I know it’s a few days yet, but let’s be honest, this is me – it’s Friday afternoon at the end of a very long term and I’m about ready to chuck my laptop into a pond. I definitely won’t be doing any more work before the festivities begin.
Now, I’m sure you have far better things to do right now than read my blog, and quite frankly, I’ve got better things to do than write it, so I just wanted to say thank you for reading this year, and I hope you have a very lovely Christmas. I always love feedback, so if you have any comments, ideas or suggestions for 2016, or general festive thoughts, just leave a comment or drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you!
They’re here! At last! The Christmas holidays are upon us! It’s that wonderful time of the year where it’s totally OK to replace tea with sherry and have mince pies for breakfast! Who am I kidding? I had mince pies for breakfast on November 1st. It’s socially acceptable now though.
The Christmas school holidays are very different from the summer holidays. They are shorter, obviously, but because it’s cold and dark most of the time, there isn’t the same pressure to be outside, doing something wholesome. In fact, lounging around on the sofa with the remote in one hand and a box of Elizabeth Shaw mints in the other is practically obligatory.
Still, if you do want to do something other than watch the Christmas movie channel, (actually a thing), then here are some ideas for you for fun things to do with your family over the Christmas holidays:
Make a plan
This, in my eyes, in essential. You can’t just go about having spontaneous Christmas fun willy nilly, it needs to be organised. Plus the act of making the chart is fun in itself. Who cares if you actually do the activities, just enjoy getting your metallic Sharpies out.
There is one household task that I feel, more than any other household task, defines your attitude to housework. It’s the one thing that you could take in isolation and declare, confidently, whether or not someone was a proper grown-up or a true slummy mummy.
It’s laundry.
Laundry is definitely not my thing.
Of all the household chores, I don’t actually mind doing it, but I am not good at it.
Essentially, I’m just too lazy. I simply cannot be bothered to sort through piles of washing, looking at labels, separating colours, changing temperatures… Seriously, who has time for that? I mean sure, it does sometimes end in unfortunate incidents like the one recently, where I accidentally washed and tumble dried some of fiancé’s very expensive suit trousers, but I’m sure he knows really that my heart was in the right place.*
The fact is that sorting dirty washing is boring. Washing labels are boring. Perhaps I would be more inclined to read them if they had cute little pictures of squirrels on them, holding up temperate signs? Perhaps.
It was at roughly this point in the train of thought that Super Savvy Me decided to embark on a little project to liven up washing symbols. They enlisted the help of a few bloggers, and their children, to come up with some more exciting and imaginative variations on washing symbols. They’ve added these to their guide to understanding washing symbols, and I’m going to tell you about Belle’s here. View Post
It doesn’t happen often that I get sent a product to review and love it so much that I immediately go out and buy some more, but that’s exactly what happened with the HotHands hand and foot warmers from Kobayashi. You don’t get much more of an endorsement than that.
You see, I’m not even just saying it to sound convincing:
Belle has always struggled with cold feet and hands. She’s a little twiglet of a thing and in the winter she gets a lot of cramps in her feet from the cold. She has some of those hand warmers that you have to boil up and then crack, but they are a lot of faff and the heat doesn’t last for long in her pockets. She’s tried layering up her socks too, but there’s only so much you can do and still retain a semblance of cool in your school uniform.
The HotHands hand and foot warmers have therefore been something of a revelation. View Post
I know there is a What I Wore Sunday or Wednesday or some day of the week, but quite frankly I’m just not organised enough to coordinate my wardrobe like that, and if you ask me to remember what day of the week it was when I wore a particular outfit then it’s just not going to happen.
I do have two new dresses to show you though, and in two different ways as it happens. They are both from my lovely new friends at Lily & Me, and honestly, I’m so happy I discovered them. What I particularly love about the clothes from Lily & Me is how easy they are to wear. All of their fabrics are deliciously soft, and they are designed and cut to be wonderfully flattering, so I’m not left feeling like a heffalump, which is always nice.
The first dress I want to show you is the Dee Brushed Dress in Winter Orchid. It’s £43.50, although you’ll see on their website that they offer 20% off when you follow them on Facebook, so that’s well worth doing. It has a cowl neck and slouch drop pockets, which I love. I’m a big fan of pockets in dresses and skirts.
I wore it recently to go to the theatre, and as we walked there, Belle spotted this fantastic bright blue painted wooden doorway. She clearly has an eye for Instagram. I was wearing the dress with my Cocoon Luxe cape and, to complete the theatre look, a hat I bought in a charity shop for £3 because I thought it made me look sassy.
Written by my fiancé, because he knows more about drinking than me.
Christmas is thirsty work.
