Happy New Year to you all.
This post is a little late as its been full on Christmas & New Year with lots of family and friends coming to visit. In recent years we have had very quiet Christmases and even quieter New Years now that all but one of the children have grown and flown. We usually have one or two out of the four but this year we had all of them at home on Christmas eve which was lovely seeing them chatting about when they were younger and the things they got up to that they thought I knew about only to realise I didn't when they saw the look of surprise on my face. Daughter was working on Christmas day, but I still had the three boys, my DIL and little grandson and of course the bearded one for the rest of Christmas. It was especially nice that the eldest one stayed for a week which has been unheard of before due to work commitments and it was nice that not only did he get time to spend with the olds he got to spend some quality time with his youngest sibling even if it did involve an X-box. We bought in the New Year and new decade in with one of my very dearest of friends from my school days and we had a lot of fun catching up and after rather a lot of wine a lesson in crochet which considering we had, had a glass or two of wine turned out very well. She has some big changes going on this year and she wanted to be able to learn to crochet before giving up her career and moving down to Cornwall to look after her lovely dad who will turn 94 this year, still lives in his own home and goes tea dancing three times a week but is getting to the point where he needs someone around but not enough to cramp his style....
This year I decided to make up hampers for the older three children, filled with Christmas treats. I'd never thought of doing this before and now I have I really don't know why I'd never thought of it before as they seem to have been a big hit.
This years were made up with cakes, crackers, specialty coffees and specialty cheeses and of course mums home made chutneys
which apparently were enjoyed on New Years Eve by at least one of them as demonstrated by the photograph I was sent by my daughter who was spending the evening with her boyfriend as she was working the next day. Having been such a success this will definitely be something I will be doing again this year and I have already got my thinking cap on as to what can go in them and what chutney's I can include. 
The hand knitted socks also went down well this year and I am led to believe that both pairs have already been out on several outings. Its the first time I have gifted my socks to someone other than family but definitely something I will do again now I know they have been so well received. The one thing I didn't do was go back to Asda and get more of these little gift bags for which I am quite cross with myself but time just got the better of me so I will just have to hope that they have them again this year or that I can find something similar or maybe I will make my own.
Is anyone else out there already planning their gifts for this year or is it just me.
Well whatever your plans are for this next year if not this next decade I hope they are filled with health, wealth and happiness for you all.
Mx
