10 going on 18 !!

December is my favourite time of year. We have all but one of our birthdays and the build up to Christmas to look forward to.

I also don’t mind the cold , I love cosying up in front of the fire with my family playing games and watching movies.

Last weekend was my daughter Emily’s birthday and she was so excited to be reaching double figures as she is now the grand old age of 10 !!

Time has flown by already and I am dreading the thought of when she starts venturing out with her friends. I still have a few years before I have to worry about that anyway.

This year she asked for a cheerleading party as she goes to classes twice a week and is really enjoying learning the stunts and dance moves.

We hired a hall and there were 17 of them with a cheerleading coach. They were so well behaved and listened carefully to learn their routine and at the end they performed their routine to music with their pom poms and did some really good stunts.

There was the usual party food and goody bags before we had family come back to ours to watch her open her presents. After everyone left we went out for dinner and she wanted to wear some of her new clothes. She looked more like 18 than 10 !!

Most of my colleagues were on Queen Mary 2 for our works Christmas conference which i was very disappointed to miss but obviously family comes first and I could not have missed out on her birthday.

Now the excitement is building for Christmas and although she seems very grown up she is still only a little girl and still believes in the magic of Christmas so along with my younger daughter they are busy working their way through the advent calendar and trying to be good so they stay on Santa’s good list.

We even bought the dog his own calendar of doggy chocolates.

I have only ever been away once for Christmas when the whole family went to St Lucia. We had a great time but it didn’t feel like Christmas so I have always said if I was to do it again I would either go to a winter destination with snow or would go on a British Cruise Line where I know there will be plenty of Christmas festivities.

The likes of P&O have carol concerts, Christmas dinners and visits from Santa so I am sure it would feel very festive.