Photo of the Day & The Bit In-Between

This represents the remains of Christmas up and down the land. Huge piles of cardboard, wrapping paper and packaging. The by-product of the festive season, and this is ours just before it was collected.

Christmas here was good, very good. Christmas for me was the smell of turkey cooking all night. Lights of all colours. Wrapping paper and sticky tape. The awkwardness of in-laws and family. The forced smiles and wishes of happiness and prosperity. The near-empty roads and closed shops. The pressure to eat everything in sight. The greetings received from strangers in the street. The endless family films, Christmas specials and repeats. The thought that everything has to be taken down and boxed-up for another year, and how on earth we're going to pay for it all.
It's now that bit between Christmas and New Year. It's a strange time, when things are not quite normal yet. Some people are still on holiday whilst others have returned to work temporarily before we celebrate the dawn of a new year. It's an odd time. Of course it's no different for me, as I have no work to return to. Things will return to normal properly next week. The children here go back to school Wednesday and it will be a return to the daily routine of school drop-off and collection. I like routine.For me routine is good.
So we await the new year and everything it will bring, the good and the bad. There are many predictions for what the new year will bring, not all of them good. Only time will tell. But we do enter the new year already in a very uncertain world where anything seems possible. We can only hope for the best. I extend my wishes to one and all for just that...