At last, our daughter gets a proper family Christmas | Cheryl Gibbs

I truly hope you had a wonderful Christmas, spent with loved ones – be it family, or friends – aka the family you’ve chosen for yourself.

We did both – mostly spent with family and it was just perfect, made all the more special by the fact we weren’t sent into lockdown… yet.

I was so grateful that our daughter Harley got to spend a whole Christmas with her family.

Last year was, of course, wonderful because we had a fantastic Christmas Day, but that’s all we got.

This year though she’s managed to experience the whole family festivities, kicking off with Christmas Eve round my sister Michelle’s where we made mince pies and biscuits. Christmas Day was at my sister Jo’s, followed by Boxing Day at my mum’s. Tonight we’ll be at our friends and tomorrow day round at Michelle’s again.

And yes, we did host this year. We went with an afternoon and evening round ours on December 28, but instead of cooking or doing a buffet, we opted for buying everyone a Chinese and they were more than happy with that arrangement.

Some might think it was a bit of a cop-out, but after so much Christmas food I think everyone was quite happy to have a takeaway.

This meant we could actually enjoy it as opposed to spending most of the time in the kitchen like we’ve done before when we’ve had people over.

Our bungalow just isn’t cut out for hosting really, so as soon as we’ve bought a bigger place, one day hopefully in the future we will do more traditional hosting but for Christmas 2021 it was a Chinese takeaway on one's lap!

Harley loves being around family and it makes me so happy to see her thrive in those situations after spending the best part of her first year in and out of lockdown.

Now she just finds so much joy in the chaos of our family and I love to see her like that. It’s funny becoming a parent because all the cliches are true – so long as your child is happy, you are. And I couldn't agree with that sentiment more.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I’M DELIGHTED REALITY TV STAR GEMMA HAS FOUND HAPPINESS

It’s not for me’ – famous words uttered by reality TV star Gemma Collins in response to… well, most things.

That’s not the case this week as she announced her ‘unofficial’ engagement to old flame Rami Hawash. The pair were engaged years ago but had a seven-year separation before reuniting and are now engaged again. But Rami’s divorce from his previous marriage isn’t finalised so the pair are ‘unofficially’ due to be married. , Gemma wore her ring in a TV campaign for Sainsbury’s so it seems pretty official.

I’m pleased for her. I once spent a week with her at a fitness boot camp and she’s lovely. She is who she is and makes no apologies for it. I admire that.

LOOK OUT WORLD – HERE COMES THE GOOD MUM BOD OF 2022!

That might have been my healthiest Christmas yet. Yes, I over-indulged but I didn’t go crazy like usual and I worked-out throughout.

Four work-outs in Christmas week, four this week. It may also be the first Christmas we didn’t buy a ton of chocolate and festive food. Frankly, I don’t have the willpower to say no, so the best thing I could do was not buy it. Poor Matt – he’s had a lean Christmas because of my sweet tooth .

I’ve found a YouTube channel with incredible workouts and it’s probably the first time I’ve looked forward to putting on my gym gear and working out. And I’m doing heaps of weight training… rock on the good mum bod of 2022 I say!

A message from the editor, Mark Waldron.

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