Christmas and new year celebrations

Happy new year! I've had a busy couple of weeks over the festive period with my family and friends so I thought I'd write a little summary for my blog.


Friday 21 December

I finished work on the Friday before Christmas and drove straight to McArthur Glen after leaving the office to meet Sarah. We had a massive meal in Frankie and Benny's and wandered around a few shops before exchanging Christmas presents. It was absolutely pouring with rain but that didn't take away from the company and the festive atmosphere.

Saturday 22 December and Sunday 23 December 

Neil and I finished off all our Christmas shopping and wrapping on the Saturday, then we had our own little Christmas Day on the Sunday where we opened our gifts from each other. We also went to the cinema to see the new Fantastic Beasts film, had an Indian takeaway and watched Elf on DVD in the evening.

Christmas Eve

Neil had to work on Christmas Eve which meant I had a quiet start to the day. I did some pre-Christmas cleaning and watched The Holiday, then Neil came back home just after lunch. We then headed to my parents' house with Jessie and a very full car boot! My brother had already arrived so Jessie had plenty of attention to keep her busy. We had a lovely relaxing evening with lots of chocolates, Pringles and Christmas TV.

Christmas Day 

Me, Neil and my brother opened our stockings together on Christmas morning, then the three of us went downstairs with my parents to open our presents under the tree. We had bacon sandwiches for brunch then settled down to watch TV and to play with our respective gifts.

My brother cooked the Christmas dinner and it was scrumptious. After dinner, we all flopped in front of the TV and watched Home Alone 2 and Rise of the Guardians. Jessie was spoilt rotten with lots of new toys and treats, and she was in her element all day. We left my parents' house at around 10pm to drive home, and she slept like a baby all the way back.



Boxing Day 

We went to Neil's parents' house on Boxing Day to spend the day with his parents and sister. We all opened our gifts before eating another lovely lunch, then we watched Paddington and Mrs Doubtfire before Neil and I headed home. I know I say this every year, but I feel very fortunate that we've got so many family members to celebrate the festive season with.

Thursday 27 December 

We had a day to ourselves on the 27th, and I'd well and truly reached the stage where I had no idea what day it was. We took Jessie to Cosmeston for a long walk, then I spent a couple of hours sorting through all my Christmas presents and putting them away (after I'd painstakingly photographed them, of course). As always, I'm hugely grateful to everyone for my thoughtful gifts and I can't wait to use them all.

We had a meat, cheese, chutney and mulled wine feast in the evening. I can confirm that it was just as delicious as it sounds.



Friday 28 December 

On Friday 28th, we drove back to my parents' house to see my sister, brother in law and nephews as they'd arrived there on Boxing Day. Jessie loved all the extra attention, and even my smallest nephew made a fuss of her even though he was nervous at first. We then called in to see Nicola and her two children on our way back to Penarth. I think Jessie and Nicola's eleven-month-old baby were equally fascinated with each other! I had some more lovely gifts to open from my sister and from Nicola, so of course I had to photograph those too.

Saturday 29 December and Sunday 30 December 

We had a quiet weekend recovering from all the festivities and spent lots of quality time with each other and with Jessie. We went in to Cardiff for a few hours and picked up some bargains, and Neil cooked a Christmas dinner just for the two of us which was pretty spectacular (and huge).

New Year's Eve 

We did some shopping in Cardiff Bay in the afternoon then went out with my in-laws for a meal in the evening. We all walked to our local Harvester restaurant which was surprisingly peaceful and quiet. Neil and I somehow managed to get a decent pre-dinner family selfie with Jessie after many failed attempts!

New Year's Day 

We had a nice lie in on New Year's Day before taking Jessie for a walk in the sunshine. We then went to see my in-laws in the afternoon and had another lovely lunch with them before watching The Croods together. I was exhausted in the evening so went to bed before midnight for the first time in ages!

We both had the rest of the week off work so we've managed to get a few bits and pieces sorted around the house as well as lots of shopping, walks with Jessie and a trip to the cinema. We're off to see Neil's auntie tomorrow to finish off our Christmas visits, then we'll be taking the decorations down on Sunday to officially mark the end of our Christmas break (sob).

