Blogmas Day Five - Winter Wonderland

Hello,
welcome back to our blog. We are on Blogmas day 5 and today its all about Winter Wonderland. We are very lucky as we have a winter wonderland just 15 minutes away from our house so we can visit when ever we want to during November and December. We have decided to do a blogmas post on winter wonderland as it is very festive and it puts everyone in the Christmas mood, well it puts us in the Christmas mood.

 We love winter wonderland as there is loads to do and there is something to do for everyone like there is small rides for children, there is a ice rink for everyone that wants to ice skate and there are lots of different wooden huts offering different types of food and drink.

We recommend going to winter wonderland if you are stuck on what to get you in the festive food as there is a really nice atmosphere. Its a really nice place to go as a family as there is something for all ages. We love going every year with our families as we always make new memories, whether that be that one of us has a funny fall on the ice or is being silly whilst skating or if one of us gets their food all over their face by accident whilst eating their food. Just make sure you wrap up nice and warm when you go as you will get cold otherwise.

Thats all for todays blogmas post, we hoped you have enjoyed. Don't forget to comment with some of your memories from when you have visited or if you are planning on going to winter wonderland this year. Also don't forget to follow all of our social medias to know when we have updated or to find out what we are up to. Thank you for reading and make sure you come back tomorrow to read day 6 blogmas post.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Four - Vegan Christmas Dinner

Hello,

Christmas is a time known for a good turkey dinner but for Vegans this is difficult to get past without having a nut roast. a nut roast is nice but after a while it starts to get a bit boring and t is not the only option for Christmas. In fact you can even cheat and just go and buy an alternative vegan meat source for Christmas if you don't indeed have enough time to make anything from scratch. However, this is our vegan Christmas dinner that we make and now sharing for blogmas day four.

Firstly, all the vegetables are obviously going to stay the same for our vegan Christmas dinner and therefore nothing needs to be changed for this part of the meal. However, you may need to check the labels of some Yorkshire puddings and make sure that they are vegan but we find that the ones we buy are fine.

For starters we usually like to have an almond pate with some toast. This is super easy to make as you gather all the ingredients from the recipe and blend them all together to make the paste. This is actually really nice and even appeals to non-vegans believe it or not. The only problem is that when making the pate you need to soak the almonds for a long period of time.

For our main, we keep everything the same but change the meat. Therefore we like to cheat and use a store bought alternative but we have used tofu and other ingredients to make an alternative tofu type turkey with stuffing. This is all really easy and you only need to add some spices or sauces to the tofu to make it taste like Christmas as well as follow a simple list of ingredients for the stuffing. We like to use olive oil, celery, onion, bread crumbs, herbs and some other stuff for our stuffing an it taste delicious.

For desert we like to keep it simple as we are normally full by this point but refuse to turn down a desert. So, we normally have a simple pudding made with sugar, vegan butter and flour and drizzle with some golden syrup. This is normally really nice and very simple to make. However, if you want to push the boat out there are plenty of other options but we tend to stick with this.

We know it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas dinner but we hope you enjoyed. leave a comment with what you are planning to have for your Christmas dinner regardless on if it is vegan or not. Thanks for reading todays blogmas. Please follow our social media for more updates on blogmas and other posts.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Three - Gingerbread

Hello,

So this is day three of blogmas and we know that everyone is getting their christms food ready and so we wanted to share with you some of our ideas for Christmas recipes that we love to make.

First of all is Gingerbread. We love gingerbread and so we make it every Christmas. So here is the recipe we use for our gingerbread:

• Light brown sugar
• golden syrup
• water
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• butter/ vegan butter
• bicarbonate of soda
• plain flour.

