Well, its back to work again after Christmas holiday now. Christmas kicked off very well the weekend before Christmas when Sarah’s parents had us over to their house for an early Christmas celebration (as we were away over the actual Christmas period in Yorkshire). We had a wonderful evening with her parents that weekend and Christmas really started for me at that point (until which it had just been another week at work really – apart from the decorations). Sarah and I had a lovely time up in Yorkshire seeing most of my family during the Christmas period. Including a fun game of Bar Billiards with parents on Christmas Day, and a wonderful parents and brothers get together on Boxing Day over at Damon’s house. We don’t get everyone together in the same room very often so its a really wonderful time when we do manage to – so a big thank you to parents for having us over the Christmas period and to my brothers for arranging (and attending 
) the family get together.
Thank you to everyone for their Christmas presents and Christmas cards/wishes. It’s been a wonderful year, and it has been the 2nd Christmas together for Sarah and I, with many more to come 
We have a year of saving coming up now (at least a year in fact) with Wedding things to save up for (etc). We have a small pot of ‘luxury items’ money saved up (mostly from Argos cards we ‘bought off ourselves’ and some remaining Argos cards) with which to buy things that we want (rather than need) but otherwise we shall be looking to entertain ourselves in the house as cheaply as possible this year I think. Besides - once the Christmas tree comes down and we have some space available once again I have my piano to be practicing.
We are hoping to move to a slightly larger property at some point later this year (2 bedrooms and no dining room is just getting too small – even though we love the area we are currently in). So 3 bedrooms and some permanent eating space (a dining room, or a kitchen/diner or a living room/diner) is a must. Then ideal extras (but they are very much extras) would be a study, a garage, and a downstairs toilet (probably in that order as well – personally). Keeping the cost low is our main priority however as we dont want to be paying much more in rent than we currently are. We would also like to stay in roughly the same area we are (within a few miles radius around ourselves anyway). Found an ideal place with all the above plus all extras just down the road from Sarah’s parents house for around the same we are paying now – however found it in November, and we are contracted in until later this year at our current place – and as lovely as it was we couldnt afford to pay 2 rents and move early.
