Our favourite Orchard Toys puzzle was Who's In Space, and our game of the year is an easy choice, which is surprising because we play them a lot, but it's the newest one and it just grabbed everyone's enthusiasm. Christmas Surprises delights even our 15 year olds! Currently £9.50 and exclusive to Tesco.

You might remember my review a little while back of a fantastic Autumnal bouquet that the lovely people at Bunches sent me, well now they have offered a gorgeous Winter bouquet as a prize for one of my readers.


Bunches sell bouquets of flowers, plants and balloons by post year round, but this year for Christmas they're also selling hampers starting at only £19.99 delivered.


Bouquets start at only £11.99 delivered, they are a fantastic gift for anyone and especially handy for relatives and friends who may not live as close to you as you'd like. I've sent and received them, and the flowers arrive in perfect condition and give a good 10 days display.

Bunches flowers and gifts can be ordered online via their website.


Usually costing a very reasonable £24.99, this is the Lilac Frost bouquet which one of my readers can win. Featuring Bacardi Chrysanthemums, Lilac Alstroemeria, Moonlight Carnations, frosty Thistle, purple pine cones, white Lilies, Anastasia Chrysanthemums and silver foliage it's a really impressive bouquet - and as with all orders, there is free chocolate with every bouquet!

For your chance to win this amazingly beautiful bouquet for yourself or to send as a gift to someone else, please enter using the Rafflecopter form below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Written by blogger Jen Faulkner from instinctivemum.com and really sweetly illustrated by Helen Braid, A Monster Ate My Mum is a book with a very deep message. It's a rhyming book about Monsters who unthinkingly eat all of Mum's ability to be happy.
 

Written from the child's perspective, it shows how the little boy travels about meeting monsters and asking if they've eaten his Mum's smile, laugh, spark. They have collectively taken too much of Mum, and they tell him they will give it back.


This book is about Post Natal Depression. Depression is incredibly hard for a lot of adults to understand, and children find it even more confusing. This book for children makes it very clear that it isn't the child who is to blame, and nor is it Mums fault. The Monsters will give back Mum's smile and joy in the end, but it will take time before she can play and be happy.


I read this book with my little boys at bedtime last night and I wasn't sure what the response would be. It provoked a fairly big discussion about how awful it is that Mum has lost all her 'happy' and how long it wold take to get it back. My boys really took it seriously, but weren't upset by it.

This is a brilliant book for children who have a parent struggling with depression. Aimed at children from 2 -12 it really helps a youngster appreciate the idea that it's beyond their control, but it will get better. It's a very short 20 page book, and it ends with a hug. As it always should.

Logo Billionaire from Drumond Park is a real fun game that is ideal for adults and older children to play together. Based mainly on chance, the game is played by 2-6 players and is recommended for adults and young people aged 8+.


There are 2 different ways to play and it's recommended that you start with 'The Apprentice Version', which sees you move your counter around the board adding different brands to your business, then launching them as companies and trying to make as much money as you can. The companies are in 6 different sectors - cars, snacks, chilled, grocery, home and sweets.


You can exchange companies with other players providing you land on the correct square, and as you can see their cards, you can help to make or break their entire business depending on your actions.

When you launch a company you take as many risk cards as you dare from an upturned pile - hoping that you make lots of money and don't go bust!


Once you get used to the game you can move to The Executive Version with some different rules and gameplay. You can now forcibly take over your opponents companies and bid at auction and another risk factor is introduced - wild card Newsflashes. This version is far more cut-throat and you can lose everything you have very suddenly with the turn of a card. It's full of tension and in our case pleading!


We've had a great time playing this game when the little ones are in bed. It's lovely playing games with our teenagers as a family, there's a lot of chatter and laughter and it really brings us all together. Everyone really enjoyed playing Logo Billionaire - even if some of them are too chicken to play The Executive Version again!


Logo Billionaire has an RRP of £24.99 and is available, as are all Drumond park games, from a range of stockists including larger toy shops, supermarkets, Argos and Debenhams.

Drumond park have kindly allowed me to give away a Logo Billionaire game to one of my readers. Entry is by Rafflecopter below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We love Pringles here (who doesn't?), and we sometimes get a couple of tubes for snacks for family nights if we are going to watch a movie or play a board game.

Pringles have released 2 limited edition flavours for the festive period - Mint Choc and Sweet Cinnamon.


Sweet Cinnamon was definitely the more popular, with everyone trying them at least 2 or 3 times. There's a spicy sharpness to them despite the sweetness, so they're more familiar and one of our teenagers really loved them. Mint Choc was really bizarre.

I wanted to like these, I kept trying them but it wasn't happening. The mix of savoury snack and sweet flavour is just too disturbing for mere mortals. My little boys looked like I was trying to feed them poison, but at the end of the night we only had half a tube of Mint Choc left. I can't decide what to do with them, and I'm very tempted to put them with ice cream and see how that goes, or incorporate them into some other dessert.

If you're intrigued and want to find out if you like the taste of sweet Pringles then they're available now from a supermarket near you...

I was born on Remembrance Sunday, back when all the services were always on the Sunday nearest the 11th. Pivotal as it was I don't remember it myself, but I'm told that there were bells and there was snow....

I'm not a fan of war or fighting, I don't have any aspirations for any of mine to enlist in any of the services. I do clearly see though that if someone threatens you, you have to defend. I can see that at times in our history there was no option but to send our fittest off to fight the fittest that other countries could send, and far too many never got to go home, or they arrived home incomplete and shattered.

And I remember them, and I'm grateful for what they gave up for all those alongside and those who follow. What they did for people who they'd never have ever met.

