Little White Lies.

There's a small thing happening in 7 days, a tiny weeny holiday that can bite you on the bum if your not ready. Its called Christmas and only occurs once a year.

My kids think that because they are "grown up" they must not believe in anything remotely kiddish or magical and God forbid that they actually admit that they secretly still love all the surprises that flood our home at Christmas.

Here are my top Christmas rituals that I will carry on with until there is nobody to carry it on for (which is highly unlikely as I dont think The Whirlwind will ever leave home)


1. The Christmas cuddly toys come down from the loft and spend 1 month and 1 month only on the kids beds. They include a giant Santa, Reindeer and a Snowman and on the 1st of December The Husband gentle passes flings them down to the kids waiting arms. As much as they pretend to groan that they have to have them, each night when I go in to check all is well they are firmly placed on their beds. And if I move one of them away it is always back in the morning.

2. All of the Christmas DVDs are dug from the depths of the cupboard and placed in a basket ready for Sunday afternoon film and stuff your face time. We have managed it every Sunday so far and have wondered at how the kids still love them rather than the usual dross they watch.










3. Hot Chocolate becomes a daily drink when they get home from school and is usually placed in any old mug but on the 1st December it all changes. Gone are the Ikea cups and out come the Christmas mugs for all to see.









4. The tree goes up on the 1st and is decorated with love and affection by mainly.....well......Me. We have one decoration that I have had since I was little and the kids now love her too. She is a battered,smelly, dirty sort of hedgehog angel which I would imagine looked really cute when first purchased. It now looks a bit like its been in a road traffic accident and run over 100 times, but do we care...No, we do not and each year we all say hello to her and place the old lady of our decorations carefully on the tree. Unfortunaely we have to place her up high as The Dog has taken a particular dislike to her and we fear for her safety.




5. On Christmas Eve we have an old tradition that I have been doing since the kids were tiny. We got them an angel each and each year they place them out in the porch and shut the door. At about 8pm we would tell them to go and check if they were still there. As they open the door the usual squeals of delight comes from them as they realise that they have gone. We tell them that they have flown off to The North Pole to get Santa and that they had better get to sleep as quick as they can.................Now, this worked well for about 12 years and I swear to you we had 2 kids fast asleep by 8.30 every Christmas. Then The Daughter became a Teenager and got wise to the fact that Dad always disappears for a bit and then as if by magic the angels have gone. Try as we might to convince her she was having none of it so we had to come clean. This did however have its advantages as she promised not to tell The Whirlwind and we enrolled her into our secret ditch the angel club.


6. On Christmas morning we always have waffles, this is coursety of the best machine I have ever purchased and we only use it on the 25-26th December. The smell of toasted waffles wafting upstairs in enough to make your mouth water and it certainly makes everyone hungry. I of course wont be having any as I want to remain slim and gorgeous...............Ha ha, as if......I will be having about 4 helpings washed down with Bucks Fizz. Blow the diet until New Year.

7. At 7pm on Christmas Day it is traditional in our house to receive a brand new pair of PJ's and have the option to wear them. This of course doesn't take much persuading as we all run upstairs and slip them on ready for the evenings entertainment. I must stress that we only do this if we are alone and not if we have company....Well not unless they bring their PJ's too.






8. This year I am beginning a new tradition of playing a certain game that we all love but have never owned...Cluedo. We will ditch Monopoly which in my mind in the most mind numbingly, boring, monotonous game I have ever played. Instead we will solve the biggest Who Dunnit mystery of all time. I am insisting that we all talk like the character we play and remember to call each other the appropriate name at all times or a forfeit will incur. Just need to make sure The Husband gets Miss Peacock.......Now that will be funny.







So, there we go The 40 Year Old Domestic Goddess top traditions. I am sure we all have different ones and that as parents we all go to extraordinary lengths to keep them going for our kids. As much as my 2 claim they are bigger, older and wiser now I bet if I stopped doing all of the above they would be devastated. I would also imagine that as they get older we will add to the list and possibly take some away but one things for sure...........numbers 4,6,7 and 8 wont be going anywhere.

