Can you believe it’s Christmas in FIVE days?

Here’s how the day normally pans out for my family. It starts early, very early, about 8am these days. There used to be years where we would be opening presents at 6am. We were a lot younger then and we value our sleep a lot more now!

The really embarrassing part is that i’m the one who still wakes everyone up, yes I’m a little child inside and there’s no shame!

I still have a stocking but I have a feeling that this will be the last year! Followed by a chocolate croissant breakfast with bucks fizz of course. Then we get ready for our family dog walk, this is the only time of the year that this happens!

This year we are having “elevenses” so we can have a later Christmas dinner. This is all part of my Dads plan to delay our last present a bit longer, I'm sure. 

Obviously after being stuffed from all the food we ate from Christmas dinner, we all collapse on the sofas to watch some classic christmas TV, I mean it would be rude not to right?

Then we normally get our last present that I mentioned earlier. This is called out “tree present”, it’s something unexpected that we haven’t asked for so it’s a huge surprise! it’s pretty exciting! By this time, everyones exhausted from all the excitement. 

Tea is obviously leftover sandwiches followed by more TV.

The best part? All being together of course! Unfortunately this year, I’m working on Boxing Day but that’s fine by me. All the exciting bits are over by then.

How does your Christmas go?

Retail

28 Things All Holiday Retail Workers Are Tired Of Hearing

There's a little giggle for you, each and every one of those is true!

A lot of people think that working in retail is a piece of cake, literally go away! You have no idea what you’re talking about…

Anyway…you will be aware that I work in a clothing shop which I love. Over the next month or so my posts will probably be a bit slower, although I’m trying to keep up!

Have you ever worked in retail? What did you think?

Northern Tea Gift Ideas

I’ve teamed up with the guys over at Northern Teas to bring you some great gift ideas, or you might even want to treat yourself. Obviously we all want to feel fresh as we start the New Year and green tea is without a doubt the way to go. You can use green tea instead of detox teas and get plenty of the same benefits.

These green teas are calorie free and are tasty and excellent quality. They are so much better than the ones you get in the supermarket. The ones that I got sent are Ti Quan Yin, Japanese Sencha Fukujyu and Japanese Gyokuro,

Ti Quan Yin

This is a fine quality Chinese Oolong green tea that originates from southern china, and the leaves are rolled tightly into little balls. It takes 3 to 5 minutes for the tea to brew, which is pretty average for green tea. It is a pleasant, aromatic and refined tea. It is one that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

Sencha Fukujyu

This is also known as Green Spider Leg, because of the look of the tealeaves. It has a sweet, grassy taste but it is a smooth texture. It originates in China but is processed Japanese style. It has a short brew time of 2 to 3 minutes. The leaves are neat, flat green and stalks, flecked with hints of yellow. Indulge in a cup of this at the end of the day, I know I will be.

Japanese Gyokuro

This is a variety of Ryokucha, it is picked during the first round of harvest and shaded from the sun for some time before the harvest. This gives a delightful flavour with a very delicate, pale liquor. This again takes 2 to 3 minutes to brew, and it also has neat, flat green leaves and stalks, flecked with hints of yellow. It has sweet, mild and a very smooth flavour with a pale yellow liquor. This should also be indulged at the end of the day, looks like I’ll be alternating between this and Sencha Fukujyu.

Prices vary from £4.50 to £7.50 for 50g of these teas. This is due to the origin of the teas and the quality, so it’s worth the money! These are a fantastic Christmas present, don’t forget to get your tea strainers as all the teas are loose and I’d also recommend getting a teapot to make it that little bit more special!

PS. Don't forget all views are my own, and we all know how much I love green tea so you know it's the truth!

Christmas

Isn’t Christmas just great? How could you even not like Christmas?

The build up to Christmas has already started in my family’s house, the Christmas tree is up, most of the presents have been bought and we’ve planned out the events for Christmas. Unfortunately I only have Christmas Eve and Christmas day off but that’s definitely enough for me.

I’m not too fussed by boxing day to be honest, it can sometimes make Christmas drag on a bit too long so for me Christmas eve is fun because a lot of the cooking gets done and obviously Christmas day is pretty great and needs no explanation!

I thought I’d share some current and some old pictures of my Christmases with you!

The first year we got Douglas, doesn't he look adorable in his christmas jumper?

dog has no idea what's going on...

just LOL

December

To start off with, I cannot believe it’s December already. Seriously where has the year even gone? There’s something about December that’s really comforting.

Of course I love Christmas, if you hadn’t guessed already. The decorating, shopping, food and most importantly spending time with family. This year, I have the best advent calendar that I won in khrissieloves giveaway! I’m going to try and paint my nails each day with the new colour I get but there’s no promising anything. Follow me on instagram to keep up with the different colours I get!

I’m also making a lot of my Christmas gifts this year but I won’t be able to share many with you because my amazing family read my blog! All I can say is that I can’t wait to get started over the next few weeks.

What can you expect from me this month? Lots of Christmas themed posts of course! Plus my standard A to Z posts which I’m now over half way through, plus so much more. I would also love to be able to get to do a Christmas giveaway if I get to 115 bloglovin’ followers. Tell all your friends!

I’ve got my work cut out for me but I’ve got a good feeling about December!

November

It’s almost the end of the year which obviously means Christmas but also the beginning of the New Year.

I do enjoy the build up to Christmas, as the lights get switched on and it gets dark really early. The shop windows are decorated really festive and the light pours out on the street, I love it!

I plan my presents out so well for Christmas, I like to put a lot of thought and love into them. I way prefer buying for other people than myself; I’m super kind like that.

Seeing as it’s coming to the end of the year, I thought that now would be a great time to declutter and get rid of lots of things that I don’t need as by the time it’s December I will be getting into the swing of Christmas and getting ready for the festivities. This also means that when it comes to January I’ll already have a clean slate and I won’t need to start the year by doing that!

This month also brings 6 months of blogging, how crazy is that! But I’m going to do a whole other blog post about that in the middle of the month!

I’ve got so many exciting things to share with you this month!