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Raisie Bay

Best Small Christmas Gifts to Buy

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Although you really might not want to, there are some people in your life that you simply have to buy a Christmas gift for, as it would be super awkward if not. Of course, most people are going to be more than happy to get a nice gift for their best friends, partner and direct relatives, but there are a few people who are too close where you can’t get them anything, but not close enough for them to warrant a substantial gift. We’re talking about those people such as your work colleagues that you have to get a secret Santa for, babysitters that have dealt with your screaming child all year round and distant Aunt and Uncles. 

If you’re struggling to find a suitable gift that won’t overstep the boundaries of the relationship, but that also won’t disappoint, check out some of the items on the list to inspire you and get the best gifts possible for the people in your life who are just, there. 

Chocolates 

Chocolates are perhaps one of the most common and safe small gifts people receive, and that’s because they’re often a crowd pleaser and you can hardly go wrong. They may not be very personal, and may not require that much thought to buy, but people are sure to be far happier receiving something they can tuck into than a pair of socks or slippers. 

Be sure to avoid the more everyday chocolate items and try to get something a little unique and luxurious. Everyone can go to the store and get a huge slab of Hersey’s, but luxurious Belgium chocolate is a little bit harder to come by. 

A good, unique chocolate option is to get traditional Austrian treats from dallmannconfections.com, as these are not only delicious, but they also have festive vibes that makes them work great as a small gift. 

Wallet/Purse 

If some delicious chocolate won’t cut it, then the next best option is to get this person something that will be useful. In this category, you can get them something such as a belt, scarf, hat, gloves, but the ultimate utility present is a wallet or purse. 

This item will be greatly appreciated, particularly if you’ve noticed that their current money sleeve is a little beat up. It’s a great gift to get someone where you may want to foster a relationship, as the wallet will be used pretty much every day, meaning that your generosity will be constantly remembered. This makes it quite a personal looking gift, but in truth, it’s really simple. Just pick a color that you think will be nice and wrap it up. 

Succulents

The final option is to get them something that can be displayed in the home, but the issue here is that due to you not being very close with this person, you probably don’t know what their home is like and what items will suit that decorations. 

The best way around this is to get them a succulent, because no matter what style or color scheme their house is using, succulents fit in anywhere. They’re also super easy to look after, meaning that you’re not gifting them a chore, which other, larger plants like a bonsai tree might end up becoming. 

Christmas Gifts of Succulents
a selection of succulents would make a lovely Christmas gifts

Christmas Gifts Guides on Raisiebay

*this is a collaborative post about Christmas gifts

My Sunday Snapshot and Ordinary Moments, Christmas Feeling

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Today I’m sharing a little Christmas feeling. Here is an ornament from my tree.

Christmas feeling, a white snowman ornament on my Christmas tree.

The Ordinary Moments, Where is the Christmas Feeling?

I’m pretty sure it’s much the same here every year. I find it so hard to find that special feeling that comes along with getting ready for Christmas. My Mum loved Christmas and always started early. We had a huge tree, loads of decorations, food items collected and stacked away for the biggest feast ever, presents hidden everywhere. The excitement would build as Mum sat writing Christmas card after Christmas card.

We would have loads of family over to visit, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, and every day in between. Nan would come and stay (in the years she wasn’t living with us.) My Mum’s sisters and brothers and all of their children would come. The house was always a hive of activity, nan’s mince pies stole the show and she made hundreds of them I’m sure.

I couldn’t wait to break up from school and let Christmas begin.

It’s Only One Day!

I hear this comment so much and I so disagree. Yes, it may just be one day but that’s not where the magic lies. It’s not the presents or the food, or even the decorations. My Mum taught me that Christmas was all about the build up, the present choosing and buying, the card writing, spending time with family. Sitting around the table in paper hats that came out of crackers was just the icing on the cake of the Christmas preparations.

I want to feel the same, I want to feel the joy. Each year I try so hard to make it special, but as the kids grow older and my family smaller, I really miss the Christmas’ of the past.

It always works out okay though. I know I am luckier than a lot of people. And somewhere inside, I have that Christmas feeling…it’s got just under three weeks to make it’s way out.

Do you have that Christmas feeling yet?

