I haven't been around much throughout December which can be blamed on moving house (AKA no WiFi for about a week and a half) and then not having a functioning computer (big thank you to my lovely family for buying me a lovely new laptop for Christmas). There are no more excuses now so feel free to shout at me next time I go MIA.
Anyway, since I was on a hiatus during December, I thought a festive round up would be nice and I could make up for all the "Holidays Are Comin'" posts that I missed. Annnndddd BEGIN... (Warning: this could be a very long post, so you might want to grab a drink..)
You might remember from (
THIS) post that my Mom and I went to see White Christmas a few weeks ago.
It kind of kicked off our Christmas as it was one of the first, major festive things we did this year. It was an amazing show - I shall be reviewing soon to give you a better idea - and I had such a lovely time (give or take me wanting to scream at the idiot of a woman who was sat next to me - the nightmare of all theatre goers... ARGH!). The show was truly enjoyable and fantastic.
White Christmas holds a special place in the hearts of my family and so it was a special experience to go and see it.
Thanks to everyone for an amazing show and thanks to my beautiful mother for coming with me to see it.
I did take some time to Christmas shop, drink hot chocolates, have the occasional festive Costa and brunch throughout November and December.
Christmas shopping got stressful at times, I won't lie to you, because the shops seemed to have nothing and then I was poorly and so a lot of the time that I spent trying to shop, I actually spent wanting to go home to bed. None the less, I feel like I bought quite well for everyone and I did enjoy spending some time in a festive but relaxed type of way.
Also, the Cheeseboard Panini at Costa is pretty awesome, just so you know.
This year, I went North Pole style on all of my Christmas presents by wrapping them in brown paper with red and white twine, white string, red string and red and white string all making appearances for decoration.
I was chuffed to bits with how they turned out and am glad that I shopped around for the perfect paper.
We decorated our new home for Christmas for the very first time and I honestly think it looks beautiful.
I feel so cosy, festive and happy looking around at the great job we did decorating.
It was really nice to just decorate since nothing had a proper place yet although I was nervous that it wouldn't look or feel right and that I'd end up awake in the middle of the night rearranging garlands and candles and all sorts but it turned out in such a way that I am so pleased with.
I'll be sad to take it all down and find the rooms looking so bare as when you actually consider it, we've had the decorations up more or less since the day we moved in and so I won't be used to living in the rooms without decorations.
I'm also pleased with how the decorations I have in my bedroom look - the little pink, fluffy tree I have has found it's home and my mistletoe fairy lights have been on every night. It all looks magical.
I also decorated the Christmas tree in my Nanny's
(not like Mary Poppins, like my Grandma, just in case you felt confused) house and I think I did a cracking job with it. My Uncle B put up the other decorations like the Father Christmas in the hallway, too and it looks lovely in the house.
An adorable thing I enjoyed throughout December was my Boofle Advent Calender.
Then, of course there was the writing of Christmas cards.
This year I bought some lovely vintage looking cards in Marks and Spencer to write out for my friends and I took ages carefully selecting cards for family members in Clinton's.
I was very pleased with the selection of cards I found and hopefully receiving them put a smile on people's faces...
I spent lots of time admiring Christmas adverts on TV.
My personal favourite was the Sainsbury's one which you can view (
HERE). It brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye all at once and I think it was just so beautiful. Other lovely adverts include (
THIS) one from John Lewis, (
THIS) one from Aldi and (
THIS) one from M&S.
All those involved in the creation of the adverts should give themselves five Brownie Points and a big pat on the back.
We headed down to the London area throughout December, one of these occasions was a few weekends ago when we had a lovely "early Christmas" with some of the family.
We had brunch with everyone, got to catch up and chat for ages all sat around the living room in the very comfy seats and open some Christmas presents.
I also went to the park in the morning with my younger cousins, all while wearing one of my fabulous Christmas jumpers.
I had a fantastic day with everyone and hope they all did too.
Also, I'd like to say a big thanks to all of them for the wonderful gifts I received from them - I love them.
I gave some of my friends their Christmas presents before Christmas and most of them opened them in front of me.
I really hope they all like them and will enjoy using them.
They also gave me some wonderful gifts - they were all very thoughtful and I'd like to say a big thanks for those.
There was also a Secret Santa on the go between a bunch of us and we all met up a few days before Christmas to exchange gifts. I received a great gift from my Secret Santa - although in fairness, it wasn't much of a Secret by the time we exchanged gifts as we presented each other with them; I'm glad I know who it was as, I got to thank them personally that way.
I hope the recipient of my Secret Santa gift likes it very much.
I had a great day out with everyone (especially the colouring competition we had... don't ask, I don't know either!)
Pantomime is yet another festive thing that took place this year, as is tradition.
This year, we went much closer to Christmas itself than usual, but that was quite nice.
