Christmas Archives - Page 4 of 4

A couple of weeks ago I joined a few new blogging friends to complete my first challenge as a QBlogger for our local Queensgate shopping centre.

The whole QBlogger event was shrouded in secrecy

All I had been told was that we were to assemble (much like the Avengers) at Hotel Chocolat and await further instruction.

You know you are about to embark on something rather exciting when it starts with a very indulgent hot chocolate and an envelope with a wax seal!

Inside the envelope was a letter outlining my task for the evening ahead. I had to go shopping! Specifically I had to search the Queensgate shops for an outfit suitable for an evening dining with my Mummy friends. I thought about my Mummy friends and decided to look beyond the fact that we would be most at home necking a quick kebab (sorry ladies) in favour of a more civilised approach to the task at hand.

So, back to the hot chocolate. It was absolutely delicious and topped with an enormous amount of chocolate cream. While we all enjoyed our treat I took some photos of Hotel Chocolat’s gorgeous Christmas range.

I love the tiddly pots (tubs of chocolate buttons in dark, caramel or milk) and I will definitely keep them in mind for a treat for Moose the next time we come for a mooch in town.

I need one of these wreaths. Pistachio, white chocolate and cranberry. The perfect trinity of flavour!

This is just a small selection of what is on offer this Christmas at Hotel Chocolat – don’t get me started on what look like the best advent calendars ever!

The Queensgate shopping centre is undergoing some really exciting changes at the moment but it is all still business as usual. I really love how colourful the new seating is though I have to admit, I still miss the sunken seating outside John Lewis!

I had to get my skates on

To say I am not the most natural of shoppers would be a little bit of an understatement. I am afraid that I am the classic stereotypical Mother who really only spends money on myself when it is necessary. What I lack in experience though I more than made up for in enthusiasm! The opportunity to spend on myself guilt-free? Yes please.

The first hurdle I had to overcome was finding a store which stocked my size. With the current reshuffle of shops it is admittedly a bit of a challenge to find a lot of choice for larger ladies in Queensgate while sticking to a budget. It’s not that none of the shops sell clothing in my size, it’s more that it is pot luck finding it to be on the rack! Usually I get around this by ordering online and collecting my purchases from the store.

By this point I had 1 hour to complete my challenge. Luckily New Look has a brilliant curves range which I was really impressed with.

I managed to spot a gorgeous suedette jacket and a charcoal top with sparkly silver detail (to add the requested touch of glam) and both were well within budget!

For me Autumn and Winter should be all about comfort and that means choosing fabrics which not only look nice but feel great too. I found a gorgeous mustard chunky knit scarf in Primark which definitely fitted the bill.

By the time I had located the scarf our time was up! I couldn’t believe how quickly it had flown by and how much fun we had completing the QBlogger challenge.

Our evening wasn’t over yet though, we had to meet the other bloggers at Turtle Bay restaurant. I cannot pretend that the prospect of meeting at one of my favourite restaurants didn’t fill me with glee!

Turtle Bay

Upon entry to the restaurant Jaymee and I were welcomed by the lovely Becca and Leigh and I was introduced to the other bloggers present; Rachel from Helpless Whilst Drying and Laura from Loved By Laura.

A little after we arrived we were joined by Sabina from Deepin Mummy Matters

I just love the food at Turtle Bay so I was not disappointed to have so many lovely dishes to try. Pictured are the Just Jerk Platter and the Goat Curry with Festival Dumplings and Rice and Peas. Delicious!

Despite feeling incredibly nervous about my first QBlogger event it was lovely to meet everyone and have a good chat! Before we knew it was time to retreat back to our cars and head home.

I have to be honest, I really dislike being in photographs but I felt like I should show off my lovely New Look jacket so here is me looking aloof (it’s actually awkward more than aloof but I went with it), and a fence and some very autumnal leaves. You’re welcome.

I naively thought that my purchases would remain my own. Moose had other ideas and the morning after our challenge he immediately adopted my chunky scarf for himself. I have since negotiated its safe return.

Thank you so much Queensgate for an exciting evening and for making me part of such a fabulous group of people!

I don’t really do resolutions. Usually. I also don’t tend to open my life up to the world and his wife but the advent of this blog has proved me wrong on the latter so what do I know? No time like the present to give it a go, right?

