BLOGMAS Day 18: Husband Hijack...

This is Gem's husband, Simon. She's had a lot on recently, so I thought I'd give her a bit of a break by writing one of her Blogmas posts for her.

I want to start off my hijack of Gem's Blogmas posts by saying what a fantastic job she is doing with not just Blogmas, but her whole blog and everything surrounding it. She puts so much work and effort into it to make sure it's perfect and I'm so incredibly proud of her for it. I'm proud for two reasons, firstly because she always puts out great content and has gained so much from it and secondly (and perhaps mainly), because she has followed her heart in doing what she wants to do and what she enjoys, rather than what other people may or may not think she should do.

Right, enough of the soppy stuff, let the Christmas time blogging continue...

I love Christmas, it's my favourite time of the year. From the smattering of fairy lights around the house, making our home feel that little bit different and therefore special to the abundance of Christmas TV specials and movies, to all the gorging on great foods, such as mince pies, sausage rolls, chocolates and of course roast turkey. I actually look forward to heading to the high street at this time of year, Christmas just makes everything seem better and magical somehow. I find as I'm getting older that I care less about what I receive and just want to give more. I want to spoil Gem to the degree that she deserves to be spoilt and I look forward to her receiving her gifts.

We got together in 2008, so this will be our 7th Christmas together and what's funny is that I always go through the same emotions regarding gifts before the day itself arrives. I buy gifts and feel so excited to give them to her that I want to let her open one present there and then but, of course, don't. A few days to a week will pass and I'll start to worry that what I've got won't be good enough and will leave her feeling disappointed, so I'll make sure I head back out shopping. I'll buy more gifts that I stumble across, but on that same trip, I'll suddenly feel like I haven't got her anywhere near enough items from her list that I ask her to write for me and so I start to buy more from that. I'll then get excited again about seeing her face as she rips off the wrapping paper and sees what I have bought her. As it gets to within a week of the 25th, doubt will start creeping back in, so I wrap what I've bought and finally feel satisfied as the big pile of decorated items grows higher. On Christmas Eve I'll no doubt go back out to get just a few more things. The thing is though, I needn't worry, because even if I stuck to the original gifts that I purchased and didn't go out and buy more, she would still be over the moon with what she received. She is always grateful and the amount she gets to open on Christmas morning is irrelevant. It doesn't stop me spending loads more on her though.

That's the visit from the ghost of Christmas present out of the way. Which is all wrong because the ghost of Christmas past always came first in 'A Christmas Carol', but sod it, I'm not going back to edit things now. I suffered a loss at Christmas time five years ago when my dad sadly died, but that hasn't changed my opinion of this time of year like it does with others because I have so many happy memories of him from this time of year in particular. We never had much growing up, but both my mom and dad would always make sure me and my little sister had the best Christmas possible. We always felt amazed at what Santa delivered into our chimney-less house by using his magic key to get through the door. 'Why doesn't he just use the magic key for every house, rather than bothering to climb up and down chimneys all night long?', I remember querying one year. I would always be allowed to bring my television out of my room (when I eventually got one), so that I could play my new video games in the living room so as not to miss any of the festive fun. My first TV was a second hand, black and white one! I still remember trying to play FIFA on it, but being unable to tell which team I was. I feel very lucky to have had the childhood I did despite the lack of money, because I was deeply loved and I just have to remember Christmases in Kingsclere Walk to remind myself of that.

The last Dickensian spirit-like musing I will have is of course about the Christmases yet to come. Soon, Gem and I will have children of our own and no, that is not a breaking news revelation, she is not pregnant...yet. However, when we do have our own family, I am incredibly excited to give them the Christmases I had and to teach them all about what Christmas is to us. I realise that Christmas should be about religion, I did go to a catholic school, but nowadays the meaning of Christmas is about family for me. Looking to next Christmas, I hope to be able to look back and say that a lot has changed since now. I'm hoping to follow in Gem's footsteps and work doing what I love and want to do, rather than what I am currently employed to do. This year has been a big set up for what should be an incredible opportunity for me in 2015 and will hopefully lead to a better life for both me and Gem. I hope that next Christmas I can take Gem back to New York or even somewhere else, I hope I can give her the world over the coming years as there isn't anybody who deserves it more.

