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Simplified Mum Life

Nina A Spencer – Motherhood Mentor – Simplifying the every day for busy overwhelmed mums -Mum Of Twins Twice! Placenta Accreta Survivor, Mental Health Champion, On my own simple living Journey filled with adventure and travel . Embracing The Imperfectly, Chaotic moments of motherhood.
Celebrations

Finding the magic this christmas with Portable North Pole

So I posted a couple of days ago about traditions, I did miss one of our most magical traditions out!

A video message from the big man himself – Father Christmas.

As a family, we are Christmas mad, how could we not be with 3 birthdays & a wedding anniversary all in December. So December for us is already pretty amazing.

Sometimes though we just need that extra little bit of magic.

We have used The Portable North Pole website since the Christmas twins were born.

Its such a magical experience to receive a video from Santa, I love to see the kids reactions when Santa knows their name and age.

Santas’ voice is so very warm and friendly. The videos are an amazing way to find the magic at Christmas.

There is now a PNP app for your Android or Apple phone and tablet.

This year they have a reaction Cam on the videos when you watch through the app and save the videos for years to come.

I should have had it on myself I was in tears watching the magic unfold!

Unfortunately, the quality of the video isn’t very good as Melody wanted to hold the phone herself.

It doesn’t ditract from the magic I feel when I play the video though.

I can’t wait to “receive’ some more videos from the big man.

There are loads to choose from including a birthday message. which we will definitely be using come the twins Birthday.

On the site, there are loads of videos to chose to receive as well as telephone calls!

Portable North Pole has a couple of free videos the rest you can access with a magic pass The magic pass gives you access to all the premium videos on the site and at only £9.99 I think its totally worth it. With the very special code at the bottom of this post, you can get 20% off your magic pass

To keep the Magic going, now in conjunction with John Lewis & Amazon, you can purchase PNP branded gifts and toys.

From Elves and reindeer to Puzzles and a good deed jar! Each gift includes a unique code to access a free Special unique video from the PNP site.

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I so love the Portable North Pole and the magic it creates for our family.

I do hope you get as much from it as we have gotten.

Nina x

Discount code for 20% off the PNP gold Pass

http://bit.ly/PNP7BLG20

This post is not sponsored however I did receive a gold pass in order to write the post!
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Celebrations

30 Reasons – December will pass you by in a flash!

Its already December and already I have missed a million things off my todo list already.

December is always so busy. We have three birthdays two on the same day (that’s what happens when you have twins!) An anniversary (ours – 8 years this year) As well as everything else that comes along this time of year!

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There is never enough time to fit everything in! I would love to simplify this time of year but with 4 children it’s hard!

Here are 30 reasons why December runs away with you

1. Take in Xmas dinner options form to school

2. wake up at 1am Shit move the elf.

3. Attend town lights switch on

4. Wrestle children who want to go on another ride.

5. Pay over the odds for a ride that lasts about a second.

6. Line up to visit Santa

7. Reassure kids that the Santa in front of them isn’t their school caretaker.

8. Learn lines with kids for school nativity/gang show.

9. Write Xmas cards

10. Sit with kids while they write Xmas cards

11. Take over from kids when they’ve had enough of writing Christmas cards

12. Realise you’ve not bought that elusive gift yet.

13. Search every store online only to see its out of stock.

14. Panic buy a turkey as it’s already Dec 5th and they may run out before the big day.

15. Realise you have a kids birthday party to organise before Xmas

16. Shit realise it’s hubbys birthday before that.

17. Panic buy a load of tat for hubby as feeling guilty you’ve not yet bought anything

18. Go back to planning kids party

19. Visit another Santa

20. Explain that the Santa they saw before was really just a helper. And this one is, in fact, the real one.

21. Get annoyed that no one was smiling in Santa pic. In fact, one child was picking their nose.

22. Get slightly tippsy with other mums at kids birthday party.

23. Omg, tidy up after kids party.

24. Get back on to Xmas day planning

25. Get the timings all wrong on Xmas dinner. Cold Brussels & lumpy mash again then?

26. Throw away your own body weight in gift wrap

27. Weep at how your family are amazing

28. Have a snooze

29. Have a bath with all of your new smellys

30. Get sad that it’s all over and pine for next year when you promise you will plan December better & not so rushed.

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Nina x

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Celebrations

It’ll be Lonely this Christmas.

In the news last week was an article that made me shed a tear or two.

It’s something that really pulls at my heart.

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It’s being lonely. It’s an awful feeling to be alone. At Christmas time it can be even worse. It can bring back memories of family members long gone, feelings of sadness that you no longer have that magic during the festive season.

The report says almost one million older people will be alone this Christmas.

I really hope that when I get to old age my family will still be around and will never let me feel lonely.

What can we do to help??

  • Volunteer to become a befriender with a charity like age.
  • Keep an eye out for elderly neighbours – Drop them some mince pies in on Xmas eve, or offer to pick up some shopping.
  • Say hello to someone in the street, ask how they are and listen to their response.
  • Make an extra meal and take it to someone you know are on their own.
  • Offer to do some household jobs like changing a bulb, or taking out the bin on bin day.
  • At this time of year why not offer to put up some decorations and take them down again at the end of the festive period.
  • Wrap them up a gift. A hamper could be a good idea if you don’t know them very well.

Whatever you do to help will not only benefit them but helping others can contribute to your own sense of wellbeing!

I’m personally going to wrap a couple of hampers for local people and deliver them with the kids.

I want to show them that it’s important not to forget people especially at this time of year.

 

Nina x

Places to volunteer

Age UK

Contact The Elderly 

Royal Voluntary Service 

 

 

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Grateful Sunday

Grateful Sunday #6

Welcome to week 6 of my weekly list of things I am grateful for or that are making me happy this week!

