efforts). So, I downloaded and started watching.

I used to listen to Anna’s podcast but not so much anymore - not because it isn’t good, but because, to be honest, I wasn’t so interested in the problem solving part of it. I liked the chat with the guests and the probing segments, and Anna was always so brilliant at getting people to open up whilst being honest about herself, but in the end I paused listening.

Every time I read a Jacqueline Wilson book, I always start out wracked with guilt that I’m far too old to be reading them but then get sucked into the story and finish it up anyway. This one was aimed at slightly older readers, which was better, although it did mean the story took some dark turns here and there. The bit with the paint, goodness me!

Ah, what a lovely album. I recognised the title and the title track from the theme tune to Extras, and of course there are a few great songs on there - Wild World, Father and Son, etc. It’s a really good, quite relaxing, occasionally moving, piece of work. God I really do love Wild World as a song.

The thing about this album is, it’s exactly what you would expect. Olly Murs makes good pop so it’s a perfectly pleasant and listenable album with a few good guests. The one mistake he’s made is, on the version I listened to, he finished off the album with a handful of his other singles, like a greatest hits. And that meant I preferred those a lot more than the new stuff.

So, I re-watched the first Incredibles movie before this one because I couldn’t remember it at all. And I wasn’t super duper impressed so I don’t really know what the fuss is all about with this series. And I also don’t think that film needed a sequel but here we are.

I was aware of the hype surrounding Netflix’s recent horror offering, The Haunting of Hill House, but I wasn’t sure I was prepared for it. I quite like a good horror but haven’t watched anything in that genre for such a long time, I’ll be honest, I was a bit nervous about my nerves. However, a friend recommended it and thus I was convinced to at least give it a go.

The story was good, the twists and turns intriguing, and of course a great, if painful, journey for this kid to go on. I felt quite stressed about how public the end of the movie was and a bit disappointed in who Blue ended up being - I guessed quite early on that it would be who it was because hey, kissing someone of the opposite sex doesn’t mean anything, really, not when you’re a teenager.

Bit of a weird concept this one, man in a coma, woman lies quite a lot and ends up infiltrated within his family. I was conflicted about what was happening throughout most of it.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting huge amounts from this. Melissa McCarthy has a hit and miss strike rate from what we’ve seen so far, and the concept didn’t look too original. But the trailer was okay and we were in the mood for some relatively straight forward comedy, and this seemed to fit the bill.

I love The Big Bang Theory so was interested to read the story behind one of its stars - particularly one who has brought his own heritage and culture to a very American show. I really enjoyed this memoir, it was never dull even though it did relate some childhood stories here and there. But it was mostly about a person who sometimes fits in and sometimes doesn’t, sometimes is surrounded by thousands of friends and family, and sometimes is sitting alone in a dorm room wondering what to do with his life.

I don’t know if this is the kind of book I would usually read, but the more I read the more I started to get into it. It felt like a bit of a slow start, but gradually it gathered steam, particularly as the historical parts started to take shape. Following two time streams with a modern day archeological dig and flashing back to those around in the time being slowly uncovered.

Right, there are two parts to this. First time through, I couldn’t really look past The Living Years. Why would you bother with the rest of the album when you have such a good song to start with. But then, of course, the second time I listened through, I quite enjoyed the rest of it too. It’s wonderfully eighties, of its time, and just a solid listen.

I like the direction the girls have taken with this - standing up for themselves, not caring what people think, and championing all the right things: feminism, feeling good about yourself, not taking any nonsense. The singles are good, the rest of it didn’t really stand out but was exactly what you’d want from Little Mix - pop grooves to boost your confidence.

Earlier this year, I worked my way through Swift Playgrounds – Apple’s easy-to-use educational tool to teach you the basics of the Swift language – and to celebrate, purchased a quite adorable R2D2 that you can program with that self-same language. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite make the leap in my head from the playgrounds I had been messing about with to the more tangible efforts with a toy, and the instructions that came with that little droid were a bit more advanced than I was.