How We Saw In 2014....

Anybody who knows me will know that I LOVE special occasions...

The way I see it, life is series of monotonous days that are all very similar and tend to blend into one....so when there's a special occasion or calendar event, you have an opportunity to break from the norm a little.

I think these are the moments that make life fun and interesting - these are the opportunities to do something a little out of the ordinary...to step out of "everyday mode" for a while and create some special memories!!

When I look back on my childhood, my mind is flooded with memories of all the special occasions we've celebrated throughout the years - I can remember pretty much every birthday and how it was celebrated, when I think of Easter & Christmas I remember big family gatherings with lots of laughter and good times being had....

And, although I am the first to admit that New Years Eve has always been last on my list of favourite occasions, it's still an occasion nonetheless....and therefore I think it should be celebrated!

It's not just another day....it's a special, once a year occasion. You can go to bed early for the other 364 days of the year, so why not make just one night of the year a little bit different and do something fun?!

New Years Eves for me in the past have been varied....

During my childhood I cannot remember a time when there wasn't a party - sometimes they would be at an Aunts house but a lot of the time they were at our house - they were always so much fun, and while the adults would dance the night away us kids would gather together playing with our christmas toys and even having a little dance ourselves.

As I got older of course, there were New Years Eve nights out in bars & clubs....and in more recent years they've been spent at family or friends parties or gatherings, or going out for a nice late dinner with Jon and maybe some friends....sometimes going to the cinema first.

This year being our first New Years eve with a baby in tow of course meant some changes....so we decided we would hold a little child-friendly family gathering at our house.

I did a little buffet, and the three of us were joined by my mum & Dad, my sister & her partner, my nieces and my baby nephew.....

Even though I was staying home, I HAVE to dress up on NYE...or else it just doesn't feel like New Year!

These Ted Baker shoes are my favourites but they only come out of the wardrobe on 31st December every year...such a shame!
I do struggle to wear them these days for long periods of time though - my feet struggle to deal with high heels now! This is something I need to fix as I love nothing more than a sparkly pair of heels, and with orthaheel technology in shoes now and of course the amazing heel cushions for women on the market I should be able to conquer the problem!

After some nibbles, we played charades and there was some dancing done....

And once the kiddies were tired and everybody left, Jon & I had an Indian takeaway and snuggled up to watch the fireworks on TV.

Tyne clearly didn't want to miss out as he woke up at 11 and was still wide away at midnight!

We went outside to the street at the stroke of 12 to see in the new year, Tyne seemed to know something was up as he was very excited!

We sang Auld Lang Syne and raised a glass (and bottle....)

And on New Years Day, we did our last little Christmassy thing....Tyne & I went along to yet another Pantomime! We went with my sister, nieces and Mum to see Cinderella at Exeter Corn Exchange....it was fun and Tyne seemed to enjoy it again! (As a theatre lover I`m glad that he has been very well behaved and happy at both theatre trips so far!)

When we came home, we had a lovely roast Beef dinner and have spent the rest of the day snuggled in front of the TV.