Christmas Food Shop

Today was the day we did our Christmas food shop! Now, I have never properly been on a Christmas food shop but as we are having everyone round here for Christmas my Mum and I have been organising what we are going to have and need to get etc.

We spoke first thing this morning, and she really wasn't keen on going. We both knew that we wanted to go either today or tomorrow as we felt that Sainsbury's would have been a bit hectic if we decided to put it off any later! Eventually we decided it would be a good idea to go today and get it all over and done with.

First thing we did when we got to Sainsbury's, to prepare ourselves of course, also Alice and I hadn't had breakfast, was go to our favourite place! Starbucks of course. I'm going to tell you now I had my camera with me but didn't take any photos, I don't think anyone really wants to relive a Christmas shop through photos if I'm honest haha!

We managed just under an hour in Starbucks before we decided that we should go and tackle it! The thought of it had filled me with dread as we both knew it wasn't going to be easy whilst we had a 2 year old with us as well!

In total we spent a good hour going around the shop picking up everything we needed, including a Disney Princess magazine and some Smarties Cookies to keep Alice happy!

I cannot tell you just how exhausted I felt after all of that! I was extremely out of breath, I do forget just how heavily pregnant I am! I'm a lot smaller than I was when I was carrying Alice so for me to stop and go "take it easy you are 38 weeks pregnant" doesn't really happen a lot!

Once we got back to our house, my Mum helped us unload the bags from the car and then she was off again on her many errands. I swear she is like Super Woman some days. I really just don't know how she does it all!

I wasn't going to allow myself to rest as we had plenty of things that needed to go in the freezer so my first port of call was to unpack all of the shopping so that I didn't have to worry about it at a later point. I managed it a lot quicker than I expected! It felt good to have it all out of the way. I honestly don't think I have ever had a freezer as jam packed as I do right now!

I also now have my baking things all sorted now. I am cheating I must admit! I'm using cake mixes rather than making it all by scratch but I really don't think I want to be making cakes from scratch on Christmas Eve with everything else that will be going on!

Once I had everything put away it was time to relax, well as much as I can with a 2 year old about the house! We were putting on her jewellery from her Disney Princess magazine and looking at bits from a Cinderella gift bag that we got. It was going to be saved for Christmas but unfortunately Mummy wasn't too bright whilst hiding it in the trolley and she ended up sticking out and being quite noticeable!!

But once she started to get tired she relaxed a little.

Whilst Alice was having her nap my friend Sam came over and we just sat and chatted for ages about all sorts. The time went past and the next thing I knew it was 4:15pm and little miss was still sleeping! I feel horrible when I have to wake her up from her nap but it was getting close to dinner time and I really didn't fancy having an extremely late night after last night!

As soon as she came downstairs and saw Sam, well she calls him Uncle Sam, that was it! He was dragged off to play and all sorts. I came into the kitchen at one point to find there were stickers on the kitchen counter!

He is extremely good and plays anything she wants. She can so easily wrap people around her finger it's quite funny!

Anyway I think it's time I headed off to bed. Hope you all have/ had a good day :)

Claire
xx

A Day Late

Well, for the first time in 15 days I didn't make a post. I had every intention of doing so but I started to feel incredibly ill so I gave it a miss and decided I would be better off just getting an early night instead. I have woken up this morning feeling sooo much better so I thought I'd update now whilst Alice is watching Finding Nemo.

We both weren't feeling particularly wonderful yesterday morning so we had a rather relaxed morning. My Mum text me whilst Alice was down for a nap and asked me whether we'd like to go round to hers in the afternoon. I said yes straight away as I know Alice would love to see her Grandma and since we've been ill we haven't really gone out of the house so it would be a chance to just get out!

Once Alice woke up from her nap I phoned my Mum quickly just to let her know and then I went to go and get her. I told her that Grandma was going to come over and take us to her house, as soon as she got out of her cot she danced around saying "Yipee!" [if you hadn't noticed Alice is very much a Grandma's girl!]

