As we come hurtling towards the end of 2012, full of Christmas cheer and festive spirit, I wanted to take a moment to thank all the people that regularly read my blog – and those of you who have contributed guest blog posts to it in the past 12 months.

As well as marking the end of the year, this time also marks the end of my first year as a “Daddy Blogger”, so I’m very pleased to have made it this far. If you follow me online, you’ll know I’ve been blogging for a lot longer than a year – both on the Tamar blog and various other projects. But my decision to ‘rebrand’ myself as a more niche type of blogger on my own blog has been a good one (in my opinion) and I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved in 2011.

As well as over 100 blog posts, I’ve had 18 lovely guest posts from both friends and strangers alike. I’ve had at least one of my posts published in a book but more importantly I’ve made a host of new friends in the wider “daddy blogger” community. It’s been a good year.

Looking ahead to 2012, I’m planning for a lot more of the same. If you’d like to write a guest post for the blog, I always welcome contributions – drop me an email or tweet me. I’m also hoping it’s going to be the year when I finally get around to having my own book published – as well as of course being a year full of lots more fatherhood fun and games.

Anyway, I’ll save you the soppy “Thank you” messages to friends and family – if you’ve read this blog or supported me this year, you’ll doubtless already know that I love you all.

All that remains is for me to wish you all a…

Happy Christmas!

…and a wonderful New Year – here’s to a great 2012!

Despite the beautiful blue sky you can see in this photo – taken this afternoon – just over an hour after it was taken I was stood in the middle of what can only be described as a blizzard. You know the UK is ‘over’ the snow when it had been falling for at least an hour this afternoon before anyone even deemed to comment on it. I’m still firmly in the ‘love snow’ camp, but to be honest it was such rubbishy, fluffy snow, there isn’t much good can come from it apart from getting you cold.

The photo was taken in one of the many odd corridors that there are in our building at work – a building which was apparently once a carpet factory, though you’d think it was actually a prison from this area of the building. I took the photo from the edge of B-block, near the warden’s office :D

Well, that was a total disappointment, wasn’t it? 20cm of snow, they said – haven’t they learned not to bother predicting these sort of things by now? The only snow I got today was a light dusting of sleet while I was driving down the M4. The big pile in the picture above is what is left over from the last batch, sat outside my brother’s house. It’s the cleanest pile of snow left, with the rest of the piles I’ve seen being a very dirty grey, or in the case of the Tesco carpark, totally black! I resisted the temptation to jump in it, mainly due to my unsuitable shoes….