Christmas this year saw us heading up North to Beverley, East Yorkshire to spend the festive season with my family. It was filled with all the usual, great food, Christmas films, endless tins of celebrations and a few too many glasses of the good stuff. It was also a first time playing ‘Cards Against Humanity’ with my ridiculously game, Nana!

My Mum and Dad’s new house is situated perfectly, right near the Beverley Westwood so despite both Barbara and Connor blowing around like two rowdy playground bullies, I still managed to get in a good run and loads of long walks with the dogs. We were supposed to be tackling the Festive 500 but Dan got walloped around the head with a stinking cold and I don’t think I’m too far behind him, to be honest. So, for the second year in a row, we’re a non-starter! I’m not even going to utter the words ‘next year…’ because that’s clearly the kiss of death.

Taking things down a notch activity wise actually ended up being the perfect excuse to show Dan around the place I grew up. We walked up towards my secondary school, passed my old stomping ground ‘The White Horse Inn’, more affectionately known as Nellie’s and through the town that bore witness to most of my terrible teens! (It’s all still standing so I would argue that I can’t have been that bad, my parents would be quick to disagree.) It was nice to take a little trip down memory lane, Beverley is actually kinda gorgeous in parts and I know I’m being a teensy bit hypocritical but I can’t help but feel that it’s a shame that more of us don’t return to these sleepy little towns before retirement age, in order to breathe new life and fresh ideas into them. There is so much opportunity for growth and community building and in a far less competitive landscape than we have here in London, for example. I’m not saying that I’ll be rushing back up North anytime soon but if I did have small business aspirations then I definitely might be tempted…

I hope that you all had a brilliant holiday with your loved ones, however and whatever you celebrated and that you’re now enjoying the final few days of 2016, this cosy little limbo period between Christmas and New Year. On the agenda for us? We’re recovering from colds and taking some time to get really intentional with our thoughts, figuring out what we want out of 2017 and how we might best achieve it. See you on the flip side?