2016…another year which has flown by.  I think the older you get, the faster time flies, add children into that mix and it flies even faster watching them grow from babies to toddlers to little people and now to pre-teen and teen as I’m currently experiencing with my boys reaching 11 and 13…no idea where the time has gone!

This year at dancing was my first year at Silver and my last year in the Under 35 category.

Starting with a competition at Gosport, dancing Tango and Samba but not making the finals in my solos.  A first in couples however, walking out onto the floor in the Gold Star and Awards category and being the only couple on the floor suddenly turned it into more of a demo than a competition…talk about nerves!  Another two couples joined us on the floor for latin, but it was still quite nerve wracking!

The competitions that followed this year have seen a change in the format in that rather than knowing what dances we were doing, we had to have 2 given ballroom and 2 given latin dances prepared so that going onto the floor, we would not know which one we were doing until it was drawn from a hat!  It’s a pretty good way of dancing really as it means you don’t have the same dances all of the time which in turn means that out of the 5 ballroom and 5 latin dances, we’re not just dancing some and neglecting others, perhaps leading to panic when it comes around to exam time!  Speaking of exams, I received Honours in all of my Silver exams 🙂

I also took part in a couple of social dance event showcases as my dance school which was huge fun 🙂  It’s true what they say…Never Miss A Chance To Dance!

The dance year was topped off by the National Grand Finals,
which I have already written about here….ISTD National Grand Finals! To make a final in the Under 35 Silver/Gold Paso Doble at Blackpool was most certainly the highlight of my dance year!  Dancing is back in January, with a trip to Lymington for the first competition of the year!

2016 has had a lot of great family times also 🙂

My boys started Park Running, and I started the Couch to 5K and took part in my first Park Run too!  The Couch to 5K has had to take a back seat as my knee started playing up but I will be starting running at my own pace in 2017!

£133 was raised for MacMillan Cancer Care by hosting a Stella & Dot jewellery show and in November, Mum reached her 1 year cancer free mark after completing her radiotherapy treatment in November 2015, a major positive!  Stella & Dot, a sparkle for us and a few £ for Macmillan 🙂

Theatre Trips to see The Bodyguard with my Mum and to London to see Wicked with hubby.  Both shows were utterly amazing….(this was my 2nd time seeing Wicked!)

Other family moments included a trip to Manchester for my Uncle’s 75th birthday, a weekend away in Wales and lots of days out during the summer holidays 🙂

In October, I started this blog with a simple …. ‘Wow! You dance? What got you into that?’

In the 2 months since starting, I now have 235 followers on WordPress which I am amazed by that anyone wants to read anything I write, let alone like, comment and follow!!  I’ve never in my life taken so many selfies! haha!  I don’t even like photos of myself but I’m applying makeup and taking photos like there’s no tomorrow! All in the name of blogging of course 🙂

In fairness my blog has mostly been about makeup in the last month, mainly because dancing breaks for Christmas but I’m raring to go in January!

There is so much negativity in the news and so many shocking things have happened this year locally, nationally and internationally but what decides if this has been a good year is personal experiences and whilst many things have happened that we could all happily say goodbye to 2016 for, there’s also plenty to be positive about.  Just writing this blog alone I’ve gone through my camera roll on my phone looking for photos to include and plenty of photos remind me of absolutely hilarious times this year alongside just general day to day things.

Here’s to 2017, lots of fun times ahead 🙂  Happy New Year everyone!    

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