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A rather exciting parcel arrived the other day.  It was a big blue envelope, with sparkly silver snowflakes on it.  And the words ‘Merry Christmas’ written in swirly silver script.

So what was inside this lovely packaging?  Books!

A lovely gift from Britmums and Penguin Random House.

I knew I wanted to put them away for something special in the run up to Christmas, so I had to quickly hide them away from Nerys.  If she had her way we’d have read them there and then.  She loves books.  Both my children do.  They take ages every night at bedtime choosing which book they want to have read to them.

I had been thinking about doing a book advent calendar for them this year.  I’ve seen a few posts from people doing it and it looks like a lovely idea.  But I just wasn’t organised enough to get it done, and I’m not sure if 24 new books might be a bit too much!

What I’m planning instead, is a sort of Christmas week box.  Like the Christmas eve boxes you see people making, but with items in it to be opened over the course of the week leading up to Christmas.  I’m thinking a book for each night of that week.  And new pyjamas.  And some activity/sticker books.  You get the idea.  It won’t be anything too extravagant, just some bits and pieces to keep the children occupied in that week leading up to Christmas.  There’ll be a post about it on here soon I’m sure!

What I’d like to do is have a mixture of themes for the books for our Christmas week box.  So these books that arrived from BritMums and Penguin random house are a great start.

There is a Christmas themed one, but it’s a rather silly take on the theme.  The copy of ‘The dinosaur that pooped Christmas’ that we’ve got is a mini version of the best-selling book about a boy called Danny and his dinosaur who, well, poops Christmas!  It’s very silly.  As are the rest of the ‘dinosaur that pooped..’ books.  But my 2 really enjoy them, and I know they’ll love this one too.

We’ve also got ‘Max and bird’ which I hadn’t heard of before it arrived in the post.  It’s about a cat called Max, who can’t decide if he’d like to be friends with bird, or if he’d like to  chase and maybe eat him.  I have a feeling there’ll be a nice message about friendship at the end of that story.  I hope so anyway!

The last book we were sent is ‘The little elephant who wants to fall asleep’.  I’m really quite excited about this one.  It’s the latest book from the author of the rather famous ‘The rabbit who wants to fall asleep’.  This is the book that caused a bit of a stir after parents reported that it really does help their children fall asleep.  I think this might be one to save for Christmas eve, when I might need all the help I can get to send my children off to sleep!

I’d like to add at least one more Christmas book to the mix, maybe a nice one which tells the nativity story, or one about being with family and friends at this time of year.  And then maybe a couple that I remember from my childhood.

We’ve been reading ‘Each, peach, pear, plum’ a lot lately which I love because I remember it from when I was little.  I might get a nice Alfie and Annie Rose book to add to the Christmas week box too, I was a big fan of those stories as a child as well.

I’ve still got copies of some of my favourite childhood books, and I’m looking forward to passing them on to my children when they get a bit older.  I have a very battered copy of ‘the owl who was afraid of the dark’, which I might start reading to Rhys soon actually.  Then, in a few years time, I would love him to read ‘goodnight Mr Tom’ and ‘back home’.  I read and re-read those books so many times when I was younger.  They’re just beautifully written books, and they both make me cry every time I read them which is a sign of a really good book to me!

Right now I’m still working my way through the first book in the ‘song of ice and fire’ series, but will be asking my husband for the second book soon.

How about you, have you got any books on your wish list for Christmas?  Or are you giving any books as presents this year?

Disclosure – we were sent these books by Britmums and Penguin Random House as part of their children’s books Christmas present challenge.  

One thing I look forward to every December is making up a batch of these chocolate ginger bites.  They’ve become a really tasty festive tradition for me!

And they are really easy to make too.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 300g ginger nut biscuits
• 300g plain chocolate
• 100g butter
• 100g golden syrup

And here’s what you do:

1. Prepare a baking tin (20x30cm if you have one that size), by lining it with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
2. Crush the ginger nut biscuits.  You can either put them all in a bag (make sure you can seal it well!) and then bash them with a rolling pin, or tip them in a bowl and break them up using something like the end of a rolling pin.  Either way, you want to break them up into quite small pieces but there’s no need to be too fussy about it.
3. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup.  I tend to just put all three ingredients in a pan, on the hob, and heat them gently while stirring.  But you can also do it by putting the ingredients in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
4. Once the chocolate, butter and golden syrup are all melted and mixed together, take off the heat and stir in the crushed ginger nuts.
5. Tip all the mixture into your tin and press it down with the back of a wooden spoon.
6. Pop it in the fridge to set.  Try to leave it for a couple of hours if you can, so it sets properly.
7. Take out of the tin and cut into squares.
8. Enjoy!

If you fancy taking a look I put together a (very) quick video for this recipe:

I really love these little treats with a cup of coffee, or for something sweet after dinner.

But I also think a little pile of them, wrapped up nicely, would make a lovely homemade present for someone!