Happy New Year!

As the very last hours of the twelfth day of Christmas tick tock away, I am in need of a jolly re-cap of the last few cheerful weeks before we slide drably on into gloomy January!

We have had such a wonderful Christmas holiday; very relaxed, spending lots of time with family and eating vast quantities of delicious things!

As with the rest of the year, I ended up being rather disorganised with my Christmas preparations, I was a month late making my mincemeat, and despite usually getting all the decorations up on the 1st December, I was several days behind and didn't even get the wreath made until two weeks in.  We went on a lovely (if rather damp) walk in the woods to gather foliage and berries to make the wreath and I spent a gorgeous but prickly few hours winding the thing together!

As there has hardly been any frost there are still crabapples to be found, which are such a rare and jolly addition to a Christmas wreath.

The best bit about going out in December is being able to come back home to see our jolly Christmas tree twinkling merrily through the window.  It is one of my favourite December activities to go walking around streets of houses peeking through windows at other people's Christmas trees!

We had a gorgeous day catching up with my family, doing all the things we always do when we get together - a lot of talking, a muddy walk and stacks and stacks of food!

Then suddenly it was Christmas eve and in a flurry of wrapping paper and mince pies we packed the car full of treasures and whisked off down to London for Christmas with Edward's family.

Mathilda of course had no idea what was going on apart from that she had a spectacular few days with endless entertainment from her doting aunts, uncles and grandparents and hilarious games with wrapping paper and sparkly ribbon.  She managed to look very serious for our photo though!

We rolled out Christmas day evening for a wander round Trafalgar Square in order to stretch our legs and ease our tummies to make space for just a little bit more delicious food!  Mathilda and I got photo-bombed...

London was all twinkly.

Mathilda had the chance to figure out George the cat, and after some uncertainty and deliberation, decided he might be ok.  (Excuse the carrot she has plastered all over her face...)

It is hilarious and fascinating watching her constantly discovering new things, working out what she thinks and interacting with them!

We came home to a few days footling at home together, braving the cold for damp walks and hot coffee, and snuggling at home playing games.

Sadly in this house we have to make do with radiators as there is no open fire like we had in Plymouth, but we do have the next best thing - a film of a fireplace with a fire crackling merrily in the grate.  It's neeearly as good as the real thing....sort of.

We ended up having a romantic evening just the two of us for New Year's Eve.  Mathilda went off to bed and we settled down to canapes and prosecco in front of the makeshift fire.  It was the perfect way to end a wonderful year and welcome in the new one (very briefly before we scuttled off to bed, so sleepy!) and all the exciting things it has to bring.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Happy New Year!