A Christmas catch up! (A little late)

OK, OK. It's January and I am posting about Christmas, I apologise, but this is the last post catching up before we get into the new year-promise!

Early December we popped along to a local farm to choose our Christmas tree, we got a slightly smaller tree than previous years and actually I am glad we did. We got a 4-5ft tree, so nice to support a local farm, and the boys loved choosing it and were very excited about decorating it when we got home-I wish I was but in all honestly I was so tired and didn't really want it up the first weekend in December! 

When we got home we let the kids have free rein decorating it, I will admit on the Monday I did re-decorate it (I know terrible!), and got my craft wooden tree out for them to decorate on the landing upstairs. 

The finished tree

I think this is actually the best tree we have decorated, I stuck to golds, whites and reds, and there are a few of my own makes on there too! This actually lasted amazingly well, we had it up until the 5th January and it was still looking very green and hadn't dropped that many needles at all. I fed it with some lemonade and water this year and I think the lemonade definitely helps (for whatever reason I don't know)!

December was crazy busy! We had James's Birthday, Sam's birthday, James went to America for a week, Sam's birthday party, and then the last manic week at school with plays, discos, Christmas parties, fundraising and more (or course this was the week James was away too)! 

Alex's play was born in the barn, unfortunately I have no photos, we were able to take them but as he was at the back and I didn't have the best view it was just impossible, I was really hoping they would take individual photos in their costumes like in previous years, but apparently they didn't this year which is disappointing. He was a bird, so was in black with a big beak, singing his heart out, the kids all did a great job. 

Sam's nativity was on the last day of term, and it was super cute, the 3 and 4 year old's did an amazing job. Sam was a shepherd, handy as Alex was at preschool too so had no worried when sorting the costume. Sam loves singing and kept smiling away at me. They had some stalls afterwards, and we got lucky on the tombola for a change! 

Alex had Christmas jumper day on the Friday too, of course we had none and of course I then felt guilty and had to make one up on the Thursday night, sometimes being crafty has it's upsides! I had loads of people saying I should make these to sell next year...I'm not so sure after how long it took me to do!

As I mentioned above, James was away for a week in December, he went out to Florida with his family, his brother lives out that way and he whole family were heading out there until after Christmas. We all had the opportunity to go but in all honestly flying, especially long haul is one of my nightmares let alone when 4 month pregnant, and as it was for the week the boys were happy to stay home. With Alex being ill that week, and then seemingly developing big anxiety over eating and going out we were all very pleased to see James walk through the door that Saturday, he was so lucky with his journey home so was home about an hour earlier than we expected. 

That week before Christmas James was mostly off, we had our scan, and sorted the last of the Christmas bits, as ever we don't have the money for buying everyone presents so we did a big bake off on the 23rd! Photos can be deceiving though, it looks like we are happy families here, but in all honestly it was a day of the boys arguing and being hard work!

However we made lots, cranberry and orange shortbread, gingerbread with lemon icing, marshmallow, and cheese and rosemary straws. These all went down extremely well, I think my favourite were definitely the shortbread....although the other makes went down nicely too!

 Christmas eve was mainly spent having a quick tidy up, wrapping the last of the gifts, seeing a couple of friends and heading out to a Christmas service at the church we got married. It went by in a flash and it was soon time for pj's, hanging stockings, and leaving mince pies etc for the big man himself, Sam remembered we had reindeer food last year and was worried we hadn't got any this year so the boys quickly stepped out the front and sprinkled some oats out. It wasn't long before he visited!

I woke at 4am, and thought I could hear the kids, they were both up in Sam's bed chatting away like 2 old women, they sort of went to sleep at 5ish, Sam ended up in with us and I didn't get back to sleep, so was a bit tired the rest of the day! James and I didn't do gifts for each other again this year, and we purposely didn't get the kids much either, a. to save money and b. they just didn't need nor want much! The kids were happy with their bits, and actually didn't get a huge amount of time to play them as we went to my parent's for lunch, we were back there the following day as my grandparents were there, the following day we went to Reading to visit my other grandparents and all of my Mum's side of the family, as James' parents were back we also popped into them on the 28th, so it was a lovely but manic few days!! I will be honest even now in January the upstairs still has some of the boy's stocking fillers left on the landing as I haven't had the energy or time to sort much out!! 

So from our home to yours, we hope you had an amazing Christmas, a lovely new year and all the best in finishing those Christmas food gifts to make a start on healthy eating again (please say that isn't just us)!

