Our Christmas Eve 2016

Christmas Eve is finally here!!!

I am looking forward to spending next few days celebrating with family and friends.

Today we have spend the day pottering around getting everything ready for tomorrow, we visited my mums house as my Auntie Pat had arrived to spend a few days with us, took the kids to the park to wear them out a little, back for an early dinner before opening the Christmas Eve box.

The kids are super excited but are now sound asleep -  milk and mince pie have been left for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, reindeer dust scattered and Magic Key left on the door step!

Quite time for me now with a glass of fizz before playing Santa later on.

Merry Christmas Eve to you all.

Kelly x

Christmas Eve Box

Last year we introduced the tradition of a Christmas Eve Box to bring a little extra magic and sparkle to Christmas Eve, the box is full of little treats and is a great way to settle the kids before bedtime in preparation of the big day itself.

Here is a list of what we put in ours

Festive Bathtime

What better way to wind down on Christmas Eve than a lovely warm bath - I found some cute snowman bubble bath from Avon which was perfect!

PJs

After bath time the kids put on some cosy new Christmas pyjamas and are then ready to start of all the other things in the box

Christmas Movie

A Christmassy dvd to cuddle up and watch as a family

Christmas themed Chocolate

A little treat to eat whilst watching the movie 

Magic Santa Key

We don't have a fireplace in our house so to allow Santa to get in we leave out a 'magic key'

Treat for Santa & Rudolph

A tradition that I had whilst growing up to leave a mince pie and drink for Santa and 

a carrot for his reindeer

Hot Chocolate

A mug, sachet of hot chocolate - to be enjoyed before bedtime in the hope a hot milky drink will help the boys drift of to sleep

Reindeer Dust

This is such a cute ideas - make up a little bag of reindeer dust to sprinkle on the lawn - simply mix porridge oats with some edible glitter (real glitter is toxic to wildlife) and wrap with ribbon - there are also some great printable poems that you can download by searching on the internet or pinterest.  The dust will sparkle in the moonlight so that Father Christmas and his Reindeers  can see the way to your door.

Christmas Book

A lovely Christmas book for a quiet bedtime story before sleepy excited heads hit the pillow in anticipation of the arrival of Father Christmas tomorrow

I would love to hear what you put in your Christmas Eve boxes?

Kelly x

School Christmas Plays

Last went to see both Zack and Josh in their school plays.  I was a very proud mummy moment!

For the past few weeks the house has been filled with Zack singing the songs from his play "Christmas Counts" and he rocked playing the role of a cow.

 Joshua melted my heart as a one of the 3 Wise Men in his pre school nativity - he didn't do much singing but played his role beautifully and delivered his gift of gold to the baby jesus on cue!

Have your little ones had their nativity or Christmas play yet? 

Kelly x

Winter Wedding

Last weekend our friends Hayley and David were married at the Three Rivers Golf Club in a beautiful winter wedding - Every single detail was absolutely perfect - here are a few photos of their amazing Wedding Day.

Ceremony Room

Stunning Bride & Groom

Danny & I

Winter Wedding theme colours - ice blue & silver snow flakes

Guest Seating Plan

Wedding reception 

Beautiful centre pieces - crystals trees

Tables were named after crystals

Name Settings and Lotto card Favours

Wedding Gift Table - How cute is the snow dusted red letter box!

Amazing wedding cake make of Cheese!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Rome!

Kelly x

Parties, Parties, Parties!

Over the last few weeks our weekends have been packed with parties and celebrations - here is a sneak peak of a few of them

Neighbours Christmas Party

The first party of the festive season, 10 of us headed to Three Rivers Golf Club for a Best of British Christmas Party - absolutely fantastic night, I am so lucky to have such amazing neighbours we all get along so well and are often hosting or attending parties at each others houses so it was so lovely that we could all get together to go out celebrate - The venue was decorated in red, white and blue and all the tables were named after landmarks - we were on Trafalgar Square Table, a Take That tribute band entertained us over a three course dinner and we then danced the night away to the house DJ - roll on our next night out!

School Mums Night Out

The next week I was out with mums from school, we headed to Marcos tapas bar.  The food was amazing, drinks flowed and had a brilliant night in the company of these fabulous girls.  We also did a gift exchange - budget was £5 and we had so much fun stealing the gifts - I went home with a lovely photo frame

Royal Brompton Hospital Christmas Party

Joshua was diagnosed with a congenitial heart defect (pulmonary stenosis) when he was 3 months old and we have been under the care of the wonderful Royal Brompton Hospital who now do check ups on him every 6 months. We were invited to attend the Christmas Party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kensington that the Brompton Foundation host for families.  The event was truly amazing 4 hours of sold fun and the boys had a wonderful time - there was Elf Entertainers, Disney Princesses, Face painting & Glitter Tattoos, Clown making balloons, Bouncy Castle and at the end each child visited Father Christmas and received a gift which was hand picked for them - Truly magical day out!

 

Kelly x

Joshua's 3rd Birthday - Who-liday Grinch Inspired Christmas Lunch Party

At the weekend Joshua turned 3, we had a low key celebration at home with family. Josh loves Toy Story so he received amongst other presents a Buzz and Woody which he loves.

Although we had a quite day I didn't want to let the day pass with out Joshua having a special birthday lunch and cake.  I decided on a Grinch Inspired Who-liday lunch.

For decorations I used what I had laying around the house - a red and white striped running, green spotted napkins and some cake stands, for the food I keep with the red and green Grinch colours

Lunch Menu

Red & Green mini jelly pots

Elf cake slices

Lattice Crisps

Cheese and Ham Pinwheels

Grinch Sticks

Here are a few photos of Joshua's birthday.

Kelly x

Oh Christmas Tree!

This week we pulled our christmas decorations and tree down from the loft.  Nothing gets me more into the festive spirit than putting on some christmas music and decking our halls.

The boys are so into Christmas this year it melts my heart - they loved helping to decorate the tree (even if I did have to rearrange a couple of them!) and I am loving creating lots of memories and family Christmas traditions.

 So onto Christmas in our house.....

Our Christmas tree is amazing! full of baubles and decorations with memories attached to them - holidays and trips, wedding, baby first christmas, decorations that were on the tree when I was a child - I love every single one of them!

Winter Porch

Our Christmas Tree

Some of my favourite decorations

Wooden Santa that I picked up at market whilst travelling in Russia

Nativity Scene - love to include the true meaning of Christmas

Sign that hangs in my Kitchen

Kelly x