Category: christmas

My reading challenge: November ⛄📚

The penultimate installment of my reading challenge is here!

This year has gone seriously quickly.

I’m quite looking forward to reflecting on all the books I’ve read this year though.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what I read last month and what I’ll be reading this month…

What did I read last month:

The big little festival by Kellie Hailes

&

The Husbands secret by Liane Moriarty

I enjoyed both of these. The big little festival was a very easy read and I really enjoyed its cosy vibes. The husbands secret took a little bit to get into it and you had to really focus on each character to keep track. When the characters started to link together it was a bit easier to follow and towards the end the chapters were a much more manageable length which I liked, and this made it quite gripping as the story really got going.

This months books:

A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft.

One Christmas can change everything…

‘Georgina loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Gerorgines struggled to make ends meet.

To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school, and when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistants Georgines grateful for the help. But rheres something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?

Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of her friends new and old make this a Christmas to remember after all? ‘

T’was the night shift before Christmas by Adam Kay

‘Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat… but 1.4 million NHS staff are heading off to work. In this perfect present for anyone who has ever set foot in a hospital, Adam Kay delves back into his diaries for a hilarious, horrifying and sometimes heartbreaking peek behind the blue curtain.

T’was the nightshift before Christmas is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.’

&

A wedding in December by Sarah Morgan

‘The White family are gathering for Rosie’s whirlwind Christmas wedding. First to arrive are the brides parents, Maggie and Nick. Their daughters marriage is a milestone are determined to celebrate wholeheartedly, but they are hiding a huge secret about their own, they are on the brink of divorce. The last thing they need is to be trapped together on an irresistibly romantic Winter wonderland.

Rosie’s older sister Katie is worries that impulsive, sweet-hearted Rosie is making a mistake so she is determined to save her sister from herself, if only the irritatingly good looking best man, Jordan, would stop interfering with her plans…

Bride-to-be Rosie loves her Fiance but is having serious second thoughts. Except everyone has arrived – how can she tell tell she’s not sure? As the big day gets closer, and emotions run even higher, this is one family Christmas none of them will ever forget.’

I am so ready for cosy Christmassy, festive, reads 📚📚

This is definatly one of my favourite times of the year to grab a book.

I’m glad I’ve got mine ahead of time as it can get so busy at this time of year and these kinds of books are great for grabbing a few moments of calm in all the Christmas chaos.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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2018 🎉 July – December 🎉

July

My lovely husband Tim celebrated his 27th birthday 🎁💗

My niece Evie-Mae celebrated her first birthday 👸🏼

Me & my twin sister Sarah enjoyed our Italian cooking experience.

A friends get together to celebrate some birthdays. Picnic fun in the sun, cycling & a water obstacle course.

Fun at the end of term work do 🎉.

Fun days out with my Uni friends ❤

I finally reached my Slimming World target.

August

The.BEST.holiday.EVER.

My youngest nephew Casey turned two.

I’ll never forget the day I watched him come into the world 💙.

September

Summer BBQ fun with friends 🌞.

My biggest nephew Noah turned four!!!!

We went to the Spa Pavilion to watch ‘The Greatest Show’.

Noah started school nursery and Casey started playgroup.

We watched our friend Livy perform in ‘The Little shop of Horrors’

We booked a holiday to Disneyland Paris 😁

October

Me & Tim joined Jaffa running club.

Evie started to walk.

We stayed in a Hobbit hole for the weekend.

Half term fun!!

Soft play, going to the theatre & games.

Halloween Parkrun 👟.

November

Bonfire night fun 🎆

Celebrating Dans birthday 🎈.

The Christmas decorations went up 🎄🎁

Me and Sarah went to the ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ Double bill.

Fun at The ((Bounce)) Christmas Party! Dressed as Mickey & Minnie Mouse.

A fun weekend away together at Rose Farm in Great Yarmouth.

Friends Christmas meal together.

December

My Work Christmas meal at Zizzis🎄🍽

Meeting up with these guys again and meeting little Bella for the first time.

🎅 Christmas ☃️ festivities 🎄

Happy New Year!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 24: Decorating gingerbread men.

It’s Christmas Eve!!

I can’t believe it, this Blogmas has been the quickest yet.

Only One day to go!!

love doing festive craft and cooking with my nephews and niece.

I found these cute ‘decorate your own gingerbread man’ sets in the Co-op.

