For all that's good

Well that's Christmas done for another year, oh there were the same deflating airbeds, the same chaos, the same culinary disasters, the same food and wine, we quite possibly laughed at many of the same jokes and I know tears were shed over the same voids that become part of all of our lives with time.

Once again though there was the same sense that we have been somehow blessed. Christmas is such a huge line in the sand, a marker that we all use to take stock, to count up what we have against the things we don't and whilst I, along with most of us complain about all the things that I feel I could or should have I know that I have far more of what is really important than most people. Sometimes we are so busy mourning a life we once thought was ours for the taking that we don't see what is truly important, a home - however small or tatty can only really be called a home when it's filled with love. Food in our cupboards, whether it's Waitrose finest or Tesco everyday, so long as you have someone to share it with it makes no difference. Furry slippers will always ace designer clothes when they are bought and wrapped by your child and all the diamonds in all the world would mean nothing if you didn't know that he would walk through fire for you.

I have no religious faith so I'm not too sure quite who I am directing this at but, once again, to whoever or whatever is up there looking down at little old me - thank you for all that's good in my life x