We welcome in 20011 and add to our family!

HOW COULD I TOP 2010....?
I’D LIKE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN.....
IT REALLY WAS AN AMAZING YEAR...
AND MADE ME GRIN FROM EAR TO EAR!


Hello and happy new year to you all! I hope however you celebrated that it was a good one.

I have often found the end of the year to be a bit of an anti-climax. In my younger years before I had children I used to go out like most people only to find that pubs were charging you money to get in only so that you could spend more money once you got there. Everywhere was overcrowded and I seemed to have a habit of missing the actual stroke of midnight many times by being in the toilet at just the wrong moment! I often came home thinking: was that it?

Then during all the years with children I have normally been trying desperately not to fall asleep before 12 and waiting for the brief moment to let off a party popper and sing the wrong words to Auld Lang Syne whilst watching Jools Holland!

For the first year in a long time I actually had a baby sitter so Rob and I had the opportunity to go out. At first this was a very exciting thought, but then I remembered all my experience of overcrowded expensive pubs and wondered what we could do instead. It has been a year of a lifetime and I felt it needed a good send off. As luck would have it we were invited to a friend’s house for a curry. There were 6 of us altogether and it was one of the best New Year’s Eves ever.

We played a few games on the Wii, drank some wine, ate some very tasty curry and then laughed at how childish and competitive the men got playing Wii bowling! When the moment came we all sang the song and  I still don’t know the real words. Is there really a bit about baking cakes or were we all improvising?!

I actually felt quite emotional at saying goodbye to the year that had the best, and worst of times. Some of you may know that I lost an old school friend on my birthday back in March. We had been friends since age 5 at primary school and grown up together through all the teenage years. She was such a confident and brave person and I still say she is the reason I got where I did with Iceland. Whatever you believe, if nothing else, thinking of her strength pushed me to muster up more confidence than I normally have and to tell myself I should seize every minute and every opportunity and not waste time feeling shy or insecure and holding myself back. In some sense or another I know she was there, dancing the can can with me in those tiring 4 days of filming and I don’t think I could have done it without her!

It’s strange how some years seem to just plod along with nothing either very good or very bad happening, and then other years can be packed with such extremes of happiness and sadness. This year of course was also the year we made another dream come true and moved into our own house.

The boys have wanted a pet since they were old enough to speak. I resisted all the requests for gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits in the knowledge that after the first week I would be the one cleaning them out and caring for them. I would have liked a more interesting pet like a cat or dog but we couldn’t realistically do this due to always renting our houses and having to move regularly. This of course is another thing that is different now we have our own house. My friend Kirstein recently got a little Jack Russell cross breed from the local animal rescue centre and I spent quite a while cuddled up with her on New Year’s Eve at their house. I have since told Kirstein that I blame her for what happened next!

I made the mistake of having a look on the same animal centre rescue website, and that’s where I first saw the new addition to our family! She is a little Jack Russell called Pip who is 2 years old. The website information said she was unavailable at the moment because of having puppies 8 weeks ago. Despite this we went to the centre to have a look at the all the dogs and see some of the others. I told them that I had seen Pip on the website but knew she was still unavailable due to nursing her pups. This is where I believe in fate, they told me that she had become available that very day as it was the first day she had been separated from the pups. We were allowed then to meet her and take her for a little walk. The boys had seen her puppies on the website previously and had been saying “get a puppy mum, look they are so cute” but when they met Pip and she was so tiny and affectionate we all agreed we should reserve her immediately while we waited for the home check. I had already decided that I wanted an older dog and not a new puppy as I couldn’t stay with it at home all the time.

The rescue centre are very good at making sure their dogs go to appropriate homes and they checked our house and garden and gave us the good news that we could collect Pip the next day.

I almost felt like I did when I first brought the boys home from hospital for the first time as babies! It felt so good to be taking her away for a new life and lots of love. All the dogs are very well cared for at the rescue centre but it’s not the same as having a home and a family to call your own. The noise of continual barking is incredible and must be unsettling for them. When you walk past the different pens I can’t help thinking it looks like doggie prison despite looking after all of their essential needs.

I didn’t know what to expect when we got her home, would she be scared of meeting new people? Would she cry for her puppies? Would she miss her carers at the rescue centre? Would she chew things and dig things up? (Jack Russells seem to have a reputation for this!)

Well I can tell you more about how she has settled into the Taylor family life next week but the quick answer is that she has exceeded all our expectations and is probably the most well behaved loving and affectionate little dog I have ever known! In fact if anyone in our household needs extra training I would say it’s my own puppies, Sam and Luke rather than the dog!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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