Hope you've all had a great Christmas and new year!

Christmas 2017

This blog post is being published on a Friday rather than a Thursday because I got my days mixed up... perils of that very confusing week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The latest terrible Nationwide advert calls it Chrimbo Limbo, and I'm inclined to agree with them on this occasion.

After blogging about my pre-Christmas celebrations last week, I thought I'd focus on Christmas itself for this post. It's been a really busy few days but we've had a lovely time celebrating with family, friends and Jessie!

Neil and I had a quiet Christmas Eve together and opened our presents from each other in the evening after our Indian takeaway. Jessie also opened her stocking on Christmas Eve to make sure the excitement was spread over a few days for her too. She was overjoyed about suddenly having lots of new toys to play with, although her exuberance isn't very apparent in this particular photo.

On Christmas Day, we headed over to Neil's parents' house to spend the day with them and Neil's sister. We all opened our presents throughout the morning then went to Miller & Carter in Cardiff city centre for Christmas dinner. We had five courses in total, including this beauty of a turkey dinner, and it was all amazing! I was completely unable to eat for the rest of the day which is unheard of for me.

On Boxing Day, we drove to my parents' house for round two. We had another lovely day with more presents, and a tasty dinner cooked by my brother. The cookery genes clearly passed me by and went straight to him! We stayed overnight as my sister, brother-in-law and nephews were arriving the next day and we wanted to make sure we saw them before we left. We also called in to see Nicola and Osian on our way back to Penarth to finish off our Christmas visiting. Jessie was well and truly played out and slept all the way home!

As always, I had lots of really lovely and thoughtful gifts from family and friends. I painstakingly photographed them all before putting them all away yesterday as I wanted to make sure I included them in this blog post! I might blog about a few presents separately, but I thought I'd give you a bit of a summary in this post.

Gifts I can wear - two Pandora charms and a ring, a new coat, three pairs of pyjamas, three pairs of cosy socks, Cath Kidston bag and purse, two scarves and two shopper bags.  

A girl can never have too many toiletries. 

Gifts for the home, including four new Disney Traditions figurines and five mugs! 

The edible/drinkable gifts. Diet will start in March. 

I can't believe Christmas is over already, but I've still got just over a week off work with lots of exciting plans, so all is not lost. 

What did you get up to over Christmas? Have you blogged about your Christmas presents? Send me your links if so! 

Ten days of pre-Christmas celebrations

December is my favourite month of the year. Partly because it contains Christmas Day, but also because the build-up to Christmas is just as exciting as the day itself for me.

As I've enjoyed quite a few pre-Christmas celebrations during the last ten days, I thought this would be a very appropriate topic to blog about with just four sleeps to go before the big day.

One of my favourite Christmassy traditions is the annual office Secret Santa lunch with my colleagues. We all bring in a different item of food (the food list is planned with military precision to avoid duplication), we exchange our Secret Santa gifts, and we partake in a quiz and laugh a lot. I was so happy with my thoughtful and completely perfect gift this year... 100 collectible postcards from Disney's Golden Age! I can't wait to frame some of these beauties over the Christmas holidays.

A few hours after our Secret Santa lunch, we went out as a communications team for a few cocktails at our new favourite bar - Be at One. When the menu is about 30 pages long and the cocktails seem to be 'buy one, get one free' whenever we go there, what's not to love? Although we didn't stay out late as we were working the next day, it was lovely to spend some time with the team outside of work and to indulge in some very delicious cocktails on a school night! 

A few days after our Secret Santa lunch, it was time for the annual work Christmas party. We went for a meatylicious meal in Viva Brazil, followed by drinks at Kongs/ Two brand new places for me! The Prosecco was flowing and it was a great evening with lots of laughing and catching up. I even bought new sparkly shoes and a sparkly bag for the occasion. If you can't wear sparkly shoes at Christmas, when can you? 

