Today, like most mornings, I started with a nice coffee. Jackson had an epic lie-in until 8:45am and I pretty much slept until then too - lazy!!!!!
By 10am, I had already made dinner for the evening. Gigi was coming around for the afternoon, so I thought it would be a good idea to get it ready early. All I had left to do was to add the Kidney Beans and Spinach just before serving.
One of the little ones that I look after came around to say goodbye today, as I will be on Maternity Leave after Christmas. They gave me these gorgeous flowers with a card that made me cry!
I went out for lunch with my sister, Gigi and cousins, which I forgot to take a picture of (sorry)! Then, on the way home, I got the car cleaned, which Jackson loved but it was quite busy and took a little while, so he eventually fell asleep.
The speed and the amount of people that they have cleaning the car always amazes me!
When we got home, we took the doggies on a nice little walk.
Jackson absolutely loves his Gigi, he told her where to sit and kept showing her all of his toys.
Gigi brought him a new toy - a doggie that has a flashing hat and moves and barks. He cried when he had to leave it to go for a bath.
After his bath with Dada, he came down and gave Gigi a massive cuddle, it must have been too long with out her! Ha!
We wrapped up to stay warm and went to see a local house that has the most amazing Christmas lights, all synchronised to music. They do it every year for charity (there are some incredible people around). Watching all of the children running and playing in the front garden was really lovely.
It was such a lovely day and we are so lucky to have Jackson's Gigi over from Greece for Christmas!
This is a fun recipe that you could make with your children and one that I made recently to take around to a friends house for a pre-christmas dinner (you may have heard about this in one of my previous blogs). It's a twist on the classic Rice Krispie Cakes but with a Christmas theme!
Ingredients:
50g Rice Krispies
30g Raisins (chopped)
50g Butter
100g Milk Chocolate
2tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter
30g Mini Marsh Mellows (I couldn't find mini ones, so chopped some up instead)
80g White Chocolate
'Holly Leaves' sprinkles
Firstly, you mix the raisins and the Rice Krispies together.
Next, put the other ingredients (minus the White Chocolate and the Sprinkles) into a pan.
Melt it all together on a low heat. The marsh mellow wont completely melt but that is fine.
Then mix the Rice Krispies well into the mixture.
The recipe then calls for an egg cup to make the 'Christmas Pudding' shape - I didn't have one, so I just used a few mini cup cake cases and then a couple of larger ones.
Then you let them cool for a while in the fridge and melt the White Chocolate over the top.
Once cooled, I took the cup cake cases off.
Then you divide the melted White Chocolate over all of the 'Christmas Puddings'.
Finally, it's on to the fiddly bit - adding the sprinkles!
They went down a treat at the dinner party and Jackson loved them too.
Chris had one day of his holiday allowance left to take at work. Originally we thought it would be lovely to go away as just the two of us for a quick weekend but after having a look at what was available, nothing really excited us, so instead he took a Friday off so we could go up to London when it was not so busy. We spent a while deciding what to do in town and after having a look online, we chose to take a trip to Winter Wonderland. I just love it there and have been quite a few times in the past for my birthday to do the ice skating.
The thought of being on the train for too long was not appealing in my current state, so we drove to Earls Court and pre-booked parking. We then got on the underground for a few stops to Hyde Park Corner. Not only do I think that this was easier with a toddler/buggy, I think that it was also cheaper than the train fair for a Travel Card.
When we got to Winter Wonderland, we were pretty hungry so we went and got some 'Bratwurst' and chips (got to be done at a Christmas Market!). To be honest though, Jackson ate the most of the chips. His favourite thing to do is 'dip dip'!
After food, we headed over to Santa's Grotto and, in the queue, someone offered to take a picture of all three of us, which was lovely as it's normally only one of us in the picture with Jackson.
Santa was free to visit and he was such a good one too! He asked Jackson lots of questions and if you ask me, he was the real deal!
We did buy a picture of all of us with Santa (had to be done). Head over to my instagram to see it.
Jackson got given some crayons from Santa too, which he held onto the entire way around. He also has a churro in the other hand in this photo, which we just couldn't resist as soon as we saw a vendor. Unsurprisingly, he loved it!!!
He was so cute walking around watching all of the rides. He especially loved the giant teddy bears.
We thought we would take a walk over to Harrods too, which took about 20minutes and helped Jackson nod of to sleep for a much needed nap. We took this opportunity to stop at one of the cafes in Harrods to have a coffee and a well deserved rest.
