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The Christmas tag

23/12/2016

by This glorious life with 3 Comments Personal Uncategorized

I’ve not really written that much on here about our Christmas plans or traditions this year. So I was really happy to be tagged by the lovely Kate from Five little stars to take part in the Christmas tag.

It’s basically a list of questions about all things Christmas. So, here we go:

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

I’m not sure I actually have one single favourite Christmas film. But I do have a couple that I love to watch every year. It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas if I’ve not seen Love Actually, The family Stone and Jingle all the way!

Have you ever had a white Christmas?

I remember having one or two white Christmases when I was a child. I couldn’t tell you exactly how old I was, but I do remember walking in the snow to visit family friends on Christmas day. And once in more recent years it did snow on Christmas day here in Swansea, but I’m not sure it really counts because it didn’t settle at all.

Where do you usually spend your holiday?

We tend to visit my family in Kent for a pre-Christmas Christmas, and then spend actual Christmas here in Swansea. It’s a juggling act though, trying to get to see all the family when we’re dotted around the place.

What is your favourite Christmas song?

Step into Christmas by Elton John. No doubt about it!

Do you open any presents on Christmas eve?

We don’t have a tradition of opening presents on Christmas eve, but this year the children will have a little something to open from the Christmas week box I put together for them. Then before they go to bed we’ll put out the traditional plate of goodies for Santa and his reindeer!

Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Seeing as I can’t actually tell you how many of them there are, I’m going to go with no!

Which holiday traditions are you looking forward to this year?

I think the thing I’m most looking forward to is Christmas morning, all gathered on our bed, opening stockings. And exchanging messages with my parents and my siblings basically shouting “he’s been!” at each other!

Is your Christmas tree real or fake?

It’s fake. And we had a bit of a palava with it this year. We had a 4 foot fake tree that I’m pretty sure I bought before my husband and I even got together. And it was looking a bit sad last year, so in January we took it to the tip. And then completely forgot that we’d done so, until we went to put it up a few weeks ago. So we had to quickly order a new one from Amazon, and went for a lovely 6 foot one this time. So it arrived, and I went to put our lights on it. Then realised you kind of need more lights for a 6 foot tree than you do for a 4 foot one. So ended up having to buy a new set of lights too! It looks lovely now it’s all sorted though!

What is your all time favourite holiday treat/food/sweet?

We used to have Tunis cake when I was younger which I really loved, but I can never seem to find them in the shops any more. Now, when we spend Christmas in Swansea, one of the culinary highlights is my Mother-in-law’s chocolate torte. It’s so good, we like to take photos of it to send to family and friends who aren’t in Swansea to show them what they’re missing!

Be honest, do you like giving or receiving gifts better?

I honestly prefer giving gifts. There’s something so exciting about watching someone open a present you’ve picked out for them, especially when that someone is your child.

Which is the best Christmas present you have ever received?

Oh this feels really bad to say, but I can’t think of a present off the top of my head that stands out over all the rest. I’ve always had such lovely, thoughtful presents from my family though, I just can’t think of one in particular that I can claim as the best ever!

Where would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?

Somewhere super cold and snowy, in a log cabin, with lots of cosy sofas and fire places!

Are you a pro present wrapper or do you fail miserably?

I’d say I’m somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. I’m definitely not an expert wrapper, but most of my gifts look pretty decently wrapped I think!

Most memorable Christmas moment?

I don’t have one particular moment, but I have great memories of Christmases spent at home with my family. We would stay at the dinner table for such a long time, eating and chatting and taking it in turns to open presents. I really loved that, taking our time over it all.

What made you realise the truth about Santa?

I really don’t remember. I’m sure I believed in him for quite a long time though, which is impressive seeing as I’m the youngest of three children. My brother and sister must have done a great job of keeping the magic alive for me.

What makes the holidays special for you?

I think it is spending time together as a family. And seeing how excited my children are about the whole thing, it just makes it a really wonderful time of year.

So there you have it. A little insight into our Christmas!

And I’m really pleased to now tag the following bloggers to tell us all about their Christmases:

Kate from Hippy Christian Mum

Tina from Adventures of Mummy and me

Egg box Christmas tree craft

20/12/2016

by This glorious life with One Comment Crafts Uncategorized

We are now officially finished with school for the year. Which means I have to find things to do with the children to keep them entertained until school starts again in January.

I mentioned the other day that I’ve put together a Christmas week box for the children, which has got a little activity in for each day of the week.

But I still need to find other things to keep them busy.

And this Christmas craft has been perfect.

It’s really easy so you can do it with little ones, but is still fun for older children too. My two are 5 and 2, and both had a lot of fun with it.

So, without further ado, I give you our egg box Christmas trees!

What you need:

Empty egg boxes.

Scissors.

Green paint.

Glitter glue, or star stickers, or whatever you have handy to decorate your tree.

Pipe cleaners.

