Kelly

Unwrapping Our Exciting Plans for December: A Peek into What's Coming Up

Honestly, I say this every year but how fast did that year go by!

December for us is a mix of crazy busy for the first couple of weeks and then quiet for the rest, which is how i like it to be honest. I like to be settled, watching christmas movies and just relaxing taking in the festive goodness with the people I love the most.

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Things have been changing over the last few years with the boys getting older and although I really don't like it, it is part of life and growing up. This year is our first year not visiting Santa. Elliot is almost 12 and we asked him if he wanted to visit and he said no. So that is that. Our visiting Santa days are now over, but I am looking forward to the new things we will get to do as a family instead. Toby is now 15 and Adam is 17 so Craig and I have been having a day to ourselves and making sure we just take time for each other, so Look out for lots of date ideas on the blog next year as I will be adding a new section.

What's Been Happeing so far

The last time I did a check in like this I think was in the Summer time. So a lot has changed since then.

The boys have all been keeping busy, Adam and Toby have been busy with work and college,Toby is almost finsihed his GCSEs and they have both been applying for full time college and Uni (scary but exciting). Elliot has been getting tuck in with lots of Home ed work and meets with the community and is still loving Scouts. He has so many badges now I think he may need another shirt to fit them all on.

The pets

The dogs are doing great, Summer is slowing down a bit with her being old and the cold weather is setting in but Iris is still in full blown collie mode of never stopping and forever tennis ball chasing. I am going to whip up a batch of doggy paw salve which is great for this time of the year and when it gets colder as it protects the pads on the feet. Dont forget to wipe your dogs feet after a walk if you go in areas any grit has been put down. Recipe HERE for doggy paw Salve. Albert our indoor bunny isnt well at all, he isnt coping well with the weather change and has to go into the vets for teeth treatment as no matter what we have tried his teeth are over grown. I did manage to clip his nails myself which I am over the moon with as the last time he went to the vets they charged me nearly £100 for clipping and looking in his mouth!!!!!! Our goldfish died in the summer, Toby was devestated as he bought it with money he got for his 8th Birthday. He now has 2 rats.

The Blog

The main change for us is we have taken on some writers for the blog. We are always having to turn down work because our boys are too old or something is aimed at girls ,so we have taken on a team of writers who are happy enough to head out to events and review on our behalf. This is massive for us because it means we can expand to cover a lot more and to bring more honest reviews for our readers. I am going to add a bit on the blog about them, so keep an eye out for that. We have a lot of plans for 2024 I hope you can join us on our family fun adventures. If you would like to work with us feel free to pop me over an

email and I will get back to you asap.

The Garden

To be 100% honest, other than keep it tidy I have done nothing with it. We are having some issues with our roof and waiting to get it fixed so we don't want to be getting it all nice and lovely for it to get messed up with scaffolding. We currently rent our home and our landlord is not the best to be honest. (If you are reading this and have a 4 bed house to rent, then let me know, we may be interested!) This house was never intented to be our forever home. For those who don't know, we used to live in Scotland and came back to Sunderland at the end of 2019 due to a relative not being very well. A few months later we were all in lockdown and we could only see her through the window which was really frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful that we have a home and a nice one at that.

Self care

I always get so stressed and worked up this time of the year, worrying about everything. I have always been like this and I promise I am trying to relax. I had a bit of a health scare a month or so ago ( all clear, no need to worry) and to be honest it was like a weight had been lifted. Craig is forever telling me to slow down and relax. I was doing weekends with no social media but we have been so busy I havnt been able to do this for a few weeks. I am going to really try and at least do one day a week offline and spent my last few weekends playing board games, building Lego, baking, reading, and just spending good quality family time doing things we enjoy together. You can read more about how I combat festive stress HERE

We have already done a few festive events which has been so nice to get us in the mood.

So far we have been to :

Aglow which was fantastic

Christmas tree picking at Lamesley Farm - We got an 8ft and it is gorgeous

Christmas in Neverland at Castle Howard

Myths & Legends at Bamburgh Castle

Sunderland light switch on

We did the Autumn Quentin Blake Trail at WWT Washington

We watched the Fenwick Window reveal

Our writers have also visited :

Dalton Park Santa

Gala Durham Panto - Cinderella

Bishop Auckland Christmas Town

Coming up

We have so much going on from next week.

We are going to be covering

Pantos

Tree festivals

Carol service

Cinema to see Wonka

Restaurant reviews

Visiting some of our favoruite places over the festive period like Beamish and National Trust properties

Football games (The boys have season tickets and there are loads of games in December)

Our writers have some fun things to be reviewing too

Santa Train

Pantos

Breakfast with santa

Farm visit

and more

On top of the above I also have plenty of day dates with Craig, Baking, lots of festive movies, lot of hot chocolates, craft sessions and so much more. I just hope we can do them this year as last year we all got taken out with a chest infection. Fingers Crossed

Christmas Food - Again we will be cooking our own christmas lunch. We prefer to do it all ourselves as to be honest I find the cost extortionate at some places which I totally understand, as people are giving up their Christmas to cook for others but I would never be able to Justify spending over £500 on lunch for 5 people. Craig and I enjoy cooking and we can cook pretty well, so we are confident that our Christmas lunch will be delicious.

Things to Look Forward to

Visiting Christmas Markets - We have been to a few already but I like to visit closer to Christmas at a proper German style market (York, Leeds, Birmingham look fantastic)

I am really looking forward to visiting Beamish, we have an annual pass which is such good value as we visit all the time. I love seeing the place decorated for Christmas.

Festive Tv - Who dosent love festive TV. Some great shows coming back soon and loads of festive movies to enjoy. I even subscribe to Hallmark just for the Christmas Movies!

Dates for the diary

1st Marks the start of Advent

2nd World Pollution Prevention Day

4th World Wildlife Conservation Day

5th International Volunteers day

10th Animal Rights, Human Rights and Nobel Prize day

12th Gingerbread Day

13th Christmas Jumper Day

19th 180th Birthday of A Christmas Carol

22nd Winter Solstice

24th Christmas Eve

25th Christmas Day /Hannukah