A rather chipper idea, courtesy of Mon at Holistic Mama – monthly reviews which both inspire you to witter on, and offer some restrictions to those witterings. Lord knows if I’ll remember in January, but anyway, start as you mean to go on, or something… Thusly:

December in review, in one sentence:
The chaos of finishing off my PhD was outdone only by the utter bedlam generated by a stream of visitors, DIY tasks, and a teething baby; this did not, however, spoil the fact that I love this time of year, and managed to enjoy myself making mincemeat, Chrimbly puddings, solstice cake (that’s a keeper, incidentally, as far as recipes go) and lots of other deeply-bad-for-you things, as well as two stockings, a pair of knitted leg-warmers and various other odds and sods of a crafty nature.

Fun:
Learning to knit in the round, and discovering that actually, double-pointed needles are not Satan’s tools on earth.

Challenging:
Finding that there is always One Last Hurdle with submitting a thesis, despite the fact that it is now way past being a bad joke. Oh, except… hang on… THERE IS NO LAST HURDLE NOW – I have prevailed! Finally!

Thoughtful:
Despite the fact that there have been times in the last six months when I thought that I would never sleep again, I have found that the witchling sleeping for longer makes me quite thoughtful sometimes – she sleeps in her own little cot now, and I miss having her next to me all night. Of course, I don’t miss getting less than three hours’ sleep a night, but still, I am aware that this time is passing faster than I ever thought possible, and I want to hang on to every moment. Except, of course, the moments involving projectile vomit, nappy explosions and unfortunate timing incidents relating to baths and the aforementioned nappy incidents.

An insight/thought:
I am glad that my father is happy in his new life, and I realise that I can indeed function perfectly well without, effectively, either parent around.

Website/blog find:
I’ve found the advice and accounts of experience on the Baby-Led Weaning Forum very useful in our month of introducing various bits and bobs to the witchling; she has now decided that Pear Is Evidence Of Divinity. Perfect use of the argument from design, I believe.

Words:
‘I assumed it had got into your wardrobe by mistake, sir. Or else that it had been planted there by your enemies.’ – from the second series of Jeeves and Wooster, which we have been watching on DVD since disposing of our televisual earlier this year. It is most excellent.

Note to self:
Cake is not a breakfast substance. Or, rather, it probably shouldn’t be, not for a prolonged period, anyway.

Favourite tip/idea from t’inter:
Next year I think we might have a go at these little Chrimbly trees – they are really quite smug-making, from the looks of them.

Slice of home:

And outside of the monthly review, it appears that Journalspace, home of my previous incarnation online, has died the death, meaning that my archives are no more (well, I have a copy, but the old blog itself no longer works). Thus, lovely reader, if you have a link to me, would you be so kind as to update it to this place now, please? I am no longer worried about being found here – I now feel that if someone I’d rather not read this starts reading, they’ll just have to suck it up, really, won’t they? So, yes, link away, please.