For many of us today really signals the beginning of 2009 as we return to work. In fact I've done a little work over the Christmas break but today life returns to normal.

For me that means today I'm on my own with the twins (who are as I type this sweeping the floor - I kid you not) while making an attempt to fulfil my day job commitments as a videogames website editor.

There's an air of doom and gloom about. The post holiday blues affect almost everyone at this time of year. My beloved wifey suffered them last week when we returned from spending a belated Christmas with family in Dorset.

...

2009 is a year of transition for the Neary family. My wife's job ends at Easter and we are then free to create a family life together that isn't based on cobbling two incompatible worlds together in the arse-end of nowhere¹.

That means we are free to head of in any direction we wish. And the direction we've chosen is westwards. We're off to live in Dorset, believing it to be a better place to bring up our children than the big city. The choice to move away is something of an experiment as I'm dragging poor wifey miles from a John Lewis store. But at the same time the aim is to be just a short journey from her parents.

The other massive change coming this year is the arrival of a fourth² child. Some of you may think we're mad to have a baby this year given that we'll have two year old twins running around. Don't worry, we question our sanity quite often too.

Yes it's certainly going to be hard work, but something we're both very much looking forward to. As is the move from Northolt so more pleasant surroundings. The truth be told we'd both quite happily move right now, I think we made the move in our minds over the Christmas break when we were house hunting in Dorset. We found the place we want to live and driving back to Northolt from Dorset felt like we were driving away from home, not towards it.

So we've just got to grit out teeth and get through the next few months to Easter until we can escape to the place that already feels like home.

2009 is going to be a very exciting year for us.

_{¹Northolt.
²We lost baby three to a miscarriage earlier this year and he's still very much in our mind. So although hopefully we'll have three children by the summer, our new arrival will always be number four in our mind.}