Category: christmas

Blogmas 2024: Day 12 Homemade Mince Pies 🥧

Hi guys 👋🏻

Here’s another yummy festive recipe for you to try. It’s super quick and super easy. Perfect for a festive snack, party table, or pudding. Mince Pies is an absolute classic.

You’ll need:

  • A jar of mince meat
  • A sheet of shortcrust pastry
  • A circle cutter and a smaller star cutter.
  • Butter to grease the tin
  • One egg for egg wash
  • Any other ingredients you want to use to flavour your mince pies.

I didn’t follow a recipe, but here’s what I did…

  1. Grease the 12 holes in cupcake tin with a small amount of butter, to stop the pastry sticking.
  2. Use the circle cutter to cut out the base of each mince pies. Use the star cutter to cut out a top for each mince pie.
  3. Press one circle into each hole in your baking tin.
  4. Bake the cases in the oven just until they start to turn slightly darker (7ish mins at 200°c)
  5. Spoon a teaspoon of mince meat into each pie case, this is when you can add any other flavourings of your choice. I added a square of dark chocolate and a dollop of caramel. If you want more traditional mince pies, just stick to mince meat on its own.
  6. Top each mince pies with a star, pushing it down a little so that it sticks.
  7. Egg wash the top of each mince pie to ensure it turns that lovely golden brown.
  8. Bake in the oven at 200°c for 10 minutes but keep an eye on them.
  9. Enjoy!

Let me know if you give these a go!

13 days until Christmas!!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 11 A festive ‘cinema’ showing with Nephews 🎅🏻🎞🍿

Hi guys 👋🏻

Now, who doesn’t love a good Christmas film! And I was really excited to hear about the new animated one by Richard Curtis!!

I first heard about it because Ed Sheeran has written and sung a song for it, and I knew that alone would make it a hit with my nephews. Plus, Richard Curtis! Come on.

So, last weekend I opened up ‘RoRo’s  Cinema’ for an exclusive festive showing. My nephews love it when I do this, and it’s such a simple, fun, inexpensive activity.

We had special festive snack boxes, and we settled down with our hot chocolates and blankets to enjoy the film.

We all really enjoyed it. I thought it was really sweet and very poignant. Ed Sheerans song made me want to cry, and there were some really lovely, likeable characters. I loved it.

I would 100% recommend going this a watch on Netflix.

Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

14 days to go!! 2 weeks!!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 10 🎄 Christmas Wreath Making

Hi guys 👋🏻

Welcome to day 10 of Blogmas!

A few weekends ago me and my husband and I attended a Wreath Making workshop organised by some of his work colleagues, just a fun little Christmassy get together. Tim invited me along, too, because he knew this would be right up my street.

It was really fun, and although I got pricked by Holly several times, I really enjoyed creating my Wreath.

Here’s how it went…

As you can see from the final pictures just above, we went for very different themes. They both came out really well, and we now have two lovely, festive, homemade wreaths to decorate our home. We’ve popped Tim’s on the front foot and mine on the lounge door.

Have you ever made a homemade Wreath?

15 days to go!!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 9 New Christmas decs

Hi guys 👋🏻

I hope this finds you well. I have bought us (me) a few extra little decorations this year, so I thought I’d share them with you!

Lets take a look!

These are some cute little string lights, battery-operated, that I found in Aldi.

They are little red and white  Santa’s.

I’ve popped these in our lounge.

I picked up these three from a little Christmas market/shop with my husband and friend. It was quite a fancy place but they did have some quite reasonably priced little decorations. These little ones were only £1.75 each. A great gift or stocking filler.

I went for a big glitter Santa (See below) and two of the little ones, I like their shiny retro vibes. One is a Nutcracker and one is a little red van transporting a Christmas tree.

This Santa is so retro and nostalgic. As children we had a little version of this Santa that used to hang on our family Christmas tree and I LOVED him in all his glittery, festive glory. He eventually became a decoration on mine and my twin sisters little tree that was in our bedroom,. His glitter all came off eventually, he was well loved. This one will help keep his nostalgic, glittery awesomeness alive on our Christmas tree.

