FROM THE EDITOR

There’s no denying it any longer – the festive season is now well and truly upon us! The box of Christmas decorations is out of storage and our writer Amy Prebble has given us the kick we needed by finishing offher Christmas shopping before December even rolled around. We’re trying not to let our envy be too obvious!

While we get involved in all those Christmas traditions, as well as employing new ones from our favourite foodies

− Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Mary Berry and our very own Nici Wickes – we’ve again looked at what we can do to celebrate this Christmas a bit differently.

We’re thinking about what we’re grateful for this year – like many of our local stars in this issue, who are celebrating their first Christmases with a newborn, a new spouse, a new home and more. I’m particularly inspired by our real-life read on Heidi Harty-Eugster who certainly has a lot to celebrate after the gift of a new heart!

And while we’re talking about inspiration, I get a lump in my throat every time I think about Hannah Rodgers and her six-year-old son Jayden. Last year, their idea of sending a card to someone they didn’t know who might be feeling lonely at Christmas snowballed into a massive 32,000 cards distributed throughout NZ, and this year they’re aiming for 100,000.

I’ll be writing my fill of them this weekend – and we have all the details in this issue of how you can join me. Merry Christmas!

Enjoy your week!