My Mum got to ours not much longer after Alice had woken up, she was already out in Waitrose getting food so she was just going to come and pick us up after she'd finished in there. When we got there my Mum remembered that she had bought Alice a princess advent calendar a while back so that she could have one at her house. Every time we've been over we keep forgetting to open it and we finally remembered and opened it up for her. The film around it took some getting off. We normally got told to get some scissors if we resorted to using our teeth to open things as we were growing up so this is just a picture reminder to my Mum ;)

Alice had 16 days to catch up on and she did it quite happily, just a side note, the chocolates inside were extremely tiny!

Later on Alice had noticed the angel at the top of my Mum's Christmas tree and insisted that she wanted to have a look at her. My Mum told me that I had actually picked out that angel for our tree years ago. Alice thought she was very pretty and gave her cuddles and danced around with her. It was incredibly cute to watch :)

We ended up staying at my Mum's for a roast dinner before coming home again. I didn't really take too many pictures but I do have one of Mac. So I shall leave you with a picture of Mac sleeping before I update again. Hope you are feeling healthier than myself!

Claire
xx

Alice Singing

Have I mentioned that Alice likes to sing a long with her Princess castle? Today I managed to catch it on video, admittedly only the second half of it! Also, when I say sing....it's more of a shout along with the words she picks out ;)

Anyway last night I decided to put some more chocolate decorations onto the Christmas tree, I bought 3 packs of them and decided I'd hang the first pack up. I thought that she wouldn't notice until after her nap. Oh how Mummy underestimates her daughter! An hour after she woke up she had noticed and wanted to have 1.

I've also noticed how she loves to organise her toys before she starts playing with them. The stable below had to be set just right before it was time to go off into her imagination and make up a story of her own. I could watch her play for hours. It's so lovely to see what scenes she'll act out with her toys.

I ended up tidying up and doing the washing for the majority of the afternoon and luckily she was happy just sitting down and watching Finding Nemo again. After it finished she came to find me and it was evident that my poor baby was coming down with what I can only imagine is a cold. Lots of sniffles and plenty of tissues have been used. With temperatures dropping below freezing and me turning the heating up and down I suppose it was bound to happen. Yet she still manages to smile for Mummy's camera. Goodness I have so much love for this child, even when she's not feeling well she will just get on with things and still smile at me.

Even as I type this I can hear her snoring through the baby monitor. Hopefully the Calpol will help and so will the vapouriser.

Claire

xx

Back to Blonde

This morning my Mum came over at about 9am and took Alice and I to Starbucks to have breakfast, I think Alice enjoys coming to Starbucks just as much as we do. She particularly enjoys having the Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffin as well as one of their big chocolate coins. I personally also enjoy their Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins and I had one of their Peppermint Mocha's, decaf and with whipped cream, obviously ;) Alice hadn't seen her Grandma since Tuesday and absolutely loved seeing her today. Whenever we see Grandma, Mummy becomes second best naturally. They love being in each others company and you can just tell they get up to such mischief, probably more so when I'm not around.

Our local Starbucks is attached to a Sainsbury's, for those of you who don't know what Sainsbury's is, it is a grocery store. So once we were done with breakfast we went to do a bit of shopping. I've found it's best to keep Alice involved in picking out our shopping so that she doesn't get bored. She absolutely loves picking out the fruit for me.

She managed to wrap Grandma around her little fingers, which isn't hard for her, and got her to buy a big Lindt chocolate teddy bear for her. It had to be bought as we were going around Alice managed to figure out the foil comes off quite easily and she started munching on it whilst we were going around.

Our next stop of the day was to go to our hairdresser, Mary's, house so that I could get my hair done. I am a natural blonde but as I got older my hair just got darker and darker. Earlier this year, after Craig and I split up, I decided to make a change and dye it a light blonde colour. My roots have been coming through quite badly and my hair was what I can only describe as 2-toned. As you can see in the photos below the top half is brown and the bottom is blonde!

So our trip to Mary's was to rectify that. Whilst we were in Starbucks we got a text from Mary asking if we could get to hers for 10 instead of 10:45, so we agreed and got there at 10, with another client of hers. She had meant to tell us 10:30 but never mind, she has 2 young children and said that Alice could go and play with their toys. Alice spotted a princess dress-up dress and that was it, she wanted to put it on. I have to say she is the cutest princess I have ever seen, although I may be slightly biased on that judgement!

