Dear Boys… A memory of Christmas 2015
Dear Boys,
Another fabulous Christmas has been and gone and now we are looking straight in the eye of a new year, which is already filled with so much promise, excitement and gratitude. I just wanted to take the time though boys to write about our Christmas so that as it starts to fade from your memories you will be able to look back at this letter and remember.
The Build Up to Christmas
The build up to Christmas for us was hectic, we had just moved into our fabulous new home but everything was in chaos, the house was still half full of boxes and we seemed to be constantly trying to unpack and sort (just as we are now still). We’d had a few awful bugs which went through us all (literally) However we did manage to fit in some lovely Christmas activities though which included a trip to Winter Wonderland (an indoor theme park) and also breakfast with Father Christmas at a forest school.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve started early (as it always does with you two, one day I hope you will sleep later than 5am!) and we went downstairs to find that the elf had gone back to the North Pole but had left a Christmas eve box for you both.
The box had new pj’s (which is a tradition now in our house) for you both, a couple of books which I get out every year as I think they are lovely Christmas books. There was also the Muppets Christmas Carol dvd as that’s the one I always hold back to watch on Christmas eve as a family. It’s something I always did with my mummy when I was living at home so I like to carry that on. I’d also put in some hot chocolate, that we could have with the film and some minion popcorn which I know the boy would love. Lastly there was a Christmas jigsaw which I thought would be fun to do, as it turned out I ended up doing it on my own and some reindeer slippers for the boy. I didn’t get any for Flixster as he just doesn’t keep them on long enough. Then at the back I slipped in the usual Father Christmas plate and some reindeer food.
During the day on Christmas eve we just spent time together as a family, daddy had to spend most of the day in the garage building your play kitchen as we hadn’t had time to do it before. I took Flixster out for a walk for his nap to a local mill shop where I went to look for some Christmas place mats as I realised we didn’t have enough for the next day.
As it started to get dark I could feel the excitement building, the boy wanted to get the reindeer food out on the lawn, so we had made you both some tea, put the new pj’s on and stood at the front window scattering the food from the window onto the grass, which was followed by drinking hot chocolate and watching the muppets Christmas Carol.
After hot chocolate it was bed time so that we could wait for Father Christmas to come (we put out the obligatory mince-pie, carrot, milk and magic key of course!) and mummy and daddy could have some dinner and settle down to wrap the final bits!
I love that Father Christmas always leaves snowy footprints on the carpet!
The morning came very quickly and of course you were both up early. The stocking on your doors kept you busy whilst we all got ready and dressed. When I was a child we couldn’t go down until we were dressed and altogether as a family (well at least my mum was there!) A quick photo on the bottom of the stairs to capture the moment and then into the lounge to see if he’d been..
After a few presents had been opened we moved to the kitchen to start preparing our first treat for the day a fabulous daddy special breakfast. We took the play-doh toy sweet shop with us. The boy had wanted this for so long, I’m really not super keen on play-doh and even less so on mixing the colours (shock horror) but it was worth it to see your face and the fun you’ve had with it. It was the first time I’ve seen you playing quite nicely together and it made my heart feel warm and fuzzy.
The breakfast (which was more brunch) was so lovely and I was thankful throughout the day for having my family around me, food on the table and presents under the tree. I am so lucky to have so much to be thankful for.
Soon after breakfast my mum and dad arrived as we had invited them to come to ours for Christmas day, it’s the first time in 9 years we’ve been able to do it as we now have a bit more space to host people, rather than having to drag the table to the middle of the living room.
The boys played with Grandma and Grandad whilst hubby and I sorted out a starter. We put Flixster down for an early nap so that he’d be awake in time for the main dinner in a couple of hours time.
We did a trio of mini starters which consisted of tomato and basil soup with a slice of baguette bread, pate with crisp bread and prawn cocktail on a lettuce leaf. I’m sure I could have come up with fancy names for it but I like to keep things simple.
I’d looked forward to setting the table for so long, all the time we knew we were moving I was planning the Christmas table in the back of my head. I wanted it to be amazing to look at visually, I love Christmas so much. After a break of an hour or so it was time to serve the main event.
I have to say it was delicious, hubby did most of the cooking as its his thing. I helped with a few bits and the presentation of course!
Even Flixster ate way more than he normally does which was endorsement indeed! We all throughly enjoyed sharing the meal together around the Christmas table.
After dinner we were all very full and the boys were ready for a play again with a ll the wonderful things they had received as presents. They were very lucky, we tried not to buy too much as we are grateful for them having both sets of grandparents who also like to buy a gift or two. It was time for another tradition from my childhood, tree present’s. These were the very last present’s of the day hidden inside the tree, there are always a low value gift that’s usually a novelty, maybe a magazine, a tiny toy, bubble bath etc. I wanted to carry this on with the boys so I have done tree presents every year. We passed them around and everyone enjoyed the last of the presents.
