This year I was really looking forward to it but then I blinked and it was all over. We woke up on the 26th of December most of us ill with temperature. It was wet outside and we were fighting each others bad mood as well as nasty bugs.
We had lovely plans for New Year’s Eve with friends which are cancelled due to us being a “germ” family…
But you know what, we are a family, we love and have each other to share germs with, the World hasn’t ended and for all of that l am forever grateful.
As always I am ready for a New Year full of hope and faith that it will be a bloody good one and I hope you are too!
Happy New Year to all of you! Make 2013 an amazing one! Look forward to new exciting gifts but don’t forget to be grateful for the ones you already have…
Fear not! You can still shop RIGHT NOW and count on Parcelforce to have your presents delivered right on time.
As for me, well I am feeling very smug, on the brink of arrogance really: the house is looking pretty with suddenly a lot of red, gold and green in every corner…
My shopping is done! Like ALL my shopping is done! The meat, the cheeses, the chutneys, the smoked salmon, the chocolates and mince pies, even the Brussels sprouts… All ready to be chopped, seasoned, mixed, cooked, eaten and ending in a tummy, hips, bottom expansion… Of course that is if nothing has suffered a midnight feast in between.
The presents are bought too of course and that thanks to the wonderful land of internet shopping. By the 1st of December it was mainly done AND a lot of Ebay feedback had been added.
I am ready for the FIRST time ever! Never in history by now you would have found me relaxed and chilled, ready to scoff the mince pies and drink the Baileys, so allow me to be smug. It might never happen again…
We’ve done it! We’ve decorated the house and it looks very Chrimassy and lovely.
This year and for the first of many I am sure, the boys decorated the tree by themselves. Our input was minimal and I didn’t have to re-do it all after they’ve gone to bed. Having the house decorated created confusion in Victor’s mind though who expected to find presents at the bottom of the tree this morning…
It’s Christmas eve and I am finally feeling the Christmas spirit! I have no ideas what happened to me this year but maybe it was the lack of food shopping at the earliest hours or fighting with the rest of the nation for a couple of wrapping paper rolls or toys!
This year I was exceptionally organised and thanks to online shopping I pretty much did everything with the iPad in one hand and scoffing mince pies with the other. I loved every single minute of it! However I suspect the lack of repetitive songs like “Last Christmas” or “All I want for Christmas” have spoiled my spirit a bit.
Anyway at the time I am writing it has finally showed up, thanks to a fab panto this morning, followed by lunch and last bit of shopping. Add to that A Christmas Carol and a glass of Baileys and it’s totally Christmas!!
The boys are overjoyed to know that there is now only ONE sleep left before Santa’s visit and I am already panicking at the idea that I won’t have anymore backup for blackmail for at least another 6 months…
The atmosphere in the house is lovely and I am probably as excited as my boys waiting to see their faces in the morning.
We have just watched The Snowman which has two benefits, calm down the boys and annoy Craig who hates it so much that he refuses to be the one putting the DVD in the player!
We have prepared Santa and Rudolph’ snacks and blew out the candles in the fireplace so Santa doesn’t burn his bottom before reading a Christmas story.
Now that they are in bed, it is time for mummy and daddy to put their feet up and to put Craig through another one of his favourite thing on TV, the Eastenders special Christmas build up… Aaahhh bliss…
Before I go I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of the most amazing things!
From all of us to all of you!
Oh and because I was asked so nicely by the gorgeous Claire at Bad Fiction who asked me to nominate my favourite Christmas song, well since she took my all time favourite “Last Christmas” I have to give you my next favourite…
This year, for the third year running, we were lucky to attend the Press Preview evening of Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and as always it has that magical effect of kick starting the Christmas season the minute we step in.
As a child, probably the same as for most children, Christmas has always been a magical time to me.
When I think of Christmas I think of pine tree smell in our lounge, the fresh smell of a clementine just being peeled, Christmas movies and these chocolates that we used to find in France where I was growing up called Papillotes. They were chocolate wrapped up in the most colourful wrapping and you would always get some left in your slippers for you to find on Christmas morning.
It’s a fact that Christmas is a business in itself, but even if it is, don’t you still keep those feelings deep down, the magical ones? You know the excitement as you count down the days in anticipation, or as you wake up in the morning desperate to run to the tree to see what Santa has left you.
I am a fan of Christmas and nothing will ever change this. For as long as I see the magic in my children’s eyes, Christmas will always be my favourite time of the year.
A place like Winter Wonderland is like a concentration of all these good feelings. The smells, the colours, the music, the atmosphere… They got it all right.
If you are anything like me, then go, you so won’t regret it! you can have a look at all the attractions available on site right here and they cater for a wide age range, so go and have lots of fun!
Disclaimer: for the purpose of this post we were given passes to the Press Preview evening.
Well sort of, as I intend to have a real holiday and although I love blogging and do not consider it tedious in any shape or form, I have learnt from experience that when my mum is around, time for blogging is minimum.
You can blame my re-appearance on the gorgeous and lovely Metropolitan Mum who gave me a motivational talk that brought me back into the blogging scene. We met on Saturday and shared a lovely brunch while ginormous snow flakes filled St Christopher’s Place in London. It was lovely meeting her and chat, she is one truly lovely lady and I am so pleased blogging got us to meet.
