It’s holiday time 🙂 Andrew and I share the same birthday week so we often book it off work. In the past we’ve been away for a bit and last year we celebrated with a great charity event run with the help of my youth group.

This year, we’re off to see my Grandma later in the week, but we kicked off our holiday with a party. There have been some stressful times in the last month, so it was really good to let our hair down and celebrate. We planned a cheesy summer theme and I loved how much our friends and family totally bought into it! It was a sociable evening with colourful outfits, cocktails, tropical fruit and children running around with an inflatable palm tree…

The party completely re-fuelled my gratitude for life as I was able to enjoy some of the things I love the most – family, friendship, food and colour – and, as usual, here is a more complete list of the Small Things I’m thankful for lately…

• Getting to the beach today. The sky was blue, it was really windy and Jamie was loving it. He ran in and out of the sand dunes far faster that we could, despite his tiny sausage dog legs! I’ve always loved the textures, colours and scents of the sea and felt so grateful to live near the coast again.
• The amazing fruit platters my mother-in-law made yesterday. I’ve been eating leftover pineapple all day!
• All my family and friends who turned up yesterday.
• Watching Gavin and Stacey again – it’s so funny, and so sweet.
• Watching 50 First Dates and dreaming of Hawaii.
• Spending time with one of my nieces and one of my nephews. My five year old niece has a chuckle that makes me laugh every time I hear it.
• Maple syrup. We had it on ice cream last night and will be having it on pancakes in the morning for Shrove Tuesday.
• Birthday presents! I’ve had some really nice clothes and lots of other great gifts too.
• Lush products. My sister bought me some Fair Trade honey shampoo which smells amazing!
• Disney films – I watched Mulan with some friends on Friday, and I am pretty keen to watch Brave again soon!
• Browsing through Cider with Rosie – I’ve really loved a lot of her recent posts.

What are your Small Things this week?