I have a new, modern house and I have realised that this is a great chance to stamp some of my own style on Christmas.  I love to create things and my artistic side likes to come out to play so my sights are well and truly set on Christmas and I have linked this with my newly discovered love of Pintrest!

I suppose this desire to create a new Christmas look also stems from the fact that this Christmas will be very different from anything I have experienced before.  Christmas has always been a time to see extended family and friends with trips to houses, visitors and vast quantities of food and drink.  Whilst I can cover the food and drink elements the family and friend part of Christmas will come mainly from Skype as they are in the UK and I am in Canada! 

This years Christmas is all about my two boys, my husband and me.  That is no bad thing, I am looking forward to days of relaxing with no pressure to change out of my pyjamas. 

But it will be different and I fear that it may bring into focus what we have done and how far away we are.  As family gathers in the UK without us, I only hope that they still play Black Magic and "Now I'm pointing" (My family's games are quite legendary and I will enjoy telling you about them soon!).

I will think of them all dressed in my Nan's over sized clothes whilst rolling a dice and trying to eat chocolate with a knife and fork, with gloves on! 

I will remember that no matter how good at dominoes you are, in Bag Dominoes you will still have a load of crap in your bag!












I will think fondly of my Nan's pork pie, that nobody eats and its still sat there gathering dust on New Years Eve!

This Christmas will be different but I plan to make it just as special.  I will play my family games and enjoy the family I have around me as well as thinking of my family across the Pond. 

I hate to throw food away.  I carefully plan meals to ensure that I use up things that lurk in the bottom the vegetable drawer before they droop.  I even keep the dusty remains of bags of dried food, just in case! 

I have only lived in my new house for a few months but already I have things lurking in the back of the cupboard that are a result of my failure to throw tendencies! 

I found the very dusty remains of a bag of roasted pitta chips.  There were a few bigger bits but mainly the broken up bits you always get at the bottom on any cripsy bag. 

This is then a challenge, I must find a way to use them up!

So the picture you see here is what I rescued the leftovers with.

Fattoush Salad

• Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion, Red Pepper- sliced into similar sized pieces
• Chopped Corriander
• Juice of a 1/2 Lemon
• 1/2 tsp Sumac
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Roasted pitta chips leftovers

Chop, Squeeze and toss together.  Add some of the pitta chips now and then save a few crispy bits to scatter over just before eating.

The sumac is a fabulous red addition that adds a lemony hit and alongside the actual lemon gives this salad such a bright taste. 

I would eat this on its own or with some roatsed chicken thighs generously covered in Zahtar spice blend. 

I would also like to champion a fabulous company where I buy my spice blends and sumac.  The Seasoned Pioneers deliver fresh, fabulous spices in silver pouches and their many blends are a constant addition to my cooking.  I suggest you check them out, they really are fab!

My hubby is growing a moustache for Movember.  Its a very good cause and I support him, even though he looks a bit strange at the moment.  It's like somebody stole my husband and replaced him with a slightly different model!

The other day in the car, hubby and me in the front, boys in the back:

H: "Daddy, why are you wearing that moustache?  It makes you look old!"

I laughed, out loud, for many minutes!

I love that kids see the World as it is.  No complications, no judgments, just as it is right now.  I am sure as the moustache grows H will have many more things to say about the facial hair- I will keep you posted!

Do you have proud parent moments?  These moments can be your child's achievements; learning to tie shoelaces, decorating their first batch of biscuits from the oven or saying their first word.  They can also be your own achievement's as a parent.  It's a damn tough job and I think you have to take pride in your own achievements too. 










It started with my first child and continued to the second and is still used today with both.  Its easy, a child falls down and is in that "OH MY GOD MY LEG IS GOING TO FALL OFF NOW" stage of crying, sometime accompanied by the inability to breath in crying, where no noise comes out of them!  They stagger to you seeking repair and you simply find the area affected and apply the magic raspberry.  I must add that a second application of the magic raspberry may be needed and this second application always works best on the stomach of said child for the instant laughing effect required for effective repair of the injury. 

It's simply a distraction.  Children can be so focused on imagining how much it hurts that they forget to actually feel if it does hurt.  Distract them and as long as no bones are broken it can be an instant fix!  I love how such a simple thing can change a cry for help into a laugh for more.  Children are not generally complicated beings, things are black and white, they are either OK or not and can slip from one to the other like switching on a light or blowing a raspberry! 

Magic raspberries are not going to fix the World's problems but wouldn't it be great if they could?  They certainly do in my house!