It has been very difficult to find time to blog lately and the main reason for this is because I have brought to life a project I had in mind for months. It was and still is time consuming, but it is very exciting! So let me introduce you to …
The brainstorming club will combine training, coaching and mentoring skills to support small business owners in their professional and personal growth at an affordable price. We will not charge thousands for hours of training because the main goal of the club is to empower business owners and watch them grow their business and confidence right before our eyes. So we want it to be accessible to everyone to sign up to as much or as little workshops as they want or can.
I will be running most of the Social Media workshops myself but I already have a couple of lovely experts in other disciplines like PR and Creative Thinking. They are joining the team as mentors and very soon I will introduce them to you properly.
The response is great and I am very excited. You know when your heart aligns with your head, that perfect moment when you realise that you are doing what you have always really wanted to do? Well this is where I am right now and that feels very good.
So here i am hopefully back to blogging properly. I have lots to catchup on especially reviews but I promise I will not shower you at once because there are always lots of the things I want to share and ask advice on.
So now I am going to sit in my empty lounge while my boys are napping and enjoy a few minutes of peace and a mince pie, while I wait for my mum to arrive!
A week or so ago, we were lucky enough to be invited again to the Press preview of Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and by now it is no surprise that I love this place with absolute passion. This place is to me where Christmas starts. The minute you step in you are greeted by all things bright and Christmassey. There is Rudolph singing Christmas Carols, there are roasted chestnuts all around, Wham singing and Santa sleigh rides.
The Circus is the place that grabs the most excitement in the form of mouth and eyes wide open for Craig and Elliott and screams and jumps up and down for Victor and I. This is when you realise that Latin blood differs from Germanic one and that both my children have different dosage running through their veins. The Circus is also the place that sells the MOST DISGUSTING hot dogs I have ever had! I really mean most disgusting, trust me on that one. To make up for the hot dogs we bought candy floss, the first one for the boys. The expected happened, Elliott who is not a sweet tooth straight away refuse to even lay a finger on it, while Victor would have shoved the whole thing in his mouth and bounced like a Kangaroo for the rest of the evening, which could truly explain the “Latin explosion” in the Circus…
Elliott insisted on visiting the pirate ship wreck and we realised stuck in the middle of the queue that
A – it might actually be a bit scary for an almost 4 years old
B – one of us was desperate for the loo and that was the one who was finding it the hardest to hold it (AND NO it wasn’t ME!)
But we made it safe and dry, although I can say that it is not easy walking through a dark ship that moves with a toddler holding on to my head. When we stepped out Elliott looked at me and said: “Mummy it was a little bit scary you know”
“yes I know sweetie, I almost broke my ankle in the bloody ship! very scary indeed” some word being edited out when talking to the almost 4 years old of course.
And after a good 3 hours of fun we were on our way out when as we walked out some guys started taking pictures of what I thought were the stalls and after being blinded a fair amount of times I realised that I was experiencing “a walk with paparazzo”. As I looked around I saw John Terry and family and right there and then I felt sorry for them. Honestly having to face this every time you go out must be awful, they have no shame at all! And then I remembered the reason why I knew who he was and why he was in the paper lately and I only felt sorry for his wife.
If anyone got OK mag with him in Winter Wonderland and a woman taking photos with her iPhone (ok my husband’s iPhone) of the paps then it is ME! Please send it to me, that could be my one minute of fame!!
If you happen to be in London at this time of the year then please make your way there, it is such a great place to kick start Christmas!
This post is NOT about how to shop efficiently, save money or make sure you get the best financial deals. After my late Grandmother, Martin Lewis is far more money savvy that I am.
No seriously who starts shopping for Christmas so early on? Let me just remind everyone that September is still around and that even though someone on Twitter today reminded us that we are 99 days away from it, it is still another NINETY NINE days to go. That’s just over a third of a WHOLE year! We don’t really spend the other two thirds thinking of how to start organising Christmas in September, do we?
I was walking through Marks and Spencer’s food today and I heard an old lady saying that she started buying her boxes of chocolates and biscuits for the big C. day! Seriously? not joking AT ALL!
Can you keep a box of chocolates or biscuits untouched for NINETY NINE DAYS?? I can’t, my radars know chocolate is in the house and lets just say that there is a time of the month when I would happily kill my husband if he had any intention of hiding the chocolate.
I do understand the whole theory of spreading cost and all this, but it doesn’t do it for me. I would most probably forget about the presents I bought in September and buy others three days before Christmas, panicking at the idea I forgot to buy something! That would double the money spent and there would be presents lost at the bottom of the wardrobe. I’d probably find them at Easter trying to hide the chocolate eggs.
Talking chocolate and biscuits, they would most definitely be eaten earlier, making me absorb twice the amount of our Christmas calories. AND I would probably crack all the crackers out of curiosity.
It would be a disaster.
My advice is: save money and spend it much closer to the date. And stop thinking about Christmas too early on, it will just mean that you are bored with it on the day and only want it to end to get your life back!
What do you think? Pro or against Christmas shopping early? Why?
Hi I am Peggy, the author of Perfectly Happy Mum!
I have been blogging since 2008 and this blog is the extension of my brain. There is a bit about my two action men, E and V, but there is mainly lots of reflection on life in general and my life in particular. Hope you enjoy it and thank you for stopping by!
Just before you go, if you are new to blogging and want to learn more about branding, designing and creating blogs on a budget, then pop over to my other blog, EasyTechClub!
Hi I am Peggy, the author of Perfectly Happy Mum!
