A pocket of my life

I think December 2024 has been the busiest month of my life, along with moving, working and Christmas all taking up time, I am glad for the little best of quiet before going back to work next week. December started off with us moving house , this has been the craziest thing ever and it still doesn't feel real that we have moved and won't be going back to the flat ever again. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't wait to move but I will miss the view from the flat and it makes me emotional thinking about all the memories we have made together there. I have also been trying to keep it as normal as possible for the kids so we took a trip to a festive day at our local shopping centre, they had a merry-go-round, hook a duck, candy floss and Sanea reading stories. We also managed to visit Santa properly the week after which Olivia loved.  In the middle of the month we took a trip to Sheffield park for The Snowman event that they had running, this was a chance to catch up with my Da...

Another show ticked off for 2024, this time one of my favourite and one we can all enjoy, a Panto. This year local pantomime was Peter Pan at the White rock theatre. This years celebs are Emily steel, AKA Dynamite from Gladiators plays Wendy and our Tinkerbell was portrayed by Alexandra Mardell who plays Emma in Corination Street. Both ladies were brilliant and both had great singing voices too. We also had to familiar faces in the Hastings Panto of Ben Watson and Tim Mcarthur who return every and have amazing repore between each other and the audience. The show had all the classic panto moments with lots of audience participation such as 'oh yes it is, oh no it's not' and 'it's behind you' along with the pie in the face a d tongue twisters.  The songs were all on trend and worked well with the story and were all sung with passion, the dancers were brilliant too and filled the stage with colour and fun. The story was a little different this time as i...

What a festive, beautiful afternoon on a hunt for The Snowman. We took a drive out to Sheffield park in Sussex where they have a beautiful event celebrating the beautiful stories written by Raymond Briggs. The walk around the enchanting gardens involved finding 12 decorated sculptures along with some painted boards with the characters and parts from The Snowman and activities along the way, such as snowball target practice and making music. Whilst walking around the trail you are treated to some of the music from the films making it feel like you are fully immersed in the story. With loads of photo opportunities to including a sleigh and decorated trees, you can treasure the memories for years to come. We were very lucky to be able to have met The Snowman too, he is at the event on the 21st of December. It was honestly the best event I've been too and definitely brought me back to my childhood, the girls loved it too.

These cupcakes are so delicious and simple to make, you only need a few ingredients and take 30 minutes. to make and cook. This mixture made 16 - 20 cupcakes. Ingredients Eggs - 3 Medium Eggs Marge - Weight of Eggs in oz Sugar - Weight of Eggs in oz Flour - Weight of eggs minus 2oz Drinking Chocolate - 2oz to make up the flour Chocolate frosting Red m&m's or smarties curly wurly bits Edible eyes Method 1. Preheat your oven to 180oC / Gas mark 5 2. Cream the sugar and marge together until it resembles whipped cream. 3. Add 1 egg at a time, if starts to curdle add a small amount of the flour. 4. Once all eggs are mixed in slowly sift in the flour and drinking chocolate and slowly mix. 5. Separate your mixture into cupcake cases evenly and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until springy to touch. Once cooked and cooled its time to get decorating: 1. spread your chocolate frosting evenly over the cakes. 2. Add your eyes and nose to the cakes 3. push your curly wurly ...

Over the Christmas holidays from school I love to keep Lils entertained with a lot of baking,  we usually share our makes with family and friends. This time we have added a very yummy recipe to the list which is Peppermint creams, these were one of my Mums favourite sweets so will now be a tradition to make them in memory of her. This recipe only has 4 ingredients and is so easy to make and requires no baking.  Recipe 400g Icing sugar 1 egg White Juice of half a lemon 1/2 tsp Peppermint extract  Method 1. Beat egg until a foam appears on top.  2. Add a small amount of lemon and mix.  3. Add the icing sugar and stir to form a dough.  4. Add the peppermint extract and stir into the dough 5. Roll the dough out on an icing sugared surface to about the thickness of £1 6. Cut out shapes and place on a tray.  7. Put in the fridge to set.  These are so good and go down a treat after dinner but just a warning that they are though very sweet. I hope you enj...

Buying for a 4 year old for Christmas is so much fun. She is fully into everything right now and is such a grateful little girl. Ken doll Polly pocket Wooden food Wooden hairdress belt Bath letters Vet costume   Gruffalo garden set Lenovo tablet She loves everything and has been loving using her Ken in her Barbie house from Santa. This year was the first year that she fully understood it all and have loved pretty much every second, down to the eating lots of treats and picky dinners. Victoria xa