In 2013, Travelodge quizzed 2,500 adults about their Christmas drinking habits. Their survey established that on average, adults start drinking at 09:05 on Christmas morning. Really?? Certainly not in our house. Okay, there might be a bucks fizz with breakfast, but then that’s it until preprandial drinks. Choosing something new or slightly off the beaten track is a great way to make your celebration all the more special. I’ve hunted high and low, all in the name of research to share some lovely drinks for Christmas 2015.
Purple Moose Merry X-Moose
Christmas beer is a tricky one. I’m a strong believer in supporting local breweries rather than mass produced beer that tastes like water. My choice this year comes from The Purple Moose Brewery in North Wales. Their festive beer, Merry X-Moose, is a liquid Christmas in a glass. Brewed only at Christmastime, using darker malts and aromatic hops, it punches a full flavour and is a wonderfully rich ruby colour. At 5.0% it’s perfect as a festive drop and works equally well with food or on its own. It might also be worth persuading your children to leave this out to wet Santa’s whistle on Christmas Eve. I’m not advocating driving a sleigh whilst under the influence, but Santa will be grateful. You should also try Purple Moose’s Darkside of the Moose, which took a handful of gongs in the CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britian awards.
Red wine
When it comes to wine for your Christmas meal, I’m a big fan of light red wines. There is so much rich flavour on the table that it’s important to choose a wine that won’t compete for your attention and leave your stomach feeling like two heavy weigh boxers are doing a full ten rounds inside you. For something fun, try Domaine Marcel Lapierre Raisins Gaulois 2014. The Lapierre vineyard was a pioneer of natural wines and continues the same philosophy today, delivering wines with as little human intervention as possible. Wonderfully fruity with little or no sulphur and only local yeast, this is beautifully thirst-quenching and refreshing and is easy to glug.
If you’ve a little more of a budget, I wholeheartedly recommend the 2009 Savigny les Beaune Hauts Jarrons 1er Cru, Domaine de Bellene, which is available from Berry Bros and Rudd. It’s the perfect partner of turkey, with a nose of dark berries and chocolate. That sounds like it might be heavy, but the vineyard’s stony, hillside location keeps the wine nice and balanced. Decant it and enjoy the Christmas drink of Kings.
Don’t ever be intimidated by the thought of shopping for wine at Berry Brothers. Their staff are accommodating, friendly and helpful and will help you choose wine no matter what your budget or knowledge level.
This week we went to watch Belle’s school Christmas concert in the big church in the middle of town. She was doing a duet of the French version of Away in a Manger with her friend Ella. In case you don’t know it, it has a different tune, but, confusingly for me, isn’t in French.
They were by far the best thing there, obviously. Watching them, I realised how proud I was not just of Belle, but of Ella too, of the two of them together. I’ve known Ella since she was about two weeks old, when she first met Belle, and watching them sing I realised that we were actually all standing in the church where they met for the very first time.
Remember this story about the church? It was in the little room upstairs that we went to breastfeeding group every week. I’d like to say something poetic about it being where Belle and Ella’s friendship first blossomed, but really all they did was lie next to each other on the floor and cry a bit, while Lucy, Ella’s mum, and I complained about them. Nothing much changes really.
Here they are when they had really chubby cheeks and used to like going on hiking mini-breaks together:
Hello again. London correspondent Bee here. I’m basically writing stuff on here all the time so you would have thought she could have handed over at least one of her 2015 Vuelio blog awards to me right? Apparently not.
Sigh.
Well I hope you are all having a nice ‘run up to Christmas’, as adults say when they’re trying to make small talk during the month of December. It’s the Christmas version of ‘How is uni going?’ (The answer to which is always ‘yeah great, thanks!’ when really you are silently crying inside.)
London is really nice around Christmas time though. Unless you are on Oxford Street. Then it isn’t nice and it’s like one of those dreams where you’re stuck somewhere and you’re trying to move but you can’t and you’re not sure you’ll make it out alive. But in general, London is all lovely and twinkly and everyone has some kind of hot beverage on the streets, which makes me happy because I barely ever see people on the street with drinks and it makes me wonder if they are hydrated enough.
Anyway, there are lots of things to do in the Christmas holidays here, whether you are a resident or you are taking a fun trip down for the day. I’ve got some ideas for if you’re not coming here to Christmas shop/lose your mind.View Post
Fancy yourself swooshing down the slopes? Like the idea of sipping a little something in the evening, feet warming by a fire, admiring the snowy views?
Well, good news – all you need is a child aged between 6 and 11, and a packet of felt tips. It’s couldn’t be simpler!
The competition is being run by Goodyear, the tire people, and is all about reinventing the wheel. Yes, yes, I know the idea is that you don’t reinvent the wheel, but Goodyear is all about innovation – cars wouldn’t be much use in the snow if they still used solid wood cart wheels would they? In the case of tires, progress is definitely a good thing.
