Happy New Year! The new year is here and Christmas is gone. In fact it is well and truly gone in my house. This afternoon, as the children polished off the end of their selection boxes and found space in their cupboards for newly acquired treasures, I removed all traces of Christmas from the house. The only clue that it was ever here are the pink fairy lights in the apple tree outside which I can’t quite bring myself to take down just yet . They can wait until Twelfth Night. If it were up to me I would have them up all year. In fact it is up to me. I am an adult and it’s my tree and my lights. However, I know that I will bow to convention and remove them……or will I?

And now my house is clean and clutter free and I am ready to begin the new year without any unnecessary extras. I love the start of a new year. I love the start of almost anything. All that promise of things to come. I spend time dreaming up resolutions to make my near perfect life even better. It is my unerring belief that I can change anything I like that I find appealing. At no other time do I have this belief even though it is just a new day like any other. Of course, by the time January is half way through I will have forgotten but at the beginning it is exciting and drives me forward.

So, it’s out with the old and in with the new and let’s see what 2009 has to say for itself.