Jeudi, 1 Janvier

For me, Christmas and New Year are all about family. For dear Carl and I, it falls that Christmas is spent with our families, and New Year with the family that we have chosen for ourselves- our friends. Last night we saw in 2009 with dear friends at an impossibly scrumptious dinner party, (and decadent! I got up in the middle of the night to hunt for Carl, to meet him on his way up to bed...and discovered it was 6am!) and this afternoon we had a long lunch with his friends, one of whom I have known since I was 3. I have some special people I have yet to talk with, but I have the most wonderful feeling of the abundance of love in my life, and for that I am so very grateful.

I hope that you have seen in the new year with people dear to you, and that 2009 will see your dreams and wishes coming true. Thank you so much to those of you who have left me such kind comments this year...they mean a lot to me. I try very hard not to get too hung up on comments, as it is easy to start to judge yourself on the lack or abundance of them...but I must confess that when I read your kind words and thoughts, it brings such a smile to my day.

Have you discovered yet The Wonderful Weekend Book by Elspeth Thompson? It is the most delicious book that I have discovered recently...it is full of ideas for things to do at the weekend, some for each season, and then some all the year round ideas. It is one of my resolution-targets that this year we will do more of this kind of thing, and also capture more of them on camera. The first thing I have picked to do is to go on a Snowdrop Walk. I hope to go to either The Gardens of Easton Lodge, or RHS Hyde Hall. I am imagining a crisp cold day, a flask of soup, and some cheese scones still warm from the oven.

It sounds terribly vain, I know, but this year I want to spend some time focussing on myself, and my looks. I want to eat a little more healthily, exercise a bit more and remember to use face masks and so on for more than a week at a time before trailing off! I also have a long list of things I would like to make. For some reason, I am always drawn to tea cosies and hot water bottles! Over the next day or so, before I go back to work, I am going to choose out a pattern and order my yarn.

I have been terribly spoilt this Christmas; I had a cashmere jumper in pink from my mother-in-law, and the most fabulous baking book from the wonderful Tash at www.vintagepretty.org (in French! I shall be brushing up on my language skills this year!) and some fabulous cherry hair slides. Oh, and a vintage scrapbook to be filled with wonderful things, and a recipe box with recipe cards, and a snuggly pair of reindeer slippers. Oh, and there is the matter of the Cath Kidston 'Make' book, and a bright pink ipod!

Although our dear little flat is rather full of these lovely things, it is quite orderly too. Before we left for New Years, we took down all of our Christmas decorations, changed our sheets, hoovered the floors, and flung the windows open. I have a vase of daffodils on the windowsill, and a hyacinth bulb slowly growing. I know it sounds a little scroogey to have done away with the trappings of Christmas so soon, but I really wanted to get into the feeling of a new start for the new year. It was rather lovely to come home today to all the freshness.

My baking book is going to come in rather handily- I plan on taking some baked goodies with me on my first day in my new job! I can hardly believe this, and still worry that somehow it was all a dream, but I have been given a little library to look after all on my own! I will still be working at my current library half of the week, but the other half will see me at a library in the most darling little village, half way between where I live now, and where my Mum lives. Such an adventure to start the new year with- I am so pleased, but also really scared!

Every time I write that I am going to blog more, it seems to me that something comes up and dashes all my good intentions. So, I am going to think it instead of writing it in the hope of not jinxing it! I adore writing, and get a lot out of writing here.

I am all snuggled up on the sofa with a steaming cup of tea; Jonathan Creek is just starting, and I feel almost indescribably cosy. Carl is next to me and is ever so nice to snuggle with as he is wearing his Christmas Cashmere jumper. I hope that wherever you are, you are starting 2009 with the same feelings of contentment and excitement as I.

Happy New Year, everyone!