We were supposed to go out to Neil's work Christmas party the night after my party, but we were both exhausted so we had a Saturday night in with two massive Papa John's pizzas and Home Alone instead. I then continued the excessive eating the day after by driving to McArthur Glen to meet Sarah in Frankie and Benny's. I had a cajun chicken wrap but didn't photograph my food... I must have been REALLY tired! 

On Monday evening, we went to Tony's in Penarth with Sophie and Bryan as we hadn't caught up with them for a while. We had a lovely meal (I went for pasta rather than my usual pizza, due to the pizza overload over the weekend), then we all went back to our house to play Monopoly on the Nintendo Switch. Jessie was ridiculously excited about having visitors... there was a lot of barking, leaping and general over-excitedness on her part. 

I finished work for Christmas on Tuesday and Neil randomly had the Wednesday off work, so we took the opportunity to go in to Cardiff to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I was slightly lost for parts of the film as I'm not a Star Wars fan and haven't got a clue about the back story, but I thought it was a pretty good film overall. Also, I love love love BB-8. 

Lastly, to finish off this very Christmassy ten days, I went for afternoon tea with Jo in my favourite place - Pettigrew Tea Rooms. We've both had a rubbish couple of years in many ways so we thought we'd treat ourselves to afternoon tea just before Christmas. I had to get my slice of cake boxed up to take away because I was too full to eat it after my massively indulgent hot chocolate, sandwiches and scones! But don't panic, I ate it a couple of hours after I got home and loved every bit of it. 

I'll be blogging about our actual Christmas celebrations next week, if I'm not in a food coma by then... in the meantime, hope all my readers have a lovely Christmas! 

What I had for Christmas!

I love writing 'what I had for Christmas' posts, as well as reading other people's posts about their Christmas gifts. Writing these posts gives me a chance to document all my presents before I find homes for them (or eat them!) and it's a great opportunity to thank people again for their kindness. Just like every other year, I had lots of lovely presents from family and friends and I'm excited about showing them all to my readers!

I'm not writing a lengthy Christmas haul post this year as I'm going to write more detailed reviews throughout the next few weeks on my Pandora gifts, my Disney Traditions gifts and so on. However, the photos below give an excellent flavour of what I've received over the last few weeks.

This pile includes lots of toiletries, hot water bottles, hot chocolate and

heart-shaped scourers!

Lots of Pandora gifts, pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, scarf, pom pom,..

I've already worn all the items in this photo at least once. 

More Pandora and toiletries! CDs, DVDs, gift vouchers, alcohol,

candle, kitchen equipment... 

I'm not even going to attempt to name everything in this pile

as there's so much of it... rest assured that it's all great! 

I've photographed this one on its own so that you can see it in detail.

Beautiful personalised phone case from Venice from my in-laws!

My parents also bought us a microwave for Christmas...

this one wasn't wrapped up underneath the tree as it was a bit big
and we were in desperate need of a new one before Christmas!

I love buying presents for other people as much as I love receiving them and I always put a lot of thought into other people's gifts. With this in mind, I'm considering blogging about some of my favourite presents I bought for other people as well as blogging about the presents I receive next year... any thoughts? I thought it could be an interesting twist on the usual theme!

I'm always sad when Christmas is over but, on the plus side, I have all these lovely gifts to enjoy and to keep me entertained for the foreseeable future. 

Have you written your own Christmas haul post? Send me a link if so, I'd love to read it! 

My collection of Disney mugs

I haven't written a Disney-themed blog post for a while so I thought it was high time I rectified this by blogging about my growing collection of Disney mugs. After all, the blog is titled Little Miss Disney...

I've been casually buying Disney mugs for quite a few years but I started collecting in earnest when we moved into our new home after getting married in August 2014. I suddenly had more room to store my many coveted mugs, and we found some real beauties in Cardiff's Disney Store which we bought with some of the money we received as wedding gifts.

I fell in love with this collection as soon as I saw it and just HAD to buy them all. These mugs are absolutely massive so they're never filled up to the top, but they're definitely among my favourites. I love giving guests whichever mug best reflects their character... a little game I play quite often! 

