10 Christmas activities for boys

Nothing beats the happy squeals of children in the lead up to Christmas, and a lot of the reasons I do a December Daily each year is to make Christmas a fun time for my kids.

Today I thought I would share some of the things I have done with my boys to make Christmas fun.

Going to the Santa Parade is always good for some fresh air- it has become more cultural over the past few years but you are still guaranteed to see Santa.



Speaking of Santa, you have to get a photo with him!



There is sure to be a Christmas Display in your area, which is always a fun day out as a family. Each year we go to Santa's Grotto run by a local church, and they have some amazing displays. It gets bigger each year and attracts a lot of people, so we tend to go in the mornings when it is quiet.



Have a Candy Cane Hunt- on a sunny day sneak out to the garden and hide some candy canes, then sit back and let your children and some friends or neighbours find them.



Make homemade Christmas cards for teachers, neighbours and friends. A lot of boys like to do craft if it has a purpose, and making homemade cards is a great way to say thank you.



Create your own icecream cone Christmas Trees for a special family dessert. Simply mix green food colouring with some coconut, then cover an icecream cone in icing sugar mixed with some water to create a paste. Sprinkle over the coconut, stick on some lollies and you are done!



Stage a Christmas photo shoot by letting your boys stand in front of wrapping paper taped to the wall.



Baking Christmas Cookies is great for science, mathematics skills and fine motor development. Plus, tasting the end result is always rewarding.



Making ornaments for the Christmas Tree is another great way for boys to get creative for a purpose. Here I made some green salt dough and pushed a marble in the dough, which the boys then filled in with glitter glue. I added a vivid 2015 and light strings, and will hang these on the tree.



Design Christmas potato stamps and have a go at making your own wrapping paper, perfect for grandparent gifts to be wrapped in.



I hope some of these activities inspire you to have fun with your boys this Christmas!

Easy Breakfasts for School Mornings

It is getting to that point where there are only two more weeks of school before the Christmas Holidays, and I need to entice my nearly six year old out of bed in the mornings with something delicious and nutritious.

Below are some of his favourite ways to start the day- and my three year old approves too!



This DIY pancake mix is super easy to put together, and makes pancakes ready to go when you are! This is the best pancake mix I have come across, and I have added fruit, chocolate and different sauces to the base mix depending on what we have in the house.

My eldest boy loves Egg In A Hole, and this is a great way to get some carbs, protein and fat into a small serving if your child won't eat a huge amount at breakfast time.

If you want to cook one meal for everyone (because who has time to make four different breakfasts in the morning!) these Easy Egg Tacos can easily be customised but all cooked in the same pan. You can also serve this with baked beans, breakfast sausage or some bacon if you have a large appetite.

We have an abundance of strawberries in our garden at the moment, and these Peanut Butter, Strawberry and Banana Quesadillas are on high rotation! More filling than a peanut butter and jam sandwich, and I use wholegrain tortillas for extra fibre,

As it is summer here, sometimes we don't want anything hot for breakfast. That is where these Breakfast Banana Pops come in handy. The boys can help make these quite easily, and they are also great for mornings where you need to eat on the run.

So there you have it, five delicious breakfast ideas! I would love to know which one you would try.

Summer Style File Recap

Last week I took part in the fun Summer Style Challenge by Kimba Likes!

I am also playing along with some of the DAREcember prompts with Fox In Flats.

Stripe It Up and Stripes- this dress was paired with leggings and some burgundy loafers for a cooler start to December. I tried plaid stripes for a play on the challenge.



To The Maxi- not quite a full maxi but I do love this hi-lo maxi dress that I picked up for free at a clothes swap!



Slogan Tee and Arm Candy- this t-shirt suits me perfectly, and I stacked three bracelets on my wrist.



Sparkle and Shine and Red Lip- another double up as I used this red lipstick that has flecks of gold.



Summer Shorts and Black Out- these are my absolute favourite shorts and I paired them with a black top and simple black flats for a picnic lunch.



Frankie Says "Relax" and relax I did with my best mates and a cheeky cider! (Yes I am short!) My top and skirt are both from Glassons, which I think has some of the best weekend clothing.



Brights- this bright necklace was given to me by my boys and I love the unexpectedness of it.



Come back next week when I will be sharing my next 7 days of the Fox In Flats DAREcember challenge outfits.

Linking up with Confident Twosday and Wardrobe Wednesday.

Hosting a Cookie Exchange

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is hosting a Cookie Exchange!

If you have never heard of a Cookie Exchange before, here is how it works. You invite your friends and family to each bake a specified number of cookies, which then get split up and divided between all of the guests. There are also some set aside to eat on the night, so that people can vote for things such as most creative cookie, best use of sprinkles and most festive decorations.

Best of all, there are so many free printables out there that you don't have to do a lot of work to make your Cookie Exchange successful. Invites, voting forms and awards are already done for you, so that you can enjoy a night of tasting with your friends and family.

Once you have invited your guests, the first thing to do is bake your cookies. It is perfectly acceptable to enlist your children and others to help with this step! My boys love baking with me and it helps to teach them important skills.



One of my favourite Christmas Cookies to make are these Peppermint Mocha Brownie Cookies, but you can create whatever Christmas cookie you feel like.



Be sure to provide some sweet and savoury snacks for your guests- even though they will be eating cookies it is nice to have a break and nibble on something different. Here I have a Christmas tree made from crackers, cheese and cherry tomatoes, some pretzels with chips and dip, meringues with berry compote, and my famous Chocolate Peppermint Cake.



