CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE #1: YOU FIRST

“Can you believe Christmas is only four weeks away?”

“Where has the year gone?”

Various versions of the above rhetorical questions have been asked by almost everyone we meet of late.

Yes, indeed, time is a stealthy one, isn’t she? How deftly she moves, like a ninja, week after week, month after month, year after year. If you’re not careful, she’ll slip right through your fingers, unnoticed.

And so, as Christmas carols and November rain fill the air, announcing the end of yet another year, we start to get a little sentimental and nostalgic. It feels just like yesterday that you were penning your gift list; that you retired the tree and her baubles and fairy lights; that you made your 2017 resolutions with renewed vigour. Doesn’t it?

Have you made good your promises to eat less carbs and exercise more? Or to finish that book you started in January? To declutter your wardrobe of 2016? Or get a new hairdo?

Well, here we are again, reviewing the year that we have had and our accomplishments. Did you do OK? Are you happy? If you find yourself mentally checking off most of the things you had set out to do this year, good for you. Because this means you can now give yourself a big well-deserved pat on the back, and then a little diamond something.

Oh yes, believe it. Christmas is coming. And the days ahead are going to be merry and bright.