Christmas Round Up

I'd like to firstly apologise for the lack of blog posts in the last week or so, as you would imagine things have been a little bit manic with the end of the school term for Ruby and a certain event called Christmas.

This Christmas I have struggled to get excited about the festivities, especially in the last few days towards Christmas when I noticed on various social media platforms people complaining that they hadn't been able to get the food they wanted or telling the world how many hundreds of pounds they had spent on food and drink, some of the amounts really shocked me because as a family our monthly food budget is around £250, I can't imagine spending that in just one shop! 

On Christmas Eve I looked at the presents that were under our tree and started to feel guilty as to how much family and friends had bought us, when there are so many people who live without food, water, heat and washing facilities. I find it so hard that some children in third world countries have never had a Christmas present and how amazing it would feel for them to just get some colouring pencils and colouring books in some shiny Christmas paper. 

I have always tried to teach Ruby the value of money and to be thankful for what she has, although we don't have a great deal, we are happy with our little lives. On Christmas Eve I spoke to Ruby about how some people don't have any presents or food and asked her if next year she would like to come with me to a homeless shelter to help out, I explained that together we could bake some mince pies or gingerbread and offer them to people who don't have any food. So next year we have a plan, I'm going to search for somewhere that would be willing to hand out some home baked goods. 

A friend posted this on Facebook and it really gives something to think about:

The girls woke up at around 7.30 on Christmas morning and opened their stockings from Santa in our bed. We had breakfast in bed before heading downstairs to see if Santa had delivered any presents. Santa of course had delivered lots of presents and whilst I'm grateful I shall be talking to family next year as there really is very little the girls need and space is becoming an issue.

As a family we received so many lovely gifts, Ruby's favourite was her Playmobil camping set, Lottie loved her Peppa Pig camper van play set. Both girls have loved sharing and playing together with each other's toys. 

I was not feeling 100% on Christmas Day and now we know it was the start of a nasty kidney infection, I was unable to eat my Christmas dinner and just wanted to go back to bed, so that is what I did on Christmas afternoon, and have pretty much remained there ever since, it's not been a particularly good Christmas but I'm hoping for a better New Year, and then I turn 30 on the 3rd of January! Has anyone set any New Years resolutions? 

Silent Sunday!

 

Silent Sunday!

Silent Sunday!

Save the Children - Christmas Jumper Day

 

Today like many other people Phil and I are wearing our Christmas jumpers in support of Save the Children.

This is the 3rd year of the campaign and so far they have raised a massive 1.6 million!

TEXT WOOLLY to 70050 to donate £2

The UK Government will match every £1 donated this Christmas so the money you pledge, they will double and make a big contribution to help save the children.

Visit jumpers.savethechildren.org.uk for more information.

Christmas Tree Festival

Last weekend my mum invited us to come along with her to her local Christmas tree festival; I have been to many christmas tree festivals in recent years, but I dont recall going to any as I was growing up, they seem to be growing in popularity and most are hosted in local parish churches.

Personally I think its a great idea to get people into a church building so that they can be familiar about how it is all set up; the festival raises much needed funds for charity and also a percentage of the money goes to the upkeep of the church building, which I know costs a lot of money as I was a churchwarden a few years back.

We left the car at my mums house and decided to wrap up warm and walk the 5 or so minutes to the church. I am always amazed at how many people enter trees into the fetival and even more impressive is that I have never been to a tree festival where there have been 2 similar themes.

Here are some of our favourites from the christmas tree festival we went to over the weekend.

Which one do you like? Have you been to a Christmas tree festival before and have you entered one? I would love to know so please leave me a blog comment below.

Silent Sunday!

News Flash - Chocolate Monster on the Loose!

Well this morning whilst I was getting dressed, I came downstairs and look what I found:

A chocolate monster had decided to take pretty much all of the chocolates off the Christmas tree!

The monster then was able to unwrap the chocolates and leave a trail all over the lounge!

The trail led to the culprit ... who was caught with chocolate all over her face!

The chocolate monster was ... Lottie!

I managed to catch the whole investigation on film; it's very sweet what the chocolate monster has to say in response to what had happened.

As Lottie is so angelic she is able to get away with so much, those big blue eyes and blonde hair just melt my heart; but because of her eating all the chocolates, we now don't have any chocolates left on our Christmas tree! 


Please learn from this and do not put the chocolate is reach of your little "darlings"!


UPDATE; I have since found more chocolate wrappers stashed under the foot stool... to be continued.

Christmas is Coming!

I cant believe that I am sat here surrounded by Christmas decorations, this must mean christmas is just around the corner! Over the weekend we decided to put our Christmas tree up, although technical the 1st of December actually fell on Monday, it was just more practical to get it done on Sunday than try to do it on Monday with two over tired children. I do think though that the countdown to Christmas is becoming earlier and earlier as the years have gone by. What do you think? Have you already put your tree up or are you waiting? If so why?

We seem to have gone a little bit mad this year with the christmas decorations, well mad for us not compared to some peoples standards though :)

This year our main Christmas tree is in the lounge and on top of a table, we did this last year as it offers more room for presents under the tree and takes up much less room in the lounge. The tree is covered in so many different decorations, but the glass baubles and of course the chocolates are my favourite, I think there are about 60 chocolates on the tree!

In the girls playroom we normally have a slim pop up tree but because of how full the playroom is the tree is now in the dinning area of our kitchen. We only bought this tree last year and I love it because its different, its white and contains multicoloured baubles.

My husband appears to be getting into the festive spirit this year and has placed lights outside on the hebe shrub growing in the garden and even placed lights on the stairs! As a child he never had a house full of what he calls "Tacky" Christmas decorations and the tree didn't go up until very near Christmas so I think he is reliving his childhood!

Last year I purchased a lovely wooden nativity set and both Ruby and Lottie are loving playing with it. 

With regards to Christmas presents, all have been bought! yes really all of them have been bought. I try and buy them throughout the year so the financial burden isn't as great. However this comes with a problem as I always see things I like and end up buying more especially when it comes to the girls.

Well I suppose I should stop typing and start writing the christmas cards, do you send Christmas cards? I don't know why but for some reason we seem to be sending more and more each year.