Duerr's are a fairly local company to me, and they have been making jams, marmalades and other preserves in a family-owned Manchester business  for the last 132 years. They've brought out a series of great videos showcasing recipes which use their preserves and are easy enough for anyone to attempt.


The video series is called 'Baking For Boys' and features comedy double act Richard Duerr and Duerr's Operations Director Paul, and they do make a very entertaining duo.

Duerr's have sent me some of their jams and marmalade and asked me if I'd watch the videos and try some of the recipes out. As they feature things like Marmalade Bread And Butter Pudding and Chocolate Orange Cake, how could I refuse?


The first video I'm trying is a cheat for me really. It's a Victoria Sponge, which is a recipe I've used a bazillion times, it's incredibly handy to be able to make and impresses everyone - especially at birthday time. They give handy tips in the video and make it look incredibly easy, but that's mainly because it is!







My family love a jam sponge and the Duerr's raspberry jam  is chunky and well-flavoured, perfect to go with cream and sweet cake.

After one recipe I'm really impressed with 'Baking For Boys'. I think my teenagers (boy or girl) could all make a delicious cake by following this short video. It's a classic recipe that is a great addition to anyone's repertoire and the video is clear and funny. I'm hoping I can convince my other half to try the next one....

Last week my partner had a load of blood tests done to try and see if there is anything besides Post-Meningitis Pain causing the cramping and slicing he still feels in his legs and arm, and I'm delighted to say they found something.

Not very exciting, which is just how we like it, he has a Vitamin B12 deficiency. The Doctor immediately asked if he was vegetarian. He isn't, but I am and I do the cooking, although I do give the meat-eaters bacon at weekends and pork sausage most weeks along with other bits and pieces.

My parter turned to me and said "where do you get B12 from?"......"Fish, Eggs, Meat and Marmite".


I can't stand Marmite and my partner's not keen, but I know how good it is for B vitamins, especially for veggies who can't get them from meat. My 3 vegetarian children were given it on toast from 1 year old so that they developed a liking and reaped the benefits. I used to use it a fair amount in cooking, but at some point I forgot. I'm now going to be putting a spoonful in with my veggie mince and soups. It's a handy thing and for that reason I can't help but love it.

My partners symptoms are that he's always tired however much he sleeps, he has pain in both legs that is really bad at times, and pain in one arm. He's short-tempered and a bit grumpy (but the pain and tiredness also explain that). All of these symptoms are standard post-Meningitis, but they could also all be B12 deficiency.

He has 5 injections over the next 3 weeks. Worst case scenario is that the pain isn't helped by the B12 and we have to look again for a cause, but he should still feel a whole lot better. Fingers crossed....

We were recently sent some Little Crackers juice boxes to review and I'm really impressed with them. 
 
Little Crackers juices are not your average children's juice. They have no added colours, flavours or preservatives, but that's fairly normal nowadays. What makes them so special as far as I am concerned is that not only do they not contain added sugar, but they don't contain artificial sweeteners either. They're 75% juice and a splash of water, so they're 1 of your 5-a-day.

 
1% of the annual net profits goes to The Rainbow Trust, which is a great charity supporting families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness. It's a great charity and another reason why these are a drink I'm happy to endorse.

My children have all tried the juices, and everyone thought the flavours were a little unusual, but full of taste and definitely nice. The cartons are handy for lunchboxes and travelling, and my children view them as a definite treat.


Little Crackers juices are available at Sainsbury's and cost £1.49 per pack. To find out more go to their website or follow on Facebook. 

They're really not. I knew I shouldn't worry, but you do though.

As it turns out I didn't have time to wallow in fretfulness because they rang 40 minutes before we were going to leave and asked if I could be there in 20 minutes. I was just getting undressed to get in the shower, so a quick spritz with some Dove and we went. We left the bigger ones in charge of the 2 little ones and strict instructions about bedtime and we made it to the hospital with 2 minutes to spare.

The MRI was exactly what I was expecting, and as I'd done my homework and read the leaflet I'd turned up entirely metal free (thank heavens I still had a maternity 'sleep bra'), so I didn't have to do anything other than remove my shoes.

The MRI room was just an ordinary side room full of the MRI machine. I was surprised to see the room had all the usual bits and pieces everywhere, and I was told to put my locker key on the top of the cabinet 3 feet away. I had visions of the MRI being so powerful that loose metal couldn't be within a 50 foot radius!

You have to stay completely still, my MRI took about 20 minutes, but it only felt like about 3 minutes. If you're the sort of person can sleep anywhere you definitely would, it's incredibly relaxing, I was too busy watching the timer count down and reset.

It's really noisy. I think part of what makes it so relaxing is that you wear ear defenders, so the outside world is a blur. The machine clatters and clicks throughout, and at times you move slightly through the tube when it's quieter.

When you come out you do feel a bit dizzy. The Radiographer said I would and she was right. It's only momentary and I don't know if it's because you lie flat on your back without moving or if it does something mystical to you (probably the former).

Then you wait 2 weeks for your results (yawn), fingers crossed everything's all good.

When we got home was the scariest part of the night by far. We pulled up at the side of the house to go in the back door, but we live on a corner and I saw flashing blue lights from the front of the house. As we got closer I realised it was RIGHT OUTSIDE. I've not got out of the van so quickly in months and I was at the back door like a shot. Our house was really quiet and my partner ran through to the living room.

Our kids....watching Les Miserables on TV and playing on the Playstation....

They hadn't even spotted the Ambulance. I looked out the front and it couldn't have been closer - it was right outside my front gate. Obviously I'm only human, my first instinct was huge relief that it wasn't there for my family.


My second thought is that some poor soul needed an ambulance tonight and it's likely one of my neighbours, and I hope they're okay. Throws my fears about an MRI into sharp relief....