Towards the New Year..

Goodbye 2013..

..and goodbye to that time after Christmas I look forward to so much every year. Everyone together, plenty of food to go round and more than enough of everything we could possibly need to entertain ourselves without having to look too far.

We've had a lovely time of it here. We found out how many people it takes to buy two goldfish for one new (Nemo, not SpongeBob) fish tank; and that would be two uncles, two cousins, one aunt, one long suffering mother and one highly excited small boy. Gotta love a pet shop at three o'clock on Christmas Eve afternoon.

We ate our traditional Fair fare of ham on Christmas Eve night, then turkey followed by Grannie Fair's special recipe Christmas pudding on the Big day itself, with mince pies and gingerbread for snacking on.

We turned off the computer and made our own fun - build a cardboard hamster castle, anyone? - and we put on our new Christmas clothes and decided we didn't need to go to the sales after all (not when we've got Little E printed our socks. No outfit needs anything more to be perfect!).

We ventured out for a walk and discovered  we were so out of condition we're going striding (ha) out again today..before life all returns to normal, before we start the New Year.

"I can't read"  Little E said to me on Christmas Eve. Not with regret - that's not his style - but with a happy sense of achievement at the things he can do and a cheerful anticipation of learning something new. That's a pretty good place to be, heading towards January. I'm going to try to follow his lead. I don't really do resolutions, but I do like to look out for something new to have a go at during the year. Mmm..more quilting, maybe? If I try it, you'll hear about it. You can count on that. 

Your company has meant a lot to me this year: thank you so much for reading and saying hello and sticking around. Very best wishes from me to you for a wonderful 2014. Have a good one!