Since the very last banger on Bonfire night, my mind has been firmly focused on one thing and one thing only....CHRISTMAS PREP!
My OCD really kicks in at this time of year and the list writing and excessive planning side of me goes into over drive!
If I get to November and I don't have the "main" people (Jon & Tyne!) sorted for Christmas gifts, I get panicked!
So far I'm doing well - Tyne is almost completely sorted for Christmas gifts (I just need some pans to go with his kitchen, and some cars to go with his garage and road map!).
Jon is pretty much done too, apart from maybe some little stocking fillers here & there but all the major things are sorted!
So that just leaves the extras to do:
*Gifts for the family (I have my Mum & Dad, my sister and her fiance, my 2 nieces and 1 nephew, 1 of my cousins, Tyne's godmother and my cousin's 2 daughters to buy for....so really not too bad!)
*Christmas Food Shopping - which I never do until a few days beforehand
*Christmas Decorations - I like to update every year, I've already bought some new bits & pieces this year but there's still a few extras I want to get...particularly table ware!
*Christmas Clothes - we all like to wear a new outfit on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and I like us all to have a new Christmas Jumper for December too!
*Cards & Wrapping - this is usually the very last thing I organise, I like to go out and buy my cards on Christmas Eve, and I like to save all my wrapping up for Christmas Eve! It's tradition for me and it wouldn't feel like Christmas Eve without a zillion things to wrap!
So...this week I've been focusing on crossing a few things off my To Do list!
Starting with Christmas Decor!
This year we thought it would be nice to try our very first REAL Christmas Tree! I've always been happy with artificial in the past but real trees have always tempted to me and after discovering the Pines & Needles website I was finally swayed!
They have a gorgeous collection of trees, and you can even buy them ready decorated if you want to save yourself the hassle!
The trees are delivered to your door which was the real sway for me - I've wanted to try a real tree for a long time but the thought of going out and trying to transport one home seemed like such a hassle! This way, I get the convenience of artificial but the beauty of real - fantastic!
We have our order in and I am SO excited to receive it! We will be filming our tree decoration for our YouTube channel this year, and I'm sure we'll be blogging about the tree too!
We also have some beautiful new decorations for the house, which I am really excited about!
The Christmas Boutique sent us some festive bits & pieces, and they are just STUNNING!
How perfect is this nativity scene?! I have wanted a nativity for so long - it's very important to me that through all the festive fun and excitement, the presents and the xmas movies, the REAL meaning of Christmas isn't lost - we go to church every Christmas eve for the Crib lighting service and Tyne is read the Nativity story on Christmas Eve too.
And so the addition of a nativity scene to our decor is wonderful - I think this will really help to remind us all what it's all about, and will certainly help us to help Tyne understand the nativity story.
The Nativity scene is available HERE from The Christmas Boutique for £34.99
This cute little Mr & Mrs Gingerbread Men tree decorations are adorable - they're ceramic and fantastic quality, and so very sparkly!
Available HERE for £4.99
This set of Christmas Elves for £14.99 is just adorable, the colours are perfect for our theme - the sweet little Santa for £5.99 accompanies them perfectly and was Tyne's favorite thing when we opened the package!
This extra-long felt Advent Calendar is beautiful - I've never owned a traditional Advent calendar before as we only ever have the chocolate kind so i`m a little stumped as to what to put in the pockets? Any ideas?!
Regardless though, it just looks so very festive!
The Advent calendar is usually £12.99 but is currently reduced to £9.74 HERE
And the final item in our package was this Large Present Sack for £14.99 - it is a really decent size and I love the colours! Tyne already has a personalised sack so I will be using this one for Jon's gifts....although I would secretly like to hang it out at the bottom of my bed myself just incase....does any other grown up miss hanging out their Christmas sack or is just me?!
The other thing I've been focusing on is Christmas Clothing!
I have Tyne's Christmas Jumpers all sorted!!
How adorable are they?! They were both from Primark and were £7 each.
I can't wait for December to get here so he can start wearing them! I'm going to make sure he wears the Santa one for his visit to Santa's Grotto, and I think I'll put him in the reindeer one for some Christmas Card photos!
I also couldn't resist this adorable Olaf t shirt!! Tyne loves "Froze" (as he calls it!), and so it was a must-buy! I love that it's not overly Christmassy too so he can wear it throughout winter!
This was also from Primark and was £4.
And it wasn't just Tyne who got Christmas clothes!
Forgive the bad photo, but this is my Christmas Eve outfit for this year!
The black polo neck has tons of room for bump to grow before Xmas, and will keep me nice and warm for last minute shopping but paired up with the red skirt and some wooly black leggings and boots it will be smart enough for church too!
Both items are from Primark.
And this is my Boxing Day outfit for this year!
I originally wanted to get the Elf Christmas T shirt but they didn't have my size, so I went for the Home Alone one instead - I thought the tartan leggings were a nice festive touch to wear with it rather than plain old black!
Both items were from Primark.
I am a sucker for Christmas novelty accessories - so I could not resist treating myself to these Santa gloves and Christmas pudding hat!! People seem to think I`m nuts for liking these but its Christmas and I will wear my tacky accessories with pride!!! I just need a pair of OTT Christmas earrings and I`m done!!
It's a tradition in my family to have new pjs on Christmas Eve - so I bought myself this cute Tartan nighty!
I also have Tyne's Christmas Eve pjs all ready for his Christmas Box but I'll share those in another post!
So that's my Christmas Prep so far!! How is yours going?
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