BLOGMAS Day 16- Guest Post By A Mix Of Rikki

if you follow my facebook page you will see that i advertised for a fellow blogger to write a guest post for my blog, i asked the post to be specifically about christmas traditions and just basically how they celebrate the holidays and what they enjoy about this time of year. An hour or so later i had a lovely girl called Rikki get in touch with me enquiring about guest posting, she pitched her ideas and ever so quickly put this together for me. Since yesterdays post was about how i celebrate christmas and some of the traditions me and my family hold i thought this post would tie in ever so nicely. So i bring to you "A Mix Of Rikkis" typical christmas. (All links to Rikkis blog and social media profiles will be below)

"Well. it's that time of the year again, Christmas, and even if you don't celebrate it, it's all over the place and happening in all kinds of ways! I remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger. The smell, feelings, and excitement it brought me knowing Santa was coming.

Christmas morning came and it was time to wake our parents up with coffee and open our gifts, eat breakfast, and play with our new goodies while we waited to leave for our family dinner. We always spent Christmas at my aunts house opening gifts and having an awesome ham dinner.

As you get older feelings of Christmas and traditions change as well as our families. I went from wanting everything Barbie, to everything Urban Decay and Sephora. Celebrating Christmas these days is quite different, I have my own family to start traditions with and that's pretty exciting.

Me and my boyfriend Brandon don't do much throughout the year for ourselves, so we take this time of year to spoil each other. With our only son turning two in February, it's incredibly hard not to spend everything we have on him this time of year, mostly because we are excited about it.

No matter what you believe in, or how you celebrate this time of year, always be thankful for what you do have and for being able to spend it with the people you love, family or friends

Having my own family now we are starting our own traditions, putting up the decorations, we even took the time out of our day to make homemade ornaments. I also look forward to Hunter waking us up bright an early to open his gifts from Santa and seeing his face light up when he opens them, and still making our way to my aunts house so the family can get together. Our family has grown bigger with our families coming together so it is a little more hectic, but we make it work."

Rikkis gorgeous christmas tree, so cute and festive!

Thankyou so much Rikki for guest posting on my blog, I LOVED reading all about your christmas! i hope you, your boyfriend and little boy have a magical day!

Check out RIkkis...

Blog: http://amixofrikki.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/A-Mix-of-Rikki-1502590453374451/?fref=ts

Well i hope you have all had a good BLOGMAS day 16, will seeyou all tomorrow!

MY facebook page is now up and running so if you havent already go and give it a cheeky like:

https://www.facebook.com/misskeeleah/?fref=ts

Misskeeleah

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BLOGMAS Day 15- My Christmas Traditions

It's getting closer and closer to the big day that we've all been waiting for ever so patiently. Me and my family are starting to do more festive activities and are getting into the giddy Christmassy mood. Every family celebrates Christmas in a different way and has their own traditions, I find it so intriguing to see other peoples ways of celebrating the holidays. So I thought I would share with you some of mine and my families Christmas traditions...

1) Every 1st of December we put the Xmas tree up (this year was an exception to being late). We always get up super early, get dressed - normally wearing some cheesy Christmas clothing, and put all the decorations up. Whilst doing so we blast out all the festive tunes and have a silly sing and dance a long. It normally takes us until evening to finish putting everything up as, well we're perfectionists, and we have that much stuff that we've collected over the years.

2) On Christmas Eve we all sit down to fill our bellies with some gammon, for some reason my mum has always cooked this every 24th of December. We then wash it down with our favourite drinks (eggnog, j2os, shandys, slhlur, I'm not a big fan of alcohol hence the soft drinks haha), whilst wrapping the left over presents and getting them all set up nicely for my niece and nephew.

3) Also on Christmas Eve we prepare all the dinner for the next day. We chop, slice and dice all the vegetables and get them sat in pans ready. It sounds really daft but it's such good fun and it makes you so excited knowing what feast you're going to be enjoying the next day with all your family.

4) Normally on Christmas morning we all travel to my nannans where we meet the rest of my family there. It's such a great tradition as it's very rare all the family gets together throughout the year, and most of all it's such a warm feeling seeing a genuine smile on my 81 year old nannans face.

5) This is a bit of a morbid one, sorryyyyy... On the 24th we take time out of our day to go and purchase a wreath and a mini Christmas tree and then visit my grandad and nephews grave. We decorate the headstone all festive for them and just spend a bit of time with them. It's nice to involve and remember those who can't be with us on this special occasion. 

6) Normally around the 23rd a Santa on a sleigh rides around our streets blasting Christmas songs out and he comes and visits all the children in our area. It's so great seeing my niece and nephew get all excited to see Santa, but what's more great is that some kind generous people actually spend time and money organising this for the local kiddies. We all get wrapped up really warm, wait outside and give Santa a big wave as he's driving past. It's such fun joining in with the little ones as it makes this time of year that bit more magical.

