Christmas – Page 4 – Bit of the Good Stuff

Dairy-Free / Vegan Chocolate Advent Calendars and Stocking Fillers

Published on November 25, 2013 by Sharon7 Comments

I can’t believe it’s only a week until the start of December! When this realisation dawned upon me yesterday, I thought I’d better start looking for advent calendars. Since my family loves chocolate so much, I’ve sought out some great options that suit both the milk and dark chocolate lovers. Along the way, I also came across some cute chocolatey stocking fillers 😉

All the festive chocolates presented in this post happen to be dairy free and vegan, so they can be enjoyed by anyone, including those that are intolerant to dairy.

And I mean anyone! Who was the party pooper that decided that advent calendars and stockings were only for children? If there’s chocolate involved, I’m definitely joining in 😉

For Milk Chocolate Lovers ♥

Moo Free Organic Fairtrade Dairy Free Advent Calendar
Moo Free has replaced cows milk with rice milk to create a delicious dairy free and vegan confectionery that actually taste like milk chocolate! The award-winning Moo Free chocolate calendar is available in the UK from Waitrose and other high street and online retailers. It’s also available in Europe and the US.

Priced £4.75 – £4.99 (120g)

Moo Free Organic Dairy Free Chocolate Santa
These milky chocolate santas would make a great stocking filler for vegans, or anyone with a dairy allergy or lactose intolerance.

Price: 99p (32g)

Plamil Organic Fairtrade Milky Dairy Free Advent Calendar
Here’s another scrumptious chocolate advent calendar that has all the taste of dairy milk but with no dairy! It’s made in their own factory which never uses dairy, gluten or nuts.

Price: £4.95 (135g)

Plamil Dairy Free Chocolate Snowmen
Another scrummy stocking filler for kids of all ages!

Price: £4.95 (125g)

Plamil chocolates are available to purchase from many UK health food shops or online, directly from Plamil or from other online stores. They’re also available to purchase in Europe.

For Dark Chocolate Lovers ♥

Hotel Chocolat Ultimate Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar
I checked this out yesterday in our local Hotel Chocolat, and it’s absolutely exquisite! It contains 24 fabulous Christmas sculptures cast in 70% dark chocolate.

Price £12.50 (125g)

Hotel Chocolat Dark Tiddly Penguins
These penguins are so cute! They’re cast in 70% rick dark chocolate and would make a super addition to stockings or as an after dinner chocolate (for big and small kids alike 😉 )

Price: £5.50 (85g)

Hotel Chocolat Ho Ho Ho Dark Chocolate Pillow Pack
I think any dark chocolate lover would be happy to find these cute santas in their stocking!

Price: £2.50 (30g)

Hotel Chocolat confectionery is available to purchase online from their UK and US sites. They also have a number of high street stores. I found that the availability of dark chocolate festive treats was limited in the Hotel Chocolat in Bath, but I’m pleased to find that their website provides a ‘click and collect’ service, with free collection.

Montezuma’s Organic and Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar
This top quality calendar is filled with Montezuma’s wonderful house-blended organic dark chocolate. Perfect for all dark chocolate lovers, including vegans and those on dairy-free diets.

Price: £9.99 (240g)

Montezuma’s Dark Chunky Snowmen
This set of eight cute little snowmen, made of organic 73% dark chocolate, would make the perfect stocking filler for dark chocolate lovers ♥

Price: £4.99 (110g)

Montezuma’s chocolates can be purchased directly from their website. It’s also available in high street health food shops and online stores.

Are you planning on having an advent calendar this year? I’ll definitely join in the fun (if one of Santa’s little helpers happens to treat me 😉 )

Festive Holiday Highlights 2012

Published on January 8, 2013 by Sharon10 Comments

Lil’ L returned to school today which means that the festive holidays are officially over in my house. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly these two weeks pass!

Before I fully immerse myself in the new year, I’d just like to share a few pics to show what we’ve been up to these past couple of weeks.

