Well this isn’t just a good bye December post, its a good bye 2021 (although I think I may do a 2021 Highlights post, even if its just for me to personally look back on and see all the fun stuff we got up to, even with Covid and lockdowns I know there has still been lots of fun) And what a crazy busy month December was. It is usually the busiest month of the year for our business (Christmas photoshoots galore!) but it is also a busy month family wise, what with all the festive goings on and fun stuff we get up to. Hence the reason the blog tends to get a little quite after I’ve posted all my gift guides. I like to switch off and just enjoy family time in December.
So I am only now starting to get back into the swing of normal day to day life and back to blogging and insta! Last months review post is here if you want to check it out too. But normality will only resume for a little while here before we take our annual family trip to Bluestone next week, and honestly we can’t wait. Christmas is so crazy busy that we dont really get a break, so Bluestone is our time to chill and have some calm just as a family of 4 and we look forward to it so much every year. This will be Effies first time too as last year was cancelled due to Covid!
Anyway enough rambling and on with this months review and highlights
(This post may contain affiliate links, which means we make a tiny commission should you buy through some of the links on the page, but this does not affect cost to you. See more info here)
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO
As you expect December has mostly been made up of trips to see Santa! We saw the Luminate Light Show at Margam Country Park, got invited to the Santa Craft Experience at Founders and Co, The Winter Wonderland at Gower Fresh Christmas Tree Farm (which is a family tradition now), Breakfast with Santa at Harvester, Moo Music Christmas Party at the group we attend, as well as a few festive mornings at our local soft play Area 51. Plus I hosted the christmas party at our school playgroup…all in all it was a busy month of festive fun.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN LOVING
Elian was lucky enough to be sent these awesome Mechanics Lab Junior Moving Animals and Dinosaur sets by Clementoni Toys just before Christmas. We had a great time building the T-Rex and the Shark – Check out our reel to see how fast that shark moves, it is brilliant fun and now he wants to build all the other ones. So he has been loving playing with them
We also got sent a build your own pizza kit by Birtellis to try out (our reel is here for you to see) and honestly the pizzas were so delicious, especially the limited edition Christmas pizza (which we have made ourselves since!) It was lots of fun making the pizzas and cooking them as a family and we will definitely order again for a fun family dinner night.
I was just generally loving all the festive movies, tasty food and cozy movie nights we had as a family.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING AND LOVING
Reading – So this month I only managed to finish 1 book, but I have already written up my What I Read in 2021 book post so you can see all the books I read last year.
The Switch by Beth O’Leary – As I had enjoyed the The Flat Share so much last month I thought I would try another of Beth O’Leary’s books. They are nice easy reads with sweet storylines. I love her writing style and her characters are always likeable, so I enjoy them. The Switch is about the story of a Granddaughter and Grandmother swapping lives for 2 months, country life for London city life. They discover themselves, what they really want to be doing with their lives and who their real friends are. Very heartwarming and funny!
Watching – Yeah I pretty much spent the whole month bingeing Hallmarks movies and general christmas movies! It was December after all! Jon and I did watch The Girl Before and Vigil, both BBC drama series. And I watched all of season 2 of Emily in Paris…in one evening whilst wrapping christmas presents! And here are a few other things we have seen last month
- When Missing turns to Murder (Netflix Documentary Series)
- The Unforgivable (Netflix Movie)
- Bruised (Netflix Film)
- Encanto (Disney Movie)
- Prom
- Drag Race Canada
- Body Cam
There has also been a lot of Boss Baby, CocoMelon, Hey Duggee and Yakka Dee!!
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED IN Decmeber
I didn’t write a huge amount of posts in December but I had a few AD posts and reviews so here they are incase you missed any of them, or incase you might find any of them interesting
- Jaques London Magnetic Reward Chart Review
- Jaques London Safari Animal Shape Sorter Toy Review
- Dressing Elian and Effie with Frugi Snuggle Suits
- What To Give A Fitness Fan This Christmas?
- Important Lessons To Teach Your Young Children To Promote Positive Development
- The Ultimate Guide On How To Prepare Your Home For The Winter Season
- 10 Considerations When Buying Your Next Phone
- Six Good Reasons To Renovate in 2022
- Easy Ways To Refresh Your Kitchen
- Things To Consider on Your Checklist As You Prepare for Your Family Travel’
- Smart Ways To Turn Your Blog Into A Thriving Business
December GOALS REVIEW
Well this is an easy one as I didn’t actually make any goals! I knew how busy and hectic life was going to be last month, and my main priority was simply to have lots of family fun and enjoy the festive time off and all the fun activities we had planned! OS I think we well and truly achieved that!
AIMS AND GOALS FOR January
Ahh so the new year usually brings around the whole NEW YOU, NEW LIFE thing and although I don’t make resolutions, I do make aims and goals that I want to focus on over the year, and I will be doing a post on them in more detail soon. But I still have at the smaller more focus monthly aims and goals for January as usual!
- Meal Plan and keep to a budget – The meal planning slipped a bit towards the end of the year, with December being so busy, eating out a lot, and meals with family and friends I just didn’t focus on meal planning at all, and I didn’t worry about the budget. So now the festive season has passed its time to get focused on my budget (which is £400 a month) and start meal planning again
- Sort and Organise all the kids toys – Seeing as they had lots of new toys it means I need to find room for them all. I already sorted out and got rid of some before christmas but there is still more to do before I can comfortably fit all the new toys and gifts
- Start Decluttering – Jon and I always like to have a good clear out every few months. Both of us have the wish to live a simpler life, but that is harder that it sounds when you have kids, and busy lives to actually find the time to do it. But we want to start this new year refreshed and a little bit lighter, and that means clearing our space of all the bits that we dont need or want in our lives. So January will be the start of the big new year declutter and we will be ruthless…first place is our wardrobes I think!
- Dedicate some time to read everyday – The aim is to finish 2 books this month. I want to make reading more a focus for this whole year, so that is only going to come if I make dedicating time to reading a priority.
- List a box of kids clothes on Vinted – this is on going…and feels never ending when you have kids, they dont stop growing!! But it is making us a little extra money that I either put towards debt or towards new clothes/second hand clothes when they need them
- Earn £200 from side hustles/selling items to put towards debt
IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS POST AND FOUND IT USEFUL, HERE ARE SOME WAYS YOU CAN SAY THANKS AND SUPPORT TWO HEARTS ONE ROOF
- Leave me a comment
- Share this post with friends on Facebook or Twitter
- Buy me a cuppa
- Follow us on Facebook or Instagram (interact with our posts if you see them, a simple like or comment is a huge help with algorithms)
- Buy one of our Forever Loved Star Pin badges to help support our Stars For Ebben Fund