The Ordinary Moments

My last Sunday Snapshot

Word of the Week 49 – Hospitals

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Hello and welcome to the home of Word of the Week. A nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. The idea of the linky is to reflect back on your past week and share it with us. It’s great if you can sum it up in a word or phrase, hence giving us your Word of the Week. My word this week is ‘hospitals’ and you can read more about that below.

I’m not totally strict on using just a word or phrase. But please try to stick to the theme of summing up your week. There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to Word of the Week and I will add posts to Mix Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in. If you comment or tweet then please use the hashtag #WotW

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

MY WORD OF THE WEEK – Hospitals

Image of a hospital with the word hospitals across in bold lettering.

This week my word of the week is hospitals, in the plural because it involves three different hospitals.

Tuesday The Little Man and Boo went with their Dad to see Star’s genetic consultant. We knew this would happen eventually, the appointment has taken around three years to come through. As Star has a genetic condition they wanted to make sure that Boo and the Little Man were unaffected. It seems that they are okay but there are a few more tests to go just to make sure, including Echocardiograms for both of them. Fingers tightly crossed. I was a little worried about Boo as she has very similar body frame to Star, but the geneticist has confirmed that she is not exactly the same. The main thing being an arm span equal to height.

On Wednesday I was on Facebook when I read some notifications from a local group. Someone mentioned the clinic where I go for my infusions and they blatantly lied about them not taking any COVID precautions, along with a snarky comment about the doctors knowing more about the virus than ‘Joe Public.’ I don’t usually bite on comments like this, but as it’s my clinic where I have been going for over three years, I felt I needed to stick up for them. They have a two door system, they take your temperature on entry and give you a mask if you don’t have one. They have hand sanitizers everywhere, all the staff wear masks on their faces properly and they are the most loveliest bunch of people. I hated to think someone was lying about them. Fortunately, I was not the only person who stuck up for them and the original poster didn’t come back.

I know that not all hospitals are the same, but so far I have not had any issues at all. I’ve visited the main hospital, the rare disease centre, the geneticist, the Children’s hospital and the Cancer Centre for my MRI. All I have seen is hard working staff following all the COVID rules and taking every single precaution.

Today, I won’t be around much as Star has another hospital appointment at the Children’s hospital Out patient department. I won’t go into too much detail right now because we don’t know what’s going to happen, but something unusual came up in one of her tests and they want to investigate further. It could be a number of things, but I am hopeful that she will get the right treatment and we can finally get the issues that have bothered her for years under control.

So, this week is all about hospitals but I’m hoping that the next few weeks will be hospital free. I’m due to go back in on January 4th.

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When Your Child Needs A Little Extra Help with Their Education.

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These are difficult times with everything being disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Children are back at school now but they still have catching up to do. A lot of children could do with a little extra help with their education. Some children are losing time because of having to self isolate, some are now being home educated at their parents choice. Every story is different, but I have been using a program which has been helping my girls and today I wanted to tell you about EdPlace.

Before I begin I do need to tell you that as a user of Edplace I am entitled to a saving on my fee if I refer you. But you can try it out for free and under no obligation to begin a paid subscription. My referral code is zhvhsb and you will get a £10 discount if you use it. I am a paid user of Edplace and I use the family option so both my girls can benefit from it.

What is EdPlace?

EdPlace is a trusted program to assist learning from year 1 to GCSE, including 11+

It helps to build your child’s confidence in learning by matching their level of progression and providing stimulating lessons to help them achieve more. Whether they are at school or home learning.

EdPlace offer a lot of learning opportunities but they do only provide the main three subjects of English, Science and Maths. They also offer revision assessments for SATS, 11+ and GCSE’s

All subjects are from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4 and are split into different segments, Topics, National Curriculum and Assessments. When you get to the GCSE subjects you can choose from examining boards. The ones on offer are AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. If your child is working towards GCSEs at school they will know which examining board they will be using. If your child is not at school and you wish for them to do GCSEs then you may be liable to pay for the actual exams. It’s worth talking to a local school or college to see if they can arrange the exams for your child.

Edplace banner for access to over 3000 learning resources in maths, English and Science
https://www.edplace.com/

If your child is home learning then EdPlace can offer loads of learning resources for you online. You can assign them at the click of a button and then your child can log in and do them. You can then either work alongside them or let them get on with it and check over what they have done afterwards. EdPlace scores most of the work but there are some assignments that need a more personal view and you are asked to check that your child has filled the answers in correctly. (Don’t worry, the answers are given for you!)