I did my makeup - a gold eye with silver glitter winged liner and grey kohl on the waterline with my favourite red lippy - and dressed up in my blue and black dress and bright red shoes. I felt quite glam. The pantomime itself was absolutely excellent - we went to the Birmingham Hippodrome to see Jack and the Beanstalk.
The cast were brilliant, the panto was so hilarious I lost my ability to breathe for a while and the costumes and sets were very good. There was a whole section in 3D (I'm not spoiling anything by saying that, you know about it when you are handed 3D glasses on the doors) and that was so cool.
The whole thing was awesome and it was a great night - thanks to Auntie S and my Mommy for coming with me!
Christmas Eve, as I said (
HERE) is typically a day of table laying and things like that and then a relaxed evening in Christmas PJs watching our favourite festive films. However this year was a bit different - in a good way!
I went to my Nan's and met up with the festive Dream Team (mentioned/explained in the previously linked post). I laid the table, had a mini crisis over napkins before getting the hang of it and doing pretty well, if I do say so myself. There was cooking done that day, some last minute shopping at the supermarket, some serious Christmas jumper wearing (yes, I have a variety) and then off to a family friend's to see people and have a bit of food. And thhheeenn off round to Elf Girl's house for (terrible) singing to our favourite Christmas songs, a few games on the Wii - we are excellent at tennis - and dancing before heading home at a time that is quite late in my usual Christmas Eve terms to put on my brand new Christmas PJs.
My new Christmas PJs were a gift from my Mom - they are the same kind of pattern as my blog, red with white polka dots AKA my favourite print - and they are so comfy and cute and I love them.
No films were watched as it was fairly late and we needed energy for the next day but I did have a lovely time.
Christmas Day was wonderful.
I was lucky enough to receive all sorts of wonderful gifts and cards throughout that day - thanks everyone! - and I hope that everyone loves the gifts I got for them, too.
The food was great, crackers were pulled, films were watched, photos were taken and I think a good time was had by all.
I hope everyone had an awesome time like I did.
Boxing Day was a day of a buffet style lunch and travelling back to the London-ish area to stay with my Auntie.
That was a very enjoyable day.
It began to snow while we were inside. I didn't notice because all of the curtains at my Nan's house were drawn and the Christmas tree takes up any space you could see from. I was carrying something out to the car and as I opened the front door, I saw huge snowflakes falling from the sky and a blanket of white on the ground.
Snow is my favourite and I was absolutely delighted to see it - it counts as a white Christmas in my eyes.
It slowed right down as we were leaving and despite my hoping it would stay for when we got back, it apparently didn't stay for very long at all.
We got up on Saturday morning and left my Aunt's house to go into London.
We usually go before Christmas but, as I said, I was a bit poorly and didn't quite feel like it.
We went in to Oxford Street, saw all of the lights, went to Selfridge's and looked around a lot of the shop (I do LOVE Selfridge's) before heading further down the road to John Lewis.
I had heard about there being a "rooftop garden" there and my curiosity drew me inside.
When we reached the roof, I must say I was greatly impressed.
An enchanting little "forest" greeted us, with Christmas trees lining all of the pathways that had been set up. There were lots of clear areas from which you could see the fabulous views of the city, a little bench where you could sit with Monty the Penguin - from the advert - and have your photo taken, a little snug in a "shed" filled with lots of lovely homely bits and bobs, a little house filled with biscuit decorating opportunities, festive sweets and competitions to win electrical goods, a Hotel Chocolate hot chocolate stand - gingerbread hot chocolates are amazing! - and a big space filled with chairs, tables and benches, a big screen with footage of an open fire playing and a whole big basket of blankets for you to sit with.
It was an enchanting experience and I had a wonderful time exploring.
We headed also for Carnaby Street - who have cool decorations this year - and Liberty.
We proceeded, as always, to explore every square inch of Liberty's and I must say, I was highly impressed by the way they had decorated the store to look like a pirate ship.
I had a lovely time but what could I expect - I totally adore Liberty's!
We then set off for Covent Garden for a dander round and dinner at my beloved Porter's.
I was, however, devastated to find out that Porter's in Covent Garden is closing down but my spirits have been greatly lifted again as I found out today that a brand spanking new Porter's is opening in the new year.
For more information, mosey on over (
HERE).
We spent Sunday with some of the family, eating lots of yummy food (including Mince Pies - made by Heston... Obvs) and chatting lots about all sorts of things. It was a very nice day, it was great to see everyone and a good, relaxing time was had by all, I think.
I had a wonderful time, I hope everyone else did as well.
Yesterday was spent shopping for all manner of amazing things but you'll hear more about that soon. It was a lovely day, though, so thanks to my Auntie and my Mom for a good time out shopping!
And, so, I think that is all for my festive round up - I do hope I have included everything! I know that was a very lengthy post but at least it will make up for me being away for so long.
What festive things did you get up to? Anything similar to me? Do you have any festive traditions you'd like to share? Any comments or suggestions for future posts? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for reading. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.
Have a completely and utterly brilliant day!
GingerSnaps xxx