What you do:

Cut the egg boxes up into individual ‘cups’. Depending on what kind of egg box you have you’ll end up with slightly different shapes but any kind should work for this craft.

Once the pieces are all cut out, get out your green paint and go to town. If you don’t have paint you could always colour them in with crayons, or felt tips. Or cover them in bits of green tissue paper. Whatever you’ve got that’s green will do.

Put the pieces aside and wait for the paint to dry.

Once it’s all dry you can decorate the pieces of your tree. We used glitter glue on ours but, again, you can use whatever you’ve got at home. Star stickers or sticky gems are good options. Or you can just shake some normal glitter over them.

If you’ve used something like glitter glue then you’ll need to wait a bit for that to dry.

Then, pierce a hole in the top of each section.

Get a pipe cleaner and start threading the pieces on to it to build your tree.

And that’s it! You can stand these up as fun decorations on your mantlepiece, or you can put a loop in the top of the pipe cleaner and hang them on your tree.

We all really enjoyed making these, and I think the end results look pretty good!

What I particularly liked about this was the skills that the children worked on while making them. For Nerys it was a great chance to practice her fine motor skills, and I loved watching her concentrate so hard on threading the pieces on to the pipe cleaners. And for Rhys, who has never been a fan of getting things like paint on his hands, it was a great chance for him to experience that and realise that it’s actually ok.

And for both of them it was a great craft for letting them get creative and I loved watching how they both approached the activity.

If you’re after more ideas for Christmas crafts then go and check out my fun button christmas tree card and snowman gift tag, and my cotton wool snowman ideas. Or you can go and check out these suggestions from Wynsors, they’ve got quite a few suggestions on there to see you through the holidays!

We were sent the materials for this craft as part of Wynsors #craftswithwynsors Christmas celebration, however all ideas and words are my own.

Living arrows 51/52

19/12/2016

by This glorious life with 5 Comments Uncategorized

Last week marked the end of term for us. Which meant that Nerys had her little Christmas concert one day in nursery, and then a Christmas party the next day.

Luckily she has two different Christmas jumpers so she was able to rock a different festive look each day!

On the day of her party she chose this fab reindeer jumper, that has little jingly bells on it. She loves dancing around in it, making the bells ring out.

I tried to get a decent photo of her wearing it, but she wasn’t in the mood to play along with me. So I ended up with this, which I actually rather like!

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I love how you get this mass of blonde hair, and then you’re drawn to the bright reindeer on her tummy.

And I love the angle too, it makes me feel that she’s still quite small, when so much of the time lately she just seems to be getting bigger before my very eyes.

Christmas week boxes – keeping the children entertained in the run up to Christmas

17/12/2016

by This glorious life with 6 Comments Parenting Personal Uncategorized

If you’ve got children chances are you’ll have come across the idea of a Christmas eve box.

It’s quite likely you’re putting one together for yourself, or browsing the various websites that now sell them to find a special one to buy.

On the off chance you’ve not heard about them, here’s the gist. You put together a box or basket or bag of special bits and pieces for your child to open on Christmas eve. Something to start the magic a little bit early. Most people put new pyjamas, a Christmas film and some treats in there.

We’ve not done them before, mainly because I’ve not been organised enough to sort one out.

But this year things have conspired to make my life a bit easier. We were sent some lovely new slippers for the children from Wynsors, along with some chocolatey treats and we were also given three fab new books from Penguin and Britmums.

Being sent these bits so close to Christmas, I really wanted to put them away for the children, as little extra presents for them. Then I considered putting together a book advent box for them, but realised I would end up spending a fortune on new books if I did that! And I’m not sure there’s room on our bookshelf for 24 new books.

So then I thought I would put all the bits in a Christmas eve box for them instead. But then I realised that we had a whole week off school before Christmas day.

A whole week of excited children asking if it was Christmas yet. A whole week of needing to come up with fun things to do to keep us all occupied.

So, I decided to put together a Christmas week box.

I bought a few more books to add to the ones we were sent so that we have a new book to read every night next week at bedtime. I popped into the pound shop in town and was really happy to find these three ‘read it yourself’ books. I really love these books, as they’re stories that I can read to them but that Rhys can also have a go at reading himself. And I’m so pleased that they had characters that my children love – Topsy and Tim, Harry (and his dinosaurs) and Charlie and Lola.

Charity shops are also a great place to go looking for books for your children, you can often find lots in there for bargain prices.

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Next I bought some new pyjamas to go with the slippers we were sent. Primark ones mind, so not particulary extravagent! They’re really lovely and soft though, and I love the old-fashioned style of the checked ones I bought for Rhys.

christmas-week-box-slippers-pyjamas

I then went to the other pound shop and The Works and picked up a few bits and pieces.

Some sticker books. We’ve had some ‘that’s not my’ sticker books before and they’re lovely, really nice quality.

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Some activity books. These were actually all in a pack together for about £2 I think, but I opened the pack up to spread the books across a couple of days.

