All posts tagged: Christmas

On the first day of Christmas…

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“On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: A Partridge in a Pear Tree.” 45 days to Christmas, hard to believe, isn’t it, where has this year flown? Today marks the beginning  of my blog’s Christmas advent calendar of posts and my invitation to share in the anticipation: the next month and a half will delight my readers with a variety of reviews of beautiful products and Christmas gift inspiration. Of course, for us as a bereaved family, this Christmas will be very difficult as it will be the first one without our Georgie. But I am trying very hard and making a conscious effort to see the beauty in this season, despite the anticipated pain. For Emma’s sake, most importantly. And for us, as a couple, as this could be a time to recharge and grow closer if we prepare wisely for it. Preparation, per definition, is “the action or process of making ready or being made ready for use or consideration”, “something done to get ready for an event …

Spare a thought…Christmas sorrows

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I have been so bloomingly and naively unaware of grief at Christmas. Call me simple or sheltered or disconnected from reality or just pure blessed. For me, even as a child in Romania with not too much to receive at Christmas, the season has always been cheerful and sometimes even magical. I realised early on that Christmas, like any other major festive celebration over the year, is not so much about things or food as it is about people. So I trained myself to recreate a patch of magic on every special occasion, especially since we had Emma, using simple things like a Christmas tree, festive baking and most importantly, spending time together. But this year the reality has hit me on various occasions: only yesterday, a Facebook friend was sharing the sad news of her dad’s passing. Just this morning I read a very raw article on Parentdish by  a lady who finds herself single at Christmas, after the failure of her 10 year marriage. Not to mention the blog entries or Facebook updates …

The Christmas Tag

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I came across this in one of Victoria’s, from “Verily, Victoria Vocalises”, tweets and decided to join in the fun 🙂 I am also joining it in with #Magic Moments, at The Oliver’s Madhouse, because for me, Christmas and the weeks leading up to it have always been full of magic. 1.  Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic? I love real Christmas trees as they remind me of Christmases past. Of my dad dragging in a shabby but really fragrant Christmas tree many times as late as Christmas Eve. Of decorating it with my brother to our hearts’ delight. Of tree needles you would have found in the carpet during the spring deep cleaning…But this year I am too pregnant to care and my little one too young to have preferences so we decided to put up only the fiber optic one. It looks well though, if I say so myself… 2.  You’re in a coffee shop, it’s December, what do you pick? Oh, it must be a gingerbread man, a mince …

Christmas Gift Ideas

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With 43 days left until Christmas (how can this be, it seems like it was only yesterday Emma was splashing in the sea in Halkidiki??), all retailers, small businesses and private sellers have gone into a tizzy. And so have all the caring family members, especially the ones who have a lot of people and tastes to please and a budget to stick to. I must confess, with a baby on the way, I started extra early this year as I know that come December I will be too heavy and tired to go shopping or spend hours online trying to find bargains. Santa has already bought Emma (and even wrapped it all up) a lovely Barbie with complimentary car and a Tiana doll. She He has also thought of suggesting to daddy  his helper to add to the stash a couple of girlie outfits from Vertbaudet, since they have an online Christmas pre-sale on already and voila, little girl sorted for this Christmas! I have also decided to put together a list of ideas for …