Hello 2026, Be Kind!

Warning! Picture Heavy Post!

Normally DH and I stay in on New Years!  I am not one for crowds at the best of times so New Year is not for me and before The Boys were born we used to do Discos and of course were booked for New Year parties and we absolutely hated them!  It was almost forced partying.  It was never the same with the Christmas Parties, everyone wanted to be there and they were such fun but wherever we were booked for the New Year parties everyone always seemd like they wanted to be somewhere else!  We also used to end up at a motorway service area for food at about 3.00am, as in those days (1986 onwards) there were no fast food places available!!!!

However, this New Year’s Eve we were invited to our very good friends, Anne & Chris, for dinner and to see the New Year in with them and four other friends, Val & Dave, Christine & Pete, we have known them all for over thirty seven years.  In fact I can honestly say they are all family now as we have been with them and they with us through everything!  Dinner was great, Anne did the main course, Val did the starters and Christine and I brought dessert.  Now what you need to know is that when Anne & Chris first moved to Derbyshire they invited us all round for dinner to the huge house they were renting at the time.  It was a small manor house!  We all brought two bottles of wine each which made a total of twenty plus what Anne & Chris had.  Well we got there at 7.00pm and this was in May and we left at 4.30am the next morning when the birds were singing!  We talked and laughed and had the most wonderful evening which we all still remember.

On Christmas Eve we went over to see DH’s cousin in DH’s Home Village in Nottinghamshire and have lunch with her and also pick up the meat for the Christmas period.  We also went to the Village Church to visit DH’s parents grave and his Aunt & Uncle too.  This is the Church above and it is really pretty.

Between Christmas and New Year we, Partner & I,  took Fiancée out for lunch as a little “baby shower” lunch.  We had a lovely time in the Garden Room at The Cavendish Hotel in Baslow where Jayne and I went for our Christmas lunch.  Whilst we were there, DH, The Boys and Little Man went to the car museum of course!  

Little Man had a very busy day and was shattered by the time they got home!

Here are a few more pictures of our Christmas at Home.

Pictures of our Sitting Room with the Christmas decorations and the stair lights which are different this year as last year’s lights were chewed by Gordon!  These are the new ones and we had to hang them on the outside to stop him chewing the wires!!!!

Because of my Hip Op this year I did not get to make our cake, so this was the bought one

Our Christmas Dining Table set for eight.  We were all seated comfortably.  Next year we will have one extra so may have to re-arrange things!!!

Present Opening with my wonderful Family.

Little Man and Grandad are best friends.  

Sorry this has been a long post but I thought I would do a quick round up from the Festive Season.  Over the weekend DH and I put all the deocrations away, which I absolutely hate, and yesterday I cleaned our home from top to bottom.  Today I have a basket of ironing to do and then I am up to date with home jobs.  I have kept up with our work and Eldest’s work and have a few bits to do later and tomorrow for Eldest.   

I have also been doing the Membership Rnewal for the Swimming Club and that has been quite tortuous!  It is the first year we have done the renewals electronically online and it has brought up quite a few issues which we have managed to resolve.  Out of 155 Accounts, which are the parents, we only have 14 who have not responded!  We are hoping to get them sorted by the end of the week and then I can get the renewals done by the end of the month.  Sunday is our Open at The Arc in Matlock, Derbyshire and that is going to be a long day from 6.00am to about 8.00pm!  I will be putting dinner in the slow cooker for when we get home.  

We have had a sprinkling of snow here in Derbyshire, other parts of the country have had quite a bit.  I think the reason we have not had much is down to it being -5°c, which is too cold for snow and absolutely freezing!  It is the coldest it has been so far this Winter.  Today looks like it could snow but I think it is too cold still.  Hoping that it will not be snowy on Sunday for the Open as that will be fun getting there.  In fact the first time we ran this event we had thick snow that day!!! 

I have not forgotten about my Books of 2025 Review which I will try and get done for tomorrow and this Friday is the first Susie’s Friday Book Club Book and if you have looked on the 2026 page I am going to try and do two Books a month this year, but more on that tomorrow.

I do hope you lovely lot had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a great 2026 and thank you for continuing this journey with me.  Hopefully there will be more quilting in 2026 too! 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Our Garden this morning!  More frost than snow I think and it is freezing!

1 thought on “Hello 2026, Be Kind!

  1. Duke – Northford, Connecticut
    Duke

    Your home looks so pretty all decorated for Christmas, Susie, and it was fun to watch the opening of the pressies! Christmas is put away at our house too. The weather peeps told us that this would be a colder winter for us this year and they were not wrong!

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