For the final day of Blogmas I thought I would share some of the Christmas fun we’ve been up to on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!
Christmas Eve
Me and my sister continued our tradition of meeting up for a burger with our friend.
Obviously being 2020 we had to get it takeaway and outside ๐ท
So we incorporated a walk around the park and it was really nice (except the rain shower!!)
I had the Caffe Nero Mint Hot Choc finally, and it was so delicious and festive too
We also have a tradition of going around our local town to look at the christmad lights.
We keep an eye out in the weeks leading up to Christmas eve and there are a few that are always good too.
There were some brilliant lights on display this year.
Keepin’ it COVID secure by going in our separate cars and we just chatted over a voice call, worked pretty well ๐คฃ
Left my Stocking out for Santa, obv!
Christmas Day
Me and Tim started the day with a delicious and festive nutella pastry Christmas tree & a cuppa!
Followed by present opening ๐
My father in law provided a lovely Christmas lunch for us, we had my brother in law on Zoom, at the dinner table with us… very 2020!
We enjoyed a bit of a relax and a TV break before another family Zoom with a game of birds names.
We had the standard Christmas day buffet in the eve with the other half of our bubble, my twin sister, brother in law and nephews.
We had fun opening presents, had a bit of a dance and enjoyed some yummy food.
It’s been a strange one in the sense that we are all (hopefully) being more cautious than usual this year, but it has been fun to be able to keep some traditions alive and to get together, where possible, to celebrate
I really hope that you’ve all enjoyed your day ๐ ๐ป
Tier Four tomorrow! But we still have Boxing day Skype fun planned with a Christmas themed family quiz.
Stay safe and thankyou so much for joining me again for another fun, festive and unforgettable Blogmas.
I love documenting what we get up to in the Summer holidays.
Though thanks to Covid we didnt actually have a Summer ‘holiday’, I also didn’t have to work this Summer, so I had all six weeks to enjoy, have fun and relax ready for Sept!
So, without further ado, let’s have a look at what we got up to…
I’m in London all weekend so I thought I would share all of my festive activities with you guys.
Today, after staying up in London with one of my Uni friends (See yesterdays post for what I got up to in London yesterday ~ Blogmas Day 14 we met up with another of our uni friends and went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.
I’ve been a couple of times before but not for at least two or three years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to go again and see what’s changed and have a nice festive day out.
At Winter Wonderland it is free to get in and have a look around.
There are lots of stalls, food places, craft, hot chocolate, snacks, beer and rides to go on (at extra cost)
But, if you want to, before you go you can book onto some of their other experiences that they have on offer, such as Ice skating, a big wheel, ice bar with ice sculptures and shows such as the circus.
When I have been with friends previously we have booked onto the ice bar, some of the shows and the big wheel.
This time, as we have kiddies with us too, we thought it would be nice to just have a look around, instead of booking the big things.
It’s a lovely festive day out so it’s nice that you dont necessarily have to pay extra for all the other things, but you can if you want to.
I’m not sure whether you can book on the day, it might just depend on availability.
I didn’t know what to expect from the festive version, maybe just a few Christmas decorations, but it didn’t disappoint.
The enchnacements and extras from the original one were really cool so it really didn’t matter that 3 of the 4 of us had been to the original Friends fest.
Let’s take a look…
Rachel & Monica’s Apartment
Chandler & Joey’s apartment
Central Perk
Recreating Festive scenes
‘I’m the Holiday Armadillo!!’
Food
We didn’t eat at Friendsfest last time so it was good to try some bits.
They had a very festive chocolate orange hot chocolate on offer, it was amazing. It had whipped cream and mini choc orange segments on top!! So good.
We got Joey’s pizza for lunch which was super delicious (& I had the Joey special!!!) Because it was too good to just get one piece.
It was so much fun!
The festive extras were brilliant and it really got us all into the festive spirit.
Me and my friend went to a wreath making workshop this year. We did it in November in order to get the most out of our wreaths.
These were made with real fresh foliage and they were really fun to make.
The workshop was only with three others so five of us in total which gave it a nice relaxed atmosphere.
The lady who tan the workshop was lovely and very helpful and attentive.
We even got chocolate cake and cups of tea whilst we were creating our wreaths, always a winner when cakes involved.
You started by preparing your wreaths ring, then you added your large foliage as you desired. We had lots of different ones to choose from (I would love to tell you what they were but I’m no gardener haha) I did recognize the holly of course!
As extras we had pine cones, holly berries, cinnamon sticks, white berries, dried orange and lime slices as well as little Robin’s.
There was also a choice of ribbon to finish off your wreath. I chose the red and gold to match my theme. I love the more traditional Christmas colours.
