Happy New Year?

I have worked in retail for about 26 years and Christmas trade is always exhausting with long hours and stressed customers. Despite working in retail I still get so excited for Christmas day. Christmas day has always been about fun and family, oh and food!!

When I was little, my Dad usually had a few days off from Christmas Eve to New Year's day. On Christmas Eve day Dad and I would go to ReStore to pick up the Ravioli and cold meats and cheeses for Christmas lunch, I loved those shopping trips.

Christmas day started early with me waking all of my siblings up so we could see if Father Christmas had come. I was the annoying younger sister that was up at 5am, so excited for the day!!

After the family stuff, at night. we always went to my Grandparents house (the Scottish side) to catch up with the cousins and have shortbread and soft drink -usually Fanta (soft drink was a rare treat when I was a kid!).

Of course as the years went by, our family grew and our traditions changed. We still always got together at some time during the day and there was always a big meal, whether it be with everyone or just half of the family, sometimes just my parents, one of my sisters and me. Every other year we all got together for lunch still and then the other years the family all break off to be with their in laws. We replaced the ravioli with seafood (thanks mostly to my brother's neighbour) but most importantly, we all managed to see each other on Christmas day.After our Grandparents passed away, we no longer caught up with the cousins but my family had grown so huge that it was more than enough.

This year, actually last year (2018), was different. We didn't see the whole family on Christmas day. We didn't do Secret Santa (which I totally understand). We had a small dinner (which was lovely....we even had Ravioli) but I really did miss seeing everyone.

The whole family did get together on Boxing day, and they had the seafood but unfortunately I always work on Boxing day.

Then of course there is New Year's Eve. That was always about friends. This year I stayed home, it wasn't a conscious decision but unfortunately, when you are single, you really have to put some work into what you are going to do on New Year's Eve and to be quite frank, I just didn't have the canvassing in me this year! To be honest, I was asleep on the couch by 11:30pm, and I was totally fine with that.

This morning I woke up with the obligatory New Year's day reflections. I found last year a little deflating. I did a lot of soul searching which lead to a lot of self criticism. I also have to admit (and I never admit this) that 'the loneliness was palpable' (a quote from Carrie Bradshaw in SATC). I had to say No to a lot of invitations because of budget restraints and found myself spending a lot of time watching TV on the couch.

So today after shopping for some bathroom storage solutions, I decided to sit down and have some prawns and have a glass of bubbles and just reflect. I thought about how I stopped using my imagination last year. No matter what was going on, I've always had my imagination which has always sparked my passions. So I sat there at my table and made a list of different things to do this year, things to wake me up, to wake up my passions, and do you know what?! I got excited! So let's see shall we. Let's see what this year brings, or more so what I can bring to my 2019.

Happy New Year folks.

DM xx