You get six mini gingerbread men (perfect for little ones) some icing tubes and sprinkles to decorate.

This is great for little ones as the gingerbread men aren’t too big, a good treat size, and nice and simple for them to.

They were all very excited to get started.

The set came with a little tube of icing and two different types of sprinkles.

It was a nice little bit of festive fun for the kiddies and of course their favourite part was the eating!

Merry Christmas Eve!

If you want to know how we are spending Christmas eve have a look at Blogmas Day Five

Whatever you are doing, I hope it’s a good one 🎄

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 22: My cheese pastry Christmas tree 🎄

Since I have done a few sweet recipes posts this Blogmas I thought I would share a super quick, and very easy savoury recipe with you.

It’s got a lovely festive twist in its appearance and is perfect for a Christmas buffet table.

This cheese pastry Christmas tree looks great on a party table, very festive and super tasty.

You don’t need much to make this recipe either!

Ingredients

•One or Two (Depending on the size you want to make) ready rolled puff pastry sheets. I used one for mine but for a buffet I would make a larger one using two sheets.

•Grated cheddar cheese

•Cracked black pepper

•An egg to brush over the top

Optional festive extras: Caramalised Onion Chutney or Cranberry Sauce.

Recipe

Lay the puff pastry out flat and cut into strips that are 2cm wide. I made 11 out of one sheet.

Take a strip and push some grated cheese into the pastry. If you are having the chutney spread this onto the strips first then add the cheese.

Crack some black pepper over the top.

Roll the pastry up from one end to the other to create a pinwheel effect.

Put to one side and repeat with the other strips.

Once you have made them all arrange them as you see above, to create the Christmas tree.

Use some left over bits to create the pot and star on top.

Brush the pastry with a beaten egg and place it carefully into the oven until it is lovely and golden.

Serve & enjoy.

If you don’t add the chutney into the recipe you could serve it on the side for dipping.

Let me know if you had a go at this.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 21: Our Festive Snack table 🎄😁🍴

As I have said previously, the festive food goodies are one of my favourite bits of Christmas.

It’s great to enjoy some yummy treats, surrounded by friends and family.

There are a few treats that we get every year and this year we (mainly me haha) have taken that a bit further and have been creating a ‘Festive snack table’.

Everytime we’ve gone to a supermarket or seen a tasty, tempting snack we’ve picked it up for the table and it’s starting to look rather good.

This is great for cosy evenings and if any guests come over during the festive period.

Here’s what we have included on our snack table…

Chocolates

Festive chocs are a must! Especially for a chocoholic like me!!

A Christmas classic is the matchmaker style chocolates. I picked these up in Aldi in both the chocolate orange and mint flavours.

I also got a selection of truffles.

We have the new Malteaser truffles that are amazing and, my husband’s favourite, the Lindt Lindor truffles. I picked those up in the original milk chocolate flavour and the new Mint flavour, they look so festive 🎄

You have to have a tub of chocolates at Christmas time, it’s a must. Whether your favourite is Heroes, Celebrations or Quality Street these just feel so Christmassy.

My favourites are Heroes (Cadburys ftw!) Where as my husband’s is Celebrations.

Biscuits

Shortbread is my absolute favourite biscuit and a Christmas must have. I love those festive tins too. I have my favourites, the Tesco tin, and I’m also trying out the Aldi shortbread too.

Mince Pies

I’ve really been enjoying mince pies this year and I’ve been testing as many different ones as I can (It’s a tough job but someones gotta do it!!)

Co-op have come out on top so far but I’ve also been trying the Tesco, Aldi and M&S ones, just to be sure! Haha.

Specialty items

I discovered my love of Panattone last year when I was gifted one, so this year I purchased one of Aldi’s Pandoro, I can’t wait to try it.

Savoury Snacks

Our savoury snack choices this year were of course Pringles and Aldi’s version, stackers as well as Twiglets and Mini cheddars.

Other

These cute Robin treats were part of Aldi’s Christmas range and we couldn’t resist. On the right is a hollow chocolate robin character and on the left is a chocolate orange celebration cake.

I hope I can bring myself to cut into them, they are pretty cute!!

So, that’s our snack table! What’s your favourite festive snack?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 20: Christmas Hampers.

I love getting a bit creative at Christmas and adding that personal touch to my gifts.

