Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe it’s 2022 already, I mean, neither 2021 or 2020 have been that spectacular, who know what 2022 will hold? I’m making no speculations!

That said, I have had a very relaxing and peaceful Christmas break. In part that is undoubtedly down to logging out of my laptop on 23rd December and not looking back since. Similarly, I think it may be down to logging out of Facebook and Instagram on 23rd December, and only briefly looking back on Facebook on 1st Jan just to see what I’d missed. For me, that holiday from social media has been an real eye opener, I mean all the time I’ve had back, the total lack of comparison between what I was doing and what other people were doing, time to focus on playing, reading, knitting, dressmaking and walks. I’m not sure what capacity I will return to social media in because mentally, I feel in a better place for not engaging. Writing my blog, I feel, is better, in part because I don’t write it and then scan 300 other bloggers to see if they are wearing a better dress than me, have a prettier dog or are celebrating a glamorous NYE while I simply sat in my PJs watching ‘Monster Squad’ and sipping alcohol free prosecco.

All in all, it has been a very relaxing time though. Christmas day was spent relaxing at home with family, playing with the oodles of toys that little miss was thoroughly spoiled with and marvelling at how spoiled I was. We had roast chicken dinner. We aren’t big fans of turkey, so decided just to get a really lovely locally reared chicken from the farm shop, and my word it was delicious. We followed up with Christmas pudding, and relaxed around the TV watching old DVDs. Is it just me or has the TV been especially poor this year?

Boxing day I spent with the chap. Originally we had intended to meet up and walk off those Christmas Day excesses on the Moors. Strictly speaking, we still did that, making a start on the walk from Kirbymoorside to St Gregory’s minster in the rain, but it was so waterlogged, and we were getting so rained on that we decided to abandon those plans and drive up to Helmsley to find a pub with an open fire where we could dry out and warm up.

We took a slight detour en route to drive to St Gregory’s minster, and both of us commented on how lovely it was just to be out and about without too many people around. Long walks are something I really want to do more of, so the weather needs to buck up its ideas so I can. I sometimes just crave being outdoors, especially since where I live is so picturesque.

Once in Helmsley, we took up a table in the Royal Oak, right next to a blazing hot stove that the landlord kept topping up with more logs, and enjoyed a hearty dinner, pudding and just hours of nowhere to be other than there, people watching, sipping coffee and enjoying the company.

For the most part, the weather stayed quite horrible. Fog, mist and drizzle was the order of the day so days passed by playing with little Miss’ toys, knitting a hat for little Miss that matches my own (almost finished so probably in the next blog post) and finally getting around to finishing this skirt, which fits perfectly.

I haven’t really indulged much in dressmaking in a long time, so making a skirt that was such a success felt really good. It’s a pattern I’ve made many times before, and I’m sure I will make it again.

Finally the weather started to let up enough to venture out to Pickering on one of the days, which is good because I was starting to go stir crazy. We had a delicious lunch in Klairneins coffee shop, which I think is new, well it certainly wasn’t there the last time I visited, and it was truly divine. Creamed mushrooms on Sourdough toast. Then we pottered around town and I picked up some absolute bargain leather and suede knee high boots, before heading home out of the impending drizzle.

NYE was a quiet affair. A stop off for an early dinner at the Forge Valley Inn, before a chilled night in front of the TV. All in all, it has been a really chilled break. I don’t dread returning to work on Tuesday, and I haven’t set myself any very stringent goals for 2022 because, life right now is too unpredictable. I will be making some lifestyle changes to ensure that I am doing the things I need to do for my health and wellbeing, which overall will hopefully make me feel better, but that’s about it. So, bring on 2022.