He fits our theme of red, gold and green so well too!

I also picked up this little penguin from Aldi, he was too cute and dare I say a little tacky (I love tacky!!), to leave behind!! He has pride of place in the lounge too.

I had to add a bit of extra festiveness to my book corner! I used to have these lights but unfortunately they broke. I love the retro lights and especially the pink ones, they are my favourite. They just look so lovely and nostalgic to me. Colourful Christmases for the win.

I reckon these will end up staying here all year to be honest, I just love fairy fights- especially in my book corner.

Have you bought any new decorations? If so what did you get?

16 days until Christmas!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 8 Festive film mix 🍬🍿✨️

Hi guys 👋🏻

I hope this finds you well and you are enjoying Blogmas so far!

This is a different post to one that I’ve done before, but it kind of came to me randomly, and I thought it would be a fun one to share.

We love going to the cinema (unlimited card ftw) and watching Christmas films at home all cosy. Me, my twin sister and my husband all went to the cinema for an Unlimited screening and I thought it would be fun to make us a yummy treat.

The latest trend in cinema snacks seems to be toppers for popcorn, so I thought I would take that to the next level, and of course, add a festive twist. I went down to our little Tesco and chose my treats before assembling at home.

I went for:

  • Tesco sweet and salty popcorn
  • Lindt mini balls
  • White chocolate buttons
  • Milk chocolate coins
  • Mini choc chip penguin biscuits
  • Squashies ‘Naughty & Nice’ sweet mix

I mixed them together in a big bowl (which was actually way harder than I thought 🤣 – I did make a bit of a mess!!) I then shared it between out three tupperware boxes to transport to the cinema.

It was super yummy, festive, and just something a bit different! This would be great for a trip to the cinema, a cosy film night in, or for a gathering /party over the festive period.

What would you include?

17 days to go!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 7 My work Christmas meal 🍽

Hi guys 👋🏻

We are officially one week into Blogmas! It’s been fun so far. Now that we are well and truely into December the Christmassy events are really starting to happen, and this week I had my first Christmas work meal.

We went for a lovely 3 course meal at a cosy local pub. It was very cosy in there and I loved their real Christmas tree.

I had a delicious cauliflower and parmesan soup for my starter. This was so yummy. I don’t usually go for soup but this was really tasty and perfect as it was such a cold and wet evening. It also came with the softest bread.’

For the main course I went for the turkey Christmas dinner. Now I always used to have a rule that if I went for a Christmas meal I didn’t get the turkey, I waited until Christmas day… but then I realised this year that its such a wasted opportunity to have loads of different versions of my favourite ever meal.

This was a really yummy roast with delicious roasted roots, pigs in blankets and a massive Yorkshire pudding. I also came with the yummiest homemade gravy (this was my favourite part).

For dessert, I chose the chocolate orange (one of my favourite flavour combos ever) profiteroles. These were so yummy I could have eaten about 3 more portions, haha. They came with loads of chocolate orange sauce, and the cream inside was so light. Lovely.

All in all, we had some really yummy food and a good laugh together! You don’t always get the opportunity to chat to everyone at work during the busy day so it was lovely to have a catch up.

Only 2 weeks until the end of term!!

Have you had your Christmas party yet?

18 days to go!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 6 Festive Chocolate Orange Fudge 🍊

Hi guys!

I think its time for a festive treat don’t you!? And what better way to start than with this delicious but also super simple Chocolate orange fudge recipe.

I think that Chocolate orange and Christmas are synonymous with one another and it is one of my all time favourite chocolate flavours, but it just hits different at Christmas. Who needs a satsuma in their stocking when you can have a chocolate orange, right!!

This recipe is by Jane’s Patisserie and you can never go wrong with her recipes.

Here is the link:

Terry’s Chocolate Orange Fudge!

It is so simple and you only need three ingredients… A chocolate orange, a can of condensed milk and some festive sprinkles of our choice.

These would make brilliant as homemade Christmas gifts, yummy sweet treats at a work get together or Christmas party, or just as a easy activity with the kids.

