A few years ago, in lieu of Christmas cards, I wrote a
little update on where our family was, what we were up to and our highlights
from the year. Since then, I’ve still not sent any Christmas cards, but also
ended up forgetting the update too – how very ‘Martha’ – haha!
Anyway! Thanks to the lovely extended days off this year
(how awesome is a Monday bank holiday 2 days AFTER new year?!) I’ve got some
time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and babble on in a meandering
soliloquy that you are very welcome to read if you fancy.
So, without further ado, here’s a little summary for each
member of the family:
Adam
Our favourite Mackem has been working at Transform Hospital
Group as their Digital Marketing Manager for nearly 2 years now. He started on
23rd March – the DAY lockdown started!! So he’s been working remotely
the whole time. Since then, his team ended up moving from Manchester to
Glasgow, so now he has the occasional trip across the border to meet with the
rest of the team.
He’s still very much into fitness – having completed P90X, Insanity
and all those types of things, and is impressively focussed when he wants to
eat healthily. During the summer we had a race to lose ½ stone and he beat me
(and then lost another ½ stone!) and the winning prize he chose was a 3 night
trip to Majorca! We all went along though, so I wasn’t overly upset that he
won!
His infectious cheekiness and sense of fun is still as alive
as it ever was, and everyone loves being with him. My mum regularly lets me
know what a lovely husband I have and what an amazing daddy the boys have, and
I do happen to agree with her actually… 😊
Martha
I had a bit of a change around with work this year. I left
HSL in August 2020 after a challenging time during early Covid, and ended up
working with Adam at Transform for 10 months! We were sat next to each other (I
mean… we were sat at home at the end of the dining room, but we were also on
all the same Marketing meetings etc haha!)
I actually loved working with him, but the role itself wasn’t
what I’d hoped and when my old manager got in touch to ask whether I’d consider
coming back to HSL – with a nice promotion (I went from Communications Exec to
Communications Manager) I thought, why not? I’ve enjoyed being back with some
familiar faces (though a lot of the original crew aren’t there anymore and I do
miss them), and have enjoyed stretching my creative writing side again.
I still love to bake, go on walks, and have started reading
more again. I want to carry that through into 2022 and am going to challenge
myself to read at least 1 book a month (I know that doesn’t sound a lot, but I
think I read a sum total of about 3 books in 2020!)
Josh(ua)
Josh (he stopped being Joshie a couple years ago *sob*) is
now in Year 5 at school and is (overall) enjoying it. He went on his first
residential in September and had an absolute BALL! He loved every minute.
His favourite subjects are history and geography and he says
he wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up. He was particularly pleased
this year when we went to visit my Auntie Jane near Norwich, and he heard that
she’d been excavating some Roman ruins, and not only that… but that the Celtic Warrior
Boudicca had walked the very walk that we went on together!
He’s a very sociable boy and is very caring and aware of
people’s feelings (most the time). His teachers say he’s always the first one
there when people are upset or have hurt themselves and will try to help
wherever he can.
Joey
Joey – our very own baby kangaroo (!) is his usual amazing
self. He lives life at 100 miles an hour, but is also very sweet and gives the
biggest hugs – not just a quick squeeze and he’s off – no, he holds on for as
long as time allows.
He began an SEN referral in Autumn 2019 and this year we finally
had his assessment and diagnosis – autism and ADHD. I know not everyone is in
favour of having a diagnosis (or ‘label’) but I’m so glad that we went through
the process. It’s helped us and his teachers understand his unique way of
seeing the world a little better. He’s not severely autistic thankfully, but it
shows itself in ways that you wouldn’t always realise (if you’re interested, I’m
happy to discuss privately, but I won’t put it here for all to see 😊 ).
He loves all things Pokemon and is incredibly impressive in
his ability to retain information about them. He’s a keen artist and loves to
tell us how talented he is 😊 He’s also his happiest when out in the wilds – going for a walk with our Joey
is always an adventure and I’m sure he takes about 3x the number of steps as we
do as he whizzes around like a puppy discovering trees for the first time.
Our 2021 top 10
(in no particular order – just as they pop into my mind!)
1. Our trip to Dubai (the Atlantis Water Park was
particularly incredible)
3. Our bathroom makeovers – particularly our on-suite
– sooo beautiful! (we moved to a new house in Nov 2020)
5. The boys starting Karate classes (Adam’s quite
jealous!)
6. Visiting Stonehenge for the first time (I know
it’s just a pile of rocks, but it felt so special for all of us)
7. Finding new walks in and around Roberttown – we really
love being in such a lovely little Yorkshire village that is situated in so
much countryside.
9. A caravan holiday to Cornwall with the Smith family. Lovely to spend time with them, and bonus – this year Joey didn’t break an ankle! (He fell over on a crazy golf course and ended up in a moon boot on our first Cornwall excursion in 2020!)
That’s all folks! I hope you are all well
and looking forward to 2022!
From
Martha, Adam, Josh & Joey xx
