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Boo exploring our Christmas Memory Tree properly for the first time!

I am a HUGE fan of Christmas! I love everything about it and ever since I was a child, I have never once lost that feeling of magic it generates.  However, if I had to put my finger on which aspect of the silly season I MOST enjoy, it would have to be my Christmas Tree.

The ritual of putting up my Christmas Tree is one of the most important parts.  Out come the boxes, on goes Dean Martin and Nat King Cole’s Christmas CD (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”……”Silent Night”………..”Oooooh, I’m the Happiest Christmas Tree”) up goes the tree and I settle into an afternoon of memories and a very calm, warm and fuzzy inner-me!

You see, my Christmas Tree is more than just a decoration in the corner of the room.  It is a memory tree.  I have collected baubles for some time now and every year, every time I pass my beautiful tree, I am reminded of the happy times I associate with these little records of my past.

I think it all started when I was very young, spending time with both my Grandma and Grandad and my Nan and Grandad at Christmas.  Grandma had a set of lights, each one in the shape of ‘cinderella’ carriages.  I remember that I would sit beside the tree and make up stories about all the little characters and items on the tree.  My Nan had little musical piskies (they each had some kind of instrument or songbook) who I was fascinated by.  So much so, that when my Nan sadly passed away last year, each of her children were given one of the ‘piskies’ and my Mum gave me hers for my memory tree.  Since putting up the tree this year, the first thing my Boo did was to pick up a Father Christmas character and have him pretend-kick the big glittery bauble next to him.  I was so very proud!

So, it would be rude not to share! Here are some of my favourites and why they are special to me and my family:

Remembering those I loved and lost at Christmas

Approximately 50-60 years old (my Mum and her brother and sisters remember these from when they were very young), this little lucky Cornish Piskie originally belonged to my Nan and Grandad.  When my Nan passed away last year, each of her children took one of these little musical men and my Mum gave me hers.  It reminds me of all my grandparents, who sadly aren’t with me at Christmas any more.

Disney Florida Adventure

We went to Disneyland Florida for my Mum’s 50th birthday and I bought this bauble to remember it by.  Pooh, Piglet and Tigger making angels in the snow.

Magical New Year at Disneyland Paris

In 2000, some good friends and I went to Disneyland Paris for New Years Eve! It was truly a magical night!

My Loving Family

One sad Christmas, I realised that my precious decorations had been moved in a box to Portugal with my mum by accident.  I cried and cried.  By way of trying to cheer me up, Darren bought me the fluffy coloured ones on the left and my sister bought me the little Red Riding Hood dolly decoration.  I remember feeling very touched by their                                                                 kindness.  Sob!

A Holiday to Remember!

The year before I got pregnant with Boo, Darren and I had the most amazing holiday.  We went to the US, arrived in San Francisco for 3 days, drove to LA and stayed for 2, drove to Vegas for about 4 nights and then flew to New York for a further 5!

We celebrated Christmas Day in Las Vegas and New Years Eve in New York.  Just fantastic!

I couldn’t resist some Christmas Tree decs to remember this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Here we therefore have a bauble from Las Vegas with dice and dollars inside, a Santa Statue of Liberty and a Santa climbing the Empire State Building!

My Alternative Shoe Collection!

I love shoes nearly as much as I love my tree.  My friends & family know this! Accordingly, the above are all welcome gifts! I particularly wish I had the red ones in a size 7!

New Mummy

My oldest friend (I’ve known since we were 10) gave me this bauble the first Christmas I had Boo.  It features Russian Matryoshka Dolls – Matryoshka taken from the Latin word ‘mater’ meaning ‘mother’.  It is beautiful.  And very delicate. And represents a very special year.

Baby’s First Christmas

These were all gifts from family and friends for Baby Boo on his first Christmas!

Boo’s first Christmas was spent with Darren and I in Portugal at the home of my Mum and step-dad.  It was a wonderful family Christmas and these very traditional lookingclay Portuguese tree decorations will always remind me of it.

My Gift to Boo

This was the decoration I bought for Boo last year on his first Christmas.  From Pastimes, it is made of a heavy metal (so it won’t ever break) and as you can see, it shows children’s toys.  I shall be carefully choosing this years’ tree decoration gift for Boo.

Long may this tradition continue! Super Yummy!

Pssst! Have just found this Christmas Decorations Tour at Violet Posy, if you’d like to see more people’s fabulous festive decs!

One photograph. No words.  Visit Mocha Beanie Mummy for more Silence on a Sunday

Image: dreamfire @ flickr.com

I fell over yesterday.  And not just a trip over the corner of a rug in the living room either! Looking back I should be mortified.  Far from it!

