Saying goodbye to the year with gratitude: Remembering the greatest gift of all

Christmas is a time for us, a time to simply be, to enjoy and remember. A time for gratitude, and for us, a time to recall receiving the greatest Christmas gift ever.

Family Downs Side Up (I'm behind the camera)

My fingers can never quite manage to meet the keyboard, to tap out those precious memories to share in blog form. So many posts in my head but once in a while it's important to pull the online plug and focus solely on family.

This December, as always, my mind turned to our wonderful medical saviours over and over again. From the time of Natty's birthday on the 6th December until the anniversary of the day we were allowed to bring her home from the neo-natal unit on Christmas Eve, 8 years ago, I slip constantly into an emotional reverie. 

Downs Side Up's Ups and Downs in 2013: A Linky for 2014

Time to take stock

January is the time I like to spring clean my blog a little, cut the deadwood and look at it afresh after a Christmas break. It's easy to feel you haven't achieved a lot in a year, that you are stuck in a writing rut, but now's the time to look at even the smallest of steps forward, celebrate your achievements and motivate yourself for the year ahead.
Here's a taste of where Downs Side Up, our Down's syndrome support blog, has taken us this year.
I'd love to invite you to join the linky below with either your favourite post of the year or a summary of where your SEN blog has taken you or your cause, or simply a post about where you are heading in 2014. Please take time to visit and support others who link too, with lovely comments, that's how we draw our community closer.

January 

The year kicked off with a very exciting get-together of all the UK models with Down's syndrome that we could find, doing their bit for #adinclusion. Natty, Seb, Jojo, M&S, Next, Co-Op, Boden and more. We met at the Down's Syndrome Association head quarters incredible Normansfield Theatre. A place filled with the memories and the energies of those with Down's syndrome who had lived and acted there when John Langdon Down first detailed the condition, caused by an additional 21st chromosome. How far he pushed forward, but how much further our children can travel today, the world their oyster...

Happy New Year from us all x