Next thing I know Mary's finished with her other client and it is my turn. So I went to go and get my T-Bar, so I've been told it's called, done whilst Alice and Grandma carried on playing.

Once we were finished with all the foils I went to go and check on Alice, we had noticed things had gone a bit quiet near the end. This is what we found.

A very knackered out little girl, bless her!

And then we washed out the dye and.....

TA DAH!!!! I am back to blonde again. I must say this isn't a great photo of myself but it'll do to show off my newly blonde locks!

We went and dropped by my Grandparents house to drop off some bits my Mum got them from Sainsbury's and to say a quick hello as Alice and I hadn't seen them since Alice's 2nd birthday. My Grandpa had the physio over so we didn't stay for long but I think they enjoyed seeing Alice even if it was just briefly :)

The rest of the afternoon/evening we spent at my Mum's house. It's like Alice's second home so it's nice that we can just go there and relax like we would at our own home.

And that is another day over with! Hope you all have had a lovely day :)

Claire
xx

Chill Out Sunday

Today has been a very chilled out day, just what I like on a Sunday.

We woke up to quite a frosty morning outside. Alice wanted to go out and play but I decided it would be best if we waited a little bit before going outside as the decking looked incredibly slippery.

Luckily she wasn't bothered by it at all and decided playing with her Fischer Price Princess Castle was just as good.

We called Grandma to see how the Jason Mraz concert was last night. From what she was saying it was absolutely amazing, but I couldn't speak to her for too long as Alice decided she would rather chat to her on the phone instead.

After we did have a quick Skype call with her but Alice didn't seem too bothered about talking to Grandma on Skype so we didn't chat for long but did decide that she should come and see Alice later on.

I looked around for some more Christmas decorations around the house so that I can put them up tonight whilst Alice is sleeping. I have to do this as when I try to decorate whilst Alice is around she would rather play with the decorations and she wants to dictate where everything goes. That's what I get for having a strong-minded 2 year old.

I eventually found our Christmas wreath and it's hanger to hang on the door but as I quickly found out the hanger won't fit around our door properly, which isn't much help for me :(

Alice enjoyed looking at the berries on it and thought the "candles" were brilliant, especially as when she blew them they went out ;)

At about 3pm Alice had woken up from her nap and Grandma was coming over to take us back to hers for dinner as it is my cousin Max's last day in the UK before he heads off to Australia to join his Dad and his Dad's girlfriend out there. Once we got there obviously Grandpa wanted to come say hello to Alice which then turned into him being told to play around with a ball. Next thing you know Alice has Grandpa throwing the ball onto the ceiling, seriously!!

Next thing you know she even has Grandma having a go. Unfortunately Grandma isn't as good at it as Grandpa is.

Whilst there I got offered a mince pie, which I just couldn't turn down as I haven't had one so far this year. As it is December this had to be rectified as soon as possible ;)

Whilst we sat down with our mince pies Alice decided that we should watch Cinderella. This is one of her all time favourite movies, she loves to sing along with it and Grandma enjoys watching it just as much as she does I feel.

When the time came Grandma and Auntie Em went out to go and get kebabs for our dinner so Alice and I just chilled out at their house. As we were chilling out on the couch I thought I'd try and get a nice picture of us..... Alice had other ideas haha. I also don't think it's the most flattering one of me but I couldn't not put up this hilarious face!

Alice is quite the character, if you couldn't quite tell. She loves an audience and what better way of getting an audience than whilst we are all sitting down in the lounge having our dinner. She can wrap anyone around her little finger if she wants to. Tonight she decided that she was going to shout "Boo" and everyone has to get a fright. Obviously her audience was willing to play along, and who couldn't with such a sweet face like hers.

 

Before Alice and I went home we decided it would be a good idea to get a picture of the 4 cousins together beforehand as this will be the last time we are all together for at least a year.

We said our farewells, Alice just said bye as usual as she doesn't really understand what is going on. Good Luck with your flight tomorrow Max! We hope you get to Australia safely and we hope to hear from you soon.

Claire
xx