I thought it was going to be really hard and fiddly, some bits were fiddly but over all I really enjoyed giving it a go and it was nice to get creative and just chill out.
I can be quite creative sometimes and I love making things, it’s one of those hobbies I don’t do enough!! So it was great to make time for it and have a lovely evening with my friend.
Me & my mum went out for afternoon tea to start off the half term! We both work in schools so we thought it would be a nice treat at the beginning of the holidays.
We went to a little cafe along the waterfront, in our hometown and it was lovely.
The interior of the cafe was really cool and quirky and the view (with sunshine!!) was amazing.
There were three tiers to the afternoon tea. On the bottom tier were finger sandwiches: Smoked salmon & cream cheese, Ham & mustard, Cheese & red onion chutney and cucumber.
The second tier was cakes, we had a piece of Victoria sponge to share, a piece of coffe cake to share syns a lemon curd that each.
The final, top tier was the fruit scones with clotted cream and jam.
You also got a pot of tea or coffee to accompany your food.
Sunday
I spent Sunday relaxing at a local day spa with my friend.
It was a great way to wind down after a busy first half term.
Relaxing in the jacuzzi, sizzling in the sauna & having a spot of lunch too.
We both decided to treat ourselves to a treatment on this occasion. I went for a back, neck and shoulder massage (Which was amazing) & my friend went for a facial.
A perfect Sunday ๐ง๐ผโโ๏ธ๐ง
Monday
Before heading to work in the afternoon I caught up with my friend Livy and her little bundle of joy (SO CUTE!!) Finley.
We met at a local cafe, that I love! & is just around the corner, for what is possibly one of my favourite meals, Brunch!
So good!
But not as good as the catch up and Finley cuddles/giggles โค
Wednesday
Another day, another brunch!
& this time with my lovely work friends from school.
It can be really tricky organising getting us altogether so it was lovely to be able to finally coordinate our calendars during a school holiday! We see each other every day but it’s good to just be able to chat properly.
Brunch is one of my favourite meals! Breakfast food is the best food for sure.
Thursday
On thursday evening I had both of my nephews and my niece over for a sleepover! (Call me crazy, but it was really fun)
I’ve never had them all at once seeing as they are 5, 3 & 2 but it was triple the fun.
We did lots of fun colouring together as I bought them a little colouring pad and pencil set each for the occasion.
We had tomato and cheesey pasta followed by a bit of Peppa Pig and a story.
And to make things even better they all went straight off to sleep ๐ด
Friday
On Friday morning I took the boys to the cinema before they headed home.
It was Casey’s pick this time and we watched Shaun the Sheep Farmaggedon.
With lots of snacks of course!
In the afternoon I headed to the station as me and my Auntie had a weekend in London planned together and I was meeting her on the train.
Once we had got to the hotel we headed out for a spot of dinner at a local Bella Italia. It was delicious!
We both had Calamari to start followed by a ‘Create your own’ pizza for me and creamy pasta for my Auntie.
I’ve never known a chain Italian restaurant to have a create your own option so this was great. I went for mozzerella, garlic mushrooms & salami.
Once we had eaten we headed back to the hotel to change then made our way to the theatre.
The show was amazing and such a cool and modern way to tell history.
If you dont know, Six is a musical concert telling the story of Henty the 8ths Six wives. They perform songs as if they are in a girl band and each take it in turns to tell their story.
The songs were really good and the singing was incredible.
Saturday
We started off the day as any day that proceeds a night stay away should… with an unlimited breakfast buffet, YES.
After that we packed up our things and headed to our first stop of the day, our London Bus tour.
I know that its so touristy but I’ve always wanted to do one so that’s something to tick off the bucket list.
We really enjoyed seeing all the different London sights.
We were definatly ready for some lunch, after our two hour trip, so we headed to a nearby restaurant/bakery for what turned out to be an incredibly delicious meal.
This avocado on toast was to die for and the chocolate bomb cake that I had afterwards was pure indulgence!
All that was left to do after this was make our way back to Covent Garden and grab our bags.
We stopped off for a cheeky soft drink at the hotel before making our way to London Liverpool street, homeward bound.
It was such a fun weekend ๐
I had a great time xx
Sunday
Today was the last day of half term ๐ญ
But, it still counts so we made the most of it by spending the day together, having fun!
We started off by gaming, ‘caus we’re cool ๐
& we took sed gaming to that lovely local cafe I mentioned in Mondays entry, (because as I said, its awesome)
So we spent the late morning/early afternoon playing in there and having some yummy lunch together.
The perfect end to half term with my favourite ๐
So, last weekend me and my Uni friends met up, but this time it wasn’t any old meet up, it was our 10 year friendaversary meet up!