I have decided that 2017 is going to be all about clawing back a bit of the me that I miss. Clichés ready? Then let’s do this..

1.Change My Body Shape

My weight doesn’t bother me. The number on the scale and the number on the little tag in my clothing. Maybe it should, its a big number, but it really doesn’t. At the moment I am uncomfortable in my skin and if I am truly honest it is interfering with my mood, how I play with my kids and…my marriage. I am not going to whine on about it but I know it has to change. Going for a walk each day is how I will begin.. and not eating chocolate for breakfast for a change (maybe)

2. Blog for Myself

The world of blogging is one I am easing myself into. I have met some incredible people and I have read some amazing posts – I feel like I am learning a massive amount and long may it continue. But I have been tying myself up in knots worrying about what people think of how I write and trying to censor myself here and there. I can’t even tell you why really, to appeal to the masses? hmm I don’t think I have ever even liked the masses so I am not certain why I would want to do a thing like that.

3. Eat Less Meat

I like meat. A rare steak is a beautiful thing to behold. I do think though that to be healthier I need to reduce my intake and also, this goes hand in hand with being a bit more creative in the kitchen. I can cook, I would love to actually be good at it though and I want to learn to cook at least a couple of meat-free dishes per month. If you have any good recipes for me, feel free to leave them in the comments section!

4. Watch Less TV

I enjoy TV. I can watch hour upon hour of, well, pretty much anything. That’s the problem. A lot of it is amazing but most is actually quite dire. I ~~think~~ know that time could be better spent elsewhere, so that’s my plan! I am hoping to fill those extra hours by dedicating more time to working on the blog and also by doing some online courses.

5. Sleep More!

This is my favourite resolution. Sleep is so underrated. I am lucky now that Moose sleeps roughly 11 hours a night but he has dropped his afternoon nap so if I have any hope of not turning into a perpetually irritated old hag I need to make sure I catch up on the ZZZZ’s too. Usually I can grab 5/6 hours a night. I am not someone who can be happy on less than 7. I need to sort it out!

New plan is.. Moose in bed for 19:30, half hour doing some kind of tidying up, 2.5 hours of either work or blog and bed for 10:30 where I will read an actual grown up book without pictures for half an hour! Part of this new routine will definitely mean cutting out the caffeine. Either its going to be great, or my family are in for a miserable few months. Watch this space!

6. Visit Edinburgh

I have never been. I have always wanted to go. I’ve no idea why it has taken me this long? So this year I would love to visit Edinburgh Castle and if anyone has any other suggestions feel free to comment below.. the planning begins!

7. Go On More Adventures

I am an indoors person. The sofa and my laptop and a nice cup of coffee.. I love until I don’t. I am prone to bouts of melancholy and this is amplified when those walls start to close in. I need to get up and get out more with Moose and I know he would want that too if he ever looked up from playing with his dinosaurs long enough to notice.

So that’s my 7. Couldn’t reduce it to 5 and 10 just feels like too many all at once. 7 is rather a good number I feel. It’s a given that I will keep you updated as to how I get on and who knows, it might just be the best year ever.

I would love to know your resolutions for the coming year so tell me! I am nosy!!

Wishing you good health and happiness throughout 2017

Mummy & Moose x

I was tagged by Emma over @sophieellaandme to answer some Christmas related questions for ‘The Christmas Tag’, and here they are…

What’s your favourite Christmas movie?
I love Elf but I will always have a special place in my heart for the cheesefest that is Santa Clause: The Movie

Have you ever had a white Christmas?
Yes, the year I was born!

Where do you usually spend your holiday?
At home! In my Pjs!

What is your favourite Christmas song?
Favourite Christmas song is The Pogues Fairytale of New York and favourite carol is In The Bleak Midwinter.

Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?
No!

Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph!

Which holiday traditions are you looking forward to this year?
We like to get all of our children (13 ish) together to exchange gifts and generally give the grown ups a headache.

Is your Christmas tree real or fake?
Fake. Its a corner space saving tree bought for a few pounds in the sales 10 years ago but I love it

What is your all time favourite holiday treat/food/sweet?
Ferrero Rocher, bucks fizz, sprouts, pigs. in. blankets.

