A new year!

After a long and lazy holiday, I'm gearing up for a return to the shop. It seemed a very busy Christmas but the snow knocked our sales badly and despite keeping heaters going constantly, it was SOOO cold in the shop. Even Santa in his grotto, well padded as he was, admitted it was a bit parky! Didn't help that I fell on the ice at the end of November and have been struggling with a bad hip sprain ever since. I usually whizz around happily - can't get used to my present dot-and-carry. We shall spend the next couple of weeks stocktaking and updating our website. And finalising our spring programme of events in the shop which is going to include a puppet show, a demonstration of baby massage, another visit from the owls (see the gallery about what this means!) and some face painting sessions. And Vanessa's wonderful Tickled Skink sessions which have moved to Fridays at 11am.

Pam is carrying out creating her brilliant windows for us. Santa's workshop with several cheeky elves and a conveyor belt of presents was a triumph. So must start planning for this year to give her plenty of notice.

We had our annual meal together yesterday. It was good to catch up with Rachel who is now at uni and having a good time studying creative writing. I'm looking forward to promoting her first book!

A big problem for me is how to take story reading forwards. Saturday mornings is obviously not a good time. I might try to put a session into the Skinkled Skink session at the end.

Lynn