All I want for Christmas….is Christmas!

Christmas hands-down is my favourite holiday of the year! Since I was a kid, Christmas has always represented something wonderful to me.  Even now as a fully-grown adult, I still get a little cray cray when I know Christmas is just around the corner! It’s a time of giving, love, and eating your entire bodyweight in desserts that have lovingly been dipped in rum, brandy, or any other manner of alcohol…I mean, what’s not to love? There are just so many examples of what I think makes Christmas one of my favourite times of the year, but I’ve done you all a favour and narrowed it down to just five….

Five reasons why I love me some CHRISTMAS!

1. Food.

Ok, I know this isn’t what Christmas is really meant to be about, and perhaps there’s some psychological reason it is also my ‘number one’ one this list, but seriously – Indulging in anything and everything you want just once a year really is a kinda magical event isn’t it? I love the roast meats, the ham, the delicious side dishes, and Lordy I love me some desserts! I know it may sound like I’m a gluttonous pig (I’ll accept that), but it’s not just about gorging yourself on lots of food, its more about sharing food at the table with family! Because let’s face it, in this day and age a family dinner is a rare thing so it’s nice that Christmas time is all about breaking bread with those you love! (P.s. I recommend wearing stretchy pants to allow for all that bread that you not only broke, but devoured in its entirety).

Just a simple Christmas meal…I hope there’s enough food!

2. Kickin it with your Nearest and Dearest.

Perhaps my favourite thing of all about Christmas, is its a pretty much guaranteed time of year when all of your family come crashing together and just hang out.  Coming from a split family, it’s a little more difficult logistically for us to see everyone on Christmas Day, but we sure do our darndest to make it work which sometimes means our Christmas Day is spread out over a couple of days to fit everybody in.  It can be exhausting, and it’s almost always stressful, but at the end of the day Christmas isn’t the same without family and friends and it’s kinda cool that we get to celebrate it over and over again!

Here’s a selection of the fruit-cakes that I’ll be kickin’ it with Christmas Day. No words really.

3. Singing along to Christmas Carol’s

Ok, this is one of my greatest joys at Christmas time, and I’m lucky that I married a fellow Christmas tragic because Trav indulges in my need to play Christmas Carols on high rotation at this time of year.  He even overlooks my severe Michael Buble obsession, which is a no-go zone for any other month of the year! Despite my years of having the Christmas Carols played over and over and over when I was employed in the retail industry, NOTHING can kill my love of Christmas Carols! I’ve even managed to find a radio station that plays only Christmas Carols on the weekend, so if you drive past a lady in a soccer-mum car who’s singing FA-LA-LA-LA-LAHHH! At the top of her lungs whilst stopped at the traffic lights, please feel free to roll up your windows and speed past, I totes won’t be offended!

Possibly the best Christmas Carol of ALL TIME! You know you love it.

4. Watching Christmas Movies (the good, the bad, and the hilarious)

This year, Trav and I decided we’d make it our mission to get through as many Christmas movies as possible.  We’ve watched so many already, some old, some new, some that we wished we’d never seen (Bill Murray in Scrooge – Seriously, the ‘feel good’ genre has never felt so BAD!) But my all time favourites are Love Actually, Elf & Home Alone, but there’s no denying that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the best Christmas Movie of all time. We watch it every year, and it just never gets old! It’s a Christmas classic and if you’ve never seen it, then you seriously have not experienced true Christmas-themed hilarity!

Can anyone else relate to this scene?

5. Being Lovely

Christmas is a time of year when even the hardest of hearts should soften, and go out of their way to be all sweet and lovely to others! There are SO many ways that you can be lovely at this time of year: You can bake cookies, you can donate small change, you can volunteer. The best thing is, it’s not only perfectly acceptable to be sickly sweet at Christmas time, it’s actually expected! You can dish out a whole lotta lovely to your friends, your family, and even some random stranger who looks like they could do with their own helping of Christmas cheer.  It’s these small actions that can really make someones day and I think Christmas is the perfect time of year to go out and just be kind to one another! (Oh god, now I’m quoting Ellen! See what Christmas does to me?)

Here’s a way that I’ve been lovely this year: Donating time and money to the Rafiki Mwema Charity.

Tell me, what is your favourite thing abut Christmas? Or are you a grumpy ol’ Scrooge who treats it like just another day of the year?

I Totally Baked! (Christmas Crackle Puddings)

Anyone who knows me knows that baking isn’t my strong point however when I heard two of my fave foodie bloggers Lauren from Create Bake Make and Lucy from Bake Play Smile had put together a recipe E-book filled with sweet delectable Christmas recipes, I knew that I HAD to buy one!  Don’t get me wrong, I love eating delicious Christmas treats, but I’m not a precise baker so my cakes/tarts/biscuits rarely turn out edible due to me ‘guesstimating’ what a cup of flower is and ‘improvising’ by using brown sugar instead of caster sugar….you get the idea!

