Hello and Happy New Year from frosty Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 December was a lovely month, but a busy one that passed in a blur.

Before Christmas, my husband and I had a rare childfree night out where we went for dinner at our favourite Mexican restaurant and finally got to see Hamilton on tour. We don’t go to the theatre very often but have thoroughly enjoyed everything we’ve seen, and Hamilton is definitely one of our favourites with incredible music, set design and fascinating storyline.

It always feels like a bit of a marathon to get everything ready on time, and there’s a lot of pressure to make Christmas magical for the kids. Our oldest daughter woke early on Christmas morning, excited to see if Father Christmas had been. We let the kids open their stockings and some of their gifts upstairs before we let them wake up their grandparents so they could get stuck into their gifts from us and them. It’s become our tradition to host Christmas as my husband is an excellent cook and it’s easier to keep the kids entertained at home while we prepare lunch. After lunch, there were family boardgames and bike rides.

On New Year’s Eve, we returned to the theatre to see The Little Mermaid, our first pantomime with the girls, which  exceeded all expectations, full of beautiful costumes, clever special effects and some very topical, risqué humour.

We had lunch with my parents and a family friend on New Year’s Day, which was a gentle way to welcome the New Year in. Though 2026 is off to a bumpy start as my father took a tumble on New Year’s Eve and it turns out he’s fractured his ankle and requires surgery to pin it back together, so there’s been hospital visits too as well as some lovely get togethers with out extended families too.

My husband and I like to have a walk on the beach early in the New Year and we headed to Lunderston on the 2nd. Lunderston has become our default beach because the kids love the playpark next to the beach and it also has public toilets (a necessity now that the girls are both out of nappies). We watched the sun climb over the horizon as we combed the beach for interesting shells and stones. It’s been fairly cold here in Scotland for the past week, and the kids enjoyed cracking the ice that had formed over the rock pools.

My daughter received a journal for Christmas and it’s been a lovely way to end the day with her taking some time to write three things she enjoyed from her day and practising her writing before she bounces off to bed. It’s also inspired me to start my own gratitude journal, something I did for years previously.

After all the excitement and merriment of the festive season, we’ll take our decorations down today and we’re all back to work, school and nursery tomorrow

Wishing everyone the very happiest New Year! 🎇🎉🥂