New year Rest-olutions.

Christmas is such a busy and often stressful time. I was determined this year that Christmas would not enter my life until December 1st, that included gift buying, card writing, decoration planning and general Ho,Ho,Ho- ing. I planned to have a stress free christmas. So that was my first BIG mistake. With so many things happening, two weeks with no internet and a nice selection of bugs,  my stress free christmas became a bit of a race and I never did get any cards written, never mind about posted out. 

Note to self - start Christmas planning in August this year....... 

That said we had some wonderful moments and I certainly treasured them. 

The tradition I love the most is the annual choosing of the tree. Careful consideration needs to be given to the shape and sized the tree. It just has to be 'the one'. 

We found ours at a gorgeous little nursery in Leamside, Durham. 

This little tree came home with us for the holidays. 

Decorating one tree just wasn't enough. We are lucky to have a gorgeous forest just next to us and we often go for adventures.  On one of our walks we passed a little christmas tree and decided to decorate it with a few decorations to make a stranger smile. Lots of people walk their dogs through the forest and we all know we have days where we smile on the outside but we aren't smiling on the inside.

 We did this with the hope that is might make someone smile, even just for a minute. 

This really got us in the spirit of Christmas and all that was left was to see the man himself - Father Christmas. After a few frantic phone calls it turned out that you really did need to plan ahead for your annual visit with Santa. Eventually, we managed to book a sleigh ride to a little hideaway, nice and understated, no crowds and our own slot in his gorgeous little lodge. This is one for the diary next year if you have little ones. 

 Look up Knitsley Mill, it has a gorgeous restaurant attached so you can make an afternoon of it.

The letter was written, and posted.

We were well on our way at last, tree up - check. Santa visited - check. Gifts wrapped- check. 

All that was left was to have fun and enjoy it!  We enjoyed a lovely little celebration on Christmas Eve with special friends and the children made reindeer food, cookie Christmas trees and Christmas muffins. 

We watched Santa fly past the moon as we walked to our local church for a family friendly carol service. So much fun.

   All the children enjoyed making cookie Christmas trees. 

  Lots of varieties of reindeer food were concocted! 

    Finally the day itself arrived and we had a fantastic time, lots of fun, love and family time. 

As the new year approached I did what most people do and started to think about what I could do or change in 2015, I'm not one for resolutions as such, but my father came up with the best idea - a New Years  'rest-alution' - I loved it! I'm so bad at taking time out to rest and always find something that needs doing.  So I'm really going to try hard to do this. I sat with my little  notebook and a cup of tea  and wrote down a few little things that would help me get more rest and relaxation but were also realistic. 

I'm quite happy with my ideas so far but  I'd love to hear some of yours - things that help you relax or time saving tips for a busy mum of two. 

Leave your comments below, I look forward to adding some of your ideas to my list to ensure I do a lot more of this.............

A happy and healthy 2015 to you all!

XXX