2015 was a massive year of up's and down's for us as a family. 2015 will go down as quite possibly one of the happiest yet most challenging years that I have ever had to deal with in my life and there were definitely times where I hoped that a responsible adult would swoop in and make the situations that we found ourselves in go away like they did when we were younger, but sadly this was not to be the case. Never before have I cried so much with sadness then cried with sheer happiness, a very odd experience.
That said, within times of complete and utter sadness and darkness, friends, family, work colleagues and even people we didn't know gathered in and around and pulled us out of the dark and with that forced upon us the happiness, hope and life long lessons learnt that we approached the remainder of the year with.
With 2015 firmly behind us, "Hello 2016!" it's a pleasure to meet you, so what have we got in store for you? Yesterday evening we as a family started to compile a bucket list of what we wanted to have done by midnight December 31st 2016 and here are just a taster of what we want and hope to achieve in the next twelve months.....
1. A fantastic family holiday.
This year we will be travelling to Lemnos in Greece where we shall holiday for a week with Mark Warner and create memories that we know from our previous holiday with them that will stay with us for a lifetime.
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| Taken on our last Mark Warner holiday back in 2014 |
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| Making memories |
Charlie wants to go to London and go on a bus. This is a fairly straight forward one and one we will definitely do. I would really love to take him on the London Eye and to see the sights.
3. A trip to the races.
We live super close to Sandown Race Course in Esher and every year they hold their Annual Family Day, this year it's in August. It's a brilliant day where kids under 18 go free with a paying adult.
4. A Mummy and Daddy night away.
Every year Tom and I try to get a night and day away just the two of us. Once I'm back at work and school is in full swing it's difficult to catch a night together so it's great to be able to pack the kids off to their grandparents whilst we head off somewhere in search of a HUGE bed, dinner and bubbles. I adore Pennyhill Park just down the road from us in Bagshot. It's an amazing place and one where the England Rugby team (swoon) stay when they are playing their international matches, it's also home to their training ground. The spa there is out of this world, and don't get me started on their afternoon tea! We've been their for the past three years but this year I would love to try somewhere a little different. My good friend Emily from Blog Me Beautiful recently visited The Pig Hotel and from looking at her pics on Instagram and looking on their website I would like to visit their hotel in Dorset. Tom take note!! Have you been? What's it like? Would love to hear your thoughts!
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| The Pig On The Beach, Dorset |
Before I met Tom I got quite in to my running. Now, let's not get too ahead of ourselves here, when I say I "got quite into my running", I ran a couple of 5 & 10km races and trained and completed the London Marathon but in 2011 I feel pregnant and ever since then if if I'm honest the most I've run is a bath. Well this year I would like to do something, work towards something. I would also like to run a race where I could raise a bit of money for the Princess Alice Hospice.
6. Complete #NoSpendJanuary2016
Rather than make resolutions that I knew full well I would never complete I have challenged myself to #NoSpendJanuary2016 where I can't spend ANY money unless it's an essential.
So, that's just for starters, well as well as winning the lottery, losing two stone and brokering world peace we will focus on the first six and go from there.
Till next time,
Nathalie x
