A Very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year...

A new year always begins with Christmas, it being at the end of the year it always heralds the onset of a coming year.

Christmas! Ah Christmas, always leaves you with that wishful feeling that it could just last forever. It means that you have had a good time! For me its been familiar, un-surprising and blinking brilliant!!! The same is best! somewhere familiar, safe and un-believably comfortable to unwind, relax and enjoy the friends close to you and the family surrounding you. Nothing quite beats that feeling of sitting around the fire, Christmas wrapping paper overflowing the waste paper bin and just BEING with your family!

My family, according to many, are weird! we open our presents after lunch...and a walk! But it builds the suspense throughout the day! My Christmas days for many years gone by have all followed the same pattern: Awake, Stocking, Church, Lunch, Walk, Presents and Game/Film. I wouldn't change a thing - something consistent to go home to is a blessing.

Then Boxing Day! Dads v Lads football game! An event I have loved and cherished over the years. Followed by a mad dash through the shower - into the car- and a drive to meet my cousins, uncle and aunt for a walk! Blissful! Then back to ours for Champagne, another meal meal worthy of international acclaim, a few more presents and then either Categories, Consequences or the Adverb Game. The goodbyes follow, they always hurt but only because you know you have had a MINT time!

NEW YEAR...

On reflection I consider it to be one of the Highlights of the year. Friends, Family, Merriment and relaxation. Monmouth played host to the welcoming in of the New Year and 19 loved ones attended. We would talk, play games, go on walks, go to a pub for lunch, pop bottles of Cava and one bottle of Champagne as 2011 became 2012 and then visit the neighbours and sit on Ozzy Osborne's toilet! (true story) and partake in Piggyback races back to our house! Then when others would head to bed, a few stayed up to watch "The Hangover". Sadness hit at the thought of it coming to an end, but only because we had all had a SUPER time! 

I cannot convey in words how much I enjoyed my two weeks...a lot, immensely...just doesn't quite do it. There is something missing...I would have to name all those who were there to begin to describe it...but somehow I know I would fail to do it justice.