What a year

Hi all! Hope you are all having a fabulous festive season however and wherever you're celebrating! We had the most amazing Christmas over here, with all the people we love around us, lots of scrumptious food (too much actually), and heat, oh my god the heat! Here in Wellington, we had the hottest day we've had since 1934! 1934! It got up to 31 degrees Celsius, which, for a country like Australia, is totally normal, but for us it was almost unbearable - our average summer is about 25 degrees. And yet, we still played touch rugby outside in the sun...
So despite being tucked up in bed by 8pm on boxing day with a full stomach, a little bit of sunburn and feeling tired and extremely grouchy, it was all totally worth it.
And now it's all over for another year so I think it's time to reflect on the best bits of 2012 in the life of You May Say I'm a Dreamer, since I won't be posting until January 7th as I'm off on holiday tomorrow!

January

Made friends with the bees and ate manuka honey straight from the hive.

February

Said goodbye to the Wairarapa, which had been my home for nearly a year and a half.

March

Was reminded of how lucky we are to live in such a wonderful country when we went on a hike up a hill that nearly killed us.

April

I settled back into Wellington nicely and tried out my new/old Agfa camera around the city.

May

Joshua and I became models for a day for my sister's school photography project.

June

I celebrated my 24th birthday with a homemade Italian feast.

July

I started my Wednesday Writers series, which introduced me to a whole lot of fabulous authors over the next few months.

August

My sister, mum and I went on the hunt for the perfect vintage ball dress for my sister.

September

Joshua and I got well and truly settled into our new home, our first place together.

October

My body decided it didn't want to eat meat anymore, so I became a pescaterian - a vegetarian who still eats fish.

November

I participated in National Novel Writing Month and won! I now have a 50,000 word novel waiting to be edited.

December

Summer arrived!

Have a fabulous new year everyone, stay safe, be merry, and I'll see you in 2013!

Christmas is all around...

The Christmas tree is up, the presents are being wrapped tonight, the mall is a nightmare, Christmas tunes are being played everywhere... one week to go people, are you excited?! Tempted to watch this movie, got to be one of my favourite movies, and this guy is the best, loved him in Love Actually, fell for him even more in The Boat that Rocked. Hilarious.

Our Christmas tree!!

Four weeks to go!!

I think it's officially time to get excited about Christmas people! Four weeks to go and counting! So I hope you guys aren't Christmas haters because I plan to do a weekly Christmas post, because, yes, I am a Christmasaholic.

Right about now the highly organised will have their lists sorted, and their Chritamas shopping action plan in place. The highly unorganised will be set to tear their hair out on Christmas Eve, wondering, as they do every year, why they didn't get organised this time.
Every year I tell my family "I don't want anything for Christmas, just as long as we have some good food, the family is all together and the sun is shining I'm happy". But we still get each other presents for fear of that moment when someone asks "what did you get for Christmas?" and you reply "nothing" and they look at you like you're poor and/or unloved.
But still, the best part about Christmas has always been the food, the family and the sunshine (when we're having a lucky year - fingers crossed for a scorching hot Christmas Day like last year!). If we have those three things, that's all we need in my opinion.
So although I would love to live in a society where presents are at the bottom of the list of important things at Christmas time, I don't. So I'm one of the highly organised ones who starts listening to the little things people mention they might like from about October and start my shopping in November because it's always nice to get a well thought out present from someone you love. Something you never knew you wanted but suits you completely.
So how about you? Have you thought about Christmas presents at all yet? Do you do extravagant or go by the theory 'good things come in small packages'?

Christmas wishes 2011 xoxo

Christmas wishes 2011 xoxo by cosmicdreamer featuring vintage black boots