Hampers are a great way of doing that.

You can select things that are super festive as well as things that you know someone will love, thereby adding your personal touch.

My festive faves to add to a hamper are:

•Mince Pies •Chocolate •Savoury bits

•Stollen •Nuts •Biscuits •Sweets

To add a personal touch I like to add:

•Their favourite chocolate •Vouchers

•Bath bombs •Shower gel •Books

If you are making a family hamper I like to add:

•Chocolate Santa’s •Chocolate coins

•Mini games •Card games •Puzzles

•Their fave toy •Craft packs •Sweets

Food is one of the best parts of Christmas and making someone something they can enjoy and share is great if they are harder to buy for or if it is a shared, family present.

This is also a great present for older relatives such as grandparents, aunties & uncles etc.

You can pick up hampers from loads of shops:

•The Range •B&M •Home bargains •The Works •TK Maxx

They come with the shredded paper in the bottom, cellophane and a ribbon which adds that finishing touch to your hamper.

I always put my hamper into the cellophane diagonally, in the centre and then gather up the edges of the cellophane above the basket and tie with the ribbon. You can then neaten it out and rearrange the cellophane as necessary.

Getting the cellophane part right can take a few goes, YouTube videos are great if you havn’t done it before.

Happy Hampering!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 19: Rocky Road Bombe recipe.

Here’s another delicious, festive recipe for you guys to try over, the Christmas period.

Its super easy and quite quick to make, but it looks impressive and really festive on a Christmas buffet/party table.

This is a Rocky road (are you sold already!!!) Bombe, decorated to look super festive as a Christmas pudding.

I love this idea and it’s so effective!! As soon as my husband saw this recipe he wanted us to give it a go.

The great thing about the Tesco Real Food website is that it has everything you need to know to make the recipe, tweak it if you want to add an extra festive touch but also, if you are doing your food shop you can add all the ingredients that you’ll need to your basket in one go, no hunting for everything you’ll need!!

You can add or take out too if you don’t want to strictly follow the recipe.

I’ll leave the link to the recipe below for you, definatly take a look at the page and some it their other yummy recipes too.

Tesco Real Food recipe

1. Melt the dark chocolate over some boiling water.

2. Whilst it is melting crush up the biscuits, don’t crush it too finely.

3. Once the chocolate has melted, pour it into the biscuit mix.

4. Add the raisins and mini marshmallows and stir altogether.

5. Make sure everything is coated in the dark chocolate.

6. Pour into a medium sized plastic mixing bowl. Flatten the top.

7. Leave to cool down and harden in the fridge.

8. Once it has cooled for an hour or so, take out of the fridge and ease it out of the bowl. Turn upside down onto a plate and lift off the bowl to reveal the dome.

9. Melt the white chocolate over boiling water. Once it has all melted pour it over the top to look like the icing on a Christmas pudding.

10. Garnish with a little sprig of plastic holly, to add the finishing touch. Serve.

Yummy!

Let me know if you have a go at making this.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 17: Finishing my Christmas shopping 🛍

Hi guys!

I can’t believe it’s now less than 10 days until Christmas day!!

I love the build up to Christmas and I feel like it is going so quickly this year.

I’ve used the weekend just gone to get the last of my Christmas shopping done

I havn’t had time for a late night shopping trip this year, which is a shame, so I thought I would head into town on Saturday and finish up.

Armed with my list and some determination to finally get it done I managed to power through and grab all the last little bits that I needed.

It was quite a chilly day which did make it feel quite festive and with the Christmas lights on and the Christmas market in full swing it was quite lovely.

So festive 🎄❄

Before I headed to the football with my dad I had enough time to stop at a coffee shop for a nice, warming caramel latte and a little read of my new Christmas book.

(The Christmas stocking & other stories by Katie Fforde)

I felt very Christmassy after this. All we need to do now is get the last foodie bits for a few hampers I am putting together and of course Christmas party/snacky bits. We are going to grab these when we do our food shop.

How is your Christmas shopping going?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 16: My work Christmas meal 🎅

On Friday I had my annual work Christmas meal. Every year we go to Ask Italian but, this year we decided to try somewhere different. .

..Not that different though, it was still an Italian haha but we went for Zizzi’s this time.

I think we had picked the same night as a lot of work groups, it was very lively!!

It was officially Christmas jumper day on Friday too so I wore my newest festive jumper to the meal.

