December 14th – Forever & For Always.

The name of the Shania Twain song that was played today at one of my oldest friends dads funeral. It was so sad. Funerals have a way of making you cry your eyes out, for the family of who has passed away, but also for all the people you know who have passed away in your own life too. It all comes flooding back and you’re reminded of how you felt when you were saying goodbye to your loved ones.

I’m glad I could be there today to support my friend, I know she’d do the same if it was for me. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose my mum. It puts everything into perspective doesn’t it.. to really appreciate every little thing, every person we have in our lives because life really is short and one day it will be too late.

So in the words of Shania..

In your heart, I can still hear

A beat for every time you kiss me

And when we’re apart,

I know how much you miss me

I can feel your love for me in your heart

And there ain’t no way,

I’m lettin’ you go now

And there ain’t now way,

And there ain’t no how

I’ll never see that day

Cause I’m keeping you

Forever and for always

x

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December 13th – Never take an almost two year old shopping.

Primark and an almost two year old who hates being in his buggy is quite literally a recipe for disaster. Especially in December when everyone has the same idea as you do, just pop out to primark, see what else I can get to fill those Christmas stockings or wrap for under the tree. It would just probably be a tad less stressful without the child in tow.

Rory now lets us cuddle him and carry him around the shops, anything as long as it doesn’t involve the pushchair! He gives kisses and he knows who we all are. He’s got his mummy wrapped around his little finger and the rest of us chasing him about wherever he wants to go. He’s a cutie though and as exhausted as we all are after a day shopping with him, we are so excited to celebrate Christmas with him this year. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to get home and into my pyjamas, whack the heating on and make a cup of tea. In other news, I think my dad has moved house and slipped off the face of the earth.. I’m just unsure as to whether I really care or not.

I’ll get back to you on that one.

Sinéad xx

Selection Boxes

Love them or hate them, they’re everywhere. You can’t miss them. They’re the go to present, perfect for children, family members you haven’t seen in ages, they’re cheap and they’re cheerful and we’ve all had one or two over the years haven’t we? Me personally.. I hate them. My mum and my wife know never to get me a selection box at Christmas, unless it’s biscuits (always got time for a biscuit!) – i would much prefer a really nice box of Ferraro rochers or some after eights. Even so, you just can’t escape selection boxes still being super popular in supermarkets up and down the country!

Here I’ve listed the best of the bunch.

1. Cadbury.

Bog standard, very traditional, Cadbury’s selection box. I always remember getting one of these as a kid. These are available in just about every supermarket this year and you’ll find them for about £2. Bargain! Perfect for those little cousins or nieces and nephews.

2. Galaxy

£2.50 from Asda, but again, available pretty much everywhere. I think I’d prefer this to the bog standard Cadbury’s. What about you?

3. Haribo

I’ll admit, I didn’t know Haribo selection boxes even existed, maybe I just hadn’t been looking, but I’d definitely choose this rather than a chocolate one. £2 from Asda. I have the Haribo advent calendar so I’d be a fan of this.

4. Fox’s Mints

Exclusive to B&M – I thought this was a rather different type of selection box, at least that I’ve come across anyway. Lots of different types of mints, and absolute bargain at £1.99

5. McVities Family Circle Biscuits

Now you’re talking. Who doesn’t love a biscuits selection box though? You can get this for £3 in Tesco, I’m sure other places will do it cheaper the closer we get to Christmas.

6. M&S

My mum every year gets me and Tazmyn a box of these M&S biscuit selection boxes and my sister and her boyfriend a box too. They’re just the best. Quite pricy at £15 a box but you can’t beat Marks and Spencer really can you? Has to be done.

What are your favourite selection boxes? 🎄✨

My top picks on where to go this Christmas Day ❤️

I’ve never been to a restaurant for Christmas Day, it’s always been something I’ve wanted to try though. I guess it’s not for everyone, as lots of us love the idea of staying at home in our pyjamas with family, eating dinner and playing games, where as others love the thought of getting dressed up to go somewhere fancy for a cooked Christmas lunch and let someone else do all the cooking and washing up!

In this post, I’ve come up with my top picks of places serving Christmas lunch this year in my local area of Maidenhead & Windsor, with prices too. So hopefully, if you’re thinking of dining out this Christmas Day, you’ll find something here that takes your fancy!

1. The Golden Ball – Maidenhead

Situated in the village of Pinkneys Green in Maidenhead, The Golden Ball pub & kitchen aims to create an epic dining experience serving great British food, a fantastic selection of wines, beers, cocktails and real ales. This is the perfect place to enjoy those cosy winter evenings, in front of the fire.

Christmas Day here will cost you £69.95 for an adult. This includes a four course meal. Children are half price, and will receive a present from Father Christmas.

For The Golden Ball website, click here.

2. The Shire Horse

The Shire Horse pub & restaurant is a traditional country pub based near Littlewick Green on the A4 Bath Road, just outside of Maidenhead on the road leading to Reading.

Christmas Lunch here is priced at £62.99 per adult and this is based on a three course meal.

To view the Shire Horse website, click here.

3. Thames Riviera Maidenhead

Located on the scenic banks of the Thames, this hotel and restaurant is the ideal location for links to Legoland Windsor and both Ascot and Windsor Racecourse.

A four course Christmas lunch here is priced at £65 per adult, and £29 for children.

For more details and information, the Thames Riviera website can be found, here.

4. Toby Carvery – Maidenhead

Located on the Braywick Road in Maidenhead, you can experience a real Carvery at the home of the roasts.

Christmas Day lunch here will cost you £54.99 for a three course meal, per adult. Separate menu’s for children are available. Please note, the Maidenhead branch is almost fully booked, but the Windsor location, may still be able to cater for larger parties.

