And 2012 brings....

 Firstly I should show you the gorgeous picture of my monsters that filled the stockings of the various grands and great-grands- I particularly love the slightly furtive cheekiness of no.3 - sums him up pretty well! Gaps in teeth in no.1- 6 down, 14 to go. Two of the six presented to us in a restaurant and one of the others I brushed out whilst teethcleaning (blush- it wasn't that firmly!!)

 Trying to get back to normal- and on with the crafting projects. The bat was selected by TP- not often he makes specific requests (that are achievable anyway)- so tried my best and scaped around and managed to find some navy (nearly black) tissue paper. Ended up being a team effort between him, FI and myself- but we have all rather fallen in love with 'Batty'- even if somewhat out of season!

This is one of a puppet making kit that FI received for her birthday but only opened this week- I was quite impressed with the way he turned out and her instruction following.

Anyway my real reason for coming to do this post was to commit to some targets for 2012. Rather than making huge unrealistic aims which I know will fall by the wayside I am going to have a 'small steps' mantra. I would like to lose some weight, get a little healthier, do a little more exercise and feel that I look after myself more. I know that over the next few months I will be able to stop taking the pill (which will be great- am resenting these last months). So my first steps will be to drink more water- aiming for a litre -perhaps more per day. I am buying a more efficient pedometer (previous cheap one pretty useless) and am going to measure a baseline before setting targets. We are going to increase the amounts of meat free meals- which will have a side effect of being able to increase the provenance of any meat- back to where we were pre credit crunch. We are going to have a play with the new juicer and maybe try some raw meals and try to re-educate ourselves a little- which may have the effect of some weight loss too.

My target for us, over the next few months, is to try to work out where we are heading- is it a move away from the area? Or can we achieve what we are seeking with a different house/lifestyle in the same county? I know that this means selling this house- so we must move forwards with this- so I must enable M to get on with what needs to be done- Giving my sister sweat equity rather than a bought wedding present now seems like it may have been a silly idea. I need to get M on side- I think he has been also in a bad place too- and we need to move forward!