Aside from the odd 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, my Christmas was pretty near perfect.
Myself and Amy celebrated the big day in our new home with baby George, family and friends and while, with a game just 24 hours later, I couldn't get too carried away, it was every bit as special as I'd hoped it would be.
Our Boxing Day victory over Cheltenham left me feeling even more elated.
Unfortunately I was brought back down to earth with a rather large bump when we were thumped 4-1 by AFC Wimbledon on Sunday, though even then I felt we didn't play anywhere near as badly as the scoreline might suggest.
It was a huge disappointment to come away from the Kingsmeadow Stadium with nothing to show – aside from the small consolation of a goal for yours truly – for our endeavours. Then again, as Tis is always at pains to point out, you shouldn't get too carried away when you win a game nor should you get too downhearted when you lose one.
The fact remains, we've taken 34 points out of 51 since we won at Cambridge back in September and that's a decent return in anyone's book. If we continue to accumulate points at the rate of two out of every three then we'll finish the season on 81, which would pretty much guarantee us a play-off spot at the very least.
The important thing now is that we bounce straight back against Accrington Stanley at the Park on Saturday. If we can do that then, despite successive away defeats, we'll have taken six points out of the last 12, which is very nearly two out of every three, and can quickly put the disappointment of Sunday behind us.
While we didn't play quite as well as we might have done against Cheltenham, I always felt we were fairly comfortable and the game was ours for the taking.
It was entirely fitting that the excellent Tom Nichols, who on his return to the starting line-up was a real livewire throughout, should notch the winning goal.
Only five players in League Two have scored more goals than Tom this season and I think it's fair to say our No. 20 has been a revelation since emerging from a spell in the wilderness little more than 12 months ago.
He now boasts 15 goals in just 29 career starts which represents a goals-to-games ratio that anyone would be proud of.
A word too for James Hamon who kept his second clean sheet in three games and, ahead of the Wimbledon match, had conceded just one goal in more than five hours of football.
It's easy to forget James is only 19 and it's a measure of the progress he has made that he continues to keep someone as talented as Christy Pym out of the team.
It was great to welcome Paul Buckle, Rob Edwards and Matt Taylor back to the Park and, in the nicest possible way, even better to send them on their way with their tails between their legs. That said, I do hope the injury which forced 'Super Matty Taylor' to limp off after just 30 or so minutes isn't anything too serious and that he's restored to the Robins' starting line-up sooner rather than later.
There wasn't much between us and Wimbledon in the opening 45 minutes on Sunday and I felt we were a little bit unlucky to be behind at the interval.
Unfortunately, Neil Ardley's side grabbed a second just a few minutes after the restart and from thereon in we were fighting an uphill battle.
As you might imagine, we missed David Noble and Matt Grimes but, that's as maybe, I don't want to make any excuses, we could and should have done rather better than we did.
In any case, while Nobes is expected to sign permanently when the transfer window opens on Saturday and will be available again for the remainder of the campaign, it seems increasingly inevitable that Matt Grimes is off to pastures new.
Therefore we need to adjust to life without him sooner rather than later if we are to maintain our play-off push.
I don't pretend to know exactly what the situation is with Grimesy but one thing is clear, he's a massive talent who's earned the opportunity to strut his stuff on a much bigger stage and wherever he ends up I'm sure he'll be a huge success.
As I mentioned earlier, we entertain Accrington Stanley at the Park on Saturday and it would be great if there was a good-sized crowd there to cheer us on as we bid to start the new year with a bang so do, please, come along if you possibly can.
Last but not least, I must take this opportunity to wish everyone with a little bit of Exeter City in their heart a happy and prosperous new year on behalf of everyone at the Cat & Fiddle. Your support over the last 12 months – especially when we were fighting for our League Two life at the end of last season – has been fantastic and is very much appreciated.
We'll be doing our utmost to ensure that this time around we can provide you with rather more to celebrate than another season in League Two!