I was walking Boo up to the car.  Crossing the pavement, it would appear that the ONLY ice in the whole of a 20 mile radius was in our path (I think some ‘thoughtful’ person must have de-iced their windscreen with water and split some on the way)!  Not only did I fall, but I fell hard. I fell spectacularly.  Arms and legs flailing!  ’Dancing on Ice’ I was NOT!

This meant that there was no stopping Boo either.  He was holding my hand and his wellies were as useless as my trainers against the sheer, slippery surface.

As we both went down, he went face first.

All I could think of was how I could stop Boo and when I couldn’t, for a split second, utter fear set in, not knowing how he’d landed on his little face.  As instantly as was possible under the circumstances, I scooped him up (still on the floor myself), an unstoppable rush of distress as I noticed blood in his mouth, followed by a massive sense of relief as it became apparent that he had a small cut on his lip with no other visible signs.  Grabbing him tight to me, I sat there, on the pavement, legs akimbo, rocking and hugging him, reaching out for his little snowman toy and dummy in an attempt to comfort him.  I then took my trainers off and carried Boo, in my socks, to the car to get him safe and out of the cold.

Never have I felt less concerned about how I look, what other people might think or about my own bumps and bruises.  How great is that!  I’m a proper mum!

Darren’s view is that Dairy Milk has a cleaner taste and doesn’t seem to be as ‘sticky’ as Galaxy.

As far as I’m concerned, Galaxy offers the edge, with its silky smoothness.  It just seems that much more….hmmm….grown up?  Sexy?!

My favourite way to eat a bar of Galaxy is curled up in a ball on the sofa with a nice cuppa.  Slowly, I’ll taste it, chunk by delicious chunk, with as much delay in between each that I can manage to restrain myself by (I am convinced that this stage of the chocolate ritual is as a result of trying to ‘hide’ half a bar from my sister when I was little, so that she finished first and I still had some left to enjoy while she had to look on! Evil big sister!) I take a sip of tea JUST after putting a chunk on my tongue, in order to get the full, melted creaminess of that milky chocolate hit.  Not always necessary, but an added bonus would be if I were wearing pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers at the time of this special ‘moment’.  Perfect!

I took a trip over to both websites to see if I could find a less bias approach to the debate. Cadbury’s site is most definitely the out-and-out winner on Christmas magic appeal.  One point to Cadbury.  Galaxy’s description of the best way to enjoy a galaxy moment is almost identical to my own ideal chocolate o’clock.  Methinks I must have been sucked in by Galaxy marketing somewhere along the line! A point for packaging up and branding the experience to Galaxy then! Did you know that these days, Dairy Milk is produced using Fairtrade Ghanaian cocoa beans, while Galaxy source their cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified(TM) farms?  Otherwise, there was no more significant information that could swing it here.

So I put it to the facebook vote.  I got the biggest response in the shortest amount of time I think I’ve ever had!!  Overwhelmingly, Galaxy is the most popular (so far!) with a massive 75% in favour and that doesn’t include those who greedily said ‘Both’!  ’Very silky and more filling’ said one, ‘Galaxy every day of the week’ drooled another.  ’Galaxy rules, but if there were only Dairy Milk on the table, it would be rude not to’ confirmed yet another.  ’Galaxy first with a Dairy Milk chaser?’ suggested one.  Cries of ‘Want chocolate now!’ and ‘Has anyone got any chocolate?’ were followed by ‘Panic over…just found a massive bar of galaxy I forgot we had.  Must be the size of my laptop!’.  Galaxy and a cup of coffee appear to be a popular combo that they agree on.

Far from arguing about it, chocolate, it seems, gets people talking.  Chocolate, it seems, offers an immediate sense of a shared passion, thereby bringing people together!  Even Darren and I had to agree on the ‘Mmmms’, ‘Ahhhhs’ and knowing nods of the head that took place over our own individual giant slabs!  So let us not debate!  Have your favourite by all means, but let us simply join together and celebrate the wonderful food that is chocolate!

What could be more yummy?!  So what’s your favourite? How do you eat yours?

To celebrate with even more chocolate lovers, Beckicklesie’s Oui Chef challenge for November is, of course, ‘chocolate’.  Click here for more choccie-laden posts (just make sure you’re armed with a bar or two…you have been warned!).

Images: By Peter @www.flickr.com and Dairy Milk Bars @ wikimedia commons

One photograph, no words. Visit Mocha Beanie Mummy’s Silent Sunday post for more Silence on a Sunday.

The pic on the left was taken at my office Christmas party in December 2008.  Darren has always had a thing about his lucky number 22 and he beamed when he found we were sat at table number 22 that evening.  This was the end of the night.  As you can probably see, I was very heavily pregnant and Darren was extremely proud to have won a prize of a bottle of champers via the in-house casino.  Convinced his lucky number had done the trick, this was our celebration photo.