Be honest, do you like giving or receiving gifts better?
Giving. I just really love choosing gifts for people I love.

What is the best Christmas present you ever received?
Possibly the hifi/cd player I received when I was a child. I don’t remember my age but the freedom found in access to music resonates with me.

What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?
I imagine that New York would be amazing to be at Christmas and New Years. I would love to be in Adelaide to experience an Aussie Christmas with family though.

Are you a pro present wrapper or do you fail miserably?
I am kind of a big deal when it comes to wrapping.

Most memorable Christmas moment?
My first Christmas with my own little family in our own little house. We didn’t have a lot but it was perfect.

What made you realise the truth about Santa?
I don’t really remember when I learned the truth. The magic hasn’t ever ended though – it just shifted a little bit.

What makes the holidays special for you?
My family. Without good people around the tree, it doesn’t matter what’s under it. I do really love presents though (just in case Mr G is reading this)

That’s my contribution to the Christmas Tag, hope you enjoyed it! I would like to tag Little B and Me, The Mum Diaries and Mum Times Two

…and why I could never judge those who don’t.

I read an article the other day about a lady who last year bought so many Christmas gifts for her family that when they were piled up in her lounge her tree was barely visible. Cue many nasty comments of course and the odd nod of agreement from those who could see the festive season from her perspective.

I wouldn’t presume to know what makes this lady tick. Perhaps she is trying to compensate because of something else that happened that year or 10 years ago. Maybe she just really likes treating her kids and works hard to. It’s possible that the newspaper contributed a fair percentage of the money spent on those gifts in exchange for her popping her story out there and laying herself open to all of this judgement from people who really ought to know better. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s not really my business.

Christmas Past

It did make me think about my own version of Christmas though. Of what (if I stop and think about it) the most vivid memories are of the childhood Christmases I shared with my parents and 4 siblings.

I can’t really remember very much about Christmas before my siblings arrived. My Mum was diagnosed with my brother when I was just 4 years old. By the time I was 9 years old there were 7 of us living in our 3 bedroom house. Quiet Christmas was never an option. Noisy, full and fun. That was us.

We didn’t have a lot of money when I was a child but there were certain things that happened every year

We would always go to see Santa. We’d always have an interesting and hilarious buffet at our grandparents house. We would always (ish) be good on Christmas eve lest we were made to stay up! and we would always wake up to a full stocking at the end of our bed. There would always be a lot of gifts waiting for us in our living room. I mean a LOT.

The gifts would be sorted into a pile for each of us. We would all come into the room together and excitedly find our designated spot. Dad would grab the video camera, someone would get the Christmas music playing and Mum would have a piece of paper and a pen at the ready and then the organised chaos would begin!

As far as I recall we would take it in turns to open our gifts yelling out who they were from and what they were so that a list could be made for easy reference when “thank you card time” came.

In no time at all those presents would be opened and the living room floor would become a sea of colourful wrapping paper with all of us too enraptured by our new toys to care.

Of course we took everything for granted – as was our right as children at Christmas.

But aside from a few exceptions, we really don’t remember what was beneath the wrapping paper. It’s not that we were entitled brats. Not at all. We just remember other things. When I asked my siblings what they could remember they listed

Big piles of presents
The dolls house my Dad upcycled for my sisters.
The year we woke our parents (and possibly the street) up at 3am
The following year when we slept in – but were woken up by our Aunt and Uncle who arrived at 7am expecting us all to have been up for hours. We found it hilarious. Our parents, not so much
The dining table looking beautifully dressed because Mum did it before they went to bed on Christmas eve.
Christmas dinner. Always tasty. Always massive.
Excitement and happiness

My memories of Christmas are fond ones. I know my parents made that happen and I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been some years. I’m very grateful to them both for those memories – they laid the foundations for the type of Christmas I wanted for my children.

Christmas Present(s)

Now that all 5 of us have families of our own, when we come together to exchange Christmas gifts it can be crazy. I love it. Between us we have 14 children now. When our lives allow we rarely are able to be in the same room but I know that even if not all of us are physically there, we are all thinking some of the same thoughts and remembering the same moments.

