Today, I’m feeling less stressed out because I’ve finished shopping the Christmas shopping  presents and food.

The only things I have left are to get some Ale and Beers from the Co-op with my vouchers and Blogmas which officially finishes tomorrow.

Today we were all up and in Exeter by 10am, for the last few shopping gifts.

The town was fairly busy as usual but not unbearable.

I was on the hunt for something for my Dad as he has been really good to me this year.

I have had to deal with court appearances, doctor appointments, hospital appointments, probation appointments, and appointments to college with a career advisor.

My Dad has been giving me lifts and has traveled over 100 miles to get to the hospital for my back injury which Devon and Cornwall Police are responsible for.

I went into FatFace to look for a jumper to keep my Dad warm as he feels the cold and he’s a diabetic.

FatFace doesn’t start their sales until Boxing Day so I went into Superdry and couldn’t find anything that stood out.

My niece was with me so we had a quick look in HMV and after a brief chat with my Mum on the phone, I decided to buy him the last ever David Bowie album on vinyl, so Dad could enjoy playing his record player again.

He recently fixed the needle on his old stereo, so bringing vinyl’s back was ideal for him.

We went for a look at Debenhams and my niece found a jumper she liked which was reduced to nearly half the price.

We spotted my sister in the shop with her friend, so we asked her to have a look and see what she thought.

She liked it, so we bought it.

I was almost out of money by that point, so I went to the cashpoint for some money to pay my sister back for my mum’s present and on to Wilkinson’s where I was told that there were lots of soft dog toys for Winston.

I don’t usually shop in Wilkinson’s and now I know why.

Half of their shelves were empty and there weren’t many dog toys left so I got him and Bean some cheese and beef treats and some mint dog dental sticks.

Winston will have to wait until his birthday for a soft toy, in February.

We came back from town and then went back to Lidl for Mum and Rachael’s Chocolate Christmas puddings and more Danish pastries, cinnamon buns, and blueberry muffins for the kids.

I’ve just had a hot chocolate with cream on top. Yum! Yum! I’m just finishing off blog posts on my other blog and then I’m going to watch a film.

Hopefully, I’m going to have an earlier night than last night.

Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Comment below or tweet @AdminChick.

Yesterday I was up, washed, dressed, and out by 6.40am as I travelled to Exeter in time to join my sister in the Christmas food dash and present wrapping.

I arrived in Exeter around 8.30am and looked after the kids while my sister and brother-in-law went to Aldi for their weekly shop.

We walked to Lidl at Lunchtime to get a few bit and bobs including lovely fresh Cinnamon buns for my sister, brother-in-law, and myself and the kids choose cookies and some Danish buns.

Before dinner, we took a trip out to Sainsbury’s in the evening for some Walnut Whips, cream, crisps, trifle, cranberry sauce, cookies, gravy mix, and mulled wine.

I never realised how stressful the Christmas food dash is until it’s left for my sister and I.

Both of us didn’t feel very festive so we decided to wrap up some of the kid’s presents, eat our Malteser reindeer chocolates, and drink some mulled wine, whilst watching and listening to Christmas music on YouTube.

We also decided to hang the tree chocolates on the tree and test them before putting them on the tree.

We have been looking in several shops for tree chocolates this year and we finally found some in Lidl.

The only chocolates that some shops are selling are the gold chocolate coins, which you can’t hang up.

It’s surprising how long it takes to wrap a few presents because we seemed to take hours after hesitating over which wrapping paper and tags to use.

We finally went to bed around midnight because we had to get up in the morning because my sister is meeting up with her friend at 10am and we are all going into town as I need to buy my Dad some Christmas presents.

Does anyone else have to go out and brave the queues on a Christmas food dash?

Tweet @AdminChick and let us know.

 

This morning everyone was still recovering from yesterday’s train trip and I’m still panicking because my Blogmas posts are late up because of this dam virus on my other laptop and my new Macbook Pro won’t accept my Apple ID. (Sorry for the late uploads).

We had a chilled morning (well, everyone except me), ate breakfast.

After breakfast, my sister had a crazy idea and turned on the television to watch YouTube Christmas videos and sing Christmas songs.

Mum sat down to watch these, while the kids danced and sang along and I made the tea.

My Sister created a new Apple ID for me and downloaded the latest mac upgrade, imovies for my vlogs which are starting in the New Year. (Date to be decided) and she uploaded Office 365 for me.

I might be a bit slower getting used to this newer format. I’ve been using Microsoft Office 2007 since it came out.

We watched some of the favourites like Chris Rea’s Driving home for Christmas, Wham’s Last Christmas, and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas as we waited for Dad to arrive.

Once Dad arrived mum and my sister took the kids to the shops,I have been busy setting up this new machine as well as trying to save encrypted files and catch up with my Blogmas posts.

We left my sister’s in Exeter just before 6pm to travel back to Cornwall.

I’m now back in Cornwall after a two-hour drive and its almost 11pm.

I’ve been home a few hours and I’m still writing Blogmas posts and catching up and also trying to remove this virus on my other laptop and save my files.

Tomorrow I’m having my hair dyed and cut. It’s only been about 5 weeks since I last had my hair done, but it looks like it could do with recolouring already and it’s earlier than usual due to the Christmas break.

Have you been watching and listening to Christmas songs and videos on YouTube?

Do you have a favourite or do you hate Christmas songs?

Let us know in the comments below or tweet @AdminChick.

Today the kids break up for the Christmas holidays.

I travelled to Devon with my, mum, dad, and Winston just in time for the school Christmas holidays and the Santa train in time to surprise my niece when she finishes school.

I woke up and was washed and dressed for 7am because I had to finish some work before I left and the deadline for that was midnight and I had to wash my hair and pack.

We left Cornwall, around 10.30am after the bins had been emptied and left for Devon.

The journey was fairly busy considering it was mid-morning and we arrived just before 12 midday because the road works in Temple are a nightmare at the moment.

Roll on the day when they complete them!

When I arrived in Devon, I completed the rest of my work.

We hadn’t told my niece that we were coming, so I picked her up from school and surprised her.

She was also really pleased to spot another surprise when she came home from school.

She hadn’t seen mum since her birthday at the end of October.

We spent the evening playing Christmas songs, watching my niece and nephew sing and dance to them.

The kids choose some of their favourite songs, which we played on the computer which include; Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas and Wham’s Last Christmas.

We finished off the evening by planning an Elf invasion for kids and watching a film on Amazon Prime.

My sister bought the Elf on the Shelf kit, so the Elves have to play tricks on the kids for the first 25 days of December.

The kids are given a chart to record their good and bad behavior

My brother-in-law wrote a letter from the Elves to the kids so that they would find the letter from Santa in the morning when they woke up.

I had hoped to get this blog post written and up on the blog, however due to unexpected problems, with both laptops, I was unable to complete blogmas on both blogs in time.

It was well past 11pm when I decided to call it a day and go to bed because I had an early start the next day.

How are your Christmas preparations going?

Do you still have presents to buy?

Tweet @AdminChick.