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.
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.
The decorating was in a few stages this year (mainly because I didn’t bring everything back from storage)
This was stage one of the decorating, which was mainly decorating the living room with lots of lights and positioning the trees (ready to decorate later!)
An absolutely classic Blogmas post is my top five Christmas songs…
So, here it is!
1. Last Christmas by Wham!
My ALL TIME favourite. The best Christmas song of all time.
2. Step into Christmas by Elton John
It’s a brilliant catchy and upbeat Christmas song. This one always puts me in a good mood.
3. Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran and Elton John
This is a very recent Christmas song and usually I love the classics the best, however I really do think that this one is a brilliant catchy Christmas song for more recent times in particular, it reminds you to enjoy, appreciate and embrace this festive time of year with family (especially after 2020) and I love a bit of Ed Sheeran, boy can he write a tune!
4. Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin’ Stevens
This is an absolute classic, and it really reminds me of my childhood. I used to listen to it at home and on the TV music channels (when they were a thing) and it was always on loads, just a classic Christmas song.
5. Christmas Dance by Darren Criss
Darren Criss is one of my favourite artists, and again, this is quite a recently released song, from his album ‘A Very Darren Crissmas’, and I love it. It’s SO catchy and feel good. It gets you up and moving and having fun.
And today I am going to show you which Advent Calendars I have this year. I’ve got a nice variety with a last minute addition.
Let’s take a look!
Up first, my chocolate advent calendar…
I got out my Harry Potter pocket advent calendar, this one you fill yourself.
I got me and my husband chocolate coins for each day.
It has 24 pockets, so I’ve put extra in for the 25th as I like yo have one for Christmas morning too.
Next up, I have my beautiful Pop up Harry Potter advent calendar. I bought this either last year or two years ago (I can’t remember)
It is so cool – and it’s great that you can refuse it!
I love the little decorations you get each day, to hang on the tree!
My final advent calendar is a F.R.I.E.N.D.S themed one. This was an unexpected one, but I couldn’t resist it. A bonus was that it was in a sale at my local bookshop, so it was a bargain.
This one comes with cool little F.R.I.E.N.D.S themed goodies such as decorations, bookmarks, puzzles (& I’m not sure what else yet!)
It’s fun to have a few different ones to open each morning!
It’s that time of year again, yep – you guessed it… Blogmas time 🎄
It’s time to get festive and enjoy this wonderful spirit filled season.
And what better way than with 25 festive blog posts, throughout December!?!
What is Blogmas?
For each of the 25 days of advent, from December the First, leading up to Christmas Day, you post a festive themed blog post! This can be anything that you like, as long as the theme is Christmas!
What should I expect?
I do a variety of festive blog posts ranging from foodie recipes, my ‘favourites’, Christmas parties/events that I go to, Christmas traditions, decorations, and much more!
It’s a lot of festive fun and a great way to indulge in the festive season, picking up some ideas, tips, and tricks along the way.
So, something pretty cool happened last weekend!! I finally got to see Darren Criss perform live 😱
It all happened kinds fast to be honest- one minute I was watching people’s videos of him performing all over America, Canada and Australia wishing he would come to the UK and the next minute he was announcing a ‘One night only’ London show that I just had to get a ticket for!!
So we only actually had to wait two weeks between buying the tickets and going to the show, which was both awesome and mad.
He performed for one night only (included an added Matinee performance due to high demand) at the London Palladium on Sunday 15th October 2023.
As I write this, I still feel like it was all a bit of a dream… I can’t believe that I’ve actually been in the same room as Darren Criss!!
It was an absolutely unforgettable evening.
So, let’s go through it…
He opened by suddenly appearing on the stage.
And started with the national anthem 🤣 which was hilarious.
He then started his set with one of my favourite Glee cover songs (although he doesn’t sing it in the show) ‘I’m so excited’ – Such a banger!
& from there on in, it was just an awesome mixture of the many facets of Darren Criss from Glee, his solo work, Starkid, and some of his favourite songs.
He also did a beautiful acoustic encore to finish the show 🥹
In true Darren fashion, he forgot the words along the way, talked alot (we love to hear it) and even almost knocked a microphone over, but hey – it wouldn’t be a Darren Criss show if he didn’t!
It was also amazing to see Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez (Part of Starkid) performing too. This made the Starkid ‘A Very Potter Musical’ songs even more epic to behold.
He was just unbelievable, in so many ways – the pure talent he exudes is just phenomenal, the laid back Darren esque showmanship and the fun he is clearly having just shines through, and I feel so privileged to have witnessed it.
Hearing him sing some of Blaines’ songs live [Somehwere only we knowz Cough Syrup AND Teenage Dream] was a real tick on the bucket list moment for me as a fan of Glee and Darren for a long time now.
And I’m gonna be really real with you here – as soon as I heard the first note of Teenage Dream, my eyes welled up.
But seriously, I honestly never thought I would get to experience that. Treasured memories forever.
Once a gleek, always a gleek ✌
🎶 ‘We’ve waited for forever for a night like this!’ 🎶
Happy Summer Holiday’s. This year’s is very much needed.
Now, every year, I volunteer for the Library’s ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ for Children. I volunteer for a day at my local library, and I love it.
I love seeing the children come in and excitedly tell me all about the book that has captured their imagination that week, what happened, what they liked about it, their favourite part. Fostering, encouraging, and indulging a love of reading in children is just magical.
This year is my 11th year volunteering (10th if you don’t count Covid 2020 as the challenge was only online) so I thought that I would set myself a little reading challenge too.
The premise of the Summer Reading Challenge is to complete six books over the Six Week holiday. Over the last few months, I have definitely picked up my reading speed, so I thought, why not choose six books of my own to try and read over the six weeks.
It’s a little daunting, but I thought it would be a good challenge and a bit of fun too. I do get to do some reading in-between people at the library and obviously I have a bit more free time as it’s the school holidays.
So, Here are my Summer Reading Challenge Picks:
Fairy Tales by Stephen King
Confess by Colleen Hoover
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent
The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
+ one other tbc
I tried to go for a variety of books – obviously, a couple had to be my Book Club books, as this still takes place during the summer hols, which made choosing a lot easier. I still have one spot left that I am planning on being another Book Club book, depending on when our next meeting falls (I do have a backup if not)
Roseanne Byford 