The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking coffee and just being us. Grandma and Grandad left after the sun had gone down to go back home and we wound down for bedtime. Exhausted and happy the boys were put to bed and we had time together to reflect on the day (and eat the traditional Christmas day eve cheese and crackers!)
Another fabulous year together and another fabulous Christmas day, exhausted, happy and grateful we tucked ourselves up in bed to start again the next day.
So boys more family festive memories were made.
Please always remember I love you both unconditionally….forever.
Mummy
2015 Gratitude List – Grateful for so many things
2015 Gratitude List……So today is the last day of 2015 and I have so much to be grateful for. As a family we’ve had an amazing year, so many highs and thankfully not too many lows.
I want to make a list not to boast but to remind us as a family how far we’ve come and all we have to be grateful for. By focussing on what we are grateful for I can see things in a positive light and continue to move forward and grow as a family together in happiness.
House Move – This was the biggest thing to happen to us this year, we put our much loved house up for sale, had an offer the next day, went to see our now home the day after and made an offer ourselves and for four months after that, things dragged on with many highs and low. But we made it, we finally made it, in late November we moved house and we are in love with our new home. It already feels like our forever home and I am so grateful to live here.
Working with Good Morning Britain – Early on in the year I was involved with a project that Good Morning Britain were doing about the way people voted for the general election. I was an undecided voter and so they followed me throughout the election campaign to see how I made my mind up. For me the experience was amazing and the boy still has fond memories of our trip to London. I loved every minute of the experience and am very grateful that I was able to take part.
Work – I have an almost full time day job which I don’t really talk about on my blog, I work for the NHS and this year has brought so many fabulous opportunities to get involved with projects and new opportunities. I started the year telling myself that I would throw myself back into work after maternity leave ended and take every opportunity I can to say yes and get involved and its been a fabulous year. I am also very grateful to work with such a fabulous team, my line manager and manager are wonderful people who I really enjoy working with and under.
Family – I am and will forever be grateful for family. This year although our family hasn’t expanded like it did the year before! But we have grown in other ways. We have grown in love for each other. We have grown closer as a unit. We have grown stronger and learnt so much about each other.
Husband – I am grateful for such a loving caring man who is my other half, the milk to my coffee, the reason to my daft ideas, the calming influence when I’m on the ceiling. He is my best friend and makes me whole. He is always there for me and I cherish everyday we have together
Children- I am so grateful for the boys, the bring sunshine everyday, even when it’s raining outside. The teach me so much about myself. They bring me so much joy and happiness, I love them so much, I just want to spend so much time hugging them. This year they have both grown so much, the boy started school ( how did that happen so quickly?) and Flixster started nursery when I went back to work. I can’t express how grateful I am for them both in my life.
I have so much to be grateful for I could go on for quite a long time but I’m keeping it short with the main things in my life to be grateful for. I truly am thankful for so much, I feel blessed to be so happy in life. Thank you universe, thank you.
I hope 2016 brings us and everyone we know many more things to be grateful for, if you look hard enough even the greyest days have some sunshine, you just need to look hard enough to find it.
May 2016 bring health and happiness.
Jane
Last night we were invited to the opening of Winter Wonderland Manchester 2015! It is in the huge exhibition space at Eventcity next to the Trafford Centre. I had been last year for a nosey around to see what it was like but didn’t take the children, so I knew what to expect and knew the boy would love it. I certainly wasn’t wrong!
The entrance built the excitement for the rest of the evening, the pretend snow was a hit with both boys and the grand sign certainly looked the part!
The boy was practically dragging us over the entrance to get inside. It is advertised as the UK’s largest indoor theme park and it certainly is big. I believe there are over 40 rides. I’d say about 75% of the rides at Winter Wonderland Manchester are for younger children between about 4 and 12. There are some for the older ones but not too many. The boys seemed the perfect age to get the most out of the evening.
Winter Wonderland Manchester – The Rides
His first ride was teacups which we already know he loves, this one like many of the rides was children only. We enjoyed watching his face light up on each ride, it really was lovely to see!
I have to admit my heart was in my mouth a little when he asked to go on a ginormous inflatable slide. He’s not been on one before and I had imagined I’d be clambering up after him to bring him down when he got to the top and chickened out. I explained that once he was at the top he’d have to come down the slide and he seemed completely up for it. I needn’t have worried, he flew away from us at speed, up the ladder and down the massive slide many times. Way too fast for me to capture a decent photo!
