Things I Loved... January

I'm not keen on January. It's long, cold, dark, unexciting and all the fun of Christmas is long behind us - or at least this is how it feels.

We had mild, windy but horribly wet weather this year which certainly didn't help but looking back at my photos, I can see that it isn't all bad and that is one of the reasons I love doing this month in review as inspired by Deb. It shows us the good side of life even if you memory plays tricks with you!

The New Year started off quiet with just the two of us having a cosy evening together until the clock struck 12 when all around our neighbourhood, the fireworks started and went on for almost an hour. I'm terrible at taking these photos and should really prepare a bit more to get better shots.

Pigs are the symbol of good luck at New Year in Germany so there were marzipan ones and the cutest little New Year card from a neighbour to go with the lucky 4 leaf clover that I received as a surprise present. I have high hopes for the good luck that these two items will give me this year!

We kicked off the year in style, if not in a healthy way, with my all time favourite breakfast - french toast with maple syrup and bacon. Mmmmm. Starting off the year how I intend to go on. At least once a week, I try to do a proper cooked breakfast to kick-start the day (and pile on the calories!)

One of the last photos of our pink tree. I left the exposure long (I think) to get this starburst effect on the lights. I was sad but ready when we took it down and packed away all those pretties until next year.

My one little word was hanging around with a few others on stickies on my computer for a few days until "the one" jumped out at me and made its presence known. It's a good word and I have high intentions. :-) A bit of positive proactive decision making is on the cards. And a wonderful pinterest find sent to me by Pam to help that word settle into my life. I've now printed this out in small and have it in my wallet as a constant reminder.

Counterfeiting with glitter for challenges gets me out of my rut and trying new things which is all good fun.

After not managing to make Christmas Plätzchen, I finally got around to an afternoon's baking and thrilled a certain chocolate-loving someone round here with his favourite chocolate hazelnut cookies.

At the end of the month, our granny celebrated her 90th (!!) birthday in style with a party with ALL her children (3), grandchildren (11) and great-grandchildren (7)! What an achievement. This adorable cake was made for her by my very good school friend, Geraldine, who just happens to be an über-talented cake designer. We were all knocked out by how she got my gran and her sofa down to a t, right down to cute Fergus and it was wonderful to see my gran surrounded by family, celebrating this amazing milestone.

These days, no trip back to the UK is complete without a mini photo session with the Chance monsters who are getting more adorable and gorgeous every time I go back. This time was no exception. They like to tease me with the fact that I'm the ONLY one in the family (well, except for my dad) who can't roll their tongue! I have dozens of such taunting photos which seriously need to be turned into a page about this subject sooner rather than later!

Maybe not the most exciting month of the year, but a good one and a nice way to start the year.