Christmas, New Year & a Big Birthday!
Hello, and Happy New Year (even though we’re over half way through January now). I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year if you celebrate it. We had a lovely time but it goes so fast doesn’t it!? The build-up always feels huge, particularly as a parent, and then boom, the day itself is over and feels like it lasted approximately 3 hours, and now January is flying by too, which is unusual.
We were able to stay home and have people come to us for the first time in years, which we all really enjoyed. A doesn’t usually get much time to open her presents in the morning because we have to get ready and leave to go to 17 different houses, so it was nice to get more time this year.
We had a lovely day eating, drinking, opening presents and playing games together. Our oven did decide to break in the middle of it all, though, which was great timing! The roast potatoes and the root veg weren’t ready and roasties are just about my favourite part, but thankfully it was just the fan that had gone so we were able to use the top (very slow) oven and I air-fried some to speed it up. It was a lovely dinner in the end just quite a lot later than planned!
Then we had some family round on New Year’s Eve for A’s THIRTEENTH birthday before we went away with more family on the 1st!
So yep, I am the mother of a teenager now and I can’t believe it. Thirteen sounds so much older than twelve, and it’s all just gone so fast. I would love to do a post about her and her likes and dislikes and her personality like I used to do, mainly just for posterity – they’re so lovely to look back on – but it’s not fair on her now, she’s too old, so it’ll have to be a more general ramble.
She’s so great. I just love her so much, which I know is probably quite normal as a mother but, you know. We get on so well and have so much fun together and like a lot of the same things (dogs, Friends, steak, reading, snuggling, sleeping). She is a grumpy teenager quite often now, especially with me, and her and her father take the piss out of me constantly, but I’ll take it. It’s so crazy but so interesting and rewarding watching your child grow up and go through all the different stages that you once went through. We’re so lucky to have her and I’m so proud of who she is and who she’s becoming.
We had a great few days away in a place called Ripponden over her birthday. All she requested for her birthday (other than lots of presents) was to go away with her cousins, and she never really wants a party, so that’s what we did!
We stayed in a lovely Air BnB in the middle of the countryside and it was so nice to get away. On A’s birthday, we made waffles for breakfast as she had requested, opened presents, then we all went for a lovely long walk up big hills, in the freezing cold and it was perfect. Ava spotted deer twice! It was amazing watching them bound away from us and then group up to watch us from afar – really special.
We then went back home to chill out for a bit (the men napped!) and then we went out for a really nice meal. A had a really lovely day and I think she got everything she wanted!
After such a busy Christmas and New Year it was hard but lovely to go back to normal routine with school runs and work, but I really needed it by then and I was really craving that structure. Now January is zooming past and then we have a million more birthdays in February!
I’m excited for the year, being in our new house and watching the garden change through the seasons, getting to do lots of lovely walks around the area and seeing our family more. I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions this year but I am working on my health and wellbeing and trying to get fitter again. I really want to feel better about myself and my body, but also feel well at the same time. For the first time ever I’m trying to take it slowly so that I see more lasting changes and so exercising and looking after myself just becomes a part of my routine. We shall see how that goes!
Love, Lou xxx