There were a lot of inflatable attractions, which was great as it meant none of them were crowded and you could usually just get straight on. Some of them were timed so that everyone got a set amount of time but it never seemed too long before he was on for a play.
Refreshments
As it was an evening session and past the boys bedtime (all be it a Friday night) we didn’t want to stay too long as tears had already happened a couple of times, so we decided to stop for a quick refreshment before finishing the evening with the sooty show and a couple of rides. There is quite a lot of choice, from the usual fairground fare to the more unusual things that you wouldn’t expect like noodles. We had already had dinner earlier in the evening so we just looked for a snack. The boy choose a snowman muffin which I asked to but cut in half for them to share, at £2.50 it certainly wasn’t a cheap snack but I had a nibble and it was pretty tasty. The sugar hit kept him going long enough to have a good end to the evening.
Sooty Show
There were quite a few different shows advertised for the entertainment but the one the boy didn’t want to miss was Sooty, such a classic! It had him laughing out loud with the usual slapstick comedy style. There were lots of children at the front dancing and joining in but it’s not my boys style, he’d much prefer to sit and watch, so that’s exactly what we did.
Once the show was over I put a limit of two more rides before it was time to leave. He picked a flying balloon ride and one that goes round quite quickly ( I have no other way to describe it!)
By now it was way past bedtime for both of the boys (Flixster had spent the evening enjoying the lights sounds and attractions from his buggy…oh and half a muffin!!) so tired and happy we headed back home for bed. On the way home the boy asked if we could go again next year. I think that was a resounding hit with him then!
Winter Wonderland is open from now until 3rd January at Eventcity next to the Trafford Centre Manchester. Being at the Trafford Centre theres loads of free parking. The day is split into a morning session and an afternoon session.Each session lasts 4 hours and include all rides, The Sooty Show, the Christmas Circus, a Magic Show and a Meet & Greet with Santa!
Tickets & Prices – Winter Wonderland Manchester EventCity
Adult £19.50
Child (3 – 16) £19.50
Family £64.00
OAP £14.00
Child (Under 3s) Free – Ticket not required
Tickets to Winter Wonderland Manchester can be booked online here or bought on the door.
We were recently invited to spend a couple of nights away as a family courtesy of Travelodge. It couldn’t have come at a better time. With the stress of moving house we were all more than ready to take a break from the boxes piling up around us making us feel quite penned in. Our chosen city was Gateshead, neither of us had been before and after some research and some fabulous tips kindly given by Lindsay from NewcastleFamilyLife we made a plan, packed a bag and set off. We left straight after school on the Friday evening, the journey was not to bad, with a stop at a lovely services for tea we had arrived by 7:30pm to check in.
Arriving at Travelodge
The hotel (Travelodge Gateshead) was very close to the giant metro centre and is easily reached by car. There was lots of available parking so we parked up and headed in. Upon arrival I was a little nervous about our stay.The lobby was full of people who were already enjoying drinks and waiting for taxis, it was pretty noisy and I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so full of people who were heading for nights out, as it wasn’t in a city centre. Never the less the boy was super excited to be staying in a hotel so we went up to find our room. We had been given a room on the third floor at the very end of the corridor. This was good because it meant we wouldn’t have people banging past the room at all hours of the morning and waking up the children. The room itself was as expected, basic but lovely and clean. I’m not sure there’s anything that turns my stomach more than a dirty hotel room.
Travelodge – The room
The report from the boy was that his bed was very cosy!
Flixster sleeps with white noise on so we had that running next to his cot, this thankfully masked most of the noise in the night-time. I heard a few banging doors and some shouting but not enough to wake the children, I’m just a light sleeper.
Exploring the North East – Angel of the North and Beamish
The next morning as usual the boys were up early and raring to go. The hotel had given us a printed sheet of information upon arrival so I knew that the breakfast options were a choice between two different types of breakfast box. As we had two mornings there we decided to try one each day. I left this mornings choice to the boy who accompanied me downstairs at 6am to pick up 4 of the ‘Good Morning’ boxes which we took back to the room.
Can you tell they were watching television!
Can you tell they were watching television!?
Once we were finished we tidied up and headed out of the day, it was still early so we had lots of time. Our first stop Starbucks (which is super close to the travelodge and a drive thru!) for our coffee hit. Don’t judge us we are sleep deprived coffee loving parents! It also warmed us up as even just the walk to the car across the car park from the travelodge had proved to us it would be a bitterly cold day, it had lightly snowed over night so wooly hats, scarves and gloves it would be today!