So, continuing with my mug collection story, I'd always been too afraid of bringing mugs back from holidays abroad previously in case they smashed in my suitcase. However, I made an exception when I saw these lovely specimens in Disneyland Paris in December 2014. Again, they were the perfect addition to the Disneyfied mug cupboard in our new house. I love having hot chocolate with marshmallows in these beautiful mugs as the little spoon is so handy. 

I love all things Winnie the Pooh and this is definitely reflected in my mug collection. I adore my Eeyore mug above, and I've also collected the three mugs below at various points during the last few years. I bought the Tigger mug for Neil for his birthday before we got married, Sarah bought me the Piglet mug many moons ago, and the beautiful Winnie the Pooh mug was a Christmas present to myself last December.  

I'm always super excited when there's any kind of sale in the Disney Store, which is how I acquired the mug below back in 2013. It came with a mini Grumpy teddy and it's perfect for those 'I've had a bad day' hot chocolates!

I definitely need to expand my princess mugs as I only have one at the moment. Siân, my sister-in-law, bought me this pretty Sleeping Beauty mug for Christmas a few years ago. The princess mugs are always so picturesque and elegant, so I definitely want to collect more of these.

Although I'm not a Star Wars fan myself, I do like a few of the characters and I couldn't resist buying these two mugs for Neil for his birthday last month. The BB8 mug is adorable and we nearly bought the R2D2 mug in Florida last year but didn't get around to it, so I don't mind these particular Star Wars items living in our kitchen!

We've also picked up a few Pixar mugs on various occasions for our collection - Neil bought the cute Wall-E mug from the Disney Store a few years ago and he bought me the Nemo mug as a present just before we got married. 

As this is an ever-expanding collection and there are always new and exciting mugs to choose from, I've included photos of the next three mugs I'd like to buy... space and funds permitting!

Rapunzel Sketch Mug 

Dumbo and Timothy Mouse Record Cover Artwork Mug

Minnie Letters Mug

Do you love Disney mugs as much as I do? Let me know which ones are your favourites and which ones I should look out for to expand my collection!

Fake Christmas 2016

I recently celebrated 'Fake Christmas' with my university friends - you can read more about this joyous annual tradition in last year's blog post.

We travelled to Kirsty and Vernon's new house in Minehead for the 2016 edition. There's nothing quite like packing up the car with Christmas presents and Christmas food in the middle of January!

We all arrived from our different corners of the UK on the Saturday morning, and I was welcomed with an Options hot chocolate and marshmallows as I don't drink tea or coffee. An excellent start!

January's obligatory diet quite rightly gets ignored for the weekend of Fake Christmas, so I was delighted when Liz turned up with some rather amazing (and massive) white and milk chocolate chip cookies. Although we all had loads of catching up to do, the room immediately fell silent as we tucked in to these beauties. 

It was so lovely to have one more Christmas in the middle of January... let's face it, January is never a fun month between the weather, post-festive slump and aforementioned diets. There were even Christmas serviettes ready for the occasion!

Kirsty had been preparing the spectacular Christmas dinner and all the trimmings for quite some time and, as always, it was well worth the wait. The cauliflower cheese was a particular highlight for me, as well as the roast potatoes. I think you'll all agree that nothing beats a hefty roast dinner (if you don't agree, we can't be friends). I've pictured the meal with and without gravy... feast your eyes on this!

After a lot of mutual appreciation and a universal need for a post-food nap around the table, we decided to open our presents. We now operate a Secret Santa arrangement rather than buying a present for everyone, and I had two lovely presents from Fee... a travel mug chock-full of Friends quotes and a Soap & Glory Hand Food gift set. The Sugar Crush bottle smells divine! 

After opening our presents, the motion to play Cards Against Humanity was almost unanimously approved. I didn't want to play at first and thought it would be best if I just watched , but it was actually hilarious even for an inoffensive creature like myself. Playing it with eleven people was definitely very interesting!

Although we were all still really full even after playing Cards Against Humanity for hours, there's always room for cake. Liz had made her traditional Fake Christmas cake and it was REALLY good. Between the cookies and the cake, Liz should definitely be crowned the Fake Christmas queen of desserts.

It won't surprise you to hear that I'm already looking forward to Fake Christmas 2017!