A cracker of a Crackle, if I do say so myself!

So Imagine my surprise when I attempted to make these gorgeous little Christmas Crackle Puddings and they actually worked, AND looked quite good too! (In my own, very modest opinion!).  Like always, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly and I took my own liberties when it came to decorating my little puddings (Ie: One M&M per pudding simply wasn’t enough, and those little silver balls that I added were just sitting in my pantry begging to be strewn across the top of one of these bad boys!) but they were so simple to make, even I couldn’t stuff it up!

In fact,these little Puds turned out so well, I was actually able to take them to a Christmas BBQ and openly admit that I’d made them myself! A few people didn’t believe that they were mine….yep, they were that good! Not only that,they were all gobbled up so quickly that I wasn’t left with that awkward moment where you have to take your sad little creations home with you. Worst walk of shame EVER! Lucky for me, for once in my life I got to strut back to my car, empty platter in hand feeling all accomplished and up-myself. And that, my friends, is what Christmas baking is all about!

If you’ve still got Christmas baking to do, I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of this little Christmas Recipe E-book so you too can be all smug and up-yourself at the next Christmas family gathering! If you’d like to win one I’m currently giving a copy away over at Pineapple Traders so pop over and enter for your chance to WIN!

This is the recipe E-book I keep going on about!

Tell me: What’s your favourite thing to make/eat at Christmas time?

Online Stalking: It’s a {Christmas} Gift!

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, this year I am very excited to be taking part in the annual FMS Gift Exchange!

I absolutely LOVE buying gifts for other people and take it on as my own personal challenge to find my recipients the perfect gift, so for the last few weeks I’ve been stalking my assigned exchangee ‘Mary’ online (not her real name, so don’t get too excited all you Mary’s out there: It ain’t you!)

After many weeks of stalking/research and several fruitless trips to the shops, last week I believe I found her the perfect gift, at least I hope that I have! Here’s the clues that I used as a guide and what I’d deducted from each one:

My Gift Exchangee ‘Mary’…

• Has 2 kids (probably doesn’t spoil herself that often)
• Likes the beach, and the forest (a nature fan!)
• She likes to read, make candles, and go for long walks (No idea what kind of books she likes, clearly can’t buy her a candle, and sweat-bands probably aren’t going to cut it)
• Her favourite colour is orange (Great! I can work with this!)
• She prefers savoury over sweet (Can’t relate personally, but this certainly helps narrow things down!)
• She drinks tea (Ohhh, I think we’re onto something!)
• The best gift she’s ever received would be a gift that shows that the person giving it knows something about her (Well I know heaps cos I’ve been stalking her like crazy!)

With the information above, as well as my frequent sneaky peeks at Mary’s Facebook and Instagram feeds (FYI: You didn’t give me a whole lot to go on Mary!) I’m hoping I’ve nailed it and found the perfect gift…what do you guys think?

T2 Spi Chai Tea.  I love T2 because it’s filled with beautiful, fancy teas that make the perfect gifts (I love their stuff but I’d never be extravagant enough to shop there for myself!) I grilled the lady in the store to find the most suitable type of tea, and ended up purchasing the ‘Spi Chai’ loose leaf tea.  Filled with gorgeous ingredients including Star Anise, Cardamom, Licorice Root, Cinnamon, Jasmine, Cloves, Ginger, and Rose Petals, it smelt AH-MAZING! Like Christmas in a cup…Perfect much?! I certainly thought so!  It also fit the ‘savoury’ bill, so I figured I was on to a winner! Throw in the lovely orange box that it came in (Mary’s favourite colour) and I decided it was meant to be.

Teapot Tea Diffuser. I spotted this little vintage teapot diffuser whilst I was scouring the shelves of T2 and just HAD to have it! I know Mary has an appreciation for all things vintage, and the old-fashioned teapot design seemed the perfect fit to go her style AND with the loose leaf tea!  It was cute and practical, and a nice little keepsake that I hope will make her smile every time she makes herself a cup of tea.

Candy Canes. I know that Mary prefers savoury over sweet, but there’s something quintessentially Christmasy about red and white candy canes, and I know that she has kids so I figured I’d throw in a little goody bag to sweeten the deal!

How do you guys think I went? Do you think I nailed it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Confession: I’m stalking a stranger online.

You guys, I’ve gotta tell you something: I’m actively stalking someone I’ve never met on Facebook and Instagram. It’s not something I’ve ever really done before, but I’ve realised I’m quite good at it! As of this morning, I’ve started trawling through their pictures, checked out where they work, and I’ve even gone through their friends list, hoping to learn more about who they are. And I’m LOVING it! Before you start backing away away from the computer to call the cops, I should explain myself!

