I've just been sitting down with my Kindle and a chai latte reflecting on how lovely and calm today has been!In years gone by, today has always been the worst day for the kids going into full on hyper excited mode but today, with the kids aged 11 and 14, I feel like we've turned a Christmas corner.Don't get me wrong, they're still excited and they still want to do Christmas things with me which is lovely but at the same time, they also have their own things that they want to be getting on with and I may have even seen one of them getting a bit of a head start on their homework while … [Read more...]

Last year we woke up on Christmas morning to find our heating had decided to take some time off over the festive break. ;-)It didn't exactly ruin our Christmas but we did spend a fair amount of it under a pile of blankets on the settee snuggled up together until it was finally fixed a couple of days later.This Christmas, as you might have seen if you follow me on Instagram, we seem to be having similar issues. Our new freezer was delivered yesterday which Mr Frugal tried to move into place in he garage on his own and somehow, something fell and literally smashed our plug socket from … [Read more...]

I can't believe it's Christmas next week!I haven't been feeling particularly festive if I'm honest but I think that's because, since my operation in October, we haven't really done very much outside of the house together. Even our annual Christmas days out have been either cancelled or the kids have gone with our friends instead of us which has made me sad because I love the things we do at this time of year more than any other.I'm planning on going back to work in a couple of weeks because I feel like life's been on hold for most of this year and it frustrates me. I'm about 75% me … [Read more...]

I wanted to make something Christmassy with the kids last night but a total lack of energy meant that it really needed to be something super simple which is why I decided on Peppermint creams.Based on my very vague memory of making them at school when I was in the infants, I optimistically thought that we could easily make perfect looking Peppermint Creams in less than half an hour with minimal mess and no fighting.I laid out the ingredients that we'd need, made myself a cup of tea and shouted the kids downstairs to join me for some festive fun.I have no idea how some parents get … [Read more...]