But…..was it celebrating an event that had already taken place before….or could it actually have been a prediction for a celebration to come?…..On 22nd January 2009, baby Boo was born by caesarean 6 days ahead of his due date. Noo, noo, noo, noo…noo, noo, noo, noo!  Spooky!

BEFORE: Taken December 2008 - Was this a prediction of what was to come?

AFTER: Taken 22 January 2009, the day we celebrated the birth of our son

I couldn’t help but mention my thanks to the originator of said Twitter Singup (@paul_steele).  He came straight back to me (he’s got over 77,000 followers and counting and STILL finds time to reply!) to say thanks and asked me if I wanted a go! No pushing, no challenging, just a friendly little ‘fancy a go?!’ The short version of this part of the story is that after an initial stomach churning moment, I found myself committing!  The woman who’s always sworn NEVER to do pub-karaoke in her life! Well…it wasn’t in the pub, it was ‘just’ on Youtube (have checked, it’s been watched 955 times so far!)  Eeeeep!.

I can’t tell a lie, I did put on make up! I did record my ‘line 1, second chorus’ of Dean Martin’s ‘Volare’ more than once! Overall, I do hope it comes across with the cheerful approach I wanted to give it (not too serious, not too rubbish!).  Even though during the whole ‘video’ process, I sometimes felt like I could just as happily be teetering over the edge of a cliff!

The point of my post is this.  Whether anyone liked it or not, I experienced a welcome side-effect to taking part in this apparently ‘insignificant’ activity.  It took me back to a time when I used to sing out loud and not just in the shower / car.  I used to sing in choirs.  I used to go carol singing door to door with the girl guides. I even sang on stage. It wasn’t because I wanted to perform, it was because I genuinely enjoyed singing out loud.  When I was a child, a teenager even.

The warmest, fuzziest feeling came over me when I’d done it.  All these memories of feeling a very simple sort of happiness came flooding back.  It made me feel great.  I began to reminisce about days when I was carefree, when hope and optimism flowed through my veins, when a four-letter word was ‘love’!  Most importantly, when being kind and happy was how I saw myself and how this made me proud.

Kindness and niceness seems to have gone out of fashion these days. Sarcastic wit is popular.  Nasty gossip is passed on.  Bad news sells papers.  ’Merry’ is a state of drunkenness. Being referred to as ‘nice’ is practically an insult. What an odd world we live in! I’ve certainly been sucked into all this over the last 20 years or so and become tarnished by it.  I stopped singing too.

When I went into town the day after the above events took place, I was frantically waved at on the street by a lady who was fund-raising in the pouring rain.  I stopped.  She was stunned.  I listened as she told me passionately of her cause.  She stumbled a couple of times on her ‘pitch’ and told me that she was sorry, but she was so pleased I’d decided to talk to her.  As she summarised, it was my turn to be stunned.  She welled up.  She was really uncomfortable and embarrassed.  The ‘cynical’ would suggest it was for effect.  I was there and I’m not daft. She explained that she was sorry, but that no one else had stopped for her that day. We were both wet from the rain and I believed her.

I knew that I had been kind.  And do you know what? It felt REALLY good! Better than anything I’ve felt in a very long time.  I’m going to do it more.

I’m going to start by being kind to myself.  I realised that the original purpose of this blog was to consciously make me think about what I’ve done to ‘fail’ as a ‘yummy mummy’ during the course of the day.  How awful is that?!  I’m actually looking for reasons why I’m a ‘failure’!

And I’m not a failure.  So I’m officially granting myself initial ‘yummy mummy status’.

After all, to my Boo, I’m the yummiest mummy there is!

And I’m going to get yummier! Watch this space! xxx

PS I’m going to sing more too!  Whether you like it or not!

Image: flikr.com/NiiNaa

I LOVE Wednesdays! Tuesday night is my new Friday night.  I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I go to bed and a big smile creeps onto my face when I wake up in the morning.

There is a Wednesday routine.  Boo and I start by cleaning our teeth, then I get him washed and dressed.  I throw on some jeans and something cosy, drag my hair up (Yummy mummy fail! But do you know what? Make-up, heels and clothing with some kind of leopard print / faux fur / other ‘this season’ must-have, do NOT belong to my Wednesday morning), put a few nappies in his ready-prepared bag and we shoot up to nursery for his weekly fix.  I’m so lucky.  He appears to love going to nursery.

I don’t even have to think about his breakfast, let alone lunch and dinner.  Bliss!

Then it’s home.  I drive straight into my parking space as there’s no need to do the usual reverse manoeuvre to make sure I’m facing downhill and can get Boo out of his chair more easily.  Surprisingly satisfying!

