Festive Sage meatballs. These were really tasty, soft, and delicious in the tomato sauce.
Festive Carbonara with Crispy Pancetta & Brussel Sprouts (Sounds weird, was amazing and a delicious way to serve sprouts!!)
Orange Panattone pudding with Ice cream 🍊 This was a really yummy mix between a sponge pudding and a Panattone. My only improvement would be that it needed more ice cream as it was quite a big pudding.
It was all really delicious. I particularly enjoyed the Carbonara.
We had a lovely time & it was good to have a chat not at work!
Welcome to another day of Blogmas and not just any day… It’s ten days until Christmas!!
So exciting.
I thought I would give you a little update on my advent calendars.
Check out Day Four here to see which calendars I have.
Let’s take a look…
The F.R.I.E.N.D.S advent calendar has been really fun with lots of cool little bits and bobs in it, including a bookmark, Central Perk coasters, Trivia, Christmas decorations and more!
I love this advent calendar. It’s so pretty and magical. I love the detail on it and the fact that it’s reusable.
I have lots of decorations on it so including a Golden Snitch, the Deathly Hallows Symbol, the Hogwarts house symbols, lots of magical creatures, and loads more.
That one is definitely my favourite, although I must say I am very much enjoying my morning chocolate coin from my third adventure calendar 😂
We started off this week with one of our favourite traditions for the Christmas period… the Rock N Roll Panto at our local theatre.
Me and my husband Tim go every year at Christmas. It’s always a fun night out. This is like our 11th year of going.
This years show was Dick Whittington and his cat, which was actually the first panto we ever saw there together. It had a completely different spin on the story this time.
The show was as brilliant as always, with some familiar faces in the cast, great humour, and an awesomely colourful set. The music ans song choices were really great too.
I always try and make some time to create some homemade Christmas cards, especially at Christmas.
I feel like this year has been a bit hectic! And time has run away with me a little towards the end of term, at work.
However, I have found the time (and thankfully some supplies from last year) to make a few cards for people.
I’ve gone for a couple of different themes from traditional colours to icy/snowy themed ones. I haven’t finished my cards for my immediate family & friends yet, but here is a little look at a few I’ve made to send off.
At the weekend me and my husband travelled to London to see my Uni friend and her family.
We decided to meet for an early dinner so that we had an opportunity to catch up.
We wanted to do somehtifn festive and fun because it’s Christmas time and we had her children with us too.
I found a Christmas Lights tour of London online, with brilliant reviews. This was right up my street.
It was so much fun, and it was so cool to see all of the amazing and varied Christmas lights around Central London.
Our tour guide was brilliant, she was really funny and very knowledgeable about London (being a 4th generation Londoner probably helps!) I liked that we not only saw the lights but she also talked us through them.
She also offered interesting facts about the famous landmarks and streets that our tour took us through.
We all had a brilliant time! It’s well worth a go if you want some fun and festive to do in London, in the lead up to Christmas.
We booked through a company called ‘Golden Tours’ which were great, easy to use and very reliable.
So a few days ago I had the first of my work Christmas meals.
This year was so great because it is the first year that we’ve been able to have a proper one since before COVID!!
So many people came and it was such a lovely and festive atmosphere, like the old times.
We went to a local pub which was so quaint and cosy.
I got myself a (or maybe a couple) of Claus-mopolitans (they saw me coming) which were delicious.
For my main, I ordered the festive burger – an unusual choice for me but delicious none the less. It had pigs in blankets on top and inside to make it extra festive was brie, and cranberry sauce. Brie on anything makes it better. It also came with some really yummy chips.
I was defeated by it though…
For dessert, I had the chocolate brownie with ice cream. The brownie was really chocolatey and had nice big chunks of chocolate in, but it would have been warm – that would have made it top tier.
The ice cream was amazing. It was honeycomb flavoured and had bits of crunchy honeycomb in it, which was delicious. There were also pieces of chocolate covered honeycomb and chocolate sauce on the plate, which were amazing.
