presents

2012….I get my life back!

- TracyB 4 Comments

2012….I get my life back!

2012

Well, relatively speaking anyway.

My son has now finished his run in panto this season and my body is very, very thankful it is all over.

The last few days have been spent looking through all the presents again. Taking time to read through books and listen to CD’s and actually play with some of the games that the boys got.

The decorations have come down and have been put away until next Christmas, and the house has resumed it’s normal look and feel. It has been the boy’s last day off today before they return to school and Mr B returns to work. So tomorrow will be blissfully quiet for me.

I managed to enjoy a fabulously chilled Christmas day with the family and my Mum and brother who had come to stay.

That was until my cat made a quick escape past us and caught my mum on the face millimetres away from her eye. These events are not unusual in my house as a few years ago she came and fractured her pelvis trying to play tennis with the boys. Last year we were all ill with ‘Swine Flu’…..     I’m sure you are getting the picture now.

Anyway, the last panto show was on New Years Eve. After, we headed off to Bluewater for a nice meal and a cinema visit before returning home to see in the new year and let off our lanterns with 2012 wishes on.

I haven’t caught up on all my blog reading and Twitter following yet so haven’t seen all of your New Years resolutions. I’ve decided to learn new skills this year and get back to my knitting, something I really enjoyed doing many years ago. But also to learn how to crochet as it’s something I have never attempted.

I cannot go down the route of exercise and diet as my body is taking a long time to recover from the panto schedule. Conventional exercise for me is out of the question at the moment as I suffer with chronic pain and chronic illness.

I’d also like to do more reading as this is something I have neglected for some time. I’ve been given a copy of ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ as one of my Christmas gifts and I’m really looking forward to starting that.

So, that’s me back to normality, with a regular routine about to start from tomorrow.

A New Year.

A New Start.

A New Skill.

How has your New year been so far and what are your resolutions?

Christmas Dinner Disasters

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Ever had one?

I must admit I’ve been lucky enough to have escaped my own Christmas dinner disasters as I have only been doing the dinner myself for the past few years. Fortunately while my boys were very young we always went to the in laws (no cooking required on my part……..result!).

However, there comes a time when the kids want to stay with their toys for the day and enjoy Christmas at home. This means all cooking required by me!!

Luckily for me my mum stays at Christmas so she cooks the turkey for me with years of experience under her belt……again a result!

However, after talking to a few people the stories started to come out. Things you can imagine and things you can’t.

*turkey doesn’t fit in the oven

*turkey not cooked properly

*cases of food poisoning

*oven breaks down while cooking the dinner

Or even in the style of Only Fools and Horses where the coffee gets mixed up with the gravy and they pour coffee all over their dinner, or the time Grandad left the giblets in the turkey!!

Top tips on how to avoid a Christmas dinner disaster


Let’s face it, Christmas dinner disasters are far from rare in most households. A poll just released shows a quarter of us have first-hand experience of something going badly wrong on the 25th December.

The most common mishaps are dry meat, turkey that is uncooked or hasn’t defrosted properly, people buying the wrong size bird and those that have simply left it so late that the shops have actually run out.

Cooking a feast of massive proportions for extended families of aunties, uncles, grandparents, and children is a task daunting enough to even make a top chef break into a cold sweat, so it’s no surprise  three quarters of the great British public suffer stress as a result of buying and preparing Christmas meat. 

But the survey commissioned by The Q Guild of Butchers to launch their ‘Meat Your Butcher Sessions’ found an overwhelming 95% of the nation has never asked for expert advice about cooking Christmas dinner whilst more than half of us just head blindly go to the supermarket, and pick meat off the shelf hoping for the best. That’s despite the fact that there is usually a butcher’s shop right round the corner, who can offer quality advice on choosing, preparing and cooking meat.

So how can a local butcher help to reduce stress, focus on value and give fresh advice for your festive feast? When should you have ordered your meat by? What’s the difference between a corn-fed turkey and a gold turkey? How much do you actually need to buy so that you don’t get stuck with masses of meat, or even worse don’t have enough to feed the family? And if you don’t even like turkey, what are the great Christmas meat alternatives?

CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS BELOW FOR THE BEST TIPS:

Advice on avoiding Christmas dinner disaster

 

I would love to hear your worst Christmas dinner disasters……………………….feel free to share!!

Light Strike Review

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Light Strike Review

When I was asked if my boys would like to review the new Light Strike range it was a total no brainer! Boys and their toys and all that.

Light Strike

Light Strike is a super-cool new interactive battle game from WowWee, makers of bestselling toys, Paper Jamz and Robosapien

 

Light Strike is the first interactive gaming system that brings video games into the real world, live and in colour. Fully customisable with built-in weapon choices and slots to attach accessories, players can make tactical decisions to add new features and functions on the go. Interactive light and sound effects put you in the middle of combat, creating exciting ever-changing battle scenarios!

We were sent 2 of the Light Strike Assault Strikers, 4 of the add-ons (enemy scanner, machine gun bi pod, refractor launch and scope) and a Light Strike ITS to try out.

They delved in straight away and unpacked everything. Then we sorted the batteries and in true boy fashion ( I don’t need the instructions……they were off). But then they decided to check out the instructions that I had thankfully kept hold of.

Anyway, they went full into action mode. Testing the noise, the aim, the strategy and ultimately who can win! They are boys after all, the alfa male gene kicked in.

So here’s the technical bit:
Light Strike brings video-game action into the real world—live and in color. Assault Strikers and Strikers are customizable with built-in weapon features and add-on attachments that give players a tactical advantage. Play one-on-one tournaments or create up to 4 teams of unlimited players for free-for-all or Capture the Flag battles. Action at the speed of light™
For more details check out the website below

http://www.lightstrike.com/

They range from £9.99 up to around £40 with the guns obviously costing the most.
The extras are just that- extras. But they certainly enhance the game between the players.
They have brilliant sound affects which the boys loved, especially the fingerprint analysis. But even better for us parents wanting a bit of quiet time they have the option of plugging in your headphones! GENIUS
My boys in truth don’t play very well together, but because of the nature of these toys they were perfect for my two. Although we were lucky enough to be sent a lot of the Light Strike range you wouldn’t necessarily need all of them to start with. Therefore, it would be something you could add to along the way, for birthdays etc.
They are available from their website and other good toy retailers

http://wowwee.com/

 

DISCLOSURE: we were sent the above range of Light Strike toys to test and review

Hotel Chocolat at Christmas!

- TracyB 4 Comments

I don’t know about you but I do love novelty Christmas chocolates, you know the stuff I’m talking about- coins, mini Santa and Snowmen, mini Christmas puds etc. I tend to buy a lot of these in order to fill up my boy’s advent calenders each year, which they love by the way.

But as far as chocolate goes I have my favourites and I’ve got to say Hotel Chocolat is one of them! OK I know what your thinking and your right they are very pricey!! But if you receive something from Hotel Chocolat you at least know people have made the effort ( as I don’t know about you but I literally could spend hours in there looking at everything!)

However, I’m on a serious budget over Christmas and have been for a few years now after having to give up work through illness. So I have had to rethink Christmas presents especially all the added ones, such as teachers etc. I tend to go for more homemade stuff, eg: hot chocolate cones, making my own gingerbread men and wrapping  and Hampers etc.

But what I do to add a little something special is to go to Hotel Chocolat and invest in their little slabs or their mini packs of 6 choc’s to use in these. So I would put 1 or 2 mini chocolates at the top of the Hot Chocolate cone. Or a little slab inside a family hamper. I tend to find that these are on offers most of the time!

But I do love their novelty gifts at Christmas, Mini Santa’s/ Snowmen/Reindeer’s etc!

So take a look at their website for their Christmas range this year:

Christmas Gifts

Stocking Fillers

The links above cover everything from the very special and expensive to the smaller, more affordable but still very special!!

DISCLOSURE: I was sent a box of their Sleekster  chocolates to try as a gift for a sponsored post.