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The Little Lilypad is a lifestyle blog mostly written by a mum to two beautiful, cheeky and entertaining daughters. It is sometimes written by the Man on the Pad or by one of our baby bloggers. Occasionally we accept guest posts too. There is frequently talk of sustainable living, saving money, lifestyle and travel. It is hopefully helpful, sometimes funny and always honest.

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    On the Tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ... A rather splendid Christmas tree!

    It's lovely to be guest blogging here on the lovely little Lilypad and even more special because its my absolute favourite time if year! 

    I love everything Christmas! From cheesy tunes to mince pie making, every festive fabness gets me happy and all excited for the big day. 

    By far,my most favourite thing, is going to Birches Valley as a family and buying our Christmas tree. 

    I love real trees - the smell, the feel, the look, the fun in choosing that perfect one that sits happily in the corner of the room. 

    So on the tenth day of Christmas, we chose a wonderful 7 foot tree after lots of looking, getting muddy, getting wet, getting prickled - the perfect one...in the hands of someone else! Noooooo! 

    "That one is perfect!" I whispered to my hubs, pointing at a couple who were holding two trees.

    "The one on the right? Oooh it is!" He replied.

    The thought of rugby tackling them to the ground crossed my mind, but we waited, stalked, stared at the couple while they made their decision to leave it! ....... They left it! 

    Like a Christmas tree hero my hubs was there in a flash, practically falling on it, grabbing it with both hands; Ours! 

    On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... A beautiful, perfect, Christmas tree!

    Christmas Tree from Fi


    Guest post from Fi who blogs over at www.childcareisfun.co.uk

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    On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me a brilliant guest post from Alice who blogs over at http://mylifemysonmyway.blogspot.com/ 

    A Very Merry Bonkers Christmas To You!

    Cracker Joke:

    What do you get when you put 7 siblings with partners and children in a house over Christmas?

    Answer:

    A Very Merry Bonkers Christmas!

     

    In our family, Christmas used to be a time where we all came together, ate, sung and played stupid games. 

    Sounds normal right?

    WELL...

    Our family is far from normal; in fact we are positively bonkers... but as Alice in Wonderland’s daddy say’s ‘All the best people are’

    Annnd there are thousands of us! **Slight exaggeration**

    My mum is the eldest of 9 babies... sadly her twin died at birth and my aunt who moved to Canada died when I was very young, so only 7 of the siblings are here on earth.

    This is the current number of people in my mum’s side of the family:

    Mummy Dearest: 1 (ex) husband, 3 children (inc me!), 1 son in law (Hoff), 2 grandchildren (Kyd & Rocky)

    Uncle 1: 1 wife, 2 children

    Uncle 2: 1 (ex) wife, 3 children, 1 daughter in law, 3 grandchildren

    Sister 1: 1 husband, 2 children

    Sister 2 (deceased): 1 husband, 2 children, 1 son in law, 3 grandchildren (in Canada)

    Twin 1: 1 (ex) husband, 1 partner, 4 children (inc step child), 1 son in law.

    Twin 2: 1 (ex) husband, 2 children, 1 French daughter in law.

    Sister 3: 1 husband, 2 children (inc step child), 1 son in law.

    TOTAL: Too Many!! (60)

    So it was grandchild & in law free back then but this is still, a lot of people!

    You see at Christmas we all liked to get together at someone’s house in Reading, usually the sibling with the biggest house at the time (usually Twin 1 or Twin 2). The Canadians obviously couldn’t make it but we always made the 246.3 mile journey on the train from Filey, N Yorkshire to Reading, Berkshire in the cold, wet, winter month of December. My mum would always have a stupid amount of baggage and it was always overly stressful but the excitement of Christmas was always in the air! I now understand why she had so many bags.... she was helping Santa deliver our presents! (Makes so much more sense now)

    When we got there we were all squeezed into Twin 1’s house and we basically had a week long sleep over. It was so much fun until we started getting too big to all fit in. I miss those times, so uncomplicated and mad (for us).

    We had specific traditions, such as, putting our stocking (which were in fact pillow cases) by the fire place.

    Watching ET, Home Alone and most importantly The Muppets Christmas Carol & Santa Claus the Movie!

    We had to ‘Hibernate’ upstairs until Twin 1 had tidied, cleaned and prepped for the big day... we later found out it was just a way to keep us out of the way in general!... cheeky!...

    We went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve as we got a bit older and loved seeing the drunks walking the streets and singing carols... later we became the drunks walking the streets singing the carols...

    We weren’t allowed to open any of our ‘people’ presents until AFTER dinner when everybody was there. We were however allowed to open our Santa presents at whatever time we woke up.... this started at 5am when we were tiny.... and when we got older it got later and later, 6am to 7am to 8am to 9am and so on, much to our parent’s delight. 

