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.
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.
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
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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.
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‘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
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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.
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‘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
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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.‘
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‘One perfect Christmas and other stories’ by Paige Toon
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I have a couple of these books where it is made up of lots of short stories, with a Christmas theme.
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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
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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.
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‘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.’
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What’s on your 2023 reading list for the festive period?
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.
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!’ 🎶
Roseanne Byford 