To view the website, click here.

5. Harvester – Windsor

With two locations in Windsor, Christmas Lunch at the Harvester is priced at £44.99 based on a four course meal, per adult. Separate menu’s for children are available.

To view the website & browse the menu’s, click here.

6. The Kings Arms – Cookham

A personal favourite of mine, as it’s where we had our engagement party a couple of years ago. The Kings Arms pub is centrally located in the heart of the picturesque town of Cookham.

Christmas Day Lunch here for four courses, will cost you £75.95 per adult.

To view the menu & website, click here.

7. The Belgian Arms – Maidenhead

This 200 year old pub is situated in the pretty village of Holyport in Maidenhead, set back from the green and overlooking the beautiful pond. With a warm and relaxed atmosphere, The Belgian Arms is the ideal spot for meeting up with family and friends.

The most priciest of the ones I’ve listed, Christmas Lunch here will set you back £90 per person, which is inclusive of a 7 course menu, per adult. Having tried the food here myself, I can say it truly is amazing, however, I’m not sure id want to spend £90 ahead for a Christmas lunch. What do you reckon?

To view the menu, click here.

So that’s my top picks of where to go this Christmas within my local area. I’d love to know from anyone who does infact dine at one of the offerings I have listed above, and how you found it & if it was good value for money in your opinion! Sending you all lots of Christmas wishes ✨

The Ultimate Christmas Playlist.

Whether it’s on in the background whilst you’re putting the Christmas tree up or doing some present wrapping, you can’t beat some Christmas music. We all have our favourites, and the ones that really do become annoying after a while. For us, in our household we always have Christmas music playing whilst we wrap our Christmas presents up, and on Christmas morning too whilst we’re opening presents!

In this blog post I’ve comprised the perfect Christmas playlist for you, for whatever you’re doing! ❤️

1. Wham – Last Christmas (my favourite Christmas song ever!)

2. Michael Bublé – It’s Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas

3. Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You

4. Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me

5. Brenda Lee – Rockin Around The Christmas Tree

6. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas

7. Justin Bieber – Mistletoe

8. John Lennon – War Is Over

9. Sam Smith – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

10. Leona Lewis – One More Sleep

11. The Vamps – Jingle Bell Rock

12. Kylie Minogue – Santa Baby

13. Coldplay – Christmas Lights

14. Britney Spears – My Only Wish This Year

15. Destiny’s Child – 8 Days Of Christmas

16. Matt Terry – When Christmas Comes Around

17. Sia – Santa’s Coming For Us

18. Ariana Grande – Snow In California

Favourite Christmas Movies ❤️

We all have our favourites don’t we? We made it our mission to watch as many Christmas movies in the month of December, so I thought I’d share with you, our favourite Christmas movies. If you have access to the channel 5 app, there’s hundreds of Christmas movies on there too, super cheesy, super Christmassy, just what Christmas is all about!

Our favourite Christmas Movies

1. Miracle on 34th Street (my personal fave)

2. Home Alone 2 (Tazmyns all time fave!)

3. Elf

4. Christmas With The Kranks

5. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

6. Love Actually

7. The Holiday

8. Nativity

9. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

10. Four Christmases

What are your favourite Christmas movies?

Love, Sinéad

Christmas has come around so fast this year, it’s going to be January soon and I’ll have made New Years resolutions that I managed to keep up for 3 and a half days and I’ll be wanting to rewind time so I can start all over again. That’s how it always goes. My house is turning into a crèche. I think I’m destined to be the crazy aunty and the fun big cousin forever. Lara, Ruby and Darcie left last night after spending the afternoon with us, doing Christmas crafts and eating pizza. Darcie knows every lyric to just about every song you can think of. She sang power by little mix and I video’d it. The sass on her is unreal. My heart couldn’t take it. I can’t wait to show her when she’s 18. Lara makes me feel old. She’ll be 12 next month and I was just 16 when she was born. I have grown up with her, literally. She’s beautiful, and she’s wise beyond her years. I look at her with so much love. I hope she calls me aunty nade until she’s 35 married and with kids of her own. She remembers so much too. She remembers when I made her try a jalapeño in the cinema once and how it burned the back of her throat, she remembers lots of my crazy ways. My uncle and baby Rory came over this morning for a few hours. Rory is a wild child. He’s into everything. He was amazed by the Christmas tree and soon got the hang of taking each decoration off one by one to hand to me to put back on. I can’t wait to see him on Christmas Day with lots of presents and people all around him. It’ll be so new to him but exciting.

I learnt today that Sunday’s in December are horrendous to go shopping. Everywhere is so busy. There were even kids trying to drag their scooters on the elevators in M&S.. wherever I go, I seem to be surrounded by children, only the ones in Marks and Spencer’s weren’t so cute.. when I had bags and just wanted to get up the frigging escalator to the cafe upstairs.

We finally got round to watching Love Simon this afternoon, been meaning to for months but just haven’t found the time. It’s good. It’s about a teenage boys journey of coming out to his friends and his family. He falls in love with a guy he’s been writing to anonymously online and in the end they eventually meet and everyone knows he’s gay.. it’s an uplifting movie and I’d definitely recommend it. It kinda reminded me of Juno, I’m not really sure why.

As I’m writing this we’re getting comfy in bed after a massive roast chicken dinner, I had 3 Yorkshire puddings because nobody quite makes them like aunt Bessie, I’m still not over that little mix performance on strictly (just over here waiting for perrie to go solo!) and we’re about to watch this one off drama on bbc staring Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman so I know it’s going to be bloody good.

Counting my blessings as always, and ready for another pretty full on week!

Love, Sinéad x