Spicy Chai, Winter Houses & Reindeer Food

I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on my blog since Christmas. I decided to have a couple of week’s break from writing after publishing my most recent book. So, before the dinner madness starts today, I’m having some spicy chai tea and writing 🙂 I got the tea for Christmas and it’s a loose leaf one with chilli powder in it – it might be my new favourite tea 🙂

We started the holidays with the announcement that we had won a Christmas hamper. The girls were so excited 🙂 We came home and I made them hot chocolate with the little gingerbread house mug toppers we got in it 🙂 I got them some Christmas activity books, so they worked on those and had their treats 🙂

One of my daughters finished school before the other one, so we went to Ikea for breakfast 🙂 I love their breakfasts and it is such good value (plus you get free coffee :))

I feel like a lot of my Christmas comprised me sitting beside the Christmas tree drinking Bailey’s hot chocolate 🙂 It’s a habit I’m struggling to stop now that Christmas has ended. It might be one of the best Winter treats after you’ve been out in the cold 🙂

A friend called over and gave the girls some craft kits, so they worked on them right away. They did some etch art and rock painting. She got me a cute little building with a light that changes colour inside too 🙂 I’m going to keep it out all year because looking at it cheers me up 🙂

We made some Winter houses from the girls’ art subscription. You just had to cut a house out of cardboard using the template and then decorate it with glittery paper. They really enjoyed it and it was such a simple activity.

We got a snow globe kit in the hamper, so the girls made them too. They just had to colour in backgrounds for their globes. It was straightforward but it kept them quiet for a long time 🙂 My neighbour kindly gave the girls some hot chocolate santas and snowmen marshmallows so we made those too 🙂

On Christmas Eve, the girls made some reindeer food. They just mixed together oats and sprinkles and put it in a container to scatter in the garden after dark. It was quick and simple to make and the birds seemed to enjoy it too. I just started cooking for Christmas day and set the table for breakfast. We always have croissants on Christmas morning, since it’s a breakfast everyone can agree on. The girls like to have milk in little teacups and pour their own out of a jug too 🙂 One advantage to only having three of us in the house is that we can have Christmas crackers at every meal 🙂

We opened presents, watched movies and had fancy drinks 🙂 We had Christmas dinner at lunchtime and then played Christmas party games 🙂 The girls covered themselves with Christmas tattoos and it took about a week to get them off.

On Boxing Day, we had my parents over and the girls wanted to make erasers with a kit they got them. It involved cooking them in the oven, but other than that, it wasn’t too complicated 🙂

We had a trip to Connswater to get some Christmassy treats and the girls played on a couple of the games/rides I never let them use 😀

At home, we baked some more Christmas cookies for my sister (and the girls!) and the girls had fun icing them. They used a huge amount of writing icing. My daughter made a cookie with “cute” on it for her cousin 🙂

We played with a cool card game one of the girls got for Christmas. It has funny features you can add to your face for taking silly photos. It has cards in it with ideas of games to play that don’t require anything but time. I love those sorts of ideas 🙂

We went back to the folk museum again after Christmas. It was so quiet in contrast to before Christmas when all the events were on. The girls loved playing in the church and pretending they were queens in the chair 🙂 I had to capture a picture of the view out the window. The light was really wintery and it was beautiful 🙂 The man that makes the wicker baskets, etc gave the girls a wand each that he’d made with a star at the top of them 🙂 We got some crackers and chutney and one of my daughters really liked it 🙂 The girls are always fascinated by the old cinema, so we called in there and then got a drink in the cafe.