Let’s take it back to the start
…
In 2009 I did my first year of university at the University of East London (UEL).
Whilst studying for my degree in Early Chiodhood studies (ECS) at the Stratford Campus I was introduced, at the beginning of a morning lecture, to Kirsty & Tarana and as they say, the rest is history!
And we’ve been friends ever since!
I only studied at UEL for a year before returning to my hometown to complete my studies, but we always stayed in contact and have met up at least every few of months, in London.
So, that’s the background, let’s see how we celebrate 10 years of friendship.
As I said, I went down to London last weekend to meet the girls and we had a fun day planned.
Meeting at Stratford, we headed to Leciester Square for lunch.
We always had a tradition of getting the pizza hut buffet after some of our lectures during the Uni year and so we thought this was the perfect tradition to start the day with.
It was really good!!
I havn’t had the buffet in ages ๐
Once we had eaten and had a catch up we headed to the main event, Matilda The Musical!!!
We wanted to do something we had done together before, as it’s a special occasion, and we all love musicals so we chose this one as it’s a brilliant story (A children’s one, very apt for ECS graduates) and none of us have seen it before either.
The musical is AMAZING!! The actors were fantastic, really talented and very funny. How those children get up on that stage and perform like that is beyond me but it is aweosme to watch.
The music ans songs by Tim Minchin are brilliant too. You’ll be singing them for days, trust me!
If you are a fan of the book or the classic film (as I am) then I would 100% recommend this to you!! It won’t disappoint.
It was getting late once we had made it out of the theatre so we said our goodbyes and headed home.
It was a really fun day out and a great way to celebrate two of the loveliest people I know.
Even though I only went to UEL for a year I will always be glad that I did. It was a great experience in halls and I met some lovely people, including these two, so I will always be grateful for that.
I hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of the Summer holidays!
I love doing a diary for each school holiday, it’s a great way of remembering what Ive got up to, a 21st century diary ๐๐ป
Friday 24th May 2019
Me & Tim got some good use out of our Unlimited Cinema cards tonight by watching two films!
We watched ‘Detective Pikachu’ followed by ‘Rocketman’.
Both were really good. We had already seen Detective Pikachu and we just wanted to see it again, great for any Pokemon fans โ๐ป
Rocketman was also really good but not my fave of the recent biopic films.
Saturday 25th May 2019
Today I met up with my friend and her boys at the park. I took Noah & Casey with my to play with her boys.
They loved the bus ride.
We had a great time at the park, enjoying the sunshine and playing with all of the boys ๐
Me & Tim took the boys to see ‘Secret Life of Pets 2’. This was Casey’s pick as he loves cats ๐ & he really enjoyed himself.
In the eve, once I’d dropped the boys off, me and my friends met up again and had a Chinese together at a local buffet restaurant. So good.
& a great opportunity for a catch up!
Sunday 26th May 2019
A busy weekend rounded off with a family day trip to Cambridge for some retail therapy.
Me & Tim drove down with my twin sister Sarah, Noah & Casey, whilst my older sister Charlotte drive down with her husband & Evie.
It was a lovely day and we enjoyed shopping (First stop, Primark of course!) Followed by some yummy lunch from our favourite Italian which we introduced to everyone, Aromi ๐๐ป Their veggie pesto lasagne is the one.
The kids loved the play area too.
Monday 27th May 2019
Cult Cafe for Tea, Cake & Games.
This has become our bank holiday Monday tradition and it’s great.
We usually chill on the bank holiday ans as the weekend was busy this is what we did. In the afternoon we decided to get out for a bit, Cabin fever was setting in!
This was really lovely โก
Wednesday 29th May 2019
Today, with work, we visited a local farm.
It was a lovely day, really chilled It was fun being outside and visiting a farm I hadn’t been to before either.
Friday 31st May 2019
Today we met my friends little boy, Finley โก
We hadn’t met him before and it was lovely to have cuddles he is adorable.
& it was a great excuse to get the girls together and have a bit of tea & cake.
Our friend was home for the weekend too which was great timing.
We went to my other friends in the evening for dinner which was great too.
Sunday 2nd June 2019
To round off the half term we decided to again take advantage of the lovely warm weather by taking a trip to Felixstowe.
‘Oh, I do like to he beside the seaside… ๐’
We enjoyed a lovely meal of fish & chips, Mr Whippy & doughnuts on the beach. We had a lovely stroll along the prom before heading into the pier for some amusements. The perfect afternoon.
I even had a little paddle ๐โ๏ธ The weather was great.
I hope you enjoyed or are enjoying your half term!
Roseanne Byford 