So there you have it, there's a few of my favourite Christmas family traditions, it might not sound much to you but it's what makes my Christmas so special to me. It's not about the presents or the money giving, it's about spending time making memories with your loved ones. It's not very often we all get to spend time with eachother so you have to make the most of what you've got even if it is just for one day. 

Eeeeek just talking about it gets me all excited!!! I'm out for the night, ciao for now.

Misskeeleah

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BLOGMAS Day 14- The Elf On The Shelf

Christmas traditions are what makes this time of year so special. Each and every household has their own way of celebrating the holidays, whether it be putting the tree up 12 days before christmas, baking a gingerbread house, drinking eggnog round the fire or simply leaving out mince pies and carrots for santa on xmas eve. But i've noticed a new tradition that's becoming quite popular here in the UK, it's known as "the elf on the shelf". If you haven't heard of this its where an elf is sent from the North Pole to keep an eye on the kiddies to then report back to Santa every night. As the elf returns he/she will move to a different spot in the house to make the children believe they are real. Of course this elf is just a teddy and the parents are the puppeteers. But what's so great about all of this is that the parents are adding a little creativity to this by making the elf get up to all different kinds of antics everynight, some say its getting out of hand now but others (including me) think it's a great idea to bring a bit of magic and belief for the young ones. Theres this page on facebook called "Elf Adventures" and its such good fun looking through all the photos that parents have sent in, i've had a good giggle at them all and i wanted to share the laughs with all of you too. I'm adding my favourite photos but i will leave the link at the end of the post to the facebook page so you can go have a look yourself. Enjoy!

Elvis took a coke break

Jingle Bell couldn't resist a midnight feast

Danny the elf creating snow angels in flour, naughty 

Cheeky elfs getting a bit carried away with the photocopier

Gone fishing

This is my niece and nephews friend Elfie Jingles, he came through the secret door from the North Pole with Santas key. So magical seeing their little faces light up!

Its not as fun at christmas when you're older, it becomes more stressful than anything by trying to get everything organised for the day, so by doing things like this it brings a bit of joy for the parents. Whats your favourite christmas traditions? 

Misskeeleah

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BLOGMAS Day 12- Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I wish it could be Christmas everyday *Add music notes here*. Its starting to feel a bit more like Christmas now that the decorations are finally up. My mum and dad decided to Re-decorate the whole downstairs of our house just before christmas which meant we werent able to put up the christmas tree. We normally turn our house into Santas Grotto on the 1st of December and i was getting very grouchy that we werent able to do that this year, but its all good now, im surrounded by xmas decor and im starting to feel funky and festive! 

We no longer have a fireplace, wait hows Santa going to deliver my presents now?... but anyway due to that we have less places to put all our ornaments on so unfortunately we haven't got as many christmas decorations out this year, boohoo. Rather than trying to explain everything thats in our house i am going to simply show you in a few photos. Enjoy.

 I love these three, the funny thing is that their leg lengths can be altered, you can have them stood tall like they are now or you can have them really short to the ground.

 This light up present under the tree is new this year i think it was from poundstretchers for about ten pounds, what a bargain. It looks so cute sitting under the tree.

 This our 6ft white christmas tree lit up with yellow twinkling lights and decorated with pink, blue and green assorted baubles. We have teardrop shaped ones, snowflakes and stars, as well as some in glitter, stripes or metallic effect. Then to top it off we have a big glittery silver star above.

 I love this chimney clock, the santa figurine swings inside it thats why he's a bit blur in the photo. When it strikes every hour it plays a cute little christmas tune. The chimney countdown next to the clock is something we've had years, everyday you take out one of the sticks until santa ends up at the bottom of the chimney on Christmas eve.

 Another new purchase is this cute little sign. We bought this from our local hospital in the flower shop. Its very vintage looking but also simple and festive.

Here we have another countdown, you simply just change the blocks around to fit how many days it is until christmas day. The star should light up but we don't have any batteries that work for it:-(

Like i said we don't have LOADS of decorations up like usual but i love how subtle it looks and how they all compliment each other nicely. Im so so so excited to put presents under the tree and to get that santa at the bottom of the chimney. Please do send some photos of your decorations i would love to know how you all celebrate christmas. Until next time, bye.

Misskeeleah

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BLOGMAS Day 10- Christmas Countdown Continues

I'm so sorry guys but due to work commitments I've not had time to write you all a juicy festive filled post for day 10 of our Christmas countdown, I'm so gutted! But I couldn't let you down and not post at all so I thought I would bring you a little excitement and tell you... It's only 14 days until Christmas eeeeek! I cannot wait for Christmas Day, all the presents, the food, family time, classic films on the TV and hot chocolates, yum! Hope you're all looking forward to it as much as me, but I hope you're all more prepared than me haha. Anyway I promise to write a better, more Christmassy post for day 11, apologies again. See you tomorrow, when we will be an extra day closer to the 25th of December, wooh.

Misskeeleah

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