Christmas 2O13

This christmas we had our early christmas at Andy's mums on the 21st.
Christmas day we spent the morning at our house opening presents, Me & Andy put together all the ones that needed to be put together while the girls played and then we tucked into our presents.

We had Christmas dinner at my mum & dad's house in the afternoon

and the evening was with the girls playing with their toys while me and Andy sat back and relaxed

Early Christmas 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was good to them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS

To all my wonderful blog readers, hope each and every one of you have a wonderful day tomorrow.

Lots of love Me & My little family

My fave places to shop this christmas

I've got myself loads of bargains this Christmas, so I thought I'd share some of them 

with my lovely blog readers.

1 -  SMYTHS

I managed to get a barbie mariposa doll  £14.99 

baby born interactive doll  £26.99

baby born I can swim £19.99

i'll be ordering a few more bits from here this week

2 - The Entertainer 

Lalaloopsy silly hair £19.99

Lala-oopsie little mermaid doll £1O

Mini lala-oopsie mermaid dolls £3 each 

3 - Superdrug

I popped into superdrug the other day just to have a peek and was amazed by the bargains, I left with a bag full. Many items I got mainly bath and body wash sets were £2 & £3

Needless to say I'm heading back there this week for some more.

4 - Wilkinsons

I grabbed a few perfect bargains in wilkinsons this year 

I got a rocking crib - £13

metal shopping trolley £15

wooden sandwich set £7

5 - Asda 

Wooden farm set £2O

wooden cake stand and cakes £9

deluxe set of dolls clothes £6

 6- Ebay 

We can't go leaving ebay out now can we, Ebay has many bargains hiding.

7 - Studio catalogue

Fluffy go walkies £19.99

Washing line set £5.99

Wooden tea set £8.99

Places I'm yet to have a splurge in 

Disney store, ELC and another shop with Smyths & the entertainer 

I will update this post with pictures of my bargain items once I get enough time to dig them all out without the girls catching me :)

Christmas eve bags

This was abit of a last minute idea after seeing so many of them around on blogs & instagram 

I thought it was such a great idea and amazed I never thought of it before

and I forgot I had bought some disney princess christmas bags last year so they 

were going spare this year, The girls go to my friends on christmas eve to open their presents 

(very lucky girls they get 3 Christmas' in total)

So once they get home they will get to dive into their Christmas eve bags :)

 In their bag they will have

- Jarmies

- Large chocolate coin

- Book 

- Hot chocolate sachet with marshmellows & a candy cane

- A mug 

- Fluffy socks/slippers 

- A christmas teddy 

- Their christmas plates ready to take to nanny & grandads to have their dinner on

- a bathbomb 

A dvd for us to watch together if they aren't home to late once they've had their Christmas with their Aunties.

The Christmas TAG

1.  Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic?

I've never had a real tree but once I'm on the road I'd love to go and pick one out with my little family

2.  You're in a coffee shop, it's December, what do you pick?

I don't like coffee, So if i was in costa it would have to be a hot chocolate instead

3.  Whats your favourite colour scheme for decorating the tree?

I like to change my colour scheme every year but the traditional Christmas colours are always a fave, this year I'm going for red & creams

4.  Giving or receiving?

Of course I love opening some presents myself but seeing my love ones smile while opening theirs is always a winner

5.  To mince pie or not to?

Ooh no not for me

6.  What's your traditional Sunday lunch?

It's got to be chicken/turkey, plenty of brussel sprouts,peas,cabbage,yorkshie puds,tatoes,piggies in blankets,stuffing, plenty of gravy, mince sauce

7.  Christmas day fashion

If we are having Christmas dinner at ours it's new Christmas pyjamas if we are having dinner at either of our parents it will be a new outfit i've brought in just for Christmas day or clothes we received for Christmas

8.  What's your favourite Christmas song?

My all time favourtie is Fairytale of new york - The Pogues, I'd listen to it all year round if I could

9.  What's your favourite Christmas film?

Elf, The Grinch and it goes without saying NBC

10.  Open presents before or after lunch?

Before but there always has to be one or two put away for after lunch just like I used to have when I was younger

I found this wonderful tag over on Fee's blog - http://www.makeupsavvy.co.uk

If your reading this your TAGGED

Cheap and cheerful christmas decorations

I'm a huge poundland & 99p store lover!

