Category Archives: Food

Christmas Shopping in Town

It is Monday but no school for the boys since they are now on their Winter break. Ryan had work early this morning and I really wanted to do something special with Ronan and Maddox. Instead of having porridge at home, I took the boys into town for some special time together. We started off with breakfast at one of the bakeries where the boys got to choose what they wanted to eat. They enjoyed a delicisous banana milk to drink. I had a jacket potato with beans and it really hit the spot with the cold weather outside. Afterwards we went into several of the shops, trying to find the right Christmas presents for their dad. Not to spoil the surprise, I will not post what we ended up buying online. But the boys did have a lot of fun picking out something specifically from them. At the end of our morning out, we found some cute santa hats at Claire’s for the boys to wear. Getting into the holiday spirit we took some fun photographs around all the Christmas decorations at the shopping centre.

Breakfast with my boys in town.

Silly faces and Christmas spirit.

Manifold [Global Grub]

Leave a reply

My second article is posted up now at the Manifold online magazine. Would love comments and ‘likes’ at the Manifold site: www.http://themanifoldmag.com/

St. Nikolaus & the Shoes

1 Reply

I have picked up many a customs and traditions along my life as a nomad. One of these is St. Nikolaus, from my time living in Germany. On the Eve of December 5th, children put out a boot or shoe outside of their front door. In the morning the children find that St. Nikolaus has filled it up with gifts and sweets after checking to see if the children were ‘good, polite, and helpful the last year’. The boys woke me up as they were opening up their goodies from their shoes. There were candy canes, lego figures, toy airplanes, and a helicopter. It is a nice tradition I have enjoyed thus far with my kids. ‘Morty the Moose’ left some moose paper for the boys to make paper chains with today. They enjoyed the craft and we will have fun growing the chain through out the month.

Maddox holding the candy and toys left in his shoe.

St. Nicholas came and filled the boys shoes with candy and small toys.

Crumpets with jam and clotted cream

Ronan and Maddox at school.

Lamb with sweet potatoes and roasted veggies.

Step One: Folding the wrapping paper in strips.

Step 2: Cut along the fold to create long strips.

Step 3: Cutting into smaller strips

Step 4: Fold strips into loops and tape to secure. Add another strip into the loop and repeat.

Step 5: Hang up on the wall

Our hanging decoration.

Our Polar Express Christmas bells from Christmas 2008

Bows, cookie cutters, bells, ornaments, and lights.

Leave a reply

Candy Canes in London before headed back home on the train.

Yesterday my partner and I took my boys to London for the day and I posted photos from when we played in the leaves. Here are the rest of the photos from our adventure out in London to experience the Christmas atmosphere. We started at the German Christmas market where we enjoyed hot cocoa that tasted like melted chocolate bars, ate yummy goulash soup from a bread bowl, and got to sample one of my favourites, German Rittersport chocolate. The boys were read for a lot of photo ops and so this blog post is quite picture heavy. I ended with our time at Hamey’s, the toy store in London and some of the beautiful Christmas lights seen around town. I hope you enjoy, as we had a lot of fun together in London.

Merry Elfmas from Ronan & Maddox

Ronan and Maddox in the Winter Wonderland, the German Christmas market

The Moose that sings and talks!

My three men!

Love all the Christmas ornaments and crafts. Especially the Owls and Moose.

Gluhwein anyone?

The Hot Cocoa tasted like melted chocolate bars.

Maddox loved all the animal puppets. Here he is begging for one, “Puhlease!”

Walking down the street of the German Christmas market in London

Potato Pancakes? Yes please!

Ronan and Maddox with the Ringing Father Christmas

Ronan and Maddox with the skiing Father Christmas

Ronan and Maddox with the Nutcracker

Maddox with his German chocolate

Ronan and Maddox with the Snowman

Ronan and Maddox with the snowman familia

Maddox with Father Christmas

Ronan with Father Christmas

Mummy giving a Shaka with Father Christmas! Aloha! Mele Kalikimaka!

Hard Rock Cafe has their tree up

The Ritz

The main shopping street where Hamey’s is located.

Boys playing with fake snow at the Hamey’s toy store

Ronan and Maddox really enjoyed all the Harry Potter items at Hamey’s Toy Store

These airbrush pens at Hamey’s Toy Store really won the boys over. They both love crafts and art.

Ronan and Maddox each got a complimentary blow up ball. They thought it was magic!

My favourite store!

My favourite window of Tiffany’s

London at Night

Advent Calendars

Leave a reply

I have put off buying advent calendars for the boys since October. That is when I saw them appearing in the stores and every time we saw them the boys would ask to buy one. Christmas just seemed so far off. Then December arrived and I found myself rushing off to the store on my lunch break at work, hoping they still had some in stock. They had a whole variety of advent calendars but I decided to go with Cadbury since I knew the chocolate tastes the best. The boys were quite excited about having their calendars and have enjoyed getting to find their daily chocolate thus far. I might have to buy a box of Roses for Ryan and I to share ever day. But how do you eat just one? Might be time to start making a lot of hot chocolate. What are things you like to eat or drink to stay warm in this time of the year?

The boys with their sausages in a baguette for a walk home treat from school.

Maddox with his Cadbury Advent calendar

Ronan with his Cadbury Advent calendar

‘B’ is for Baking

Leave a reply

Easily one of the favourite past times of the holiday season is indeed baking. The kids have been doing it at school and we have been doing it here at home with cookies, scones, and cupcakes. Maddox came home yesterday with his gingerbread cookies with raisins to share with the family. Ryan has been making scones now at home for tea. I look forward to getting a start on our holiday baking once December is here…just a few days away now!

My partner is the King of our kitchen. Where I can throw ingredients together and it ends up in ordering a take-a-way, he can put together all these ingredients and make something mouth watering delicisous. These handmade whole wheat scones (pronounced SK-AH-NS) with currants were topped with strawberry jam and english clotted cream. Yummy.

Sainsburys Scavenger Hunt

Leave a reply

Friday is here and upon finishing my last client for the day at the Salon, I ran to the rail station to catch the next train home. I got out a little late and so I made the train it by literally seconds. Getting off the train I walked straight over to my kids’ school to pick them up. I got there just in time to see Ronan returning from the pool for swimming day. He had a fun day at the new pool and was excited to tell me all about his adventure. With a bag full of supplies for the kids’ nativity costumes, their school bags, and the PE kit we started our walk home. Unfortunately as we reached our front door I realized that my keys were hanging safely on my jacket hook in our entry way and not in my bag. With the sun setting earlier and the weather getting colder, going to the park or waiting in the stairwell would both be out of the question. I texted my partner who was still meeting with his class at Uni in Brighton. With two different trains to get back home, it could be an hour before we could inside our home. So what to do? I took my kids to the Sainsburys grocery store down the street and browse. We did okay but the store was quite cold. Solution? A scavenger hunt brought to you by a friend of mine over text messages. The boys found something and they got rewarded with a photo of something Batman related. Moods got uplifted and soon it was time to head back home.