MUMMY TO THE MAX

This Christmas I have neglected my blog a little. Normally every Christmas I am busy, stress and do not sit down however I wanted this Christmas to be different. I wanted to relax so I started planning ahead in October and had finished most of my to do list by December. Next year I will be planning ahead again as in the end we had a lovely Christmas which was mostly stress free.


In the run up to Christmas we didn't do anything "magical" as such with Maxwell due to him being ill. A few weeks before Christmas Maxwell went down ill with a cold which worsened and it meant a lot of sleepless nights. Because of this Maxwell missed a week of preschool and missed meeting Santa which he was very upset about as he had written him a letter, however there was very little we could do about it and in the end managed to get a video created for Maxwell from Santa which Maxwell loved.

With the run up to Christmas Ben managed to work 10 days straight which meant we had little family time to do much so me and Maxwell spent our days doing simple things like going to the park, doing crafts at home and more importantly playing with all his new toys which he got for his Birthday.

Christmas Eve was exciting. It was fantastic to see Maxwell's little face all excited due to the fact that Santa was coming. This year is the first year in which Maxwell has started to understand who Santa is and it was lovely to see how excited he was. He wanted to talk to Santa a lot before Santa arrived so took to talking to Santa on his mobile. Maxwell loved his Christmas Eve box and it is something which we will continue to do for years to come.

Christmas Eve saw Ben and I build Maxwell his very large kitchen. It took us 3 hours to build however Maxwell's face on Christmas morning was a picture. Maxwell did not want to open any of his presents as he was far to excited to play with his kitchen. Maxwell also obsessed over a toothbrush from the Disney store which was in his stocking as well as some toy cars. He was thrilled with his presents and is looking forward to using them all in the next few days.



Our Christmas Day was broken up into 2 parts - Christmas lunch at my sisters with my parents and Christmas dinner at Ben's parents with his Nan. We had a lovely Christmas and we enjoyed seeing all our family. Christmas dinner was lovely and it was a Christmas which I will go on to remember. We were all spoilt and came away with a lot of presents and money. Ben has already purchased a Ipad mini and Maxwell has managed to buy a few new toys for his kitchen however I am stuck on what to spend my money on so if any one has any useful ideas please leave a comment below.

Finally we celebrated Boxing day with my family but before seeing my family we also headed to the sales. Unfortunately there was not a lot in the sales which I wanted to buy. This was quite disappointing as I was looking forward to the sales however mid January I will have another look in the sales when stuff has been reduced again meaning I may be more tempted to buy something if it is at a better price.

For the next few days we will be catching up on sleep and spending more time together. I will start posting more and I am looking forward to seeing others Christmas posts. Did you have a lovely Christmas?

Like
A lot of changes are about to happen in our family and I am extremely excited for things to change. We have not had a great start to the year however things have to get better eventually?  I will be revealing more this week about new plans for Ben, Max and I as a family.


Loathe
Being poorly this week has really stopped me doing things. Being poorly has affected how much I have posted on my blog, how much I have communicated with people and has affected our home life as I have not got as much done as I planned to this week. I am now hoping I am on the mend so normal life can resume.


Love
Although I have been ill this week, I have spent a lot of time doing things I would not normally get to do. One night I decided to watch 10 episodes of a programme I adore and another night I just relaxed in bed and tried to read a magazine. These are things I never seem to have time for, It was nice to take some time away, and do some of the things I miss doing.

Like

Like



The RNLI are a fantastic charity who provide a on call, 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service around the UK and Ireland. Everyday the people who volunteer for the RNLI put there own life at risk to help others. Today I am asking Mummy To The Max readers to take the time to vote for the RNLI to win some money for their charity. To vote all you need to do is click here and on the right hand side click vote, you can then vote for the RNLI. As someone who has grown up near the sea and also enjoys sailing the RNLI are a vital resource so please please vote.

Love


Loathe

At the present moment I loathe Katie Hopkins. I am sure everyone has very strong opinions about her but my opinions are any thing but positive. She is constantly in the press for stupid attention seeking things, nothing which is relevant to local communities or this country. She spits vile untruths about people and criticises people, acting like she is little miss perfect. She contradicts herself all the time and gets on her high horse about things which she has never experienced. She is someone who really gets my back up... I have to wonder, why is she even famous!?

This week has been hard, my wonderful Nan sadly passed away on Wednesday night. She had been ill for a little time however our whole family, hoped and prayed she would get better. She was strong and had gone through a lot of problems with her health, she always battled on well however finally she slipped away from us.

Everyone says there grandparents are the best, but I have never met anyone like my Nan. She leaves behind a husband, a husband who she was married to for over 60 years and adored, 2 children, 8 grandchildren and 2 great grand children all who she cared about and loved very much. We are all truly blessed to have had her in our lives and we are all blessed to have spent part of our lives growing up with her.

She was a loyal lady who was loved and cared about not only by our family but by friends. She would go out of her way to help anyone she could possibly help and she always made sure she thought about others before her own needs. I personally do not believe that she had a selfish bone in her body. If you ever needed anyone, she was only a phone call away.

As hard as it is to except she has gone, I am blessed with many memories of her. I had her in my life for 22 years and in those 22 years she made some real impacts on me. Maxwell had her in his life for 2 years and although he may not remember her when he grows up, I am going to make sure he grows up knowing about her and why she was so amazing to us all. I am so glad my Nan actually got to meet Maxwell.

