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..... a guest post from Emmy's Mummy.

Will my Christmas Tree ever be the same again?

I love Christmas. Everything about it gets me singing Christmas songs, dancing around and being silly. I was like this pre-children however now they are here their excitement spreads.

Emmy's face is a picture when she see's pretty lights and decorated trees.

When the postman comes she is desperate to know if it's for her. 

She get that Father Christmas will be coming and knows he comes through our front door as we don't have a chimney - we have a special Santa key which is left out for him. 

She loves to help decorate the house ready for Christmas.

Lights are hung 

Mistletoes ready for kisses 

We hand make decorations every year and Daddy and her decorate the tree together - it will never be symmetrical as I would have done in pre-children days but it does look pretty. 

Tinsel, baubles, lights and hand made ornaments.

It looks pretty and she is proud.

That is until whirlwind Harry awakes.

Baubles are scattered, bowled, bounced and thrown.

Lights and hand made decorations are broken.

Tinsel worn as scarves, belts, flung over shoulders or even used for tug of war.

The tree over turned too many times to mention.

This is our Christmas and I wouldn't have it any other way!

There will be years of prettiness to come when the both get older.

This is their way of embracing the festivities and they love it.

However, my poor tree has suffered - will it ever look the same again?

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Secret Santa is something that happens in an office or within a close circle of friends and it is always kind of exciting to wonder who is buying for you and what you might get from "Santa" (or be a little scared that you may be getting this years "joke" gift). So what do you say when you get asked to join in with Debenhams Secret Santa ...... with a group of amazing bloggers? The correct answer is yes of course.

So what did we have to do? It was a tough job (!!) but bloggers can be a tenacious bunch and this particular group certainly rose to the task. Debenhams simply gave us £80 (yes eight zero .. how fabulous is that?) and we had to find out what our allocated blogger would like by simply reading their blog. How hard could it be?

Now lets be honest, I love buying presents but trying to select the perfect gift for someone who you don't necessarily know in real life is a challenge. That is not to say I didn't enjoy spending hours browsing round the Debenhams site looking for gifts and I "may" have bookmarked a few things for my own Christmas list but I have my fingers crossed that my "Santee" (it is a real word you know) likes the gifts I selected.

You can therefore imagine my excitement when a selection of Debenhams parcels arrived at my door. The packaging was ripped off way before I thought about taking any photographs, or indeed saving them for Christmas Day and look what I received ........ 

The Lilypad blog is often very focused on the girls so I was amazed that my Santee managed to get anything for me but wow wow wow! Chocolate - yes. Scarf - yes. Lancome perfume - yes. I am beginning to think I should ask my Santee to talk to my other half! (joke).

In all seriousness, I was most touched that my Secret Santa ordered gifts for my girls and despite my best intentions at hiding it from them till Christmas Day, the Tea Party Paint Set has become a permanent fixture on our kitchen table. Painting it over and over again, thank goodness you can wash the paint off and create more carnage ... oops I mean designs. I suspect I may need to get more paints before Christmas.

Working from home means that there are some things you miss out on (and I don't mean the office politics) but this has been an amazing opportunity, a great adventure and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

So who do I think my Santee was? Honestly? I genuinely have absolutely no idea!!

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Disclosure: for the purpose of this post, Debenhams gave me £80 to spend in their online store for another blogger and I received gifts in return. All thoughts, opinions and paint covered kitchen tables are our own.

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...... a guest post from Chantelle who blogs at Mama Mummy Mum

Silent Crackers

If you've read the title, you're probably thinking that I'm going slightly mad, I mean how can crackers be silent?? Let me enlighten you……….

The kids and I have been making our own silent crackers, instead of the traditional pulling of the crackers to open them, you unwrap them instead and you make them without a crack snap inside of it.

To make you will need : 

* an empty toilet roll

* a square of wrapping paper

* ribbon

* scissors

* sellotape

* some sort of sweet to pop inside

1. Roll the wrapping paper around the toilet roll and sellotape it in place. 

2. Scrunch one end up and tie it up with ribbon, fanning out the end once secure. 

3. Place whatever sweets you have chosen inside of the cracker, in this case I have chosen lollipops. 

4. Tie up the other end with ribbon, again fanning out once secure. 

And there we have it, your very own silent cracker.

If you have younger children helping, you can make it easier for them by using pipe cleaners instead of ribbons to secure the ends. A simple alternative and a great idea if your kids don't like the banging sound that a normal cracker makes.

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...... top tips from a savvy lady!

Hi - I am Afra from http://www.madmumof7. delighted to be guest blogger here today. Yes we have seven children. Yes- we have a TV. 

One of the perceived downsides of having seven children is the fact that every year you have not just seven birthday presents, cakes and parties to organise, but at Christmas Santa has to sort out seven stockings too! I say perceived because it’s not as bad as you’d think! 

I’ll admit, once I got past four children it became increasingly difficult to help Santa with the little gifts that my children love to unwrap on Christmas morning. (He’s getting on a bit - he needs quite a bit of help!) 

It was hard to avoid repeating gifts, year on year. And to be honest we have toy boxes already filled with the “usual” stuff and there really is only so much Lego and Brio you can play with. And only so much room for new toys in our too-small-for-7-kids home! 

So I abandoned my usual system, became a bit creative and thought I would pass on some of my top tips to you lovely readers. 

Firstly - disposable is good. Not all gifts have to last past Christmas. Think how much children love the tat from fast food restaurants and out of crackers. Cheap and cheerful is a good way to go for all ages.

Bubbles, chalks, nail varnish, bath crayons, scratch-away picture kits, lip salves, face masks (even very young girls love a bit of a pamper.)

Novelties like this will keep them happy and entertained over the festive period and you won’t have to make loads of room for new stuff. 

Food is another good choice. We live on quite a tight budget and I felt guilty that even at Christmas I couldn’t really afford to buy the tins of chocs, biscuits, fizzy drinks and snacks that were being paraded across the TV screen more and more frequently the closer you get to the big day.  You know -“It’s not just a sausage roll, its an overpriced, gaudily wrapped, cranberry-scented sausage roll being caressed by a C-list celeb....”

So now in their stockings they each have a few of their top treats. A pack of “luxury” biscuits, a couple of bottles of their favourite fizz or milkshake (or beer for my older boys!) 

And the normal rules are suspended for the days over Christmas and the children are allowed, within reason, to eat and drink their treats when they fancy them. I bought my 8 year old a couple of those mini cans, like you get in mini-bars, and I seriously think they were his favourite gift! 

Don’t underestimate how much children love new clothes. Mine always have a new outfit, to wear on Christmas day (including socks and knickers/pants) in their stockings and generally a new pair of PJs too!

And lastly - think outside of the box. High street shopping is fun and I love any excuse to indulge in a creamy flavoured coffee out present-hunting with my friends, but don’t forget to look at your little local stores and check out online for smaller retailers offering unique imaginative gifts- If you are lucky they might even wrap your gifts saving Santa a job!