He woke up shortly afterwards and wanted a snack, so I gave him a tangerine and some crisps from ASDA - keeping it real in Harrods!
We had a look around the Christmas shop and the kids section. Some of the baby grows are just gorgeous but for £100 or so I just couldn't do it. Especially as I know what babies are like with gross stuff like throw-up and poo!!
In the kids section, Jackson found a car to ride on and was playing really nicely, that is until he pulled the head and arms off of a mannequin! We quickly raced out of there shouting sorry!!!
As soon as we got back, I had a bath to help soothe my aching muscles, as after a full day of walking and being 7 months pregnant, I was surprisingly very tired!!!
Jackson stayed up for a bit as he slept most of the way home too.
I have also created a Vlog of the day if you want to take a look below...
I did a similar 'Christmas Tag' like this one last year, with slightly different questions, so thought I would share one again. I love reading other people's answers on these too! 1.What's your favourite holiday movie? It has to be Elf!!!! I still laugh my head off throughout. 'Does someone need a hug.. aaarrghh!' 2. What's your favourite Christmas colour? I am not a fan of this colour the rest of the year and never really wear it but there is something about it at Christmas that I just love, and that of course is the colour RED. 3. Do you like to stay in your PJs or dress up for Christmas? A bit of both really. We love spending the morning in our PJs, opening presents. It's lovely to come down in our dressing gowns and messy hair. However, for lunch and the rest of the day, I like to put on a nice outfit. 4. If you could only buy one person a present this year, who would it be? This is obvious but it would have to be my son, Jackson. Chris really isn't materialistic and it's such a struggle to buy him anything anyway! 5. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Always on Christmas morning. We have done a mini present advent calendar for Jackson though and he will get a Christmas Eve basket too. 6. Have you ever built a Ginger Bread House? No, I am not a big fan of ginger bread so I have never thought to do it. Jackson's too little to do it this year but we will give it a go next year. 7. What do you like to do on your Christmas break? Have lots of friends and family time!!! 8. Any Christmas wishes? For a good birth and healthy baby in 2017 9. Favourite Christmas smell? Definitely the Christmas Tree smell. We had a fake tree last year and it was just not the same but this year we went for a real one again and I love it!!! 10. Favourite Christmas meal or treat? Has to be Pigs in Blankets but, to be honest, I am just a foodie in general so pretty much the whole day is great!!!! What would you're answers be to these questions? Love Sophia xxx
Last year we had a fake tree, seen as Jackson was crawling around at the time, and it just didn't feel right to us. It was a really cheap one that we bought, so it was quite rubbish to be honest! Therefore, this year, we thought that we would go and get a real one again, even though Jackson is in to everything at the moment (we may regret this!). We also tried a new supplier this time, which was a local company that hires a hall every Sunday to sell their plants and flowers - during Christmas, Christmas Trees are added to their stock too. We didn't want a huge one so went for a 5 & 1/2 foot one. We also thought that we had gone for a skinner one but when we got home and put it up, it was much bigger than we had thought! It was, however, a bit of a bargain at under £30.
Like last year, our theme is red, white and silver. Chris is always the 'lights-putter-onner' as I just hate doing this. Then it's my turn to put the ball balls on.
How good does it look! I was really pleased with the shape of it, once it was up and decorated. I think that next year I will look for a new star to go on top though, as I am not sure I like the one we have anymore!
Olivia, my niece, made us a Christmas decoration to put on the tree and I love it! Amazingly, it matches our colour theme too!
I picked this star up this year from Country Baskets. It's so sparkly!
Every year, I buy Jackson a new Christmas decoration of his own. Last year, I found this one saying his name which is so sweet and I love the fact it is a personalised one as Jackson can be tricky to find on things like these.
Not sure where this one is from as it's a few years old but it is a satin one. The fairy lights really bounce off of it too.
How close to Christmas do you put up your tree and are you a real or fake tree lover?
We have done our usual photo Christmas card with Jackson and the doggies this year. However, as well as this, I thought it would be nice if Jackson and I made our own cards too, to go with the Ginger Bread Men decorations we have already made for gifts to our family. These home-made cards would be just for a few people, same as the decorations because otherwise we would be making them until after Christmas!
I told Jackson that I would be painting the bottom of his foot and he got quite excited!
I really struggled to find brown paint, so I just mixed red and green to make a shade of brown. I covered his whole foot in the paint.
Then we printed it to the card.
After it had dried, we stuck on some googely eyes and made a glitter nose. I did the antlers myself (impressive, I know!).
I was so pleased with how they turned out, what do you all think?