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A couple of craft activities for us all to do together. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with these, and they were such a good price. I like the fact that they’re simple enough for Nerys to get involved with, but look like they’ll take a little while to complete, so will be great for a quiet few afternoons at home!

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I also bought some fun bits to make cakes with their cousins when they come to visit one day next week. I’m looking forward to seeing how creative they can get with the fun cake toppers and the sprinkles and stars!

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So basically there’s a new bedtime book for them to unwrap every evening, and something different for them to open up every day that will hopefully keep them entertained for a little bit!

Now I know some people might think all this is a bit OTT. There does seem to be a bit of a debate about whether Christmas eve boxes are a good idea, or if they just encourage our children to be more materialistic.

Honestly, I hesitated a bit before putting this post together as I’m really not sure what people will make of it. Especially as I have wrapped up all the items in our box. But, for me, having the things wrapped up just adds a bit more fun to the whole thing.

And the thing is, this really didn’t cost me that much to put together. I used a hamper we already had in the house, and bought everything apart from the pyjamas from the pound shop and The works. And I would have spent the money on them anyway, on bits and pieces here and there throughout the week leading up to Christmas. This just feels like a fun way to enjoy the Christmas holidays with my children.

What do you think? Do you put together Christmas Eve boxes for your children, or are you not a fan of the idea?

christmas-week-box-keeping-the-kids-entertained-in-the-run-up-to-christmas

Easy and fun snowman craft #BostikBloggers

14/12/2016

by This glorious life with No Comment Crafts Uncategorized

Looking for a fun and simple wintry craft to do with your little ones? Look no further!

I give you the cotton wool snowman.

I was lucky enough to have a snowman shaped piece of white foam which is perfect for this activity. It makes things so, so simple if you can find some like this that are basically giant stickers. You just peel off the backing and you’re left with a lovely sticky snowman, just waiting to be covered in cotton wool.

You don’t have to use something like this though. You can just cut a snowman shape out of a piece of card and cover it in pva glue. Still pretty simple.

Then you just need cotton wool and some buttons and ribbon for the details on the snowman.

So all you need to do is grab all your little bits of cotton wool and get sticking.

Nerys really enjoyed this part. She took her time choosing which bits to stick down, and made sure that all the little gaps were filled in.

Once the snowman is completely covered in cotton wool you can add his buttons.

We used sticky dots to stick our buttons on. They’re so simple to use, Nerys could do it all by herself. Basically, just peeling off the backing, sticking the dot onto a button, then peeling away the other bit of backing.

Next, get a piece of ribbon and wrap it around the snowman’s neck, like a scarf.

Finally, add some more buttons for the snowman’s eyes.

And there you have it!

Nerys is so proud of her snowman, and she had so much fun making him. She keeps asking to make more, so I think we might end up with a whole family of snow people by Christmas!

If you fancy making some more festive crafts then check out my post on making snowman gift tags and Christmas tree cards with brightly coloured buttons.

I was sent a box of craft materials to create this post, but all words, opinions and creations are my own.

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Bring on the cake … and chocolate, and other yummy things

12/12/2016

by This glorious life with 4 Comments Quotes Uncategorized

There’s a big pile of chocolate in my kitchen right now.

Some of it is waiting to be made into festive bark to give to the fab staff at school. But the rest is waiting to be used in another batch of Baileys rocky road. Which is for us. After we demolished the first batch in a matter of days.

And there’s a small part of me that thinks maybe I shouldn’t make it. Maybe I should find a slightly less sugary, calorie-laden snack to munch on.

But the rest of me just wants to eat yummy things. Life’s too short to deprive ourselves of treats.

And if you can’t enjoy yummy things at Christmas then when can you?

So this sentiment from Gilmore Girls feels very fitting for me at the moment.

Just replace ‘cake’ with ‘chocolate, treats and yummy things’ and it’s perfect!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if there’s a pack of gingernuts in the cupboard so I can also make some more chocolate ginger bites.

Living arrows 50/52

12/12/2016

by This glorious life with 3 Comments Photography Uncategorized

I can’t quite believe that I’ve made it to week 50 of the Living Arrows project! I’m quite proud about it to be honest.

And I’ve really enjoyed having this reason to take photos of my children every week. Not that I really need a reason, but still.

This week was another pretty quiet one with us, with the wet weather and dark afternoons we didn’t really get out and about much. Well, we did have the school Christmas fair and Rhys’ Christmas concert, but I didn’t take any photos there.

So my Living Arrows photo for this week is of one of those quiet moments at home. Rhys and Nerys sitting together, playing nicely with their play dough.

I couldn’t help it, I just had to grab the camera and get a few photos when I saw nice they were being with each other!

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Look at Nerys’ arm around his shoulders!

They might mess around and wind each other up, but they really do love each other so much.

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”

Madeline Littlejohns is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk

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