The best memories I have of my Nan are:

Her getting me into jigsaw puzzles - As a child I used to love doing jigsaw puzzles, I still do now however I barely have enough time to do them. She was the one who taught me to separate all the bits and turn them the right way up before doing the puzzle, she was the one who taught me to be the expert jigsaw puzzler I am now.

Her kindness:  Christmas 2013 when she was not so poorly, I sent her a plant... wishing her to get well. Sadly she was allergic to the plant and rang my mum up to explain that the plant was now outside and if I came round not to be offended. I doubt I would have noticed but she was never one to try and upset anyone. She was always very thoughtful.

Staying at my Nan and Grandads house : As a child I sometimes got to stay with my Nan and Grandad. They treated me like a little princess and I would enjoy lovely dinners as well as trips to the park near there house. I always remember going down the slide and I have very happy memories spending time with them. They also took me to Morrison's for lunch and I relate any Morrison trips to them as this was the only place they shopped at for so many years.

Dogs: My Nan and Grandad have always been huge fans of dogs, I remember once when they went on holiday we looked after there dog who was called Ben. He was a lovely dog and ate a lot of sugar puffs, he was a lot of fun. Maxwell's first experience meeting a dog was also at my Nan's, she was looking after my cousins dog. I remember Maxwell screaming and running after the dog in excitement. I loved watching the joy on his face.

Although my Nan is sadly not on this earth any more, I like to think she is looking down on us all and is guiding us on the right paths of life. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for being part of my life Nan, thank you for being you. I love you and will miss you.

Each year, I make a list in my head. I make a list of what I want to achieve and what issues I want to resolve in my life to make it that little bit better. As its the start of 2014 I thought it would be a great idea to put my resolutions on my blog and see how well I actually manage to stick to them.

Christmas 2014 for free - If you are a regular reader of this blog then you will know that I am aiming to get Christmas 2014 for free. I have made a good start already to 2014 and I am hoping that I stay determined to complete my goal through out the whole of 2014.

Spend more time with Ben - Me and Ben rarely seem to get to spend much time with each other any more thanks to him working long hours and quite a few days of the week. I would love to spend more time with him, going on date nights to the cinema and going out for meals.

Buy Max A pet fish - This is more of a want, however I would love to buy Maxwell his own little pet fish. He loves fish and enjoys watching them swim around at A. Rachel's house so I think he would really enjoy having one in our home. When I manage to save a few penny's, I will get round to buying him his own little tank and fish.

Continue to blog - This year I would like to continue to blog. I have not given up on my little space on the internet and I hope 2014 see's me continue to write on this space. I would love to improve my blog by getting a better camera to take photos and I would like to create new ideas which are unique to me.

Move house  - As a few of my readers know, we moved not long ago however as a family we are not that happy here so we are hoping to move in the future. We are looking to move to a house with a large garden, with perhaps a small conservatory on the back which we could convert into a play room for Maxwell.

Go on a holiday - I have not been on holiday since I was 16 which means it has been 6 long years where I have not had a break. 2014 would be a brilliant year to go on holiday since Maxwell is that little bit older and Ben is able to get some time off from work. I would be grateful for a UK holiday or even a holiday abroad. I would just enjoy getting away.

Attend Britmums - Something which would complete my year would be the opportunity to attend Britmums Live 2014. I had such an amazing time last year, I would love to go again and meet a few blogging friends and learn new things. I am looking for a sponsor to sponsor me to go at the present moment, so hopefully someone will kindly be my fairy god mother and send me to have the best 2 memorable days of 2014!

I rarely get any time to myself, but when I do I love a nice hot bath with some bubbles to relax with. Recently I was sent some bath bombs by Find Me A Gift. I was in for a treat. I was sent The Bomb Cosmetics Je T’aime Gift Set.



The first thing I noticed was the packaging it came in. It was presented beautifully in a gift wrapped box. The box was decorated with funky heart prints. It looked like the perfect way to pamper myself but it would also be the perfect gift to someone to say ‘I love you’!

What do you get?

1 x Ruby Vegas Soap (100g)
1 x Summer of Love Bath Blaster (160g)
1 x Love Cloud Bath Creamer (30g)
1 x Bedazzled Bath Blaster (160g)
1 x Crazy Cupid Soap (100g)


I tried the bath bombs and soap out over a 5 day period and was surprised at the quality of them. They were great and I found there was nothing bad to report back about them.
My favourite was the Love cloud bath creamer. I loved how tiny it was (30g) and enjoyed watching it fizzle away in my bath.
The Summer of Love Bath Blaster, blasted me away. I loved the smell it gave off, strawberries and cream. This would be a perfect addition to the bath after a hot summers day.
Out of the soaps I really enjoyed using the Crazy Cupid Soap. I liked the cute heart design it had and I enjoyed the lavender smell it gave off.

The bath bombs did not leave my bath greasy or leave tiny bits at the bottom of my bath. Normally I find many other bombs do. Normally I either slip around after using other bombs or end up with lots of bits at the bottom of the bath but this was not the case.


All these bath time treats are handmade which I found gave them a added special touch.
These sensual soaps and bath bombs are made using carefully selected ingredients, natural butters and essential oils, including velvety Cocoa and Shea Butter, Lavender and Sweet Orange essential oils. The leave you feeling fresh and smelling beautiful.

Overall, I loved the products and found that they were also a fantastic price, at just £11.99 you can have hours of relaxation in the bath.

I would rate this product 5/5

For more information please visit Find Me a gifts website.