Happy Christmas To You All
Love
Me
xxxxx

Smile.

Its been a funny old week, so many things have made me chuckle out loud. Rather than boring you all with many posts I have decided to condense it all into bullet notes.


1. Whilst unloading the car the dog came running out to greet me, I told him to get inside and carried on lugging my shopping up to the house. 20 minutes later I noticed the dog was missing, as I looked outside I saw his little head pop up in the back of the car.....Stupid thing had thought I meant get inside the car not the house.


2. Dropping a piece of ham down my top whilst doing a craft show only to find it that night as I undressed. Heard a little plop on the bathroom floor and there it was.........Must of been nestled amongst my boobs all afternoon.......Grim!!!


3. Managing to get wax off of The Teenagers uniform after she decided to push a lump of melted wax down in a jar I was trying to dissolve in hot water. As she came out of the kitchen she looked like a flock of seagulls had pooped all over her........Holding my laughter in I put the iron on and grabbed some greaseproof paper.....Ta Dah.....Ironed it all off.....I'm not called The Domestic Goddess for nothing.

4.Turning up at a good friends house to surprise her on her 40th birthday with 4 of my closest girl friends with balloons, wine, chocolates, flowers and gifts in the dark and nearly wetting myself laughing as I struggled to get out of the back seat of the car. With one pushing me and one pulling me I almost made the sound of a cork as I popped out of the door.

5. The Whirlwind made me smile when he tried to give me relationship advice....."You know Mum, if you shave your legs a bit more often Dad will stay married to you for much longer." Out of the mouths of babes and all that.

6. The Husbands face was one of glee when he came home from work only to find I had put all the Xmas lights up outside, although I hadn't realised they were on strobe and my house resembled  a cheap and nasty bar in Benidorm for a while. The only thing missing was a neon sign saying "The Blue Parrot Bar"and a queue of scantily dressed people

7. Finished up all my wrapping of Xmas gifts. Then wandered obliviously round the whole of Tescos with strips of cello tape still stuck to both my legs. If you suddenly see this trend in Vogue you will all know it was me who started it (Watch this space).

8. Wearing a spanking new pair of leather gloves to go for coffee with a friend and only noticing that they had left black smudges all over my face when I got home. As I looked in the mirror 2 things struck me.....1. I resembled one of the cast of Oliver and 2. Why hadn't my so called friend told me that????? She claimed she never noticed but I have my suspicions.

So there we go, 8 things that have made me smile this week. I have come to the conclusion that someone upstairs (and in that I mean Heaven not upstairs in my house) has a whale of a time watching my antics and who am I to ruin their fun. Life is far to short for anything other than smiling, laughing and not taking yourself to seriously.

Lots of Love
Me xxx

Yorkshire Linen Product Review

There is nothing quite like clean sheets, I can honestly say it is one of my favourite things ever. So when the lovely people at Yorkshire Linens asked me to do a product review for them I jumped at the chance. I decided to let The Teenager try out the duvet set so ordered the rather beautiful and very on trend Canterbury Set.







The delivery was super quick and I loved the packet it came in. So many duvet sets only show you a tiny picture of what it will look like once on but with this set it showed a full size picture. I did have to give it a wash first as it felt quite stiff to the touch but once washed it was beautifully soft. I purposely put it in with a white pillow case to see if the colours ran but they didn't and the case came out still white. The duvet had poppers instead of buttons which I find so much easier and quicker. Once on The Teenagers bed it looked stunning and I wished I had curtains to match along with scatter cushions. She was totally delighted and loved how it gave her room a new lease of life as well as being totally surprised when she realised it was a lovely spotty design on the other side.

She awoke this morning saying how soft and lovely it was and could I please order her another one for when this one got dirty. In fact, she loved it so much she even made her own bed.

I have spent this afternoon browsing through the website and I have to say that the choice of colours and styles are brilliant. I will definitely be going back and placing an order for myself.

Thanks Yorkshire Linens