Happy New Year! Team J&PR cannot believe we are now in 2025….
There is lots in store for us this year as clients celebrate special anniversaries, new products are set to be launched and big events are on the horizon!
But, before we look forward, let’s take a look back at what we got up to in the final month of 2024…
Christmas food and fun
Festive activities took a lead role in the December highlights with Simon’s being the editing of the J&PR Christmas video. The footage captured the team visiting various independent businesses in Wellington to buy gifts and useful items for Shropshire charities, Lingen Davies and SYA, instead of sending Christmas cards and gifts to our clients.
Si said the video is great fun and reminded him of what a fantastic team he works with!
You can see our shopping spree here.
Kirsty’s highlight was the shopping trip itself - she loves supporting the wonderful independent businesses in Wellington and also appreciates the difference the gifts will make to the youngsters and the patients who will receive them.
Taffy’s professional highlight was the J&PR Christmas night out, complete with the traditional awards ceremony. It was an evening that truly warmed her heart and she says winning two awards was a joy, but her favourite was sharing the Best Tea Maker award with Simon! (Turns out all those tea-making lessons in Africa paid off!) She said the night was filled with laughter, delicious food, and unforgettable bonding moments - a fantastic way to wrap up 2024!
The night, which was spent at the Prince Rupert Hotel, was also Tony’s work highlight - he said the food was amazing!
And another vote for the Christmas outing came from Dani - she said winning the J&PR award for Best Written Word meant a lot to her as words are her bag and she hasn’t won a J&PR award for a while (she said she doesn’t make enough tea!).
Trips and visitors
December is obviously the month when we tend to spend lots of time with friends and family and Kirsty’s personal highlight was having her lovely friend Amie and her son over from Portugal for a week. They enjoyed some pre-Christmas festivities together - friendship and time are so precious.
Sophie’s personal highlight was not one, but two visits to Trentham for the Christmas light trail and a bit of shopping! It was something different to do, which she really enjoyed.
And Dani did all sorts with friends and family - ice skating and dinner with friends, board games, visits to family members and many hours on the motorway, but so much fun amongst it all - and far too much food obviously too!
But we are all jealous of Taffy’s personal highlight - a trip to Zanzibar in December! She said without a doubt, her trip stands as the pinnacle of her year! She said words truly fall short of capturing the pure bliss, joy, and tranquillity this magical place gave her. Every single day was an incredible adventure, leaving her with unforgettable memories. She was so captivated by Zanzibar that she has already booked a Christmas trip there next year with her boys - it can’t come soon enough!
Clients and campaigns
Kirsty sneaked in a second professional highlight for the last month of 2024, with the launch of a careers project with a team from the NHS and Sophie’s was heading to Southwater Vets for her monthly catch-up and seeing little Fred! He's been hand-reared by RVN Becca from just a few weeks old, and is off to his forever home this month!
Rhea’s professional highlight was getting to grips with the latest campaigns for client EPX Technical Services - from Microsoft price changes to end-of-life for Windows 10 in 2025 and a new strategy for the marketing and sales team, it was all go!
Festive breaks and football
Tony’s personal highlight was going three weeks over Christmas without having to attend any hospital appointments - it has been a busy time for Tony and family and we are so pleased they got some respite for family time over the festive period.
Simon’s personal highlight is to do with football… he said he feels it needs recording that Nottingham Forest are sitting in FOURTH place in the Premier League at the time of writing - he said it's so lovely to see his two boys who he "persuaded" to support Forest finally having the bragging rights over their Man Utd-supporting friends (even though we're still some way behind Liverpool... maybe next season!).
And Rhea’s personal highlight was a trip away with her immediate family to a lakehouse in the Cotswolds for Christmas! After a busy year she said it was great to just get away from everything and enjoy the joys of Christmas food, wine - and the welcome addition of a hot tub!
2025….here we come!