I had a thoroughly festive weekend that was rounded off yesterday with a delicious roast for lunch with my friend.
We met up for a last meet up before Christmas and to exchange our Christmas presents/cards with each other.
We went for a proper, traditional Sunday lunch at a lovely pub. It was so cosy and festive in there and the food was delicious.
We both went for the turkey roast dinner that came with Pigs in Blankets. I also got some Cauliflower cheese. The turkey and the pig in blanket was my favourite part but it was all really tasty.
For dessert I went for the Chocolate Fondant served with white chocolate ice cream and crumbled shortbread biscuit. I love a chocolate dessert and this really hit the spot.
We had a lovely time, a great pre Christmas catch up with some tasty food. A great way to round off a fun, festive weekend.
We are almost a week into Blogmas! I had a nice little festive start to the weekend today with my youngest nephew. He stayed for a sleepover and then we headed to the Christmas Tree Festival this morning.
🎄
On the way we grabbed a festive hot chocolate.
The Christmas trees have all been decorated by local businesses, groups, schools etc and have their own little theme .
It was so lovely and magical ✨️
Such a fun little festive activity ✨️
What festive activities are you up to this weekend?
Every year since they were born I have created Christmas Eve boxes for my nephews and niece, and its one of my favourite traditions 😊
It’s just a little christmassy box of goodies to enjoy on the eve of Christmas and I’ve included different things over the years!
Here’s what I will be including this year for KS2 aged children (why do they grow up so quickly 😭) its super fun getting things you know they’ll like.
I have included Prices and shops where possible.
Let’s take a look!
Giant Chocolate Coins – Flying Tiger Magic Snow, Build your own snowman – The Works £1.50Wall climbing Grinch – The Works £3Capybara Bath Bombs- Primark £1.30Gonk teddy – The Works £2Make your own Reindeer hat – The Works £2Christmas Bouncy Putty – The Works £2
Hopefully they’ll enjoy these fun little bits and bob’s.
I love Christmas lights so when my mother in law invited us along to our local light trail with herself and some of her friends, how could we say no!
And it was brilliant.
We actually went to this display last year for its inaugural year but it was in a different park in my hometown and it was very expensive. This year the trail was set up in a different park and the layout of the park worked much better for this event. It had a more natural trail with paths as apposed to last year when the lights were in big open areas, which wasn’t quite as effective. They have also made it much more affordable which is great!
There were loads more lights, lovely atmospheric music and smoke to add to the magical vibe. There was also a nice little food court in the middle which served delicious hot chocolates. My mint one was so yummy I had two 😋 🤣
I also liked that you could go around the trail more than once, so we did!
The only annoying thing was the torrential rain haha – not ideal! But it was so wet you kinda just had to get on with it by the end haha. It was still a lovely, festive evening.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the trail!
Pumpkin Picking with my sister and my niece.Halloween ((Bounce)) class – Byford Bats 🦇Halloweem film day, snacks & chilling out. Pumpking painting 🎃Crafty Bats 🦇 Learning about Bats and creating a bat metal embossed decoration.Halloween Light Trail ✨️Pumpkin Picking with the fam 🎃Decorating for Halloween 🎃 Halloween nails 💅🏻 👻🎃🖤🧡Making my bat lego 🦇Colchester Zoo trail of terror with Sarah & Tim 😱Watching Scary movies 🎬
Last weekend I attended the inaugural Ipswich Book Festival, Chapter One…here’s how it went…
1st Stop – 12pm Talk Author ‘Tim Sullivan’
‘ The Bookseller’
This was a brilliant and funny talk from Tim Sullivan, the author of the George Cross Mystery novels. It was so interesting to hear about the writing process, where he gets his ideas from and to hear his passion for the brilliant character of George Cross. George is great, and I’m glad I managed to pick up the latest in the series (signed 😃) as well as a few that I haven’t read yet.
The Cross novels are so enjoyable to read, and the subject of Neurodivergance is well researched and beautifully represented in these exciting and gripping novels.
Tim was very funny and witty, and the team interviewing were great, so it made for a really enjoyable talk.
2nd Stop – Lunch & a spot of reading 📚
My current Book Club read 📚
Stop 3 – Time for a bit of book browsing/shopping
I had to pop into one of my favourite shops in Ipswich, and our only independent book shop,’Dial Lane Books’, on Dial Lane.
I also popped into Waterstones to use a book voucher that I conveniently found that morning. I love their buy one get one half price deal!
Stop 4 – 4pm Talk Author Wendy Holden
‘The Teacher of Auschwitz’
This talk was beautifully moving, and it was so inspiring to hear their brave stories.
In the current world, it was wonderful to hear some courageous and self less stories about humans helping each other and putting others before themselves, even in the most unthinkable situations and conditions. These are stories that now more than ever need to be heard.
Stop 5 – 4.45pm Talk John Wark and Mark Prentice
‘He’s here, he’s there’
As a lifelong Ipswich town fan, I thoroughly enjoyed John Warks talk to round off a brilliant day.
Every Ipswich town fan knows who the legend John Wark is, but I have to admit I had no idea just how much of a mark he has made on the world of football, the stats and accolades are insane, awards and lists with some of the world’s most famous footballers – formidable in Europe and the highest leagues of football in his day, he really helped put little old Ipswich Town on the map.
It was a great way to end a fantastic day, and I for one cannot wait until next years festival.
Next year, the event is proposed for the first weekend of October 2026!
Roseanne Byford 