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!
We’re back here for day two! And we can really get into some festive fun now.
Blogmas starts on December 1st and so does one of my favourite Christmas traditions… advent calendars!!
So, I thought I would share mine with you 😊
I crack my pop up Harry Potter advent calendar out every year! It’s so beautiful. I love the pop up tree and the lovely and festive great hall scene on the base. You open the little windows and get a little Harry Potter themed charm to hang on the tree.
The first charm for December 1st was Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Lovely.
My husband very kindly got me a Terry’s Chocolate Orange advent calendar. We always buy each other one. I bought him a Lindt one.
I also have a Dairy Milk one that my friend from work very kindly gave me. I’m keeping that one at work to treat myself each day when I get to work 😌
This super cute little traditional picture advent calendar was only £1.49 in a craft shop in town so I thought it would be cute to have this to open too.
And finally, when we were decorating I found this cute Harry Potter advent calendar, that you fill yourself. I bought this a few years ago. When my husband saw it he said he would fill it for me. 😊 Safe to say I won’t need to buy any chocolates in December with 3 little daily chocs available to me haha.
It’s that time of year guys, December has arrived and with it another month of festive blog posts – BLOGMAS 2025 IS HERE!!
For those of you who haven’t heard of ‘Blogmas’ before, its basically a blog post a day, every day, leading up to Christmas day. An advent of blog posts if you will. Very fun.
This is my 10th year!!! (WHAT 😱) of taking part in Blogmas and I am very much looking forward to sharing some of my festive plans with you, as well as some fun gift ideas, recipes and of course BOOKS.
I also have a little something different planned for one of my posts to mark the 10th year of me doing Blogmas! So keep your eyes peeled for that 👀
So, if like me you love Christmas and all things Christmassy then stick around 🙂
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 🎬
This year’s ‘Holiblog’ post (holiday blog post for those who are new here) is a bit of a different one as we booked an impromptu train trip around Europe (well, a small part of Europe)
We went for a 5 day trip getting to and from using the Eurostar, and then local trains in-between. So, with just a rucksack, each we set off (at 4.30 am in the morning 😭)
Here’s how it went…
Paris, France
A brilliant first day of our little European adventure!
Our first stop was Paris 🇫🇷
We found some delicious pizza 🤣🍕 and we walked to the Effiel tower (which really is quite massive) very cool.
A highlight was the River Seine boat sightseeing tour. 🏞⛴️
It’s been 33° so it was a welcome shelter/rest from the sun, and we were able to see lots of the sights of Paris that we wanted to. 🌞
Traditional pastries acquired ready for tomorrow mornings early train to our next destination 🥐
Pairi Daiza, Cambron Casteau
Today was amazing. 🇧🇪
If you ever in Brussels you’ve got to visit ‘Pairi Daiza, Kingdom of Animals’
It’s so much more amazing that I could ever have imagined – what a beautiful place with some amazing animals, I’ve never been anywhere like it.
The themeing of each continent area was spot on, and we saw animals we had never seen before absolutely thriving in the most amazing exhibits.
It’s been a full-on, hot day, and my feet ache a lot (10 hours there and 30,000 steps) but boy, did we enjoy ourselves – we didn’t want to leave!!
Ps – the bats were awesome 🦇
Europe Day Two- done ✔️ 🇧🇪
Ghent, Belgium
Today, we started off with breakfast in Brussels before we headed to today’s stop – Ghent. 🇧🇪
I’d never heard of it before we booked this trip, but I am so glad we came. This place is so lovely to walk around. The architecture is beautiful, and it’s so quaint with a surprisingly contrasting but infectious bustling night life. 🚤 The canals are really pretty, and as well as wandering around ourselves during the day and at night, we also enjoyed a canal boat tour and a Medieval walking tour.
The local culinary delights, including Leige waffles 🧇 DELICIOUS frites, topped with traditional blemish stew, gravy & mayonnaise, and Belgium chocolate of course.
Another brilliant day! Stop no 3, done ✔️
#Ghent #Belgium #Europe2025
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Day Four was Rotterdam! 🇳🇱
We started off the day having breakfast in Ghent before heading to our next stop.
We chose this (instead of Amsterdam) as it was suggested to be quite a contrast to Ghent, and that it was. We visited ‘Mini World’, which was really cool, and it was actually very helpful when spotting interesting landmarks around Rotterdam afterwards. The lighting at Mini World was very impressive i. Particular. We also had a walk around the plaza.
The highlight was the food market hall – there was so much to see and try. We had our first traditional Stroopwafel, which was delicious, as well as trying some other yummy cusines too.
We then headed to the harbour to have a look at the views, finished off the evening by chilling in our hotel room after a few very busy days!
Last stop today!
Brussels, Belgium
Our last day was Brussels 🇧🇪
We never got to look around Brussels when we stayed the other day as it was just the closest place to ‘Pairi Daiza’.
So, here we are! Doing it properly this time (plus, you can get the Eurostar from Brussels so win, win)
We started off by getting a train to the other Brussels station, Centrale, which funnily enough was much more in the centre of Brussels than Midi. It was also a 6 minute walk from our first stop – The Choco Story Chocolate Museum 🍫 it had to be done.
It was really interesting and I very much enjoyed the samples along the way, as well as a chocolatier demonstrating how they make traditional Belgium Pralines which were first made in Brussels (we got to eat those too! Yum)
After that, we grabbed a quick lunch of Frites & Mayo 🍟 in the sunshine 🌞
In order to see as much of Brussels as we could in our short time there, we got tickets for a hop on, hop off tour bus of the city. (Although we just stayed on it for 2 hours to see the full tour) It was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day and we enjoyed our little tour of the city on the open top bus 🚌 we saw lots of cool sights, street art and the Headquarters of the EU 🇪🇺.