You'll find me in there everyday once I've dropped Issy to school hunting for some new bargains

I've found some real amazing Christmas decorations this year many if I'd have come across them on instagram the last place I would have thought they came from would be poundland/99p store.

I've come across them on eBay going for a lot more than £1/99p

I'm going for a shabby chic theme this Christmas
I also have a felt bunting that I didn't managed to get a picture of as I took it off my wall to move it and it's got tangled but I'll untangle it soon and get a picture

The reindeer is covered in iridescent glitter with red bells - 99p store

The stars came in a pack of two - poundland

pack of 1O bells - pounland

felt bunting - poundland

card bunting - poundland

and the pack of three decorations both came from poundland

I aim to get back over to the 99p store asap as they had gorgeous stuff in but I went over for Halloween decorations so couldn't go as crazy with the Christmas stuff as I wanted  

Christmas Crafts

With Christmas nearing I'm stocking up and hunting for all sorts of crafty fun to do with the girls, This morning I hunted pinterest for some ideas and created a Christmas crafts board you can find my board here

On my board you will find all sorts from hand/foot/finger print creations, paper plate creations, Qtips creations, puzzle pieces, beads and more.

We've been to see santa

Last night me, the girls & one of my good friends Tasha went to see Santa in his grotto, all courtesy of my wonderful friend she paid for us to go as a treat for the girls (what lucky girls we are). 

Before entering Sanats grotto each child was given a Grotto passport with 3 different things to complete to collect a stamp and the very last thing was to get a sticker from santa (pictured below)

The first task at Santas grotto the girls had to do some singing before entering (the reindeer pokey, I'll post the lyrics further down) And Santa's elf said they had to help save Christmas because some pesky rats had chewed open all the presents Santa had just finished wrapping, So once they go through the doors to the beginning of Santas grotto they had to snowball the pesky rats. 

Once the rats had been snowballed they got to go through another step of the grotto and got to decorate their own Christmas decorations.

 After the Christmas decorations had been finished it was time to head through to Santa's kitchen to make some magic reindeer food to help the reindeer's know where to stop.
Once The magic Reindeer food was finished it was time to head through to Santa but he had fallen asleep, so they had to shout to wake him up, Once he was awake they got to chat with Santa then it was time to clap 2 times and the presents for each child came down the chimney. After they had all received their presents it was time to tell Santa what they would like for Christmas and had a chance to have a photo with him, Daisie wasn't interested in getting in a photo or talking to Santa because silly me forgot her cuppy, she was super tired and just wanted to strip Santas Christmas tree so we only managed to get a picture of Issy with him.

Us adults also got a little present we each got a Christmas tree to grow, Each child had to go and get one and take it over to whoever had taken them to see Santa, Issy grabbed one but I told her to give it to Tasha as she had paid for the whole thing, Shortly after Daisie followed all the others grabbed her one and brought it over to me saying thank you :') I could have burst into tears of pride she seemed so grown up and apart from Daisie running off every now and then the girls were so well behaved.

Reindeer Pokey Lyrics 

I loved this so I can imagine your little ones would love it too :)

 (to the tune of the hokey cockey!)

You put your antlers in,

You put your antlers out,

You put your antlers in,

And you shake them all about.

You do the reindeer pokey,

And you turn yourself around,

That's what its all about!

Whoooaa the reindeer pokey,

whoooaa the reindeer pokey,

whoooaa the reindeer pokey,

hooves in, tails out

RA RA RA!

Fun christmas ideas

Something great to do with your kids or grand kids for Christmas season. Buy 25 books, wrap them and place them near the tree with a fluffy blanket and stuffed toy to cuddle with. Every evening they get to take one of the books and open them and you spend some time reading to them and cuddling.

I can't wait to give each of these a go :) 

DISCLAIMER: I take no credit for these ideas, each I came across on facebook through friends sharing them. 
 

How do you manage christmas?

I know I know I'm really early with this post and I've probably depressed you all or set you in a panic with how long we actually have left until Christmas but do you have any plans on how to make Christmas shopping easier? Every year I plan to start shopping in January but I never do so from now I plan on buying a present a week to help get a collection together before Christmas so i can go crazy closer to Christmas without spending so much in one go, I also plan on starting one of the Christmas saving cards in asda to buy all my Christmas dinner stuff in with, We have an early Christmas and Andy's mums as she works an awful lot.

❤