My Birthday at Bath Christmas market

My birthday was way back at the end of November, but November and December went by in much of a manic blur!

I'd had a Christmas market night at Alex's school the night before, and had been manically making away that week, as well as trying not to fall asleep on the sofa due to pregnancy tiredness.

Our friends had offered to have the boys for us for a couple of hours that evening and meet us at the market after feeding them, which was so, so helpful as I need James for the car to get me and my makes to the stall and also to help me out whilst there too!

As our friend is also a brilliant cake maker, I had a slight suspicion that the boys might be doing something cakey with her as James had been a little shifty and I had dropped quite a few hints in the lead up to my birthday about wanting a homemade chocolate cake for my birthday as I never get made one but always make them for others!

Anyway the first hour of the fair went well, and I sold about £50 of stock, it could have been better, but actually there really wasn't any footfall after the first hour, But still it made for good experience!

We packed up and the boys may have given the cake game away a little ;) we then enjoyed a nice kebab with our friends once the kids were in bed (proper meat not kebab van style)!

I was exhausted the next morning which was my birthday, we had arranged for the boys to go to James' parent's house and we were heading to Bath Christmas market for the main chunk of the day. James and the boys gave me some presents at breakfast which was lovely as I wasn't expecting anything as we don't have much money!

We picked up a cake which our friend had made and iced, but the boys had decorated it, it was such a lovely idea for them to do that and I am so grateful for the effort from our friends and for James arranging it for me.

We dropped the boys of and jumped in my parent's car to head to the train station, Dad decided driving to Cheltenham would be a good idea, but when we got there we heard an announcement that the trains had all been cancelled, a bit of an annoyance at the time but probably a good thing, as had we had got the train from Swindon, we would have been on a replacement coach at some point I am guessing!

As it was Bath Market, and the first Saturday of it, we probably spent over an hour driving around to various park and rides, Dad was fuming, I hated being in the car (as pregnancy was making me feel iffy) but finally as we were heading out of a massive (and full) park and ride a lady was walking back to her car, so James jumped out and walked back with her whilst Dad got the space!

I think it was after 12 we eventually made it into Bath market, and considering we had to leave at 4 it was a little bit of a stressful start to the outing!

The stalls were all lovely again (we went last year) with many different crafts, handmade goods and food and drink, unfortunately a lot a pregnant lady can't sample-but there's always next time!

I'd say a couple of downsides were how busy it actually was, we literally were like sheep in pens in one particular area by the Abbey, no one could move, you couldn't get to the stalls very easily and getting out to wider space was hard work!! The other downside being the stalls were pretty much the same as last year, with many of them pitching in the same place too, Last year everything was new to us so was all very exciting, this year didn't have quite that same affect as many of the makes were similar-don't get me wrong it was still lovely though, just not quite the same feeling for me.

I think going forward they could improve on maybe spreading the market out a bit more, I wonder if they could have some of it along the main stretch of the high street, but maybe this would loose some of it's charm. There didn't seem much in the way of musical entertainment, even just having Christmas carols or music on speakers would make a lovely atmosphere. Also maybe a couple of areas to sit and enjoy the food and drink bought too.

Yes I was as tired as I look!

Despite having money I didn't personally spend much, only buying one sweet Nordic style girl Christmas decoration, I really wish I got the businesses details too though as I'd love to get another, it was tricky to choose the style I wanted in the first place!

Edit: I've just spent 15 minutes and finally found the shop they were from and it's Salcombe trading, much bigger than I thought it would be, i thought it was from a small craft business, but pleased I found it all the same, just wish I had more pennies for the home items!!

After a few hours mooching it was time to head back as James' parents were sorting a birthday tea our for us all. The busses were very regular and apart from my Mum embarrassing us all when pushing to the front of the queue because we were first to miss the last bus it all went smoothly ;) The traffic was heavy getting out but all in all it wasn't too bad!

It was lovely to have a few hours back at James' parents and not having to cook or worry about food, the kids were happy to see us too, as much as I love them it was a well needed few hours away from them and I definitely would NOT recommend going to Bath Christmas market with younger children!

Proud of their hard work!

And to get back to that cake, it was divine, and VERY chocolatey, much to bump's and my approval :) If you are local and need a special cake I would definitely recommend Sarah (and not just because she is a friend)!

