Tinknbubb

Tonight we took a trip to a local village that celebrates Christmas in a 'bright' way and raises money for an amazing charity which is close to my heart. The little village of Westfield transforms the main road through the village into a spectacular light display, with almost every house decorate with so many lights. The charity is St Michael's Hospice, this charity has been there for Dad with the loss of My Mum, he had made some life long friends with people there who have been through the same thing that he has.  We haven't visited in the last couple of years so was lovely to see how Lilly reacted to them, she made friends with a Rudolph covered in lights, sang with Santa and sat in a sleigh too. It is such a lovely event to support and certainly makes you feel festive. We absolutely loved our visit tonight and its so nice to see how the houses change over the years. If you wish to find out more, visit there Facebook page:  Westfield Christmas ...

So it is officially Christmas eve and we usually have a hectic day ahead of us. This year is different though as for some reason we did it all yesterday. Today is a bitter sweet day really, I have the excitement of the next couple of days with family and good food but Christmas eve was the day that I got the very last video of Mum ever. This is hard as I kick myself over videos and pictures of mum but I know that I cannot change that now. Anyway, I have a day of crafts and activities planned with my missy, she has really kept me going and kept me in the festive spirit. I hope you all have an incredible Christmas and have lots of rest and time with family. Make memories and enjoy yourself, thank you for joining me through the 12 days of Blogmas. Merry Christmas xxx

Christmas films really do make the Christmas period more festive, we don't start watching till December to make the films more special. And Lilly has started to really get into films this year. I wanted to share my top 5 films with you, this may include a series of films too but I shall get on with it. 1. This has to be The Polar Express, this is such a lovely, feel good, festive film with the songs, Santa and hot chocolate to get you in the mood. 2. The Home Alone series, only 1 and 2 though. I absolutely love these films and always have done, they always make me laugh and at the end feel very warm inside. 3. Arthur Christmas, this is quite a new one, only 6 years old but I think it is going to become a classic, Another feel good film with a modern twist to it. 4. Santa Claus the movie, this is a golden oldie that me and my Mum used to watch together, I will always treasure those memories. 5. The Santa Claus 1,2 and 3, These are so good and make me want Christmas to ...

Last weekend I was lucky enough to travel up to London with Lilly, my Auntie and my uncle to Winter wonderland at Hyde Park. This is a free to enter event in the centre of London which is very family oriented and very festive. There are many rides and attractions for you to see BUT I would advise prebooking for the big attractions online. We arrived at around 2pm and the queue to enter was quite small, we only waited about 5 minutes before we were at the bag check. The staff were so friendly and the atmosphere was electric.  The first thing we did was check out some rides for Lilly (kind of wish we had waited as there were more Christmas themed one further in) and got some hot drinks (hot chocolate)   The children's rides range from £2 - £3 each and the larger rides cost £6,- £8 each. They had such a wide array of rides to choose from. They had more Christmasy themed rides and huge roller coasters too. In the centre there is a large, tall ferris wh...

Another festive recipe for you all to enjoy, these are so simple to make and taste sooo good. These are Candy Cane Lollies which look amazing (I think). Lilly helped me make these, can you tell which one is hers?  You will need: - Candy canes - White Chocolate - Sprinkes - Lolly sticks - Baking paper Method 1. Cut canes down to size to for a heart shape with 2 canes. 2. Place onto a baking tray covered in baking paper and place a lolly stick in the middle. 3. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. 3. Pour melted chocolate into the heart shapes making sure they are full to thr edge  4. Add sprinkles for decoration. 5. Leave to set in the fridge for a few hours. And there ready! Simple :) *Republished*

Wow, welcome to December, I am not quite sure how we are here already. December can only mean one thing, Christmas is almost here! I am pretty excited this year for Lilly but am also dreading it. I wanted to start the month off with The Christmas Tag as it gives you an idea of our Christmas. 1. What is your favourite Christmas film? I absolutely love the Arthur Christmas for a more modern film but I also have a huge soft spot for Home Alone too. 2. Have you ever had a White Christmas? I don't ever recall having a white Christmas, it usually snows in January or February which is a shame really. We haven't had a huge amount of snow since 2010 so quite a while back.  3. Where do you usually spend your holiday? We normally have the morning at home just us three, then go to a family members for lunch and some well needed family time.  4. What is your favourite Christmas song? I think my favourite song has to be Christmas time (don't let the bells ring) by t...

