In my final blog post of the year, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2019! It’s been an interesting year that once again seems to have flown by. Some things in the news have seemed too odd to be true. Other things have been fun, such as the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, her pregnancy and the birth of Prince Louis to the Duchess of Cambridge earlier in the year! I’m not going to write the Queen’s Christmas Day speech here for her though, so it’s time for me to spread some Christmas cheer and do a little recap of my year.

My year started off as it always does with my birthday on New Year’s Day. I was fully expecting it to be rubbish, but I actually had a really fantastic day with my family! There have been lots of bumps along the way this year with my anxiety being worse in general than it was last year. However, I’ve still been managing to continue with life quite normally.

The summer was fantastic, with a hotter summer than anyone could have anticipated. For weeks it didn’t rain. The first day that it did rain, I actually really enjoyed it, which is unheard of! A large part of that was probably because I was fed up of my plants getting burnt to a crisp despite my best efforts to water the garden every day.

We managed to have two holidays this year. The first was an amazing holiday to Bluestone in Wales in June, which was quite possibly the best holiday I’ve ever had. We managed to spend so much time on the beach because the weather was so glorious. That’s not something we’ve done on Welsh holidays before!

We saw penguins swimming up close.

I even had a go at rowing a coracle and was pretty good by the end!

For the second holiday, we went to surprise my family on their holiday in Cornwall.

It was quite ambitious, as we were taking Autumn camping for the first time, around 7 hours from home! As an outdoorsy kind of person, she was in her element and she absolutely loved it!

As the leaves began to go brown, we celebrated Autumn’s 2nd birthday with a soft play party. The same weekend, Dave and I became Godparents! It was a lovely occasion and so exciting to become a Godmother to such a dear little boy.

Sadly, this was shortly followed by me needing to leave my job. However, I’m hoping that I will find a fresh challenge to enjoy in the New Year!

It was also around this time that Benny the beluga whale came to visit us in the Thames. He’s still in the area for Christmas and must be a lot happier with our cooler temperatures. He seems to be thriving which is good, but I do hope he finds his way home.

Christmas

Christmas for us will be a family occasion again this year. However, we’ve been fully embracing festivities in the run-up to the big day. We recently went to Hever Castle to see the beautiful Christmas lights, which was a real treat. They were breathtakingly beautiful.

Autumn also saw Santa there, which was a magical experience. The grotto was lovely and Autumn requested cheese when I asked what she wanted for Christmas. She was a little apprehensive of Father Christmas, but adored the rabbit toy he gave her and kept proudly pointing to it and saying “Santa!”

The following week we went to the Christmas Lights Trail at Bedgebury Pinetum, which was also absolutely stunning.

Marshmallow toasting was a hit with Autumn and the whole thing made me feel extremely festive!

I have been privileged to have spoken to some amazing people this year thanks to my blog, and am thankful that it continues to help people. I’m also lucky to have worked with some fantastic people and brands throughout the year. Blogging is really hard work, it isn’t easy to consistently keep up with writing, social media and all the other things you don’t see going on in the background whilst juggling my other responsibilities. However, it has opened so many doors for me and become an integral part of who I am over the last couple of years. It has allowed me to be creative and provided an outlet for many of my interests. It has also pushed me out of my comfort zone and really boosted my confidence. I thank everyone who has supported me for being a part of this.

Well, it’s almost time for me to sign off to focus on all the festivities. So there’s just about enough time to wish you a happy and safe Christmas celebrating with those dearest to you. See you in the New Year!