Happy New 2018!

Happy New Year everyone! 

I woke to dark skies, a downpour and a heavy cold this morning; probably not the most auspicious start to a new year. I do hope your first day of 2018 was more befitting the occasion!

After a lovely Christmas celebration with my family, the decorations have today been packed safely back into the loft for next year and our tree, unceremoniously chopped for recycling. Such is the way of these things!

Given the awful weather, Polly and Betty will have to make do with a local walk for their first of 2018 as I have very little enthusiasm for the great outdoors today. Luckily the weather was better on Boxing Day, so we took them to the seaside for a lovely sunny, breezy walk from Whitstable to Tankerton and back. It certainly blew away the Christmas cobwebs and was good to walk off some of our festive excess.

Christmas ended with a family trip to the panto to watch Aladdin. It was so much fun to share my three year old grandson's first ever panto experience .. he loved all the singing, dancing and daftness and I don't mind admitting, so did I!

So, there it was, a merry Christmas, full of family, just the way I like it. On New Year's Eve, my son and his family joined us for a simple beef stew and dumplings dinner at home as we didn't feel up to accepting party invitations. In fact a quiet evening playing Hungry Hippos on the rug with Toby was plenty enough excitement for me this year!

Now Christmas has been packed away for another year, it will soon be time for me to tidy up my workroom and think about creating my first teddy bear of 2018. Last year was a bit slow on production, so hopefully I will manage to organise my time better this year and make a few more bears to share in the coming year ... that's my plan anyway!

:-)