    When it came to Christmas dinner it was like The Mad Hatters Tea Party, constant movement, noise and a little spillage of gravy, beer, wine and coke thrown in. The Cat, who didn’t even live there, would be in the kitchen eating the leftover turkey and at least 1 uncle would be asleep on the sofa before the Queen’s speech. 

    This one year, before my Nan passed away and there were fewer children, I remember that Uncle 2 fell asleep on the sofa and my Nan told my sister to put bubbles on his nose to wake him up.... It did not go down well! There was shouting, tears and tantrums.... and that was just from the adults! It was all a bit bonkers and all I remember was that we couldn’t hear the TV properly! Lol. 

    It was never a dull moment at the D family Christmas. Smiles, bad singing, doors slamming, boys and girls farting and blaming each other, arguments, Presents getting mixed up and confused and there were tears of joy and rage, as one cousin got what the other wanted and more....

    But if you asked each of us now, we’d never have changed it for the world! We all miss it....

    I don’t think the adults do though, so much work involved and what’s the betting they’d make us kids, now adults, cook the dinner....

    And what’s the betting we’d end up with a Chinese Take Away if we did?! 

    If I could go back, scoop it all up to rein act it now.... I would keep all the bonkers right in there because that’s what makes our family, our family. If only we could get everybody in one place at the same time with The Muppets on in the background and everybody singing ‘There goes Mr Humbug, there goes Mr Grim’... not that I know all the words or anything?! **dips head** 

    Never going to happen, we are all so busy doing other stuff and living in other places, such a shame.

    I’ve kept the traditions alive with my kids though, minus the excess of people, and no matter where we are based for Christmas we still try and do what we did back then, stockings by the fire, no presents until after dinner and watching the old movies that have become classics on the sofa together. I hope my kids and their grandchildren follow in our footsteps too, it is, after all, what makes Christmas, Christmas.

    I hope we aren’t on our own with our bonkersness, I hope you all have similar stories to tell. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to laugh at the stories we tell them about when we grew up but at the moment I just get looked at like I’m mad.... Which I am.... but is there any wonder why?

    Have A Very Merry Bonkers Christmas One and All

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    On the Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love sent to me … Cheesy Christmas Jumpers!

    Todays fabulous guest post is from Love Life and Living with the boys

    This year I turned 31 and I have, until now, resisted the urge to purchase a Christmas jumper for myself or as a present for family and friends.  We've all seen the images of families enjoying their own company around a roaring fire wearing festive knits and I don't mind admitting I've always wanted a little piece of that fantasy.

    Well, I'm now old enough to do whatever I please, I am jumping on the Christmas Jumper bandwagon with both feet.

    Now Spud is three and is fully aware that Christmas is on its way, I wanted to start some traditions we can look forward to every year and which the boys will remember their daft mother making them take part in.   I'm not sure how easy it will be to get them to go along with it when they are teenagers but I'm hoping they will indulge me ;)

    Spud has a lovely Father Christmas Jumper and Pooh Bear a Snowman Cardi from 'Primarni'.

    Christmas jumpers 

    I still have to buy something for myself and Scatty Dad who I think will instantly turn teenager when I present him with it on Christmas Day and probably refuse to wear it.  There is something inside me which always has to consider how ecologically friendly something is and this tradition was no different.  I figured that Pooh Bear can have Spud's hand-me-downs and Scatty Dad and I can wear the same ones from this year.  I'm also planning on the boys wearing theirs as much as possible from today until Boxing Day and am sure I can find some natty little craft on Pinterest to recycle the old ones or else take the to the charity shop.  You can also guarantee, that on days where we are behind on our washing, the Christmas Jumpers will make a cheeky appearance .

    On 14th December, I am taking part in Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day and am busy making an ordinary jumper festive but until then, here's my head superimposed on to an e-card!

    Christmas jumper day

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    On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me .... another great guest post, this time from Emma who blogs over at Science Sparks.

    Hello, I'm Emma from Science Sparks and I'm really pleased to be guest posting on Little Lily Pad today. I posted recently about investigating shiny and dull surfaces, so thought I'd extend that a little bit for you here.

    DSC_0137

    For this you will need:

    Lots of Christmas decorations, for example:

    • tinsel
    • foil wrapping paper
    • ornaments
    • metallic ribbon
    • bells
    • metallic Christmas cards
    • glittery items.
    • felt Christmas stocking
    • flat toned wrapping paper
    • miniature Christmas wreath
    • candle
    • ornaments made of fabric
    • ribbon
    DSC_0149

    Look at ways you can group them.
     
    Big/small
     
    Shiny/dull
     
    Smooth/prickly
     
    Colour.
     
    Can you count them?
     
    How many do you have of each colour? and in each group?
     
    Don't forget to check out Science Sparks for lots more fun Science activity ideas.
     

    DSC_0150