The dark nights are drawing in, the central heating is now blasting nearly every day and wearing summer clothing feels like a distant memory. However, this does not mean that we can’t look forward to the Winter in a positive way. For example who can’t say they don’t enjoy a lovely hot meal such as a hotpot or mince and dumplings followed by a lovely sponge pudding or crumble with custard. In fact, if you are anything like me you won’t be able to get enough of these things.

I always look forward to late afternoon when it is time to close the curtains, switch on the lamps and electric fire in our living room which always makes the place seem so warm and cosy. I say switching on the electric fire although as we have gas central heating I only use this as a focal point as I love to watch the flame effect which always makes the room seem warm and inviting. When I say the fire is a focal point this isn’t really true as my husband recently decided that our t.v. set was too small and that we needed a much larger one so now it is a choice of either watching flickering red and orange flames which always make me feel warm inside or watching my husband getting hot and bothered whilst watching his football team lose on the big screen which in turn makes me feel even warmer when I start getting all hot and bothered at him shouting and swearing at a group of men running around a football pitch who can’t even hear him!

I did think that now our family are all grown up that we might be able to spend more time together sitting in our favourite armchairs in front of the fire listening to background music whilst sipping our hot chocolate drinks.

Well, that was definitely a dream which didn’t come true although last Saturday evening whilst watching Strictly I did catch my husband tapping his foot in time with the music whilst reading his football magazine so we are halfway there especially seeing we were both sitting in the same room haha! I’ve said it before and I will say it again I definitely have watched too many romantic movies.

Anyway getting back to the subject of Winter, I was talking to a close friend recently about our memories of playing out as children during the winter months. Of course in the 1970’s we had proper Winters as we always had snow which fell quite thickly. I used to love it when it snowed as it meant we could take our sledges onto a nearby field that had a massive slope that we could slide down. I remember once sitting on my friend’s sledge whizzing down the slope and ending up knocking a grown man down who was waiting for his children to arrive at the bottom. Thankfully he was ok just a “little” damp from landing headfirst into a snowman that had just been built by a couple of children. Of course, I was off my sledge in no time and running back up the slope as quickly as I could so I wouldn’t be reprimanded. Now if this had happened nowadays I would have been straight off the sledge and checked that the gentleman was ok although saying this me sitting on a sledge whizzing down a slope and taking out a grown man is a bit of an impossibility in fact the only thing I would be able to do nowadays would be taking out a grown man but even then it would only be either driving my Dad to his G.P.’s practice or dropping my husband off at work, eeeeeee how times have changed!!

Another thing about Winter beginning is knowing that Christmas is on its way. Yes, I have finally used the C-word! I have to admit I absolutely love the lead up to Christmas more than the day itself as I love buying gifts and prepping my home and of course buying all of those high-calorie treats which I couldn’t possibly survive without! Of course, I know Christmas can be a difficult time for some people, I know our family have had some bad ones over the years.

What I try to do is if I know it is going to be a difficult one, I think of it as being just another day with a meal similar to a Sunday Lunch but with a few extras.

Well, that is all I am going to say about Christmas as I will write another blog about this year’s Christmas experience in the New Year.

So, I just want to finish off by saying thank you so much to all of you who have read my blogs over the past 16 months. I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Hopefully, I will have plenty to write about in 2022.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and that the New Year is a good one for all of you.

Best Wishes,
Susie xx