And just to round off the day before we headed to the Eurostar, we grabbed some final waffles 🧇 We tried a savoury ham and cheese one which was very nice and a triple chocolate drizzled one. Belgium chocolate really is delightful
16 trains later (for the whole trip), and we’re back home! All in all, it was a success! And a very fun, jam-packed 5 days – we’ve done many steps, seen many things, visited many new places, and consumed many waffles! Europe 2025, you were a blast!
(& living out of a backpack really isn’t that bad!)
If you’ve been to Disney, you’ll know how magical and fun it is. It is like no other place you’ll ever visit.
We booked a Disney package, so we were staying at a Disney hotel and had a Disney meal plan.
We stayed at Disney Santa Fe hotel, themed like the Disney Pixar movie ‘Cars’. Like everything at Disney, it was themed to perfection. It was brilliant.
We all loved it, especially my two nephews.
The Mexican restaurant at this hotel is delicious, and they also have their own shop and a Starbucks too. It’s a little further out (15 min walk) but it is a lovely walk – and you can also make use of the shuttle bus if you wish, although we enjoyed the walk.
Let’s take a look at what we got up to!
Monday 21st July 2025 ✨️
Today was a travel day really, drove down to Dover to catch the ferry this time round. The ferry trip isn’t long and stops at Calais. From here, we drove to the same hotel we stayed in last time, in Paris.
By the time we go there, we mainly just enjoyed our dinner of fresh baguettes and cheese and played a few games before bed.
Tuesday 22nd July 2025 ✨️
Today was our first Disney day! Our Paris hotel was only a little drive away from Disney, so we set off after breakfast to start our magical holiday.
Once we had checked in, we actually managed to have our first magical experience… Goofy was doing a meet and greet in our hotel foyer!!! Goofy is my all-time favourite Disney character, so I was buzzing that he was there!!
We queued up for a picture, of course! (& a hug 😄)
After that, we walked to the park enjoying the scenery from our hotel, the other hotels (some of which were only a building site when we last came!!) And the bustling Disney village.
We went to the main Disneyland Park first and enjoyed looking around, going on some rides, and just soaking it all up! I will never get bored of seeing that castle at the end of Main Street.
There was even a parade going on as we entered, so we of course watched this, my nephews loved it.
In-between rides, we also caught the end of Goofy’s magical, musical conduction of the fountains outside the Disney castle. Amazing.
Our first dinner was at Billy Bob’s tex mex in the Disney village. We came here last time and all really enjoyed it. It was just as yummy as we all remembered.
Wednesday 23rd July 2025
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This was our super busy Disney day!
We enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel before we headed out.
We got up nice and early to make the most of our ‘Magic Hours’, which are a perk of staying in a Disney hotel… and its where you get to go into the parks earlier than everyone else.
We went to the Disney Studios park this time. This one is super cool and has a very different vibe to the main park. It has some really cool rides too, and the relatively new ‘Avengers Campus’ that again was being built last time we came!
We went back to our hotel late afternoon to chill for a bit and me and my nephews and I started watching ‘Cars 2’
Our dinner reservation was at the Mexican restaurant at our hotel, ‘La Cantina’… The best Nachos 👌🏼
We returned to the main Disneyland park for more rides (the 5 min evening queues were very satisfying), and once we had done a few rides, we were ready to watch the evening fireworks show, a Disney tradition and a must see at least once during your trip.
I did 33,000 steps that day! Disney is not for the faint hearted 😂 achy feet is an understatement, thank goodness for the hotel bath.
Thursday 24th July 2025
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The weather was meant to be a bit worse today than other days, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to catch a few of the Disney shows. There are a few going on throughout each day and are well worth a watch (and are all included)
We watched the Lion King show ‘Rhythms of the Pride Lands’ which was brilliant.
We managed to meet Goofy again today 🤣 He’s really working over time atm, he is the character we saw the most (not that I’m complaining at all!!)
The weather didn’t actually end up being worse at all so we managed to get a few more rides in, in each park before seeing our second show of the day, ‘TOGETHER: a pixar musical adventure’ which was also really impressive.
We had our dinner for this day booked in at ‘PYM kitchen’ in the ‘Avengers Campus’. This was a new place for us as it wasn’t here last time we came. This place served an American buffet, and I was really impressed. The desserts were especially delicious. I think I enjoyed this meal the most, so I’m glad we managed to book a meal there and I would highly recommend it.
We managed to get on another 4/5 rides back in the Disneyland park before calling it a day.
Friday 25th July 2025 ✨️
Today was our last Disney day 😭
We enjoyed another delicious breakfast (top tier pastries) before managing to grab a Starbucks and then get on the shuttle bus to the park for another session of ‘Magic hours’ fun!
We went on quite a mixture of rides today, going on things we wanted another turn on, which differed from person to person, as well as going on some of our favourites together.
My all-time favourite ride is ‘Big Thunder Mountain’ but I also really enjoy ‘Ratatouille’, ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘Star Tours’ and ‘It’s a Small World’
We finished off our last Disney Day with dinner at the Cheyenne hotel, which is Disneys Wild West themed hotel nearby. This was really cool as the themeing again was on point, and none of us had been before.
The food was yummy and they even offered an outdoor BBQ section to the buffet, which was different to the others. The barbecued chicken skewers were yummy, and I love how each restaurant did a few desserts to match their Disney theme
And finally some more rides at the park. Another 30,000 step day haha. Our last ride was another go on ‘It’s a small world’.
It truly is the happiest place on earth 💖
We had a brilliant trip, it is such a fun and joyful place for a holiday. I can’t wait to start planning the next time, but that’s probably not for a few years. So until Next Time, bye bye Disney 👋🏻 it was a blast!
Roseanne Byford 