Your one stop cosy Christmas shop

Who knew the Christmas with a toddler would be so hard and so much fun all at once.

It's exhausting keeping up with Henry, but seeing the wonder and excitement on his face is definitely worth the early nights.

Alongside trying to be super organised, and only partially failing, we're taking advantage of stores that can cover multiple needs at once, because convenience is the name of the game when you have a little one in tow too!

On top of present buying, we're also in need of our family Christmas essentials, and nothing says Christmas like cosy, food filled days at home with your favourite people.
Enter Morrison's* with their one stop shop for all your Christmas needs.

Christmas gifts for mums and mums-to-be

My final gift guide for you today!

Mum's are kind of the forgotten ones when it comes to Christmas time. With the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready and buying all the gifts, it's the perfect time to treat the mama in your life.

One thing I'm big on for mums is self care, because we all know that mum's never put themselves first so it's the job of the gift givers to push mum's into treating themselves.

So my gift guide for mamas and mum's to be is packed with treats and good stuff!

Christmas Gifts for your fave foodie

Christmas is all about the food right?
Well it is for me anyhow, after the presents, of course!
And one thing I love is foodie presents, and luckily, so does Dann. However we have pretty much all the standard kitchen utensils, so I've been on the look out for new and obscure bits.

So my foodie gift guide, perfect for the food fan in your life, who spends all their time in kitchen.

Christmas Gifts for a Photography Fiend

You guys know I'm like the biggest photography fan ever right? I'm still learning, and feel like I could keep learning new things every single day, but I love photography and camera stuff.
To be fair, if you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know how much I adore photos, so I think this might be my favourite of all my Christmas guides. 

For your favourite photography fiend and camera lover, here's my top pics.... (yes that was intentional!)

Christmas Gifts for your geek friend

I always always find Dann incredibly difficult to shop for, in fact, guys in general are pretty hard to shop for. So my fail-safe is always geek inspiration.

Of course I know that not all geeks are guys, but I will admit this guide was inspired by the guys in my life, and a little something, something for the geeky girls.

So I've pulled together some of my absolute favourite geeky gifts, perfect for any lovable nerd.

Christmas Gifts for a toddler

Christmas shopping for kids, particularly babies and toddlers, can be a bit of a mine field. What do kids really want? And possibly more importantly, what does mum and dad want the kid to have?

To kick off my gift guide season, I've put together a few of my favourite finds, perfect for toddlers - including a mix of keepsake items, as well as role playing toys and educational and fun play room additions.

#OneLessWorry How We Get Christmas Ready

My favourite time of year is almost upon us, but I have to admit I usually start my Christmas prep way before December hits.
I like to think I'm a pretty organised person, and that quality seems to go into over-drive when I start planning Christmas.

One of my favourite things about Christmas is actually the present buying. I just love buying gifts, and I really love shopping for them. Searching out that perfect gift just gives me a little buzz, especially when I know they are going to love the gift.

But this means preparing early as one thing I have learnt from becoming a mother is shopping centres, kids and crowds are a cocktail for catastrophe, even if the pushchair does give you ample storage for all those bags.

Our Christmas Day photo diary

Is anyone else really missing Christmas already? It can't just be me? 

For a lot of people, today is the return to work, so most definitely the Christmas spirit is on it's way out. 

After a lovely little Christmas period, and some well deserved time off, I finally sat at the computer to look through our Christmas Day photos - sorry it would have been sooner but I got knocked off my feet by a nasty headcold over the New Years period - and I decided I just had to share some of our photos, because even if I do say so myself, they are damn cute!! Plus being our first Christmas as a family of three, I felt it needed to be recorded on the blog! 

Gingerbread Houses with Friends

I think one of the best things about Christmas has to be the food. Am I right? There's nothing like really good good to get you in the festive spirit.
And the food at Christmas is always so special too. Pigs in blankets, mince pies, chocolate log, Christmas pudding, turkey, candy canes and gingerbread houses.

And I seriously love gingerbread houses. We decorated our own a couple of years back, but as this is the year of starting traditions, it only seemed right to get decorating again.
As Henry is still a little young (OMG next Christmas guys, next Christmas is going to be amazing!!) we decided to have a decorating contest with our friends (and Henry's Godparents) Alice and Arran one Friday night!

Alongside our competition we had Bailey's and Bucks Fizz, pigs in blankets and mince pies of course, to get really Christmassy.

We picked up the houses with lots of decorations and icing from Tesco.
Here's some photos from our evening - we even voted on a fave - but you'll have to wait til the end of the post to see who Twitter crowned as our winner!!

Christmas Eve box

We're properly getting into the Christmas spirit over at our house, and are loving creating lots of new traditions for our little family. After all, Christmas is all about family and traditions.

One of the things I've seen on Pinterest and Facebook over recent years is Christmas Eve Boxes, and I fell in love with the idea. Of course, having Henry meant I needed to start the tradition straight away.

I love the idea of getting the Christmas joy started as early as possible (in December, I'm not completely insane), we get our decorations out on the 1st December and do little trips out to the local Christmas Markets. We have an advent candle, and next year will do advent calendars too. This year though just made sense to start our Christmas Eve Box, and I thought I'd share how I've done it, and on a budget too.

Christmas decorating with Homesense

It's December ladies and gents!! That means it's officially the month of Christmas and our house is decorated ready for the festive season!! And I'm so so excited!! 

With this year being Henry's first Christmas we really wanted to set up some family traditions - some of which I'll be blogging about, such as his Christmas Eve box, and visiting the Christmas Markets in Southampton and Winchester. 

But the first is all about decorations. 

I think one of the most magical and exciting things about Christmas is how everyone (well almost) decorates their homes to get in the spirit of Christmas. There's trees, and sparkles, and reds and golds and silvers, santas and elves, and holly and mistletoe. 

I always knew that the moment I had a child I would want Christmas to be their favourite time of year, and that starts with the decorating - and the decorating starts on the 1st December (or on the 30th November so it's ready for the first - in the case of this year... we decorated on the 25th Novemeber because I just could not wait any longer!). 

This year, we're starting our collection properly, and we've had quite a lot of help from Homesense.