I hope you are ready for Christmas. I think the Farron family is just about organised, entirely thanks to my amazing wife Rosie if I am perfectly honest with you.

The House of Commons is now in “recess” as they call the times when MPs are not expected to be there. We are not expected back until January 9. I have written many times about what I see as the ridiculous amount of time that the House of Commons is not really doing anything but I must say personally it's great to be sleeping in my own bed, having breakfast with my kids and not having to travel down to London on the train. At least for a couple of weeks.

My office is closed from tomorrow until January 3 as well to give my very hard-working staff a well-deserved break. So I can’t even sneak in there to get some work done.

For the Farrons, Christmas is really a time for family. We usually get together with my wife’s family just over the Cumbrian border in north Lancashire and have a really big gathering with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. It really does feel how Christmas should be.

Beyond that we like to take in a few walks in the Lakes with as many children as we can persuade to come along. If time permits I may even be seen out running off the excessive amounts of food I will have eaten in the lanes around Milnthorpe. Running has become quite fun these days as one or more of my children are usually keen to come along with me. I am ashamed to say they can easily cover the same distances as me and are quite a bit faster.

But this is also the time of year to take stock a bit on the past 12 months and think about what 2017 has in store for us all. I feel quite proud of many of the things we have achieved in south Cumbria this year; we have reduced the numbers of people waiting for housing from the council, unemployment remains very low, we currently have the third lowest level in the entire country and I am continually amazed by the results produced by our schools.

But next year promises to be very challenging. We need to sort out our health care issues. We need the government to commit to building a radiotherapy unit in the hospital in Kendal. In fact we need the local health bodies to commit to moving many other services to Kendal to take the pressure off the other two hospitals covered by the hospitals trust.

We need much more investment in broadband and mobile phone coverage. We need our farmers to be paid what they are owed. We need better flood defences. We need more money for our schools. I could go on.

Getting the government to spend money on these crucial things will not be easy but it has to be my focus when I start back at work in 2017.