Our second stop was the Angel of the North, something I’ve always wanted to see. I was not disappointed. It wasn’t far to the Angel and as we got there we discovered that there was some free parking close by which was handy for us. The ice was thick in the car park though so with steady step we made our way over to get close to her. Is ‘her’ the right way to describe the Angel of the North?
The skies were bright blue as we arrived which made for some beautiful shots but just during the time we spent there (which wasn’t long due to the biting cold) the grey snow filled clouds quickly gathered which made half the photos look like another day completely. The moody sky came in so quickly! I was glad we’ve been though and seen it in real life. I couldn’t come all that way and not touch the angel to make a wish. I’m not sure if it’s what other people do but to me it seemed like the right thing to do at that time. So wish made we headed back to the car with numb hands and freezing faces!
Our third and final stop for the day was a museum called Beamish, again it was really close by and its something that holds childhood memories for me.
I last went to Beamish when I was about 7 years old and I always remember it. We were on our first ever family holiday to a caravan on the North East coast, my parents took us. I loved it, I don’t remember much about it except remembering it was a great day out, so I was excited to return as an adult.
We weren’t disappointed, I had read on the website before hand that there would be some festive activities going on. We got to meet Father Christmas which was the first time this year for the boys. I think the boys favourite thing was getting to feed the reindeer. Hubby enjoyed the coal fuelled beef dripping authentic fish and chips. Beamish is advertised as an outdoor museum which tells the story and recreates life in the North East in the 1820’s, 1900’s and 1940’s. It is set out as separate village areas of different era’s. There is transport around the various areas although if you take a buggy you will need to fold it up. As Flixster was pretty tired, getting him in and out of the buggy all the time wasn’t going to be great for him so one of us walked while the other got the transport (tram, bus etc) around the various areas. It is easy to walk around but the transport was a novelty which the boys loved.
We went over to the 1900’s town first on recommendation of one of the drivers. We knew we wouldn’t see everything is one day so chose to just see a few things. The good thing was that the tickets we bought are valid for 1 year so we will be going back to explore the rest next year without a doubt.
I loved the town, I loved the festive touches.
The brass band started playing carols in the park bandstand as we were there which was fabulous. I would have loved more time to explore the village but the boys weren’t for looking in detail like I wanted to so I just enjoyed what I did get to see.
The stop for lunch as I already mentioned was a hit with everyone, everyone gobbled it down and it was a very popular stop with lots of visitors that day.
Even Flixster the fussy eater (well for me anyway) probably ate more than I did!
The afternoon was spent exploring the mine area and going to find Father Christmas, I think this with the reindeer food was a massive hit with the boy. I thought he’d be shy once we arrived at the big man himself but he sat on my knee and confidently asked about how he knew we were moving – Father Christmas played along beautifully!
That’s the cones of reindeer food in his hand, I love the excitement in his face and the apprehension in Flixsters, who you’ll note had taken off his socks and shoes as usual!
After a quick trip to the gift shop we were soon making our way back towards Travelodge to warm back up and get some rest. On the way back we decided to head to the Metro Centre for some tea since it was so close to the Travelodge and Travelodge Gateshead didn’t have any meal facilities. The great thing about Travelodge Gateshead is that it is so close to lots of restraints, not only is the metro centre within a few minutes drive there are also a couple of restraints within walking distance. As it had been my birthday on the Friday we went to Pizza Express to celebrate a day late. We know how family friendly Pizza Express is and once again we enjoyed a great meal with good service.
A quick look around a few shops followed before getting back into the car to go back for bedtime.
Sunday morning was again an early rise for the boys (I’m very used to it) and this morning we tried the other breakfast box but this time we took it to the car to eat on the journey as moving day was now only 48 hours away and we had SO much to do. I spoke with the lovely friendly lady on the desk as we checked out from Travelodge as she was asking how our stay had been, she explained as we were chatting that sometimes at the weekend the hotel can be a little louder but they try their very best to separate family groups from people who may be out for a good night out so that everyone is happy. It had certainly worked for us, being on the end had stopped a lot of traffic passing by our room. She said that during the week it tends to be contractors who stay and so for families with younger children a weekday stay is probably a better option. For us that’s not possible but despite this we had a good stay at Travelodge.
The way home took longer as part of our route was closed for routine work, on one hand this was frustrating as our journey length was much increased, however the journey was beautiful and we took in some fantastic scenery in the lakes which were covered in snow. We even stopped at a tiny village to take in the scenery.
When we got home, reality really bit, it was now only 36 hours to moving day and we had a lot to do, it was all hands to the pump. Well more like one of us had to coral the children whilst the other attempted to throw some things in a box! We will defiantly be returning to Gateshead and Beamish, we loved it and the two nights away was just what we needed!