Merry Christmas!!!!

BLOGMAS Day 8: Shopping For New Christmas Decorations...

During the past few weeks, me and Si have picked up some new Christmas decorations. Last Christmas was our first one in our new flat, so we started from scratch with our decorations, but this year we just added to our collection. Some of the items we picked up we were specifically looking for and others just caught our eye, but I thought I'd share with you what we've picked up this year...

1 - These two lanterns were from Home Sense. We picked up a white/cream one (£5.99) that opens at the top and has reindeers around the sides and a red one (£7.99), which is shaped like a house and opens by a door on one of the sides. I've put tea light holders inside both of them with tea lights in and it's so cosy in the evening, when they are lit. When I reveal our Christmas decorations in a later blogmas post, you'll see these amongst a window sill snow scene we have set up :).

2 - I had some vouchers for Boots that I kept until the Christmas Yankee Candles were in-store. I don't normally buy the jar Yankee Candles, I normally stick to the melts, tea lights and the samplers but as I had vouchers I wanted to treat myself to some nice jar candles for over the Christmas season. Boots had a 3 for 2 offer on their candle range but I was a bit disappointed as they didn't have a huge range of Christmas scents. I picked up this Yankee Candle 2 Small Jar Gift Collection for £15.99. The set contains Red Apple Wreath, which smells like a tart, red apple with a touch of cinnamon and Sugared Apple, which smells like a sweet, vanilla, apple pie. They are gorgeous scents which fill the room!

3 - This 'Christmas Tree Candle Holder' was from Dobbies and it was £12.99. I love how rustic it looks and it's also hand-made and hand-painted, which adds that special touch. It holds 8 tea lights and has hearts, Christmas trees, stars and bells hanging off of it. It also has a sturdy base so isn't likely to topple over. In our living room, the window sill is quite wide and deep, so this fits nicely in one of the corners.

4 - I was looking for some unique Christmas string lights this year and these 'White Wooden Pre-Lit Christmas Lantern String Lights' from The Range (£14.99) really caught my eye. There are 10 little lanterns and each one has cute Christmas scenic designs on each side. They require 3 AAA batteries and give out a warm, white light. We have these draped round the front of our TV unit in the living room and they really stand out. Last year we just had white, fairy lights there, so they're a bit different and we love them!

5 - These Yankee Candle Christmas Garland Tea Lights are my favourite Yankee Candle Christmas scent and I picked these up to go with the 'Christmas Tree Candle Holder' that we got from Dobbies. I've explained in previous posts that this scent smells just like fresh, real, pine trees in a jar! If you're buying your first Christmas scented Yankee Candle, I'd recommend this one. You can get 12 of these tea lights for £6.99 from Clinton Cards.

6 - I've been looking for some light up parcel decorations like this for a while now, but some that I've seen have been so over priced. We spotted these '3 Light-up Parcels' in Discount UK the other day for £19.99, so we decided to treat ourselves and add to our Christmas decoration collection :). They come in a set of three and each one has a plug, so we've had to try and tuck the wires away to one side. I think it'd be good if they were battery operated as you could just tuck each battery pack under each present, meaning you could hide any wires. I'm really glad we got them though because they look so lovely lit up on our window sill.

7 - I wanted to add a touch of Christmas to our hallway this year and brighten it up a bit. I found these '10 Non-Shatter Bauble String Lights' in Discount UK for £2.99. We have two windows in our hallway, so I picked up two boxes. They fit perfectly and are draped across each window pane. I was struggling to find any nice 'novelty' string lights to be honest, but we found these on the same day we put our decorations up. I did want some Christmas mitten string lights that Home Sense were selling, but when I went to buy some at our local store, they didn't have any, typical!

Apologies that I couldn't provide all of the purchase links, but some of the exact items aren't online. If you're interested in anything, I hope you have some luck finding them in your local stores :).

Have you picked up any new decorations this year?

Don't forget to like, comment and follow to keep up to date with the rest of my Blogmas posts :).

Thanks so much for reading lovelies!

Gem XxOo

Some images are courtesy of Boots, Clinton Cards and Ebay.