Christmas. Brilliant.

Simon and I are just about to explode with excitement. We're going to North Carolina for Christmas and we're counting down the seconds. Last night, I was on the phone with Cat, and I said to her, 'We'll be there in less than 2 weeks.' Just then, Simon let out a huge sigh.

'What's wrong?' I asked him.

'I just got a bit emotional,' he said. 'I can't wait.'

We need a break. Things have been stressful, Simon hasn't had a holiday since we got married, job stuff has been hard, and we've been praying for ages about where we're to go from here. For ages it felt like there was no answer, but now, suddenly(?), I can see a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

I love the way circumstances very often do not reflect what's actually going on.

I'm so in the Christmas spirit. I went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places with some friends last week, and made a Santa Claus cookie plate, which a friend at work just told me was the 'scariest' plate she's ever seen. Here it is, in a picture taken with my phone.

Below is another photo I took on my phone. I was walking to work this morning and everything was icy and frozen and the people who run the market stalls were setting up and their breath was steamy and they were wearing gloves with the fingers cut out, and shouting '2 melons for a pound, love..'