First you will need to measure out 75g of light brown sugar and then add to a saucepan. next we add 3 tablespoons of golden syrup you can substitute one tablespoon of golden syrup for black treacle but we couldn't find any so we just added an extra tablespoon of golden syrup and it taste the same. Then ass one tablespoon of water and one teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of ginger. You can add extra ginger if you wanted depending on how much ginger you like in your gingerbread. Put the saucepan on to heat and allow the ingredients to warm. Then add 95g of butter or vegan butter and mix. You will need to continuously stir this as you don't want it to burn and then add half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Then gradually add 250g of flour to the saucepan with the saucepan off the heat. It should form a ball of dough and leave to cool. You can then roll out the dough and use any cookie cutters you like for your gingerbread. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

 Cook for 10 - 15 minutes. You can then ice and decorate your biscuits as you please and that will leave you with your gingerbread.

 

 

Thank you for reading today's blogmas if you do try out this recipe tag us in a picture on Instagram and follow our other social medias to see more of blogmas. Leave a comment below on what you would like to see and other treats that you like at Christmas.

 

 

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x 

 

Blogmas Day Two - Christmas Present Ideas

Hello,

This is Blogmas day two and we wanted to share with you some of the things that we think that people you may know would like fore Christmas. These are things that we have seen and thought would be a great present for people we know or are things that we would like to get for Christmas as well.

Firstly, we thought about all the offers that are usually on at Christmas time. We know that the best place to go for offers on gifts is Boots. They often have deals on throughout the year but they have so many at Christmas that it is guaranteed that we will buy stuff for family and sometimes ourselves. Boots have great offers on make-up as well as lovely soaps and wash stuff for people. This is obviously a very cliché gift and many people are left with enough wash stuff to last until next Christmas. This year we have asked for a lot of NYX make-up due to the great quality as well as high street price as opposed to bigger brands that are too expensive for us to buy.

Another good Christmas present that we love to get is pajamas and one of the best places to get pajamas is Primark. Primark always have such nice pajamas all year round but we love to buy pajamas from Primark at Christmas time to fit in with the Christmas theme. They often have lovely pajamas that are cute and comfortable and are super cozy.

We also love to shop at Primark for other clothes as they are so nice and super affordable. We don't always ask for clothes for Christmas though and we often get some nice lifestyle things fro Primark such as throws and blankets an pillows.

Finally, a great Christmas present is candles as they are so lovely and the best ones for presents are the Christmas scented candles. One of our favourites is Fresh winter woodland and sweet and salty caramel from Yankee Candle.


Thanks for reading our second blogmas. Stay tuned for more of blogmas and please leave a comment with your feedback and suggestions of what you would like to see. Please follow our social media to see when we post next.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
 

Blogmas Day One - DIY Christmas Decorations

Hello,
So this is the first blogmas with decorations that you can make yourself. This is something that we enjoy doing as we think it is so much more fun than buying them as well as it being cheaper and they often have sentimental value. It is obviously easier to go and buy decorations but it is nice just to have a few things in your house that you have made yourself and it gets you into the Christmas mood.

Firstly, you can make decorations with any coloured paper and just make a paper chain. This is super easy and many people have done it loads of time so is not a new idea. We used to do to this so much as kids and found it to be so much fun and even had competitions on who could make the longest paper chain. You can match the colours of the paper that you use to the colour scheme you have of your decorations in your house or you can stick to the traditional colours of Christmas. All you need to do is cut the paper into strips and fold them into circles and stick the paper together to make a ring. You fold each piece of paper the same way but loop it through the first ring of paper you made and eventually you have a chain of paper rings.

Another Christmas decoration we made as kids was collecting up all the Christmas cards you received and hanging them on a piece of string on your wall. This meant that you have nice little Christmas themed pictures hanging on your wall and you don't have to pay for them. This can also be done with any photos that you want such as printing off any Christmas picture that you like or pictures of your family at Christmas time.

Another quick and easy DIY is to get a tea light and make it into a snowman's face. All you have to do for this is to add two dots for eyes and dots in the shape of a smile for the mouth as the light acts as the snowman's nose. this super easy and cheap as you can get a pack of tea lights for very cheap and so you can have many little snowman tea lights for Christmas.