Another month over, and another year over. It has been the most crazy and stressful year so far but we have made it though to the end.  December was lovely, my favourite month, just because of Christmas really. Lilly was so understanding of it all this year and was sure that Santa had forgotten her, bless her heart, but that did mean a very late night on Christmas Eve for us.  The rest of the month went by in a flash really, we had family to visit, Christmas fayres to go to, presents to wrap, food to buy and it just didn't see like I was very organised at all. And sadly this month, my car decided that it was going to give up all together and blow a head gasket :( so it's sadly off to the scrap yard.  The picture this month is one of my complete favourite photos of us together, it is taken from during Vlogmas when Daddy got his old Auorora AFX out, this is a kind of scalextric which Lilly found highly amusing and I managed to catch a picture of a purely am...

Wow! We are so close to the end of 2016, just one month left and here I am writing my Mummy and Me for November. We have have a lovely month we a couple of little outings and everything kind of falling into place. We attended our local Christmas light switch on a couple of weeks back where Lilly also saw Santa, she wasn't too sure of him and just did a tiny wave, she also went into a human snow globe which she was super excited for. Its an inflatable dome with fake snow in and a festive picture at the back, she loved jumping around and throwing the snow around too. I finally feel like I have gotten there with sorting the house and bills out for the next month which has taken a stress off of my shoulders, the only thing is that I still have my car up for sale but hopefully soon it will go so I can get a new one. I luckily have amazing friends who take me and Lil's to nursery in the morning and Liam takes me to pick her up. You can certainly tell it's Novembe...

Today is Chinese New year,  the year of the monkey, so I wanted to do some crafts with Lilly to celebrate and teach Lilly about all the festivities.  First is the Chinese dragon, this was pretty fun to make and Lilly loves it. To make this I used a print off which I found on the crayons website. Lilly coloured it in and I cut it out. I made a concertina out of some paper and stuck it to the head and tale as a body. We had some gold shiny paper which I used as flames. Second was a paper lantern with the left of paper from the concertina. I used to make these all the time. Fold the paper in half and cut off about a 2cm strip off the end. The next part is cut strips about 2cm's apart from the folded end and stop about 2 cm's from the top. You then unfold and join the top together at the top and bottom to make a lantern shape. Now use the strip you cut off to make a handle. Did you do anything to do for Chinese New year?  xXx

For blogmas day 16 I thought I'd share a way of saving some money and doing your own.  I have been contemplating buying some of these hot chocolate cones for Lillys Christmas eve basket but people are charging up to £2.50 per cone. I thought about checking the price on the cones on eBay and to my surprise they were only 99p for 10 cone bags. The cone pictured below is 3 scoops of hot chocolate and some marshmallows for the pefect cup on Christmas eve. It took me not even a minute to fill and tie it up and is ridiculously easy to do at home rather than paying way above the odds for it. I hope you like this simple idea for a cute little stocking filler or Christmas eve box. Happy blogmas xXx

Blogmas day two is a Christmas Cake recipe for you. I make my cake in November to make sure I have time to feed it, but you can just soak the fruit and leave a week before icing the cake. I made a 7 inch square cake to cut in half. and here is the recipe for you all. - 965g Mixed fruit - 50g Ground almonds - 100g Glace cherries - 200g Plain flour - 1tsp Mixed spice - 200g Butter - 200g Brown Sugar - 1 Lemon rind and zest - 4 standard eggs - 100ml rum/brandy/sherry Method - Preheat oven to 200oc/ gas mark 6 - Line sides and bottom of cake tin with double parchment paper - Cream butter and sugar until fluffy - Beat in eggs one at a time, if starts to curdle add a little flour - Add rind and juice of the lemon - Mix flour, ground almonds and spice together - Toss mixed fruit and cherries into flour - Add fruit and flour to other ingredients a little at a time, add half the rum ( or soak the fruit in alcohol overnight) Save some ...

So Here is a brilliant  sensory item for your older babies and toddlers to play with and learn by, a treasure basket. As you can see you can add lots of different items into the basket.  First start of with a sturdy basket which will not tip over very easily, then pick your items.  You can use household items such as utensils, coasters, fabric, or natural items such as pine cones, shells, seeds/ smelly items . You can also make it to suit the time of year with tinsel for Christmas, more natural items for autumn and the shells and summery items for the summer months. Lilly loves it when I get this out, she loves feeling all the items and banging the basket and generally making a mess and having fun. Just one thing, PLEASE SUPERVISE YOUR CHILD. Hope you enjoy Viki xxx