These went down a treat with my husbands work colleagues and I can confirm that they go brilliantly with a cuppa!

What is your favourite festive flavour?

Let me know if you give this recipe a go!

19 days to go!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 5 My Harry Potter Christmas Tree 🎄

Hi guys! 👋🏻

This is always one of my favourite posts to do for Blogmas! Anyone who knows me or has followed me on here will know that me and my twin sister are big Harry Potter fans, so this is of course one of my favourite parts of decorating…

The Harry Potter Christmas tree.

I have collected quite a few different Harry Potter tree decs over the years, and in more recent years they have become much easier to come by with shops such as Primark selling quite a vast range each year.

I have also bought a few from our various trips to the Warner Bros tour in Watford. We went for the ‘Hogwarts in the snow’ event and it was truly magical , as was the Christmas merch in the shop.

The Harry Potter tree has a brand new location in the flat this year. We have had a lot of redecorating done and with added furniture etc it couldn’t really fit nicely in the master bedroom, so it has taken up residence in our spare room, which is basically an office (So my husband will feel very festive when he works from home, whether he likes it or not haha)

Lets take a look!

I love it!

I was so chuffed a few years ago when I found Christmas lights that were the Hogwarts house colours. I also love the way that Gryffindor house ribbons look instead of tinsel.

I do have a Harry Potter tree topper but I was unable to locate it this year so I went back to my original tree topper of my Sorting hat (which tbf looks pretty awesome)

Do you have a themed tree? If so, what is it?

20 days to go!!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 4 Christmas Book Recommendations

Hi guys 👋🏻

It’s Blogmas Day Four and it had to be all about books!!

What better way to start the festive month than with a brilliantly festive read to get you in the mood.

Here are a few Christmas book recommendations for you to read during this festive period 🎄📚

I had to start off with these books… no festive period is complete without a Heidi Swain Christmas book. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it now.

This year’s newest book is…

‘Home for Christmas’

But every one of her festive reads is worth diving into!

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’ was the first ever Heidi Swain book that I read, and let’s just say I was hooked and have never looked back.

‘Snowflakes and Cinnamon Swirls at the Winter Wonderland’
‘Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair’
‘The Christmas Wish List’
‘That Festive Feeling’
‘The Winter Garden’
‘Underneath the Christmas Tree’

They are feel good, festive, and full of friends that you’ll miss when you are finished.

Another great Christmas author is Sarah Morgan!

Her latest novel is…

‘The Christmas Cottage’

Her other novels include…

‘The Christmas Book Club’

I read ‘The Christmas Book Club’ last year and loved it.

‘The Christmas Sisters’
‘Snowed in For Christmas’
‘The Christmas Escape’

Some other Christmas reads that I would recommend are:

  • ‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton
  • ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
  • ‘An Unfortunate Christmas Murder’ by Hannah Hendy
  • ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Milly Johnson
  • ‘The Merry Christmas Project’ by Cathy Bramley
  • ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ by Emily Bell
  • ‘Finding Love At The Christmas Market’ by Jo Thomas.

Hopefully, there are enough suggestions there to keep you going throughout December and through to New years!

21 days until Christmas

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 3 Decorating the Christmas Tree 🎄

Hi guys! 👋🏻

Here we are with day three of Blogmas 2024, and this one is a very festive one… putting up the Christmas tree.

This is a staple Blogmas post and I love snapping pictures of our lovely tree (Biased I know!) Plus there is nothing quite like a Christmas tree twinkling in your lounge to get you into the festive spirit.

Our Christmas tree colours are red, gold and green – very traditional. We also have some more personal ornaments, creations from my nephews and niece, sentimental ones from different years, and holidays etc.

I love getting all our decorations out each year and enjoying them and reminiscing whilst you hang them up. Me and my husband always decorate our main tree together.

Lets take a look!

The flat is feeling so festive and cosy now – I love it! Walking into the lounge just makes me smile (although it does take an age to turn all the different plugs on haha.)

Have you put your tree up yet? When do you traditionally do yours?

22 days to go.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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