Have a sampler of the different cookies on some festive plates, and let the tasting and voting begin!



With the free printables you can give out some fun awards, and some of them can earn prizes. I have found that Christmas themed kitchen items such as Christmas mugs with hot chocolate sachets are a popular prize.



Cookie Exchanges really are a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season, and you get to leave with so many different baking options. I would suggest providing some containers so that each guest has a box full of baking to take home, and have someone in charge of dividing up the cookies evenly. Usually if I have five guests coming I specify 30 cookies per person- which means 5 per guest and one each to try during the actual party, but feel free to suggest more or less depending on circumstances and how many guests you have coming.

Have you hosted a Cookie Exchange and have some great tips to share? Let me know in the comments!

5 apps for a calmer Cristmas

Christmas is here, and sometimes the silly season can get a bit overwhelming! Technology has come to the rescue, with some apps that allow your phone to become your new best friend over the Christmas period.Here are a few of the apps I have been using to get prepared this holiday season.

The Christmas Gift List is a very handy, especially if you have  large family and need to keep track of who you are buying for.  Quite often I see things that I think would be a good present, only to draw a mind blank when I get to the shops. This app lets you mark down what you plan to buy each person, and also keeps you on track with budget.



Christmas Decorating Ideas is a great app if you get too distracted looking through Pinterest- with this app you can search by theme, colour or type and then save it to your phone so that when you go shopping you know exactly what you are looking for.



My boys loved Talking Ben and Talking Tom, and now there is Talking Santa! Great for kids who need a giggle, and grown ups too. My boys find great delight in running Santa over with snowballs, and the video recordings are a great icebreaker at the end of a long day.



Allrecipes is still one of my favourite recipe sites, and the Dinner Spinner app is a genius idea all year round, especially at Christmas time when you may have a lot of food in your kitchen but not much of an idea of what to do with it! You can get inspired with Seasonal Recipe ideas, search by dietary needs and link up to your own personal Recipe Box.



Finally, the Christmas Budget Planner is the best way to keep track of all your Christmas spending- not just gifts but things like decorations, food, parties and seasonal expenses. This app means you won't get a huge shock come January when your credit card bill turns up!



Have you come across any apps to make your Christmas easier? I would love to know!

December outfits inspired by Emma Stone

One of my favourite celebrities right now is Emma Stone- her ability to pull off different outfits, hair colours and makeup trends keeps her fresh and relevant to a lot of women.

I especially love her dress sense, and I have put together a few outfits for this holiday season based on some of my favourite Emma Stone outfits.

First up is monochrome with pops of red, perfect for Christmas! This outfit could work in a more casual office, or glam up an evening function. Pop a black blazer on if it gets too cold, and you can always add a bolder lip colour.

shop this look here

I love Emma's tapestry Heidi look here, paired with nude shoes to lengthen the leg. Here I have gone with a LBD version, with nude pumps and pearl earrings to keep it ladylike. The draping detail on this dress will disguise all those Christmas cocktails, and the length is very flattering.

shop this look here

Of course, Christmas is not all glamour. There are shops to hit and children to wrangle.Some days, jeans and sandals will get you from place to place- the trick is to have fun with your shoes and rock some big sunglasses!

shop this look here

Pattern clash is huge right now, and monochrome works best for those who have not had much experience with this trend. The trick is to stick with the same colour family, and match a small print with a large print instead of having two similar prints. Add a red lip and you can go from the office to a function!

shop this look here

Finally, there are some parties where you need to get glammed up, and I cannot think of anything better than pink. I love how Emma has debunked the myth that redheads cannot wear pink! There are different types of pink to suit all skin types. I love bright pink but cannot wear it next to my face, so here I have opted to have the brighter half on the bottom and tone down the pink with the top. Some neutral, ladylike accessories add to the glamour.

shop this look here

Which outfit is your favourite?

Linking up with Wardrobe Wednesday, Confident Twosday and Thursday Fashion Files.

30 Day Flip- Holiday Decorating

Today I am linking up with The DIY Forum and HomeTalk to show my Christmas decorating. Thankfully, this year I was able to get a Cricut, which has helped with a lot of my decorating! I do not do too much though, as my son celebrates his birthday close to Christmas and so I tend to leave the decorating until after his birthday. I have come up with a few ideas to get my house into the festive spirit.

First up, my seasonal nook in the home has been taken over by Christmas papercrafts! I have done an advent calendar, Christmas banner, Papercraft Sampler and a small gift box decoration all from one Christmas paper packet and some cardstock.



This advent calendar has 25 tags, all with a perforated number that has an activity written on the back. My boys will love being able to see what we are up to each day!



This simple banner was made using cardstock and paper, tied together with twine. This file was free on the Cricut website!



One of my favourite projects this Christmas has been this sampler, which I hang in a 12x12 frame as seen above. I love coming up with an idea for each square, and having it all come together is so much fun.



I made up some cute Christmas present stacks for table placecards, but one is sitting in my decorated nook as well.



As far as gift giving goes, I quickly whipped up these wine bottle holders as wine is the perfect gift for Christmas party hosts, neighbour gifts, or even teachers.



My last little project was these two 6x6 canvases, which I decorated using scrapbook paper, cardstock and some embellishments.


I have had so much fun decorating for the holidays. I am still supposed to be resting for the next month, so my grand design plans have been pulled back a bit. However, I have been able to craft up a few little touches within my home to make my house feel a bit more festive.