Christmas past

Another Christmas has come and gone. The carol services, shopping, Christmas trees and decorations, present wrapping and unwrapping, brightly lit homes and gardens and frantic rush to fill the fridge before the shops close for just one day are over. Dinners have been consumed, wrapping paper and containers consigned to the recycling and leftovers are the order of the day for the next few days. It's time to relax a little, go back to simple eating, enjoy the chocolates before the New Year's resolutions kick in and reboot for 2019.

The  next week will be taken up, in households all over the world, with lists of New Year's resolutions. Some will last forever and some will be fleeting, but every day is the beginning of a new year and we can all start again at any time.

The family dynamics have changed now that Mom and Dad are no longer with us and life will never be the same. We are all now Nobody's Child, and without the safe and secure knowledge that there was always a warm and loving welcome when we arrived on their doorstep. It has been difficult to come to terms with this reality - their shoes can never be filled. Perhaps 2019 will be an easier year for us all.