I’ve decided to start a daily gratitude list.

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I have done it before both on my own and as a family – We would send our list to each other (Myself Hubby & Stepson) via our family messenger group! It really helped especially when hubby worked away and with stepson only being here at weekends anyway!

Gratitude lists or journals can really benefit your mental health. They help you focus on the good things of the day, give you 5 – 10 minutes of calm, and when you’re having a bad day you can look back and see all the good things you have written in the past!

To keep me accountable for writing out my list I will post a few of the top things I’ve been grateful for each week!

This week December has come which means there are loads to be grateful for the lights, the excitement of the children, the shopping and loads more.

Here are a few of my grateful moments this week.

My List for Sunday 3rd December 2017

  • A quiet day planning for exciting things in 2018
  • My dad fetching my Christmas Tree
  • I managed through the night feed & during the morning school run chaos on my own!
  • My Step Son coming over to help decorate the tree.
  • Our brilliant Dr for fitting little Miss J in for an appointment to give her the once over -No Chest infection Just a cold!
  • Family friends for getting Little Miss J & little Mister M their first tree ornament.
  • An hour just for me to get my eyebrows & lip waxed (Yep lip I’ve reached an age where it needs doing people) along with a massage & a sneaky coffee
  • A voucher for the above received from friends for my birthday but wasn’t able to use until now!
  • Volunteers from the lovely Chesterfield Canal Trust for giving up their time to run trips – We had a lovely time on the Santa trip. We even got to steer the boat!

 

The Chesterfield Canal runs for 46 miles. It is known as the most varied and beautiful waterways in England.

The canal runs through Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire & Derbyshire.

The Chesterfield Canal Trust is run entirely by volunteers and they have restored 12 miles of the canal, including 37 locks, 11 bridges and developed two marinas.

To find out more including the various trips along the canal head over to their website. 

Don’t forget to leave a comment below with what your grateful for this week.

See you all next week.

Nina x

This post has not been sponsored all opinions are my own

I just have a keen interest in boats and the canal!

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Celebrations

15 Christmas Traditions

At the weekend myself my friend and our big kids went to the cinema to see the new Disney Shorts film Olafs Frozen Adventure.

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Its a lovely little film centred around Christmas traditions. While I was watching it got me to thinking about different Christmas traditions.

We all have different traditions at Christmas.

Whether we live in the UK or overseas, Christmas is a great time to adopt a family tradition. They are what our kids will remember when they grow up. Sometimes it may be for good reasons sometimes It may be a tradition they can’t wait to finish when they have their own family!

Here are a few of the Spencer family traditions

  • One tradition in our house is the Elf on the Shelf. We currently have 2 One for each of the big twins. They come each December the first and leave on Christmas Eve leaving a Christmas Eve box for the family.
  • When I was a child we had an amazing garden centre with fabulous Christmas displays, unfortunately, its closed down now. However we now still go on a trip to a garden centre or two before Christmas.
  • We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. I love the fact that on Christmas day I don’t have to rush about in the kitchen making dinner I can just spend time with the kids opening their gifts!
  • As we have dinner on Xmas eve Chris (hubby) usually takes the kids to soft play for a couple of hours so that I can get on preparing dinner and setting the table.
  • After Christmas we normally jet off to Lanzarote, However this year we are staying put at home. When we do go we like to celebrate the Spanish Christmas on the 5th & 6th. This year is we will still be celebrating but we will be celebrating in the UK by having a party with family & friends.

Here are some traditions from fellow bloggers

  1. ‘We always have trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day. Mum could never finish making it in time for Xmas so it became our tradition’ Sinead –  Sinaed Latham 
  2. A buffet in my nans on Boxing Day – since she had a stroke we all bring a plate and get together. We have a big family so it’s always hard to get us all together. Jenna – Then there were threeWe have a loads.
  3. We buy a new decoration every year and always have a big buffet on Christmas Eve. Louise – Pink Pear Bear
  4. We go to our local church’s Christingle service on Christmas Eve. It’s really family friendly and absolutely magical – the candles, the carols, the anticipation. One of the best moments of Christmas for me.  – Naomi – The Organsed Life Project
  5. We have a walk along the beach, as soon as we’ve finished breakfast we head down to the beach for a family stroll. Pip – Pip Milburn
  6. It sounds silly, but Christmas Eve, we put brand new pyjamas on, before eating a Chinese take away and watching a Christmas film of our (alternate years) choosing. Just before bed, we choose a present each to open. Our Christmas day is always about running round after everybody else (multiple parent households) so it’s our little slice of just ours. ❤️ Emmy – Misadventures Mummy We ice biscuits on Christmas eve to leave for Santa. Jamie – The Oliver’s Madhouse.
  7. We have my parents come over for Christmas lunch, which we cook. Then, in the evening, we go to theirs for tea. It helps share the load.  Pete – Household money Saving
  8. My parents come over for dinner, the boys have an early bath & open their Christmas Eve boxes. They then get in their new PJs (from the box), & we all watch a Christmas movie or read a Christmas story with them. Then when they’re in bed, we adults watch It’s “A Wonderful Life” (our fave movie!), have some treats &, when we’re sure the boys are fast asleep, we set up all the presents ???? x Nina – Bird From An Egg
  9. 1st December box – including An Elf on the Shelf (to begin his antics) , xmas story book, advent calendars , 1 cans decoration for the tree ???????? ……OR Xmas eve box which has hot choccy, pjs, reindeer food, DVD.Also spotting NASA’s space station in the sky that looks like Father Christmas and his sleigh flying over on Xmas eve x  The Mad Madden’s

Leave a comment below let me know what your traditions are.

Do you share some of the above traditions?

Have you got an odd Christmas tradition that’s unique to your family?

Nina x 

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