All in all it was a fantastic birthday and nice to be treated too :)

Find the best gift this Christmas with UncommonGoods

Now I don't know if it's just me but I find gift giving extremely difficult, especially at Christmas time when there are so many gifts to try and find (and in our family just after a lot of birthday's too). That's why websites like UncommonGoods come in handy for those special and maybe more quirky gifts, especially when they are a company with great morals both environmentally and socially.

The hardest people to buy for? Men!! If the men in your life are anything like my Husband, Dad, Father in Law or Brothers then they often just buy what they want even before Christmas-highly frustrating!

That's when Christmas gift guides come in very handy on websites, especially when there is a whole 'men' section to look at with over 400 gifts to choose from.

Both my brother's and actually my Mother in Law play guitar, so something like this guitar pick punch would make unique and useful gift.

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/pick-punch

If you know someone who likes spirits like my father in law then these granite disks would be a great idea to keep the drink cool without the need for ice. 

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/on-the-rocks-set

For more Men's gift ideas click here.

Now, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to treat their Mum at Christmas. 

Jewellery always goes down well with my mum, I thought these parent nestling necklaces were really sweet! 

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/parent-nestling-necklaces

Of course I'm a mum too, and jewellery and kitchen things are always a good thing to buy me! How pretty are these butterflies on this necklace?!

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/butterfly-cloud-necklace

I really like to bake when I have the time, this time of year I am found baking many birthday cakes in our house, often these days I find it loads quicker to find a recipe online rather than flicking through books, so this would be perfect. With the utensil section it is also useful when not being used to hold the tablet too. For more gifts perfect for Mum's click here.

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/kitchen-utensil-and-tablet-holder

I hope this helps with some Christmas shopping this year! 

This is a sponsored post but all words and views are my own.

Snowed under!

It's been a busy few weeks! 

I'm trying to get myself organised for the Christmas evening at Alex's school, I have booked a table to hopefully sell my makes...! I'm hoping it goes better than the couple I tried in the summer months!

On top of that I have had some orders coming in too and I feel like I am juggling it all and panicking I won't have enough stock made up!!

With pregnancy tiredness and the dark nights I must admit I am getting a little stressed out about it. 

It's such a busy time of year at home too, it's Alex's birthday on Sunday, mine the following Saturday James the Saturday after and then finally Sam's on the 9th of Dec. 

As always money is at a tight squeeze, normally we try and cut costs on parties and have it at home but I just couldn't face that with Alex this year, we have booked bowling for a few friends, so all I have to worry about it making a Thor hammer cake on Friday or Saturday-I've not baked in so long so hopefully I get it right!!

Anyway I better get back to the making...

Do check out some of the latest makes on facebook.

The Snowman™ and The Snowdog Great Festive Bake Off Blog Tour! #SnowmanSnowdog

We had a fantastic opportunity to receive and review some Snowman and the Snowdog products, a popular Christmas item for many families any Christmas! I know I always loved watching it as a child and you can get the chance to again this Christmas with his new companion as the Snowman and the Snowdog will be shown on Channel 4 again this Christmas.

We received a beautiful 'The snowman book' hardback deluxe edition, £12.99 from puffin books. Perfect for story telling and for letting your child's imagination run free, and a chance to reminisce for the parent's too! This would make a wonderful present, or a treat for the family before Christmas if you can't wait until the 25th! A large book as it measure approx 24 x 29cm and is full of illustrations in the style of the original film.

 Unfortunately our chocolate that was sent to review didn't have the best ride in the post by the looks of him! The poor snowman got a little broken!

However here is a photo of him in one piece, and he still tasted delicious as you'd expect from Thornton's chocolate. There is a whole range available on their website and in store.

Now I will admit, I do find it hard to get overly festive until after Sam's birthday on the 9th of Dec as he is the last out of us 4 (we have all 4 of our birthday's between 20th Nov and 9th of Dec!!!), and I will also admit to slightly being a bit bored of baking after my mammoth bake last week, but it was fun none the less and made a yummy pudding for us all!

The boys had a good time making the biscuits, and using our Snowman and Snowdog cutters to make the shapes. We used the recipe on the back of the cookie cutter packaging which was a little sticking to roll so we did have to add a bit extra flour to help. The cookie cutters are great and are available in John Lewis and Party Delights for around £3.

Recipe

350g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

125g butter

175g light brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

Preheat oven to 180C.

Add the dry ingredients to a bowl, mix. 

Add butter, mix, stir in the sugar. 

