These are towels that were embroidered with the Chinese symbol for “Double Happiness” by my parents, who left them on the dining table in our flat for when we got back from our honeymoon. It was really cool…

…and hanging the towels up together after washing them reminded me of this gift and made me smile.

For me, this is a bit of a landmark. It’s mine and Chantelle’s first Christmas and New Year as Mr and Mrs, it’s my first Christmas and New Year away from home, and as I look back on what has been a pretty good year for me, I now look forward with a hint of excitement to see what 2010 is going to bring.

2009 was a pretty good year – obviously the highlight for me was getting married! The week before the wedding could have been a thousand times better and a million times less stressful, but I guess we can look back on it now and laugh. Well, maybe not laugh. More like cry. But still. The wedding day was great! Apart from the chicken kievs. It’s not so much that they weren’t all that nice. They just weren’t all that cooked.

That aside, it was a wonderful day. The ceremony was great, I nearly burst into tears when Chantelle appeared in the chapel, the candy buffet was loved by everyone, the photos were taken by two uber photographers in the form of Dom and a very pregnant Jo, Chantelle looked amazing, and everyone said how much they enjoyed it.

Earlier in the year, another highlight was moving into a house with Chantelle, and being away from home for the first time. Well, being away wasn’t the highlight as such (sorry Mum!!!), but being with Chantelle each and every day from moving in was certainly a great experience – look at my old Vox blog for a detailed journal of my first adventure away from home. By the way, if anyone has any tips on how to create some sort of archive on WordPress for other blog sites so everything’s stored here, that would be good!

So right now I’m thinking about goals, aspirations and such for 2010 – New Year’s Resolutions, if you will. Unfortunately, I suck at keeping resolutions, so if I look at them as goals and achievements, then maybe this year I can win.

The first obvious thing for me is careers - now I’ve hit 25, I’m married and looking to the future and stuff, I’m now seriously considering what I want to put into and get out of my working life. Last year I was sort of toying with the idea of joining the Police, and over the last few months I’m seriously considering it. I’ve always wanted to do something useful involving helping people and making use of personal qualities.

I’ve been working for Comet since 2007, a job which was initially supposed to be a stop gap until I decided what I wanted to do with myself. Granted, I’ve progressed through the ranks and done pretty well for myself, getting through a few “levels” and looking after a few small teams as I’ve gone along, but this year I want to make myself more useful.

I also want to find more ways of being a better husband – I’m not saying I’m rubbish or anything!! But I want to make more of an impact in our married and individual lives by offering more of me. I’ve started by reading Men Are From Mars… which I would heartily recommend everyone read!! Without straying too much from the manly rugged figure that I do my utmost to cut……oh screw it, “gaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy” right?? It’s a great book and offers some pretty insightful views on men and women and the relationships between them.

My next “big thing” is to try and be more healthy – let’s just say Christmas was certainly a joyous time for eating! Chantelle mentioned Wii Fit a few days ago, and after reading about it and watching videos on YouTube, it looks good and now I want one too.

So, this year’s “goals” are…

• Start a career
• Do what I can to be a better husband
• Get healthier and more active

I guess I should really add “keep this blog more up to date” – once again I started with good intentions, and once again regular blogging has fallen flat on its face!

Until next year………….Shaun

We were in Hornsea and we were talking about getting married, and how we both really want to do it, and by the end of the day we’d made the decision to get engaged and start planning a wedding…of course, it wasn’t official until we’d updated our status on Facebook!! ;)

So far it’s been pretty complicated trying to plan it all. At first, we were thinking about hiring a place and then that started to get expensive and messy trying to organise a million different things, and so the talk turned to making it simple, making it our day and using the rest of our time, efforts and money to spend on ourselves and the festivities. When Chantelle’s folks offered to put £5,000 towards the wedding, we thought that it was quite a lot of money to spend on a wedding – turns out these days it’s just a small chunk of change that would get swallowed up in the process, so keeping it simple also keeps it quite economical…!!

Talk also recently turned to church, and how we both missed being there, the people and the atmosphere of being at church. Over the last couple of weeks or so, it also dawned on me that whilst I started seeing reasons for leaving church, and reasons why it might not be true and so on, what I was actually looking for was an excuse to leave, so I could “take a break” from the burdens, and pressures, and responsibilities of being an active member, an example and “pillar” of the stake so to speak. Truth is, when I first joined the church, I went in all guns blazing, with the mindset of “I’ve been given a second chance at life and stuff, I’d better be worth it”, and ended up putting too much pressure on myself, getting into it all too quickly, and turning myself into someone I didn’t really want to be.

Now I’ve been away, I’ve had time to reflect on what I’d been away from, and also to reflect on who I’ve been, who I am, and what I’m doing with my life. I’ve found now that I can very likely still make it through life going to church and being a part of the experience and the atmosphere, and unerstanding and acknowledging what the church stands for, whilst still being me.

This is what I want to achieve – to be a good person, to try and live a good life, and enjoy and take in the teachings of the church, whilst still being true to myself. We’re both looking for a fresh start with a fresh perspective, and I know that I will be taking it easier and steadier this time around so that I can keep myself balanced. I might not agree with absolutely everything, and I’m certainly not perfect, but the church is a good place to be for “life guidance“, and I’m willing to try again and do what I can!

…And that brings us to now…