Hello – fashionably late again. I do apologise. I did quite well in November, conscious to not take on too much work on but all of a sudden December has hit and I feel a little swamped! I’m hopeful that if I get my head down I will have all of what I need to do completed before Christmas so I can take a well-earned break to spend with my family.

Speaking of which, the boys are super excited it’s finally December, they are loving the fact that they are allowed to have their advent calendar chocolate after breakfast in the morning. I spent Saturday having a huge toy clearout where the boys had to go through their toys and decide which ones we were giving away to charity and which ones they wanted to keep. I am so proud of them because they genuinely were happy to give their toys away without a fuss (only the ones they don’t play with anymore) and understood that some children are not as lucky as them and don’t get half as many toys as they do. We ended up with two huge bin bags full which I will be dropping off to the charity shop this week.

We also put our Christmas Tree up this weekend. It’s the first time we have gone for a 7ft tall one and it’s lovely. I had to go and buy some new lights especially and now, according to Mr H, our living room is lit up like Crystal Palace!

November has been rather busy and we went to quite a few events, I would say I am looking forward to having a quieter December but I honestly don’t think that is going to happen!

Here are some of our favourites for the month.

Night Out

I can’t remember the last time I went out on a night out but I went for an early Christmas dinner with some of my oldest friends a few weeks ago. It was really nice to get together and just chat – we have all known each other since school and whilst our lives are all ridiculously busy it was good to see each other over some good grub!

Blogfest

It was one of my main goals at the beginning of this year to make it to some blog conferences. (I didn’t feel confident enough to attend any last year!) After finding BML (Britmums Live) a little disappointing I bought my Earlybird ticket for Blogfest as soon as they were released. I have to say I enjoyed the day much more then BML and felt I learnt more too. The best part is always catching up with bloggers that I chat to on a regular basis and meeting others for the first time.

Fake Table

This brings me nicely onto my next favourite. You might wonder what an earth a fake table is but this was a top tip I learnt from Emily Quinton over at Makelight who ran the photography session at Blogfest. She knows someone on Facebook that makes these square wooden boards that you can stain to a colour of your choice. It’s absolutely perfect for photographing flat lays and I absolutely LOVE it.

Below was my first attempt at one – what do you think?

Getting festive

We’ve been to a couple of festive events recently that has definitely got us in the Christmassy mood. The Anki OVERDRIVE Christmas party was great fun and combined possibly two of the boy’s most favourite things – racing and Christmas. We also went to the Pines and Needles Christmas Tree event which is where we got out tree from (see photo above)

Jacadi, Richmond

And finally, the boys were in absolute sweet and chocolate heaven at the Jacadi opening in Richmond. It was Charlie and Chocolate Factory themed complete with a real-life Oompa Loompa who entertained the boys by playing hide and seek whilst I checked out the store.

 What were your favourites for October?

Linky rules

Each month I will list five things that my family and I have been into – be it a favourite song/band, a new programme on TV, item of food, gadget place(s) we have visited etc…

You are very welcome to join in and do the same OR post any of your own favourites – pretty much any top 5 list goes.

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Read my previous Our favourite Five posts

• Our Favourite Five next month
• Our Favourite Five last month
• Other Our Favourite Five posts

Related posts:

Our Favourite Five – November Our Favourite Five – December Our Favourite Five – December Our Favourite Five – March 2015