Lightly beat egg and syrup together and mix with the other ingredients.

Knead dough until smooth and cover and put in the fridge for approx 15mins. 

Roll dough to about 0.5cm thick and cut out shapes. 

Place on baking paper on a tray and cook for around 12-15 mins. 

After they cooled, and we'd finished our dinner I got our icing and decorations out, we each decorated a Snowman and Snowdog and then I let the boys run wild with the rest which they found fantastic- I will admit I can be a tad OCD when baking with kids, I just can't handle it so I think they were enjoying no panicky and fussy mum!

Alex's aged 6

Sam's aged 3 (nearly)

My attempt, we had no black icing so had to improvise which makes them clown like!

The boy's creations together! 

As this is a blogtour it would only be fair to mention who is next, please check out Jenny's blog the-gingerbread-house.co.uk tomorrow for her #SnowmanSnowdog post. Search #SnowmanSnowdog on twitter to find all the posts so far too

I'm back! Moving house, Christmas and New year antics!

Hello! *waves* I'm back again!

Wow this past month or two has whizzed on by in a bit of a frantic blur. With all our 4 birthday's and Alex's birthday party (which I am yet to post about) between the 20th Nov-and 9th Dec, and a house move 6 days before Christmas I am quite pleased it's January!!

After thinking the move wouldn't happen before Christmas on the 15th Dec things soon changed and we were able to move on the Friday-hurrah!

It was madness, it was the first proper move we have ever had to encounter as we had both moved from our parent's house's into our lovely little coach house.

Our house which we had called home for just over 5 years, the place we'd brought home both our boy's wrapped in blankets from the hospital, where we did all our wedding planning and walked in as a complete family of 'Spencer's'. It felt odd seeing all the walls and surfaces empty, suddenly the memories played over in my mind as I sat hoovering the last of the mess on my own-there was a slight tear in my eye but a great longing to get to our new home.

We moved on our own with the help of our old neighbours and some of their church friends. Their help was invaluable! There is no way on earth we could have done it all without all their help with all our family either holidaying in America or on their last day of work. Luckily the buyer didn't need the keys until the evening so was happy for us to take the time we needed-thank goodness it was an investor who didn't mind!

In the evening that followed I wanted to cry at the state of the kitchen, I had never seen anything like it, luckily my parents had the boys for 2 nights in the end as it took me a day and a half to clean the kitchen, we replaced the oven as even strong chemicals couldn't fight of the years of grime!

We somehow, with the help of a few people dropping in, got the house ready just in time for Christmas, even getting a huge Christmas tree the Sunday before Christmas for a bargain £5-James had to chop off about 2 foot of it to fit it in!!

Christmas although hectic, was lovely, it was so fantastic to be in a our new home for it, the boys had space to open their presents and enjoy them rather than us all being on top of each other in the same room.

At lunch we headed to my parents for a traditional and lovely Christmas dinner, we were all so tired we all nearly fell asleep on my parents sofas afterwards! It was nice and relaxed, we were actually back the next day as one set of my grandparents were there. The day after was a big family affair, with meeting James' relatives in Newbury for lunch then heading to an even larger gathering at my Grandparent's house with all my Mum's side of the family!

Santa was very tired from all the hard work!

We had a busy few days sorting out the house and having a late Christmas with James' family once they were back from holiday. New years eve was spent at home with my parent's who had made dinner for us-will be inviting them again ;) and we ended the holiday with a meal with James' sister and partner.

I feel I have been diddled out of a Christmas holiday, but in some ways it is nice to get back to some normality too!

So happy new year to you all, and I hope you continue reading xx

Christmas favourite wines with Waitrose Cellar

You may have seen my post the other day on the handy Christmas dinner calculator from Waitrose, well I have had another fabulous opportunity to review some of their wine selection too!

Christmas is a busy time of year where pretty much everyone is either entertaining or going somewhere to be entertained, and whether you drink or not it is often polite to have or bring a bottle of wine for the people who do.

With that in mind I think that Waitrose's 'Our Christmas favourites' selection is a great one to buy for this time of year, as it has something for everyone. Or you could even split it up and give the bottles as gifts-if you aren't to keep them at your own house of course! At £50 I think it is a very good price for the 6 bottles included.

Reindeer's not included!