The food was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

I went for the Super Festivo menu starting off with the Mushroom style bruschetta (I can’t remember the official name)

Anything with cheese and mushrooms is brilliant in my book and this was very tasty.

For my main I had my favourite calzone from their menu, the pollo al spinaci.

I’ve always been a fan of the creamier pastas and sauces so this is so up my street as it has a white sauce instead of a red sauce. I was filled with a delicious creamy cheese sauce, mascarpone, mozzarella, spinach, chicken and mushrooms, SO.GOOD.

It also came with a really yummy tomato dip which was perfect for dipping bits of the crust in 👌🏻

Dessert was absolutely fantastic. Hands down one of the best desserts that I have had in a long time. It was a Christmas special and is a combination of two of my faves. It was half brownie, which was so rich and decadent, and half panattone, so orangey and fruity and festive, it was incredible.

Plus, you got an adorable chocolate pine cone on top!! How cute.

Amazing.

It was a lovely evening and nice to have some yummy food and a chat, away from the workplace.

Have you had your Christmas do yet?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day 15: My Harry Potter stocking gift guide 🎁

As you’ll have seen from my early Blogmas post (Which I’ll leave here for you) I love a Christmas stocking.

I thought it would be really fun to do a post themed around Harry Potter and after researching merch this seemed like the best fit.

Besides, what could be more magical than a Harry Potter stocking!

Here are just a few Harry Potter themed ideas to make your own Harry Potter themed stocking, or to just add a bit of Harry Potter magic to what you have already got.

There are only a few weekends and late night shopping evenings to go!! It’s definatly time to get those stockings sorted.

To start ⬇️

Harry Potter Hedwig themed Christmas stocking Primark £6

Various Harry Potter stockings Geekcore £8.99

Various Harry Potter stockings Amazon From £7.99

Books

The Crimes of Grindelwald: The original screenplay WH Smith’s £8.49

Wizarding World pop up book of curiosities Amazon £12.81

Hogwarts library books: Fantastic Beasts and where to find, Quidditch through the ages, The tales of Beedle the bard (Indivdually) Amazon £4

The Harry Potter books: House cover editions Amazon £9.98

The archive of magic: Fantastic beasts book Amazon £14.99

Games/toys

Harry Potter Lego: Grindelwalds carriage Amazon £15.99

Harry Potter Trivial pursuit Groupon £8.99

Harry Potter top trumps Amazon £5.40

Wizards Battle game Very £14.99

Harry Potter playing cards in tin Tesco £4

Various Harry Potter Pop! Funko figures, varying prices.

Wearables

Harry Potter inspired necklaces Platform 9 3/4 shop £12

Harry Potter inspired bracelets Platform 9 3/4 shop £6

Harry Potter pin badges Platform 9 3/4 shop From £3.95

Harry Potter socks (adult) Primark £2.50

Harry Potter Cosy socks gift box (adult) Primark £3

Various Harry Potter night dresses (adult) Primark £5

Nightie & sock set (Kids) Matalan £10

Harry Potter socks (Kids) Matalan £6

Beauty

Harry Potter make up palette Amazon £13.99

Wand make up brushes Amazon £7.99

Hogwarts house bath bomb Amazon £8.99

Butterbeer lip balm Etsy £4

Harry Potter wash bag Primark £5

Stationary

Harry Potter 2019 calendar Tesco £5

Harry Potter notebooks Amazon From £5

Harry Potter stationary set EMP £12.99

The Harry Potter & Fantastic Beasts colouring books, available in most book shops or online on Amazon.

Hogwarts letter writing set Amazon £8.99

Homeware

Harry Potter mugs Primark £5

Harry Potter cushions Primark £4

Harry Potter egg cup & cutter Tesco £5

Christmas

Harry Potter Christmas character decorations (2 pk) Primark £5

Hogwarts house baubles (4 pk) Primark £4

Large glass baubles Primark £5

Other

Niffler Coin purse Amazon £12.98

Harry Potter/Fantastic beasts mini figures Most newsagents £1.99 each, lots to collect.

Magical Miniatures: Bowtruckle Amazon £7.99

Other miniatures are available too.

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them DVD Amazon £7

Mystery pocket Pop! funnko keyrings EMP £6.99

I hope this helps you to make someone’s Christmas magical ⚡

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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