I walk into a very quiet house and I religiously make myself 2 x poached eggs on 2 slices of toast (with cottage cheese if it’s in the fridge and smoked salmon if I’ve planned REALLY well) and enjoy this to myself (i.e. not having to share every other mouthful even though he’s had his own breakfast) sitting in front of grown up tv.  Fabulous!

Then it’s time for a luxurious shower.  By this, I mean one which isn’t disturbed or cut short by a little face appearing, throwing in various bath toys and occasionally attempting the odd non-waterproof item depending on how much attention he’s craving that particular morning! Heaven!

Next I find the spot I’ll be most comfortable in for the day (this ends up tending NOT to be my office for some strange reason), put my laptop on, check my emails, check in with Facebook / Twitter, maybe write a little blog post and generally get on with my working day.  I write copy about diverse businesses, always learning something new.  I make calls and have adult conversations.  Sometimes I get dressed up and go out for a meeting.  Sometimes I lay on the sofa in my comfiest clothes, heating on and regular cuppas, tapping away at my laptop.  Throughout the day I can get more than one load of washing on, out AND back in again and hardly notice I’m doing it! Brilliant!

I break for lunch (haven’t had to think about this in advance either.  I’ll just have a little bit of something I fancy!) and maybe have a read, spend a water-cooler moment or two tweeting away, make a quick catch up call to my mum, or sister, watch ‘Doctors’ (one of my guilty pleasures) or something equally trashy.  I might, just might, dare to have a little snooze!  Zzzzzzzzz!

At around 4.30pm I often start getting dinner going.  No issues with hot ovens/ saucepans and trying to come up with new ways to keep a certain little person entertained and out of the kitchen.  I can even open the cupboard which contains the biscuit barrel without any ‘I want’s', tears or tantrums.  Hoorah!

Darren arrives home at around 5pm and we have a proper catch up and get a couple of chores completed between us.  I might even sneak in a little snog! Yay!

Then my favourite part.  Just before 6pm I go to pick up my Boo.  When he sees me at the door, no matter where he is in the room, he runs.  And runs.  Arms open wide, he grabs hold of my leg and hugs it briefly, before I sweep him up and give him a hug back.  He happily sits and listens and strokes my face and plays with whatever I’m wearing, while I’m updated on the days activities and then he waves an enthusiastic goodbye and we’re off.  Perfect!

We’ll happily play and read together before bedtime and it NEVER feels like I’m forcing the issue (I’m sure Yummy Mummy has a genuine smile on her face at the end of every single day with her child, but in reality, it doesn’t always work out like this for me).  I’m energised, revitalised and ready to carry on working into the evening (once I’ve had chance to put Boo to bed) without feeling tired at all.

These are the reasons why Wednesdays have become my official favourite day of the week and why they are full of such simple pleasures, which I should recognise and celebrate.  Why it’s important to me, personally, to have work in my life and why working from home suits me well.  Why I love to be me, but how I will always be Mummy.

What are your simple pleasures in life?

In the meantime, I have been thinking about the presentation of said pressies as I’m now gradually running out of time and may be working a fair bit more in December than expected.  Today I had some inspiration.  I love the Vistaprint concept.  I’m fairly sure that if you haven’t heard of Vistaprint, you’re clearly not on the internet as much as I am! Their advertising is all over it and freebies are regularly offered.

I wanted to sort out some kind of label for my gifts and was thinking about making something, but I do like a professional looking finish if I can manage it and it occurred to me that I may be able to customise the free business cards offered by Vistaprint, using these as tags.  A few steps later and I’ve got 250 of these on the way:

Insert 'from' details of choice

I like this design as I think it fits my handmade theme, being quite muted and traditional.  There are loads of designs to choose from though.  I’ve avoided mentioning the word ‘Christmas’ anywhere as I figured that with so many of these, they will come in useful for any handmade gift occasion!  As the card is a matt finish, it means I can handwrite the recipient’s name myself above the printed message. I will punch a hole in one of the corners and tie the tag to the appropriate gift. In order to qualify for the free product, Vistaprint will print their own details on the back of the card, but I figured that if I want to cover this (it’s only a one-liner so I might not bother), I will recycle some old Christmas cards and stick something festive on the back.

This was easy done too! Simply go to Vistaprint (click here) and select Free Business Cards under the Free Products section and follow the instructions from there.  Note: When it comes to the personalisation, you can use as many or as few of the suggested lines of text as you want to and you can input any text here (for example, you don’t have to put an actual number into the ‘telephone number’ line).

Vistaprint will look to upsell as you go through the checkout process.  I personally welcome this as there are still lots of great deals, but you don’t have to accept any of the alternatives and so your item can still be free if you stick to the standard version!

Warning: Delivery is not free.  If you order now, you can go with 3 week shipping and still be in plenty of time for Christmas, which cost me £3.62 including VAT.

Am looking forward to finishing my pressies off now!

www.vistaprint.co.uk