The set includes:

1 x Villa Vincenta Prosecco NV
Veneto, Italy

1 x Waitrose Sauvignon Blanc, Villa Maria
Marlborough, New Zealand

1 x Laurent Miquel L'Artisan Chardonnay
South of France

1 x Cave De Roquebrun Col De La Serre
South of France

1 x Malvirà Barbera d'Alba San Michele
Piedmont, Italy

1 x The Cubist Old Vine Garnacha Pablo
Spain

So that's 1 bottle of something sparkling, 2 white wines and 3 red wines-perfect for our families who love reds but have older relations who prefer white.

We took the Italian red bottle over to James' parent's yesterday as we were having an early Christmas meal before they go away. Unfortunately the wine was corked, just one of those things I guess!

We've not had the chance to try any of the others yet due to not being able to find our bottle opener (thanks to the impending house move)! But I am sure the others will all be lovely-they have certainly called to me the last few days with the house packing stress!

We received one 'Christmas favourite wine selection' for the review, all opinions are our own as always. 

Christmas dinner planning with Waitrose

Many people stress at Christmas time over the all important Christmas dinner, especially if they have more people over than they would normally cater for.

Now I must admit to never having cooked a Christmas dinner, and if I let you in on a secret I rarely cook a roast as often find them too much work-even if it is one of my favourite dinners! However when I do cook a roast I often get the quantities completely wrong and often go way over board with the spuds and not enough of the veg!

This is why Waitrose have come up with a handy tool for Christmas-The Christmas Dinner Calculator.

The Calculator suggests quantities of the popular and traditional Christmas dinner ingredients depending on how many guests you select on the bar at the top. You can choose between a couple and a group of 25 guests.

Now part of our review was to cook an early Christmas meal based on the quantities shown on the calculator chart, although there are 4 of us, I know that Sam doesn't eat much and the boy's aren't the biggest veggie eaters so I did a calculation for a family of 2 and for 3 to suit their likes (knowing that the calculations are based on adults and Sam's portions being teeny) excluding the pigs in blankets which I calculated for a group of 4!

With this is mind our calculations are:

Turkey: 1.5kg (our turkey ended up being 1.8kg as couldn't find a smaller one)

Bread sauce: 150g

Brussels Sprouts: 200g

Roast potatoes: 495g

Red cabbage: 200g

Roasting Veg: 300g

Gravy: 300g

Cranberry sauce: 60g

Stuffing: 225g

Pigs in blankets: 12

All the right weight of food (except for the slight extra on the sausage and stuffing)!

Now when I was preparing this I really thought that there weren't enough potatoes or vegetables, however once cooked I was proven wrong there was plenty between us. I don't think all of us had our biggest appetites this evening but I think on the whole the chart was pretty much spot on, we did have a small amount of red cabbage and sprouts left, and had a lot of turkey left (but bare in mind it was 300g more than the chart said).

Forgot to take a photo with gravy on too due to hungry kids!

 Personally though if I had guests around for dinner I would much rather have a little left than not enough, and who doesn't enjoy a turkey sandwich later in the day? We did admittedly have extra cooked of the pigs in blankets and the gorgeous stuffing which has been nibbled on since the dinner!

This is a very handy tool, I think especially more so for when you have a larger group to cook for than normal as it is very hard to guestimate the quantities for so many mouths! The only thing I did think was a bit odd were the weights for the gravy and bread sauce as this isn't something I would personally measure in grams and would opt for measuring in a jug instead. 

Going forward for next year I think it would be very handy for Waitrose to have a Christmas dinner timings linked to the calculator's quantities and perhaps a few simple recipes that you could click on directly from the 'cabbage image' for an example rather than going to other pages on the site.

If you are planning a party over Christmas there is also a handy Festive Party Calculator too.

This is nothing to do with the post, but we also let the boy's choose items for pudding from Waitrose and they were delicious! 

The icing on the reindeer is to die for! Mmm...

This is a sponsored post but all views and opinions are my own. We received a £60 Waitrose voucher to buy our food and also a few lovely Christmas decorations which will look great in our new home.

12 days of Christmas with The Snowman and The Snowdog: Blog tour

I have always been very fond of The Snowman, in fact I think I remember having a 5th party roughly themed around it-I certainly remember watching it on a video my Mum had borrowed for the party at home!

Now years on (it was first shown on Channel 4 Christmas 1982), it has become a bit of a tradition to watch it every Christmas!

So when I was contacted to review a new The Snowman product I was delighted, of course in recent years The Snowman has a new companion in The Snowdog and he is featured in their new products too.

