Brain—focus. BE USEFUL.

“You’ve got a hat on.” Out of all the things, you went for that?!

“Well, after all the effort you put in, I couldn’t let you leave without completing your final thing.” He suddenly looked shy. “Only if you wanted to, of course.”

And that’s when I realized what his hat was. A big green foam cap, yes, but the thing sticking off wasn’t a fake tree.

It was a bunch of fake mistletoe. Dung twigs.

Dangling right above his face. “It was the best I could do!”

He’d never looked more ridiculous. He’d never looked more nervous. He’d never looked more gorgeous.

And right there, with less than a minute left of my holiday, at gate seven, Newark Airport, Nick and I crossed off the final thing on my final Christmas list.

A kiss under the mistletoe.

And out of all the magical Christmas things that had happened in the last week, it managed to be the very best.

January 5

Happy Christmas, Future Holly!

Well! Where to start with this one?

Oh, yes. If you’re not holding a hot drink, go get one. And make sure you’re wearing a jumper. The one Mum got you of the New York skyline with light-up windows HAS to be first. IT’S A WORK OF ART. Woolly art.

Oh, and do me a favour. Message Mum and Nay and tell them you can’t wait to spend Christmas with them. Hug them when you next see them—unless Naomi is back off being reunited with an octopus. Or at uni, or whatever.

Tell Ruby and Fred too.

And it’s Christmas, so what the heck. Get Colin x 2 in on the action.

IN FACT, STOP EVERYTHING. Most, MOST crucial thing is IMMEDIATELY put on the playlist Nick sent you to wake up to on Christmas Day. It’s audio perfection.

Sooooo…where to start with this year?! It’s hard to know. I thought the year before might have been the best ever, but then BOOM. After a shaky start, this year snuck up and blew it out of the gingerbread-flavoured water.

I set out to have the most perfect Christmas ever—and guess what? I did!

Mum cried her eyes out when Naomi turned up at the airport on Christmas Eve. But then so did Naomi and so did I—so no judgment. The drive home was almost two hours, but Mum played “Driving Home for Christmas” on repeat the whole way, and we sang along every time and it honestly didn’t ever get boring.