We were really fortunate that M was able to take the full 2 weeks off work, so we had lots of quality family time together (which I absolutely treasured!) I was also extremely grateful that we managed to avoid the flu and stomach bugs that so many people sadly suffered from this Christmas. I really felt for them. I wish I could have waved a magic wand and made them all better. Oh to have such powers :/

Our Christmas was very chilled out, which was wonderful after all the busyness of the preceding weeks.

Obviously there was lots of excitement on Christmas morning when Lil’ L discovered that Santa had delivered a sack of presents for him (Lego was a popular gift again this year 😉 )

As well as having lots of fun playing with new toys, we also enjoyed playing my Dad’s old board games, watching movies on the TV and trips to the cinema. Have you seen Life of Pi yet? It’s such a beautiful film!

There’s been a fair amount of eating going on over the holidays too 😉 I did eat a lot more calories than usual (who doesn’t at this time of year?) and most of the extra calories came from the vast quantity of Christmas pudding, mince pies and Christmas cake that I consumed. Thank goodness I only eat them for a couple of weeks of the year!

Christmas Cake 2012 - 500 — I finally got round to decorating the Christmas Cake on Boxing Day!

To help burn off the extra calories, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day I went for morning jogs along the canal, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Since the weather was so mild (and fairly dry later in the day) the three of us also enjoyed taking evening strolls to Bath city centre.

These past few years, it’s become a tradition for us to welcome in the New Year with a visit to the coast and a stroll along the beach.

This year, we took a trip to Weymouth on the South Coast.

This is where the sailing took place for the 2012 Olympic Games.

All that space on the beach…

… and look where Lil’ L has to walk! As per usual, he seems determined to get his feet wet!

We also took a trip to Chesil Beach. This really was invigorating!

I can’t imagine how many pebbles there are on this beach. There must be millions!

And where’s Lil’ L? Yep, you guessed right. Down at the water’s edge chancing his luck.

This time round he only just managed to escape getting soaked (which is an improvement on last year 😉 )

So that’s another year over! Time to move on!

I wish you all a wonderful 2013. I hope the year brings you everything you desire xx

p.s. What was the highlight of your festive holidays?
Have you set any New Year’s solutions? I haven’t set any yet… except for my wish to be a better human being… this has been my New Year’s resolution for as long as I can remember 🙂 However, I’m thinking that maybe it would be a good idea for me to set some short term goals and milestones for 2013. This might help me to focus a little more and stop wasting time 😉

It’s Light-Fantastic in Wiltshire!

Published on December 27, 2012 by Sharon12 Comments

Check out this Christmas light display on a 4-bed house in Longford Road, Melksham, Wiltshire.

Isn’t it incredible?

Now I’m from Essex, and the Essex folk do know a thing or two about putting on a Christmas light display 😉 However, without a shadow of a doubt, this is the most dazzling display of lights that I’ve seen in my life!

Look at the front driveway!

And while you’re standing at the gates, gawping at the lights, you suddenly realise that you’re covered in snow. Low and behold, you look up to discover that there’s a snow machine attached to the top of the garden gate. It’s madness!

This incredible display, which has around 180,000 bulbs (!) is the handy work of 28 year old Alex Goodhind. He worked for six weeks to get the display up and running and, for the most of that time, I imagine he was working in the rain. (It’s been raining here in the South West for what seems like months now!)

As well as brightening up the town and bringing a smile to our faces, Alex is hoping that the display will raise lots of money for Dorothy House Hospice. You can read more about Alex’s story here.

The display is on until the end of December, so if you’re in the vicinity of Melksham, go check it out!

Did you make your house light-fantastic this Christmas?
We put a string of fairy lights on the steps leading up to the front door. Maybe we’ll go for a glowing reindeer or two on the front lawn next year 😉

Happy Holidays!