We received a lovely 'The Snowman and The Snowdog finger puppet book'. I wasn't surprised to find it really good quality, it has thick board pages perfect for young hands! It simply tells the story of The Snowman and The Snowdog, the finger puppet part makes it more interactive and fun for the little ones.

"A boy built a Snowdog, and the Snowdog came to life! Wiggle your finger to play with Billy and his friends in this adorable and playful finger-puppet book. Featuring beautiful artwork from the animation, The Snowman and The Snowdog, this is a brilliantly fun book children will treasure. For children aged 3 and over."

For the RRP of £7.99 from www.puffin.com this would make a great addition to your Christmas goodies, perfect for a stocking filler, or as part of a book Advent calendar. I know ours will join our Christmas box of stories that I put out in December.

To follow along the blog tour tomorrow and see some other wonderful new Snowman and the Snowdog products do visit the lovely blog The gingerbread house and follow on twitter using #SnowmanSnowdog over the next 12 days!

*We received one finger puppet book to review but all views and opinions are our own as always.

A handmade Christmas

Apologies I haven't blogged for a short while, with the kids at home and James it hasn't been practical and I have barely sat down either-so there might be a couple of Christmassy posts before something exciting to announce!

This Christmas I was back on my handmade/baked wagon after last year with a 2 week old I was desperate to do some baking and making this year!

The weekend before Christmas I made some 'last minute chutney' after seeing a hairy biker Christmas programme on TV that week, with that name I knew it was the chutney for me (I'd been intending to make some for weeks)! This came out well, although if I was to make it again I would chop the figs and apricots much smaller than their recipe suggests for personal preference. I presented it in Ikea kilner jars.

Christmas eve I was busy, busy, busy, in fact I was in the kitchen for the majority of the day.

I had made two Christmas cakes this year one large circle one and one large square one-this one I had cut into 4 for presents. So I decorated them all, I made them all similar and had some silver shimmer spray left over from Mum's and Dad's silver wedding anniversary cake.

I was really pleased at how these turned out, and everyone loved them. I have been told I have to make our own wedding cake numerous times the last 2 weeks! For the recipe I used please look here.

I then set about making some marzipan chocolates, these are really simple and I had a great reaction from everyone I gave them too.
1. Melt some dark chocolate in a bowl over boiled water, leave to cool slightly.
2. Chop some pistachios and dried cranberries, take a small ball of marzipan make a dimple with your thumb and push a few cranberries and pistachios inside (less is more!) and roll back into a ball.
3. Using two forks dunk the marzipan ball and let excess chocolate slide off-I found moving from each fork helped this.
4. Place in a tiny cake case, and srpinkle some cranberries and pistachios on top.
5. Leave to set.
6. Then put into a cellophane bag with some twirly ribbon if giving as a gift, or keep in a airtight container ('d left mine open in a small bowl and they were fine too).

These are similar to the yule logs I have made before.

Apologies for naff photo-it was late and I'd also bagged the best of the batch (these were my ones)!

Alex and James then gave me a hand to make some gingerbread, once cooled I decorated them with icing sugar mixed with one egg white (this sets really well-also great for using on gingerbread houses, I found this out after attempting our first one!). Then bagged them up in clear cellophane bags I'd got from eBay, with a bit of twirly ribbon.

We gave hampers to each of our parents, with the usual red wine & coffee I also gave one of my hand sewn gingerbread man decorations, and made some chocolate slabs (which annoyingly I didn't take photos of in my Christmas eve rush) these were melted chocolate with a mix of chopped nuts and one with cranberries and one with stem ginger.

Handmade from the boys:

At Christmas I like the boys to give a little something to their Grandparents and Great Grandparents. This year we got crafty. 

Alex and I made some salt dough Santa's using his hand print. I let these air dry purely because I never have any luck when I bake them. Once air dried we painted them with acrylics and I then sealed it with acrylic varnish. Through the hole I put some natural twine so that it could be hung from the tree. 

With Sam only being one I had to think hard about what I could with him 7 times without getting bored! Then I saw my friend post a photo on Facebook of something I have had pinned for some time-mistletoes! So I sat Sam in his high chair, painted his feet green and printed onto paper-saved my carpets going green as he would not have sat still otherwise! I then stuck these onto red or green thick paper and drew the string parts, and got Alex to write something in the card too. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my readers, I hope it's wonderful for you all. If I'm not on over the next week too all the best for the new year!

xxx