I was reflecting to myself last night as we drove back from late night Christmas shopping at Meadowhall (the giant out of town shopping centre in Sheffield which ALL locals refer to ALL the time as MeadowHELL). On what you ask? Well, I was just thinking how very different my life is now to how it was this time last year. I suppose everyone pauses a little to reflect at this time of year - the shortest day, Christmas and the changing of the year all seem to demand some marking. Most years though my "marking" musings are about relatively small differences - weight changes usually feature highly; births and, sadly, deaths; a different house or job; a TV show or 2 (tee hee).


This year I have turned my life upside down and yet it feels "right" now. It feels as though I'm now doing what I wanted to be doing before but couldn't quite achieve.


Take Christmas shopping for example. For the last however many years, this has been a task which I have carried out mostly by myself. A combination of D working away and D not being interested meant that it increasingly came to be "my job" to buy not only for all of my family but also for his and to wrap and post or deliver them. Nothing unusual there I suspect. Although, thinking about it, last year we did make a very pleasant trip to the Christmas market in Manchester.


This year though Rich and I have been shopping together twice. Once to Sheffield on Sunday afternoon and then again last night to Meadowhell. I'm not saying that Rich exactly skipped into town with massive grin on his face at the prospect or anything but we shared the task and enjoyed picking out presents for each other's families together. None of this "you do this shop, I do that one and we'll meet here in an hour" stuff .... we walked round together, chatted about options, rang up various family members to check things and seek inspiration and made our selections, together.


And it was just right. I know I sound soppy and sentimental but this sort of thing is what I now know I wanted all along; a nice bloke to hold my hand and carry some of the bags when we go shopping. So, my presents may not be as lavish as they were last year but they are most happily purchased.