As I’ve mentioned here in previous posts, this year I’m taking part in the FMS Gift Exchange! It’s basically a gigantic Secret Santa, where you are assigned a random person to ‘stalk’ (in the friendly sense) via their Facebook and Instagram in an attempt to learn more about them.

I got my email this morning telling me who my assigned person was (it actually arrived a few days ago but went to my junk!). I was so excited and quickly started my assigned duties. Let’s pretend her name is Mary.  I was given her name and postal address, and a link to the private Facebook group open only to other gift exchangers/exhangees.

I jumped straight into the Faceboook group to commence my stalking! I quickly found Mary, and discovered her Facebook page was largely private. Bugger! I saw a few pictures, where she worked, but not much else.  I then popped back into the forum to see if she’d answered the set of questions we’d all been given to randomly answer:

Favourite colour:
Sweet or savoury?:
Favourite smell:
Best present you ever got?:
Do you have a hobby?:
If you were down to your last $10 how would you spend it?:

She had! I had my first gift giving leads! I then popped over to stalk her Instagram.  Mary wasn’t giving much away, so I have my work cut out for me! Here’s what I do know so far:

• She has 2 kids
• She likes the beach, and the forest
• She likes to read, make candles, and go for long walks
• Her favourite colour is orange
• She prefers savoury over sweet
• She drinks tea
• The best gift she’s ever received would be a gift that shows that the person giving it knows something about her.

Ok, so the first 6 points I can totally make work I think, and I already have a couple of gift ideas. As for that final point, I’m not sure that I ‘know’ Mary, but I’m hoping that my assumptions are educated enough to hit the nail on the head and get her something great! Either way, I’m taking it on as my own personal challenge: I pride myself on being a gun at gifting, so I’m going to NAIL this!

I’ll continue to stalk Mary a little longer and see what else I can find out about her, and then I’ll be hitting the shops to find her the perfect gift.

What would your answers be to these questions?

Favourite colour:
Sweet or savoury?:
Favourite smell:
Best present you ever got?:
Do you have a hobby?:
If you were down to your last $10 how would you spend it?:

The Lighter Stuff: Exchanging Gifts with Strangers

As you guys know, I’ve made it my personal mission to not get bogged down in all the yucky headlines of late and instead turn my focus to the lighter stuff in life so I don’t cry myself to sleep every night. Well, I’m a woman of my word, and in my attempt to do good, I’ve recently signed up to the FMS Gift Exhange for 2014! I thought that this is a perfect example of a fun little project that might help restore our faith in humanity and a real sense of giving!  It also helps that I’m mad keen present buyer/giver and nothing gives me greater joy than to get my present on!

So, what is this magical FMS Gift Exchange I’m waffling on about? It’s basically a little project dreamed up by the fabulous Chantelle (AKA Fat Mum Slim) that encourages people to sign up to a worldwide group of beautiful gift-exchangers! (Hello! FUN!) You’ll be assigned a random person from the group to buy a gift for,  and then given the spy-like opportunity to ‘stalk’ your gift recipient to find out more about them (in a cute way, not a creepy way!). Once suitably stalked, you will be armed with the knowledge to able to buy the gift of their dreams! (so long as the gift of their dreams has a $25 limit). Now as if that’s not rewarding enough, not only will you receive a lovely return gift in your mailbox from a complete stranger, but more importantly you are being a part of a fun little movement that is spreading love across the world! Yay!

I’m super stoked that this year, signing up to the FMS Gift Exchange invokes a $5 ‘fee’. This fee is then donated towards one of my favourite charities, Rafiki Mwema!  Rafiki is a very worthy cause that I also support through my business Pineapple Traders (I volunteer my services by packing and posting their charity totes which you can buy here).

The beautiful girls of Rafiki Mwema

Rafiki Mwema is a safe-house in Kenya that has been set up to protect and heal girls who’ve been horrifically sexually abused.  Some of the girls are as young as 3, and it’s awful the things they’ve endured, but Rafiki Mwema is the big fat rainbow after the rain for these girls! Who better to throw a measly $5 at?! (And you can totally donate more than that if you’re feeling generous!).

Wanna sign up? Yay! you can do so until Sunday October 5th 2014. Just pop over here for all the details!

I’ll be sharing my experiences of the FMS Gift Exchange here on Marns the Mama, so make sure you keep popping back in and  you can keep helping me spread the lighter stuff!

Anyone else signed up to the FMS Gift Exchange?! Tell me in the Comments below!

#TheLighterStuff

xo Marns