Published on December 24, 2012 by Sharon2 Comments

To all my wonderful readers, I send warm wishes for a
magical fun-filled Christmas and a happy New Year.
I look forward to catching up with you all in 2013 xx

Special Moments from Christmas 2011

Published on December 30, 2011 by Sharon12 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful break over the long holiday weekend. Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but the computer and phone have been switched off for the past week so that I can give the family my full attention and do all those important things with them like playing board games, watching movies, going for long walks… oh and let’s not forget all that festive eating and drinking 😉

For us, this Christmas has also been marked by a sad occasion. On the evening of 23rd December, M’s nan sadly passed away. She was such a wonderful lady, with a heart full of kindness and generosity. She will be greatly missed by us all.

At the last moment, our Christmas plans changed and, instead of hosting at our house, the three of us went to Dorset to spend a few nights with my mum and her dogs, Poppy and Beau. We had the most special time. Here are a few of the highlights…

Here’s Lil’ L opening his presents from Santa. Unbelievably, that boy actually got dressed at 7am before he left the bedroom. That’s a first!

I, on the otherhand, have spent most of the holidays in my gorgeous, new fleecy pjs’ and fluffy slippers that my mum bought me for Christmas 🙂

M helped me prepare the Christmas dinner. It was totally delish… and, by consensus, the best nut roast I’ve made to date 😉

My mum practically lives in Verwood Forest and we love going out for long walks in the mornings with her dogs.

It’s such a beautiful forest!

Here’s me and my mum with the dogs.

And here’s Lil’ L, who will turn even the smallest twig into a shooting device. What is it with boys and guns???

The forest is filled with this beautiful yellow bracken. Don’t get too close though as it’s super spiky.

We also found came across some beautiful holly bushes.

While we’ve certainly indulged in festive eating, our family walks have been a great counter balance. One day, we went for a 6 hour walk along the beach to Bournemouth. It was an exhilarating day and all that sea air really helped to blow the cobwebs away!

Guess how long it took for Lil’ L to get his feet soaking wet…

about twenty seconds!

Poppy and Beau loved playing on the beach!

They didn’t seem to get tired… even after six hours of playing!

Unsurprisingly, Lil’ L didn’t like the fact that his feet were soaking wet. Luckily, M&S was open in Bournemouth and the boy was back to his smiley self after he’d put on a fresh pair of dry socks 🙂

I loved all these colourful beach huts. I looks like someone has worked their way through the Dulux colour chart 😉

Once we’d made it to Bournemouth Pier we popped into the town centre to get a bite to eat. The town was heaving with shoppers! We couldn’t wait to get back on the beach. The return journey was filled with lots of laughter, games, a sneaky times table practice and a beautiful sunset 🙂

Thanks family for such a beautiful Christmas 🙂

Time to get back to those board games now 😉

If I don’t manage to post beforehand, I bid you all a very happy New Year. I hope that your 2012 will be filled with good health, prosperity, happiness and a good dose of fun and laughter 😉 Take care xx

Christmas Eve

Published on December 24, 2011 by Sharon6 Comments

‘To Do’ List

1. Make some raw chocs to hang on the Christmas tree. Check

2. Make a lentil & nut roast for Christmas dinner. Check

3. Decorate M’s birthday cake (SO LATE!), light the candles and sing happy birthday to him. Check Check Check

4. Decorate the Christmas Cake. Check. Me & Lil’ L turned it into a giant snowball 🙂

5. Make some coconut marzipan balls with the left over ground almonds and desiccated coconut. Check.

6. Wrap the presents. Check.

Just got to have a shower and get dressed, then I’m done! 🙂

Have a great weekend everybody! Happy Christmas! Happy Yule! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Winter Solstice! I send my warmest wishes to you all. HAVE FUN! 🙂 xx

To all my wonderful readers, I send warm wishes for a magical fun-filled Christmas and a happy New Year. I look forward to catching up with you all in 2013 xx

‘To Do’ List

To all my wonderful readers, I send warm wishes for a
magical fun-filled Christmas and a happy New Year.
I look forward to catching up with you all in 2013 xx