Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
These are Christmas themed this week:
On Sunday morning, we got up at a reasonable time and headed off to a garden centre on the other side of Cardiff. I'd been informed by a work colleague that it had a brilliant grotto with Santa and his missus, so that was good enough for me. Out of the three of us, I was the most excited as Mr. TheBoyandMe is a man and it takes more than that to get his enthusiasm enthused on a Sunday morning, and The Boy has not a clue who Father Christmas is.
With enough inner mistletoe for the three of us, we plodded off and found that yes indeed it had a fab grotto with Saint Nick and every-fink! Including a two hour queue!
With Mr. TBAM promising me that he didn't mind if I returned the next morning with The Boy, we had a good gander at the decorations and the pretty lights, played with some expensive carousels that we shouldn't have and explored the multitude of Christmas trees ready to be lovingly picked.
Upon arriving home and wolfing down our lunch, Mr. TBAM went into the loft and got our bargain Christmas tree (£100 reduced to £20 in a January sale five years ago), put The Boy to bed and I got busy 'growing' our tree, took me an hour to do what nature takes decades to do. (Plus no needles, no sap and no rash! Hurrah!)
When The Boy woke up and came downstairs, he walked into the dining room to see the six-footer twinkling away with over 160 white lights on it. A very different reaction to last year, as he paused, took a little step back and burst into the biggest grin ever. We then spent the next hour decorating the tree together, and his skills have definitely improved since last year as he put one decoration onto one 'branch' and didn't take them back off again; always a bonus!
And so to the title of this post:
Christmas 2009: Jingle Bells
Christmas 2010: Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus
Christmas 2011: A Smelly Stocking
This is the star I bought for our first Christmas together as husband and wife ten years ago. Fitting that it's placed on the top now by our child.
You see we buy The Boy a decoration each year to go on the tree, and write on it to commemorate the year it was given. This way when he moves out (at the age of 59, certainly not a day before!) and decorates his own family tree he will already have a good collection of quality decorations to start him off.
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I'm linking these up to three great Christmas linkies
Mummy Mishaps' Christmas Tree linky
This week's theme is quite simple:
My awesome photo
I'm late to The Gallery this week because I've been cogitating on the theme. I've got lots of photos that I really love and so picking one is really hard. However, as I opened up a browser this morning, one image caught me eye:
Visitors to my blog will recognise this as my header image, The Boy sat on a shingle beach playing with some pebbles. It was taken by me last year on holiday in Dorset and is one of my favourite pictures of him. I love the way that he stands out against the neutral tones of the shingle and the big pile of stones in front of him. I want to stroke his hair in the photo and I love the way that he is knelt down in the way that toddlers do, with his little Doodles: his first pair of shoes. And yes, I loved those dungarees as well!
It was our first holiday with The Boy, we had gone to Dorset with my parents for a week's holiday staying in a cottage on the coastline of Lyme Bay. It was a fab holiday and we had a great time in one of my favourite places in the world. The beach was a two hundred yard walk along the coast and down through the sand-dunes amongst sea cabbages and abandoned bonfires.
What you can't see in that photo though is that he's sat at the start of the 26 mile Chesil Beach, and far away in the background is Portland Bill with the most amazing storm brewing. Here's the photo in all its glory:
What do you think?
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Visit all the other entries into The Gallery by clicking on the widgetty doo-dah below
Right so in I traipsed to the capital city of Wales with its plethora of shops. I found a parking space really easily and we were in our first shop within twenty minutes of leaving home. Shopping in Cardiff at Christmas had never been so easy!
But the first shop didn't have what I wanted. And bearing in mind this was Waterstones and a fairly popular title, I wasn't impressed. They wouldn't have any back in until January.
The next few shops were entered with the soul aim of trying to find a nice top for Saturday night (Tots 100 Christmas Party) and I failed.
The following shop was Next in an effort to buy some Christmas tops, new trousers and a pair of boots for The Boy.
So having struggled down twenty steps to one of the only places that has food suitable for children (not every restaurant has to be sushi or fast food trash you know town-planners) and then had a kindly assistant help me back up, frozen our little fingers, toes and bottoms off (mine not so little), and become generally hacked off with trying to find a toilet suitable to use with The Boy, we came home.
And this is why I am now sat on the sofa with Amazon, Next and Simply Be open in separate tabs, with the television on, central heating and a cherry liquor chocolate warming the cockles of my heart and stomach! Because shopping in real-life shops sucks and the Internet is as popular as it is for a reason!
When I first started blogging I saw one or two bloggers review a product that I thought was amazing. A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd like to review it! That will be happening within the forthcoming weeks but take a look at this:
Create-a-world is a brilliant toy promoting children's imagination and story-telling skills. The creative play possibilities are endless and as it is similar to a fuzzy felt, the pieces won't slip easily but are removed without a problem. I can't wait to review this with The Boy, but in the mean-time Whitestep have kindly donated a Create-a-World (worth £49.99) for one of my readers.
To be in with a chance of winning this amazingly creative blogoversary prize, simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below:
Please note that by providing your e-mail address you are agreeing to receive correspondance from the PR company for Whitestep who may contact you about promotions.
I have been so fortunate this year to have reviewed a variety of toys and puzzles for Orchard Toys, some directly and some through the Toyology scheme. I am a massive fan of their quality and beautifully illustrated products, and The Boy adores them, begging to play their games at any opportunity.
I've recently been sent one of their most popular games to review, and I am lucky enough to be able to offer Shopping List as a blogoversary competition prize:
But the ever generous Orchard Toys have not only offered the original Shopping List game, but also the booster packs: clothes and fruit & veg!
To be in with a chance of winning this must-have blogoversary prize, simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below:
