Closed!

That's it! It's 4.30 pm on Christmas Even and The Gem Den is closed, for good!

It's been the best December we've had and the best, ever, Christmas Eve. With stock down to half-price the locals got a lot of bargains and I cleared a lot of stock. I've worked hard all day week month so it was nice to finally close the door and open the Champagne.

The Mother had wanted to come in this afternoon to share this with me, she's helped with the paperwork for 12 years so it was nice that she did. Chippy has been giving me as much time as he could lately and katkatkat and her partner have been down since Thursday and have provided a great back-up with shopping, driving, cooking as well as serving in the shop. The Man is here, too, supporting me as he has done for over 25 years in this venture when he suggested I send off a £50 order to Kernocraft.

Missing from the picture is Jennie, who has been a wonderful assistant for 5 years, I wanted to get her and her hubby on the group photo but their parking time was up so they had to go before the bubbly got opened.

As usual our Christmas Eve ended with a visit to some friends in the village.

In the New Year I will go and clear out the shop and begin a new phase of jewellery making and photography.