The competition is to celebrate the launch of the new Goodyear winter tire – the UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 – and to enter, Goodyear are inviting children aged 6 – 11 to design the tires of the future, using their favourite Goodyear template. The tires should be practical for snowy weather, but funky too – let your imagination run wild.
With a daughter called Belle, I couldn’t not love Sass & Belle could I?
Fortunately, they do do a lot of lovely things. They even have an entire section dedicated to bee things and bee puns, so that’s Bee’s Christmas presents done in one go. I know how she just loves me crowbarring bees into her stocking.
They have an absolutely huge collection on their website, with categories for just about everyone, from mums and dads, to pet lovers and gardeners. In fact, I reckon you could do your entire Christmas present shop there if you wanted to, and with my exclusive 20% Sass & Belle discount code, you’d be a fool not to quite frankly. They do free shipping as standard on orders over £25 too.
To claim your 20% off orders over £25, just enter the code SLUMMYMUMMY when you check out.
Now, I have a bit of confession to make. My fiancé is not very keen at all on things with a ‘message’. You know the sort of thing – cushion covers that tell you you’re awesome, and motivational prints telling you to follow your own path. On one level, I’m totally with him – I never want my living room dominated by a vinyl wall sticker telling me to ‘dance like no one’s watching’ – but I am quite partial to a badger telling me to enjoy the little things. I’m allowed that right? I think so.
In case you need a little bit of shopping inspiration, I’ve picked a few of my favourite Sass & Belle gifts. Links and prices are below – I think you’ll agree that they are very reasonable.
Bee wrote this post about Syria and World Vision. I felt a bit bad about it, as she text me afterwards to tell me she cried in a cafe while she wrote it, but as Bee says, optimism is about action. I hope it makes you think.
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Recently I have pushed myself to be relentlessly optimistic.
I have complained about people putting negative Facebook statuses up about the government and current affairs, educated and researched or not. I have wanted to shut out every piece of horrifying news and walk around with a blind smile on my face to stop myself from falling apart.
But then I realised that optimism and hope isn’t just about faith, it is about action. It isn’t about avoiding difficult issues, it is about tackling them head on, doing anything you can, at least saying something, starting a conversation. So I decided that I should probably say something, because it is Charity Tuesday and if I can get even one person to read and help, then I’ve done something, and if we all just do a little bit and spread awareness then hope becomes change and optimism is no longer something we have to fight for.
In this video, Zeinab is 13 years old. The same age as my little sister, but she seems so much older. I felt like she was older than me, just by the way she spoke about her situation. She had dreams of being an artist. In Syria, she was happy and went to school with her friends. She had everything that you or I would take for granted, from a TV to clothes to a real mattress to sleep on.
After the arrival of ISIS, it was no longer safe for Zeinab to be in Syria. The only way that she could protect herself was by leaving her family behind and going to marry a grown man in Lebanon. She now lives in an informal refugee settlement with only the bare essentials. As the winter draws in, temperatures in Lebanon are dropping to below freezing and water is leaking through Zeinab’s thin tent. The things that Zeinab has had to go through at such a young age are completely unfathomable. I would stop at nothing to make sure that my sister didn’t have to go through the same thing, so I see no reason why we should let thousands of young girls like Zeinab suffer through it either.
It could happen to any of us.
Despite everything, Zeinab remains a strong young woman in the face of adversity and is making the best of things that are happening to her. The most chilling thing about the video for me was that she did not break down once or look upset at all. SHE has relentless optimism. And thanks to World Vision, she has hope for the future as well. When Zeinab arrived at the settlement there was no clean water or sanitation, but World Vision has now built latrines and water tanks to greatly improve Zeinab’s quality of life. World Vision are also providing warm winter coats to the children in the settlement to help them through the winter months.
There is a lot that we SHOULD be doing to help people in the Syrian conflict and there is NO reason why we can’t be doing these things. Even just going to World Vision, seeing more of their work and spreading the word can in turn help young women like Zeinab survive the atrocities folding out before us at this very moment.
People say that humans have destroyed this planet, but I believe that if a small percentage of them can knock it down then the rest of us can work together to build it up bigger and better than before. With optimism, help, support, awareness and whatever else it takes. Because there isn’t a life on this planet that doesn’t matter.
Please consider making a donation now. Just £14 can buy a winter coat, to help one of the two million refugee children living in tents and poor housing to survive the cold conditions.
Guess what? I have another competition for you up my sleeves! I know, another one! I bet you’re glad you still read this blog aren’t you?
This competition isn’t to win something for your kids, which is always nice, but to win something for you. Or for someone who is a bit like you that you haven’t got a Christmas present for yet.
If you’re an avid Slummy enthusiast, then you may remember a few years ago when Bee got some lovely clothes from Joe Browns and all of her dreams came true, including THAT dress. You know, the lovely yellow one with the pretty pattern on it that I secretly wished was mine.
Red wine