We enjoy some wonderful moments. We visit our Grandfather and if we can we take some food to try and recreate some of those buffet recollections of our youth – we will never come close. A vital ingredient is missing and she can never be replaced. Nonetheless, we all have a lovely time.

The house that we visited adorned with lights as children is long gone but we still manage to find something pretty to go look at and our children love standing in awe.. together.

There is just one thing I am beginning to have second thoughts about

The big piles of presents. Or more pointedly the pressure to provide the excitement that I felt as a child of walking into a room full of gifts.

I know that the guilt I feel at the same time every year a couple of weeks before Christmas is not logical. We don’t have the money or the space for hundreds of toys, our children are in no way expecting to received a huge number of gifts. So why should I feel like I need them? I do. I want to indulge them and every year I panic that I haven’t done enough, that they won’t love their gifts. That they will feel disappointed. Disappointed with Christmas or disappointed with me. I am not sure which. Maybe it’s both? Or maybe it’s bollocks.

This year I am doing things differently. Sorry kids, I am swallowing that guilt down with a large snowball and I am refusing to play the game.

A thought occurred to me while Christmas shopping with my Mum. I was talking to her about how worried I was about my daughter liking her gifts and I had this vision of Christmas future

What Comes Next at Christmas?

I had a picture in mind of myself and my daughter in years to come, having the exact same conversation. Of her worrying about the number of gifts under the tree. Not feeling as though she was good enough. Or hadn’t tried enough for her children. Knowing that it was ridiculous but feeling that pressure anyway. I don’t want that for my children. Or for theirs.

There is only one way as I see it that can change. There are amazing things that I take from my childhood Christmases and feel like I should make a point of saying that my Mum and Dad did not raise us to be materialistic at all. This is not about them. I need to stop. I have to offload that guilt and replace it with something else and I need to remember that we already have everything we will ever need to make those memories our children will hold onto for many Christmases to come.

Hands up who else knows nothing about perfume..

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is looking for that perfect gift. Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to my first event as a blogger along with my sister blogger, Jaymee from The Mum Diaries.

It was at The Perfume Shop in the Queensgate shopping centre in our fair city of Peterborough with a handful of other local bloggers and we were to learn of the delights of Christmas gifting.. Scent style!

The Perfume Shop mission statement is ‘To share our genuine passion for perfume & people and offer the most knowledgeable fragrance expertise on the high street.’ and they certainly did!

It’s All About The App

The Perfume Shop was founded in 1992 and is now the UK’s largest specialist fragrance retailer with over 260 stores nationwide. They are in fact the only fragrance store which uses the Michael Edwards app. I hadn’t heard of this app before but it is fantastic if (like me) you are clueless when it comes to buying fragrance. You can search by ingredient, fragrance family or (and this is my personal favourite) you can find out your gift recipients current perfume of choice and the app can tell you what else they are likely to love!

Finding A Gift

The best value way to buy fragrance is most definitely as a gift set and The Perfume Shop has one for every budget and every age group.

Their gift sets for children are very sweet and some are hypoallergenic making them a great choice for sensitive skin and most are under £10.

There is something for everyone from the celebrity and sporty perfumes aimed at the young ones to Gucci bamboo (which, if my Husband is reading this is the one he should buy) as well as all of the other big names you would expect.

The Perfume Shop are supporters of Alzheimer’s Research UK and as well as 50p from each gift box purchase they also donate the 5p carrier bag charge to them. Look out instore for the promotional Look Good Feel Better products which help raise money for their work providing practical solutions to ladies dealing with the visible effects of Cancer. On top of this they also offer a military discount. The season of giving indeed!

As well as fragrance gift sets The Perfume Shop also offers a W7 advent calendar stuffed with goodies which at the time of typing this is on offer at £12.99 – that makes the cosmetics 50p each! Also on offer are several make up palettes and some Ghost baubles priced at £8 each which contain a mini bottle of perfume as well as a little treat (this varies) and would be very welcome in my stocking!

Click It, Collect It, Tick It Off Your List

There are hundreds of possibilities at The Perfume Shop and all eligible for free gift wrapping and a free click and collect service! If the gift you want to buy is not in stock they can order it in at no extra cost and have it wrapped and waiting for you…. Seriously, how easy is Christmas shopping these days?! Embrace it!

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