Friday 30 December 2011



Christmas has passed by with a flurry of excitement and panic but I can happily report that it didn't manifest itself in panic buying! I was full of trepidation as some of my family love to shop and it shows as every year they buy way too much and the other half of my family namely the children have grown up to expect alot, who can blame them!
Well this year it was all change and it felt like I had spent most of December trying to prep the children so they weren't disappointed. I decided that I would play host (again) but there were conditions to abide by. NO PRESENTS! If they wanted to buy a little something for the children then that would be fine but instead of presents for the adults we decided to allocate some meals. My dad was responsible for Christmas breakfast - and a feast it was with two courses which meant we had a late lunch and then had nibbles for tea! Perfect. My brother and girlfriend brought some drinks and a cheese board - perfect for Boxing day lunch with cold ham and turkey! I couldn't resist doing something a little different and as we didn't do presents I decided to set everyone a 'Christmas Challenge' which was shared around the table after lunch. My brother and girlfriend had a sealed pot challenge (thanks SFT for the inspiration!!) which was a golden syrup tin and treacle tin (washed out) with a hole made in the lids and then hot glued on to prevent them from raiding it!! I hope they can save up for something nice! My son wants to organise a charity bike ride - so I set him the challenge of doing so! My sister got the challenge of reading 12 books next year which corresponded with her present of nine charity shop books including the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and some good children's books my son and I have read. My challenge was to forgo all alchol for 2012! So I am quickly working my way through the left over red wine before Sunday!

I think it was a resounding success - and when the children waved off our visitors and turned to me and said, 'This was the BEST christmas ever', I know it was a success. Because if all truth be told they didn't even notice that they only had a quarter of what they had last year - and there was no grumbling at all! I have learned a very valuable lesson this year that it is not about the amount of money you spend - it is the time and effort you spend making sure everyone feels catered for. I am glad this year I was brave enough to change Christmas after all I have been threatening to do it for ages. Christmas will be a very different affair from now on and for once I am looking forward to it!

Till next time ~~~~ the (dreaded) NYR's !!


Sunday 11 December 2011

My sealed pot!

It started life as a lowly custard pot and is now a rather glamorous sealed money box. We have contributed about £7 in the first few days of December! We, as a family have decided to save for something exciting for next Christmas like a panto or show! We will have to see how far our budget allows!
The treacle tin was our old money box which we used to pop open everytime we needed some change ~ but that is all change now.
I have had a busy productive day today ~ making some cakes to give as presents, I also made some chilli jelly for boxing day sandwiches as well as a roulade ala Mary Berry! I heard her making this chocolate roulade on the radio and figured I'd give it a go! WOW my children were rather happy at this treat for them today and I must say myself it was rather delicious! A recipe to put in the file for future reference - when the domestic urges over power me again.

till next time



Wednesday 7 December 2011

December! just dropping in to say....


WOW December is here, the cold has crept up on me and Christmas is looming ever so close ~ too scared to actually admit how close it is and how little I have done! But as I promised myself I am not going to panic and rush into anything rash!

I am currently taking part in SFT's 'Sealed pot challenge'  here and I will admit that I haven't actually got my sealed pot ready ~ but I have some money to go into it! So I feel that I am taking part! I plan to get a bargain at the charity shop tomorrow and if that fails I will have to resort to an old tin or something! We do keep our loose change in a pot at the moment but we are known to go scrounging when we are short of change. What I am going to do is count it up and put it towards treating my children to the cinema (something we don't do very often!!) and then start afresh! Will update as soon as I have a new pot!

My hand is much better despite all the essay typing and so have resumed my long awaiting blanket to be finished! Will certainly post up a ta-dah when I have finished! (don't hold your breath though)

Back soon,