Happy New Year, and welcome back to reality. It might just be me but the days and meals have all blurred into one over the last week or so. Do not get me wrong, I love the fact that everyday feels like the weekend and there is copious amounts of delicious food on offer - having said that I am not sure my body would appreciate this for long periods of time. Every year I promise myself that I will not eat too much and every year I fail... unfortunately this one was no different. It was, however, very different in another aspect; this was sadly my first Christmas with no grandparents yet on the positive side it was my first as an aunt, even if my niece at eight months old is too young to appreciate all the fuss that was made of her she certainly brought joy to all the family.
Outside of my family there was also another significant alteration to one of my holiday traditions; every year the majority of my close friends return to West Devon for the annual catch up, this hasn't changed, it was the number of people that did. Over the past twelve to fourteen months several of my friends have started to grow their own families. It was wonderful to see so many babies although from a selfish point of view it does limit any rendezvous to a short daytime window and most certainly rules out any evening drinks, maybe that part was a god send in disguise.