For this post we were invited to stay at Travelodge Gateshead and explore the north west area.
Moving home, its been on the cards for the last half a year. I can’t believe it that we have finally moved house! I can’t believe how lucky I am. It’s been a very stressful few weeks. We moved last week after months of living in boxes tipping between actually moving and having the completion date changed, changed and changed again. We are in! I’m in love with our dream house. Unfortunately the first weekend was spent just trying to hold it all together as both hubby and Flixster were struck down with a vomiting bug (nice…..) We’ve also not had any internet which has been odd. I’m beginning to feel a little more human again after not much sleep for days and trying to catch up with myself coming backwards. The house is a complete mess but I’m so happy we are in our forever home. It still feels like a dream. I have loads of blog posts to catch up on but for now I’m just trying to find some kind of new normal, so that I can find time to sit down and write.
I just want to express my thanks to the universe for providing such a wonderful home for us, at the beginning of the year hubby and I listed exactly what we would have liked from a new home and I set about manifesting it, and now I’m sat here in the very home of our dreams. I honestly can’t believe it. Am I dreaming? It was as predicted a really emotional goodbye to our previous home as I suppose lots of people moving home feel, but this was balanced out by the excitement of arriving at our new home. When I have more time I’ll be blogging about the experience of moving home, if only to reflect on everything for the boys and to tell them the story of our move. Flixster won’t remember his first home and birth place when he’s older so I just want him to have something to look back on.
Thank you universe.
Moving Home
When I thought about myself as a parent before I had children, I always thought about the sort of parent I’d be. Would I be strict? Would I be gentle, or would I get all shouty? I never thought about what sort of child I’d have.
The boy is now 4 years old and has been in school for half a term. Being his mum obviously I know him inside out. I know what motivates him and what pushes him away. I know what he loves and doesn’t love. I know he’s a very emotional child.
He has masses of empathy for other people. If he sees someone being told off or being treated unfairly he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like loud noises, or shouting. He always knows when I’m sad, even if I’m just pretending, even when he’s busy doing something else. He gets very upset watching sad things on television, he fights back tears.
I have never told him to not be so sad, I always give him cuddles when he feels like that, and I have certainly never used the words ‘Man up’ because it’s not who he is. But I sometimes struggle to explain it to someone else.
How do you explain the complexities of an emotional child in a couple of sentences to someone you’ve never met?
Sometimes I just say he’s an emotional child, sometimes I try to explain he has a lot of empathy. Sometimes I say nothing and just let people come to their own conclusions. I just don’t want him to get hurt by anyone. It would break my heart if anyone ever told him to stop crying or man up, or if they told him it was silly to cry.
I want him to be who he is, true to himself, not having to hide his emotions. I want him to keep his empathy and to understand other people’s feelings.
I love him for exactly who he is and I don’t want him to be changed by others who think he should fit a different mould.
Last weekend we packed up the car with all the paraphernalia you need for a day out with small people and headed to our local ‘Pumpkin Patch’. We’ve never been before. My beautiful American friend Jenny from Let’s Talk Mommy has a yearly tradition with her children and when she was young of picking pumpkins. I guess over here in England its never been that popular before. When I was young pumpkins were of course available in the shop to carve and I remember buying one sometimes to carve. There was one year that my dad carved the pumpkin and my mum made a pumpkin pie…it was awful! I have since found out that pumpkin pie is in fact a delicious dish so I have no idea what my mum did that year!
Before we had children I used to dread halloween, I hated being disturbed by trick or treaters so we’d always just go out instead to avoid it all! However once again children have changed me and I now look forward to the night. I love putting up the decorations and getting ready for all the little ones who come to our door to trick or treat. So this year I wanted to start a new tradition for our family and head out to the pumpkin patch. It was also a fab chance to get some snaps of the children. We have an SLR camera which I have mentioned before but we don’t use it half as much as we should so I jumped at the chance to take it with us a practise my skills (of which I have very little!).
I love this shot of the boys going through the Maize Maze together, I try to get the boy to hold Flixsters hand more often now when they are walking, I especially love how Flixsters pointing at something in this shot.
We loved spending time looking at the pumpkins growing in the field. Flixster mainly just loved the mud, touching the mud on the pumpkins and walking in the most mud possible. But he is only 18 months old!
The sun was shining and he was enjoying himself!
There were quite a few rotting pumpkins which the boy loved, being a boy anything gory seems to fascinate him.
I really loved the visit, being outdoors with the boys, running around, taking photos, looking at all the pumpkins. I think it’s something I’d really like to do every October to kick off our halloween celebrations. A new tradition in our house has started.