It was so lovely to all get together, dress up, catch up and have a laugh together.
I LOVE watching Christmas films, and it is one of the best ways to get yourself into the festive spirit.
So, without further ado, here are my top 10 Christmas films…
An absolute classic, Buddy is me at Christmas. It’s a lot of fun and SO quotable. If you want to feel super festive and get your Christmas spirit up to 100%, this is the film for you.This film is a classic and is really fun to watch. It’s a great story and it is really heartwarming, too.This one is so funny and it just makes me laugh because I work in a primary school. Obviously, this is a little exaggerated, but some of it is so relatable, and we all need a little bit of Mr. Poppy energy at Christmas time, especially in a school.This is a British classic. I love all the different stories happening and all of the brilliant characters and actors in it. I still haven’t forgiven you Alan.Again, another classic. This one is so funny, so quotable and has such a lovely message. The Grinch is such a vibe.I watched this for the first time last year and LOVED it. I was so surprised but its brilliant and the message is amazing. I loved the story so much.This is quite a recent one, and I loved it. It’s all based around the Wham song Last Christmas, which is my favourite Christmas song. The story is very clever.This one has to be on at least once every year. It is the ultimate Christmas classic, and I watch it every Chrsutmas Eve. There’s a lot of childhood nostalgia attached to this film.This was a new one last year, and it was another lovely story. It made me feel like I was inside a Christmas novel. It was that kind of story. I really enjoyed it.I really enjoy watching this one each year because although it is a little sad the story is really lovely.
It’s time to do one of my favourite blog posts, all about books! Specifically my Christmas books for this festive period.
I have picked out five books that I am hoping to read over Christmas and the new year!
Let’s take a look…
‘That Festive Feeling’ By Heidi Swain
❄️
I look forward to every Christmas and a big part of that is the traditional Heidi Swain Christmas novel that she releases every October/November time.
Her Christmas books are my favourite.
❄️
‘Holly has the place to herself this Christmas. House sitting for friends who live on Nightingale Square. Newly single and unsure about next steps for her career, she plans to hunker down and make some life decisions.’
‘The Adventure of the Christmas pudding’ by Agatha Christie
🎅🏻
This is our Christmas Book Club Book Pick. We wanted something a bit different, a well known, classic author but with a Christmas theme. Agatha Christie is, of course, a classic author, and I’ve never read one of her books, so it will be good to do so.
🎅🏻
‘An English country house at Christmas time, with its cracking log fires and fine food, may seem an incongruous setting for a crime- but a sinister note left in his pillow warns Hercule Poirot to be on his guard.’
‘The Christmas Sisters’ by Sarah Morgan
🎄
Sarah Morgan is another author whose books I enjoy and she always releases a new Christmas book around this time of year.
I have been meaning to read this one for a few years but due to having a lot of Christmas books I haven’t got round to it yet.
‘All that Suzanne McBride wants for Christmas is her three daughters happy and at home. But when sisters Posy, Hannah and Beth feturn to their family home in the Scottish Highlands, Old tensions and buried secrets start bubbling to the surface.‘
🎄
‘One perfect Christmas and other stories’ by Paige Toon
❄️
I have a couple of these books where it is made up of lots of short stories, with a Christmas theme.
❄️
These books are also great if you don’t have much time over the festive period, each little story isn’t loads of pages so it’s great for a quick festive hit.
‘The Christmas Book Club’ by Sarah Morgan
⛄️
This is Sarah Morgans latest Christmas book and it sounds like my idea of heaven with the Book Club theme.
This sounds great and super cosy.
⛄️
‘A long lasting friendship. Every year, Erica, Claudia, and Anna reunite for their book club holiday. They’re bonded by years of friendship and a deep love of books, but there is still so much they keep from each other.’
⛄️
What’s on your 2023 reading list for the festive period?
Roseanne Byford 