Auld Lang Syne

I sat on the sofa the other night in my new Christmas socks, listening to my family talking, sipping red wine from a tea glass, mindlessly eating Carluccio's dark chocolate grissinis (truly addictive) and pondering on 2012 and what it has brought me.

This year has been a really good one. From a selfish point of view, I feel infinitely better in myself than I did this time last December. Having a baby, whilst the best, most fun and most intense thing I've ever done in my life did wreck my self confidence for a while but these days I actually feel more positive about myself than I did pre baby, mentally, physically and spiritually. Interestingly I no longer believe what I had been previously told: that having children means you 'really' grow up, or completes you, or shows you what love 'really' is. It's simply an experience I am lucky to be having. A fantastic, tiring, life changing, soul sucking yet hilarious experience.

Be in the world but not of the world

My 2012 resolutions were to not spend my savings while on maternity leave and to try and get a house deposit together. I retracted these a few weeks in because they were too materialist and made another resolution to read improving literature more often. I didn't really do this as much as I would have liked, so I will carry that one over, although I am still battling with the problem of being too tired to read properly when I finally get time to myself during the day (night). The house sorted itself out as these things tend to do so I will never make resolutions about money again.

This year I have:

> Lost three stone without trying,
> Successfully looked after and weaned a baby without having a clue what I was doing, until the baby became a toddler. Obviously my best achivement!
> Played Irish music with new people. Played a few gigs but also had to skip a few due to infuriating car troubles and illness,
> Overhauled my appearance with hair dye and big glasses half way through the year,
> Become a working mother when I went back to work after maternity leave,
> Expanded my freelance work a little, with more plans in the works for next year,
> Bought a house,
> Taken my son on his first holiday to North Wales where we had a magnificent time,
> Blogged for the entire year! I've been blogging since 2002 but not publicly. This is my 100th post! If you read without commenting please de-lurk yourself, I love knowing who is reading.

I'm also very keen to follow more blogs but don't always have the time to search for them so if you're reading and have a blog I don't know about please tell me and I'll follow you!

In 2013 I will:

> Make exercise a routine in my life.
> Get through the increasingly large pile of books on my To Read list

Some pictures from this year:

On the beach on our holiday in August

Lunch in Cowbridge in the summer

First shoes

First birthday in September!

Autumn visits to my dad

This is the living room of the house we've bought! (Not our stuff) we're moving in February!

Last Christmas, nearly 4 months old

12 months later awaiting his first Christmas dinner!

Went to the museum a ridiculous amount of times

Portmerion in the summer

First painting

Auntie

At my mums

Gigging

May 2013 be as fun and beautiful as 2012 was

Happy new year!