For example: In an English question your child might be asked to write about three things they have read in a story. Then you will need to check over what they have written and make sure they have correctly identified the three things.

Home Learning and Education Help

There are many reasons for a child to be learning at home. It might be a choice that you have made or it may be that your child is not able to attend school at this time. If your child is attending school then you may find that they are providing all the home learning they need, which is great, but sometimes they might need a little extra. Even if your child is at school full time right now there may be a reason they need a little extra learning at home. Maybe they need help catching up, or just need some extra help with revision for SATS or GCSEs.

EdPlace also offers some great resources and articles on Home Schooling

My girls are currently on a reduced timetable at school and I have one in year 9 and the other in year 11. Boo, in year 9 has fallen behind with her work and is struggling a little. She is doing half a day at school and spending and hour and a half on EdPlace each day. It’s helping her to catch up and hopefully, when she’s back at school full time she will be in line with her peers.

Star is in year 11 and doing her GCSEs. She’s also only on half days and is currently doing her mock exams. EdPlace has helped her to revise for these. Hopefully by continuing with EdPlace she will also get the extra tuition she needs to get better results on her actual exams next year. Other Exam tuition can be found with these revision resources from Becky at Family Budgeting.

help with education from Edplace

Try Edplace for Free

As I mentioned before, I do have a vested interest in EdPlace, but I am also a fully paid up member which I chose because my girls needed the extra tuition it offered. You can try Edplace for free but if you do decide to try out a paid membership you can save £10 by using my referral code zhvhsb. I will save £10 as well. Does your child need a little extra help with their education?

education, a pencil and shavings

A selection of other posts I’ve written about Education.

Kids Say and Do the Funniest Things, latest offerings.

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Every now and then I like to do a post when I record some of the funniest things my children have said and done over the years. These are the things that pop up on my Facebook Memories and I want to keep them all on my blog, my little space on the Internet. I’ve just had a pretty awful weekend with lots of illness with me and the Little Man. So this is the perfect pick me up for me. I hope you enjoy it too.

Body Parts

I love it when our children are leaning about their body parts. Who doesn’t love a fun round of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ with their little ones. Ah, I miss those days. Here’s a little memory that popped up from 2011.


Boo fell over and landed on her knees, she said “mummy, I’ve hurt my leg elbows”

We teased her about her ‘leg elbows’ for many years.

Sisters

I had three brothers and I always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. When I had Star and Boo close together, I always knew they would be best friends. This little snippet popped up from 2014 when Star would have been 9 years old and Boo 7.

Star just promised Boo a hug if she would go out and play with her, so Boo grabbed her coat and they had a hug before going out…… ahhhh sisters

Two sisters sitting on the grass
Sisters

2019 Funniest Things

As time goes by I notice the funny little snippets get less and less, or at least they are repeated. But last year I had a few funnies pop up. So, I’m not giving up just yet. Here’s some moments to remember from 2019, which suddenly seems so long ago.

Star catches the end of the One Show and sings ‘Never Going to give You Up’ word perfect along with Rick Astley. Then she turns around and says ‘ I can’t believe he sang that song, who is he? ‘

Went to see The Impractical Jokers live last night. It was recommended 16 but I called and asked for advice on taking Boo, 12, as she’s a huge fan. I was told there would be swearing and some sexual references, but as long as there was an adult with her it was ok for her to attend. We told her it wouldn’t be like the TV show but in the end it didn’t matter as she was too star struck. The bad language was not excessive and most of the sexual references went over her head. But on the way home we were laughing about Sal (One of the Jokers) mixing up lozenges for condoms. Boo didn’t know what lozenges were but she did know what condoms were, because, and I quote, “I learned all about condoms in Geography at school. ” 😂😂

Finally, This quote was around my birthday last year.

This morning, Boo asks me how old I am and when I told her she exclaimed “wow, that’s older than the Queen” “but the queen is 93!! ” I said, feeling a bit hurt and smoothing out my wrinkles. “I know” said Boo “but she has 2 birthdays every year! ” After some working out, I mean, the Queen has only had 2 birthdays since she became queen, I am happy to proclaim… The Queen is still bloody older than ME!!!

Thank you for indulging me on my trip down memory lane. You can read more of my funniest things memories here.