I adore Christmas – the planning, the cooking, the parties. I love the family all getting together for meals. I love that Father Christmas still brings presents for our girls, even though they are both now over twenty. I love the carols in church, mince pies and Christmas pudding, and, most of all, the decorations and lights around the house and all down our street.

On Monday, Twelfth Night, Epiphany, we took them all down. Christmas is over. Oh, there are still a few mince pies left and half a tin of Quality Street, but the house looks very bare and, to be honest, the year looks pretty bare too.

I have just read the blog Lex wrote about enthusiasm. I haven’t been feeling too enthusiastic about 2025. There doesn’t seem much to look forward to, and lots to be apprehensive about when we look at what’s going on in the world and our own country. Still, I have taken heart from his blog.

If there isn’t much to look forward to, then the only thing to do is to manufacture something. I love to give dinner parties – more especially murder mystery dinner parties. If I get some friends together for dinner and write a murder for the evening, that will be great fun In fact, as I think about it, my brain is beginning to whizz away already.

Lex wrote about surrounding ourselves with possibilities. I have recently been reading about how learning a new skill can help keep your brain healthy in old age. I have been asked to join the flower rota at church and so I think I shall learn flower arranging. I find this idea somewhat daunting, but it is something I have thought about doing for a long time. There are probably classes online or maybe the local community college does evening classes. My husband has recently joined a choir and is now talking about learning the piano. I’d like to go back to the piano too. Perhaps we could learn together.

Last year, we had a great time walking part of the Southwest Coastal Path. Perhaps this year we could do something similar in a different part of UK. Maybe this year I can tick something else off my bucket list – to travel to Orkney and around its islands.

Your year will look very different to mine. You will have your own challenges to deal with when planning your year. Perhaps you have already scheduled lots of events and exciting new things, or perhaps you are simply relieved to slip back into your comfortable routine after all the mayhem of Christmas and the New Year’s festivities.

Judging by the TV adverts, a lot of people book their summer holidays around now. I suppose that gives them something to look forward to. It seems to me, however, that we should be able to do better than just that. What do you think?

What does your 2025 look like, and could you make it more exciting? If exciting is what you want, of course.

Mary

A Moodscope member