Birthdays, In Between and New Year Our Weekly Photos – Week 1 & 2

Soooooo, Happy New Year. And I failed on the first week of the year to complete my end of the year and week 1, how bad is that? It was such a busy time and I just didn’t get around to it. You know how it is. We had a lovely time off and getting back to reality, well, let’s just say I’m struggling a bit. How about you? Did you have a lovely Christmas and new year? What did you get up to? I wish you all the health, happiness and sparkles for 2020.

When I last left you on our weekly post it was the Christmas week and we’d just celebrated Lucas 13th birthday. It’s been a busy two week, brace yourselves. The Saturday after Christmas the kids had some Christmas money burning a hole in their pocket so we did some shopping, got a takeaway for dinner and had some downtime in the evening. It’s difficult to even know what day it is.

Lucas had a few issues with some of his wee fish he got for his birthday, but they seem to be thriving well and his loving having them. I spent some time putting away the Christmas decor on Sunday, which is always a shame as everything looks so bare, but I find it nice to give everywhere a good clean and get things back to normal in terms of space. It has been nice after having the big clearout before Christmas to have less clutter. Aria and I also made the delicious-looking gingerbread house. It was a wee kit from Lidl in the sale, so we’d not had a chance to do it before Christmas, we did it today. Aria loved icing the house and the boys said it tasted delicious.

Monday we did some more shopping, we went into the shops in Glasgow and looked out for some birthday shopping for Tyler and Aria. Robert got some new jeans for his birthday and yes, it is birthday central in January in our house. I started a jigsaw that my Mum bought for Aria and I. It was 1,000 pieces and I thought I’d have it done in no time. Hmmm, you followed me on insta stories, you will know it didn’t go so well and the cat wrecked it a few times resulting in me losing a few bits. Thankfully, we found them again. The boys also bought a mini fridge for their loft, den, so that was the highlight of the day. And here we are on the last day of the year. It has been a quick year and it has been one filled with ups and a lot of downs, but we have each other and that helps us get through those lows.

Today is Hogmanay. It is a Scottish tradition of first footing where you need someone talk and dark, carrying a piece of coal and a bottle of whisky to bring good luck and prosperity to the house for the coming year. A tradition we adhere to. I did some more jigsaw, still nowhere near finished. We got our fancy new outfits on, as you can see from the photo of Aria and Tyler above, they are from Nutmeg and you can see mine with my new fluffy jumper and shaping jeans. They are my new favourites. It is also Robert’s brother in laws birthday, so we go down to Robert’s sisters to celebrate his birthday with a delicious family meal, yummy birthday cake and bring in the bells surrounded by the family. It is a lovely way to bring in the new year. Then time to take 3 tired children home to bed and hopefully a bit of a long lie. Well, until 9ish.

A new year and a new decade, wow, it’s been a great decade watching the kids grow and one being born. Also, I started my blog 10 years ago this month, so that has made for an interesting journey. Happy New Year to you all. Today, we were tired, just chilling and watching some of the tv shows we didn’t get caught up with at Christmas, like Gavin and Stacey. That ending though!! I took my first sunset of the year in the photo above.

Thursday we spent the day playing our new family favourite game of Exploding Kittens. Have you played it? If you haven’t, do check it out, it’s great fun and perfect for a variety of ages. Young kids might need a little help, but once they have the hang of it, it’s fun and laughter all round. Unless you have a competitive husband. Lucas made a very sweet and thoughtful gift of a photo collage for his dad for his birthday the next day. He worked hard on it and enlisted my help for a few bits.

Friday and it is Robert’s birthday. Did you like his gluten-free chocolate cake above? No, I didn’t make it this year. Here is also a photo of Aria giving him the cake. Everyone came over in the evening for a birthday dinner and cake, it was the last celebration until the end of the month.

Saturday was a tiring one where we all slept late with being up quite last the night before. Aria had wanted to go swimming on Thursday, but the pool was shut so we all went and did some swimming. She did really well and loved being able to swim around herself. We were all very proud. We played lots of games of Exploding kittens and the kids and I cleared out their clothes. Three full bin bags later for the charity and recycling and we were done.

The last day of the holidays was a sad one. I was not looking forward to going back to work and back to school. It has been nice living in my own wee bubble for the last 3 weeks. The festivities and I have caught up with some much-needed chores. We spent the day colouring, doing the jigsaw, which still isn’t finished and I got some editing done on my book. I’d hoped to get more of that done, but I’d just not had the time. Aria and I stayed in, in the evening instead of starting back gymnastics. She was tired and thought it best to have an early night. Tyler and Robert went to Rangers training which had started back. I also felt quite bad about my skin, it seems my kidneys are playing up a bit and my skin is a mess just now. Not fun, but I got a few things to help calm it down.

And here we are back at work and school. What a sore and tiring morning. None of us were ready to go back, well, that’s not entirely true. The kids were looking forward to it, me not so much. But, here I am back at work. It was a long day and I used the picture Tyler took of Aria above to cheer up my Monday evening. I love that photo. Isn’t it cute? I made a start on some more editing. I need to get this book whipped into shape this month if I can.

Tuesday, I worked a half-day at work and went to a funeral in the afternoon. It was sad, but an amazing send off for a wonderful man, who lit up any room with his warm smile and infectious laugh. He will be sorely missed and will always hold a special place in my heart. My thoughts are always with his family who miss him dearly.

Wednesday saw Tyler come first in his cross country run in the school for which he was chuffed. He is very competitive that boy and so sporty. Football is back and albeit the weather is rubbish, they have been good. I have been keeping quiet on social media, I have really been struggling to get back into life after being off and trying to organise the other to kids birthdays. How have you got on being back to work, school, etc?

I got my book pre-order of A Throne of Swans by two of my favourite authors on Thursday, I can’t wait to read it. Isn’t it a pretty cover? A transformational fairytale inspired by swan lake. I can’t wait to delve into this fantasy world. I am planning on upping my reading this year, I have already finished a book this year which is pretty good going for me, but staying up to 4 am reading the night before I started back work, probably wasn’t my best idea. I got a fair amount of editing done in the evening as well as reading to Aria while the boys were all out at football.

On now I’ve reached Friday again. Wasn’t the sky pretty this morning? The pink-purple sky above was the amazing sight when I work up and looked out the window. I loved it. A shorter day at work so I can do the school run for the first time this year and have some extra time with the kids. I really should get the jigsaw done and share a picture too, shouldn’t I?

I think I have rambled on enough this year so far. Happy New Year to you all and I would love to hear how your 2020 is going so far?