Stockings are normally really expensive for what they actually are and so many are so small that it is hardly worth paying for them. Therefore, a good DIY is to upcycle some old quilt that you have and make it into a Christmas stocking. All you have to do is measure our the size you want, you can even use a template from online, and then cute out the stocking making sure you have enough material to be able to sew it into a stocking. This is good as you can make it out of any material you want and you can have it however big or small you want.

A really easy DIY is to get a bunch of mason jars or empty baby food jars and put in little Christmas lights or holly or anything related to Christmas that you can find. You could even draw on the jars a little picture like a reindeer or snowman and then have the lights to illuminate the picture. This is really easy and super quick and costs very little to make.

Another really easy DIY is to get a bunch of photographs of you and your friends or family and get some coloured card, cut the card into a shape like a star or a circle and then cut the photo out and stick it to the card. Then make a hole at the top of the card and put some string through the hole and tie it together and then hang to on your Christmas. You then have a personal to you Christmas ornament on your Christmas tree.

Finally, Christmas is never complete without a wreath. You can make a wreath out of anything such as photos or pinecones or any left over bobbles that you have. One of our favourites is the Photo wreath. All you have to do for this is get a bunch of photos that you like and some copper wire. You can easily twist the copper wire into the shape of the wreath and then all you have to do is add the photos to the wreath. You can also if you want make a ribbon and add it to the wreath and then you have your own photo wreath. If you want it to stand out you could also add battery operated fairy lights. This will make the wreath even more christmassy.

Thanks for reading our ideas for DIY Christmas decorations, please leave a comment with some of your ideas that we can try as well. Also make sure that you are follow our social media to share your DIY's with us if you do indeed try any of these, as well as keep up to date on all of our other blogmas posts. Don't forget to click the button at the top of our blog that let's you follow it so you can keep up to date on when we post and also don't forget to visit our blog everyday of December up until the 25th to read our blogmas posts, as we will be posting new blog posts everyday.


ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Hello,
So back on November 1st we went to Harry Potter Studios and were able to see their dark arts exhibit to fit in with Halloween and we have finally got around to writing this post about our time there. It was different to the previous times that we have been to Harry Potter studios and we would definiately recommend going at this time of year.

Firstly, the great hall still managed to take our breath away despite being previously and seeing it then. The great hall was different as they had put up the pumpkins that you see in the film hanging from the ceiling.

The tour included extra dark arts exhibits as it was the day after Halloween. Therefore, they had a table which showed you how to make unicorn blood and giants snot. This was especially good as we took some of our younger family members who enjoyed seeing this and thought it was quite amusing and truly believed it to be unicorns blood and snot.

They put much emphasise on the dark arts exhibits but there was still much there that made it feel magical and warm. These were things such as the Weasley's house and Hagrid's Hut. It was also especially nice to see our younger family members (as well as some of the older family members) enjoy things like commanding a broom and flying on a broomstick. We managed to squeeze our big group into one booth for the train green screen and found that it was quite funny as we pretending to be on our way to Hogwarts.

The train and the forbidden was one of the highlights for us and when we had previously been those exhibits weren't there. Therefore, the introduction of the new exhibits made us even more excited to go and see them.

 

 

We were also able to see a show of he death eaters on the Hogwarts bridge fighting against the crowd and we even got involved and took a wand and joined in the fight. We stopped and had pictures of the death eaters as well as got a bit scared as they followed us around trying to creep us out before going back inside. It is also funny to say that the only person that managed to maintain eye contact with the death eaters was a 3 year old.

We spent a lot of time in the last section of the tour as we did not want to leave and we even started playing a game to try and find the actors names before realising the time and knowing we would take too long in the gift shop to stay any longer.


Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and wish to go back as soon as we can especially to go and see the Christmas version of the tour.I can honestly say one of our favourite parts was Diagon Alley as well as Hogwarts castle. We timed it perfectly to walk into the room with the castle as the music built to make it a magical reveal of the castle and we were in awe of it all.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions about the tour or you want to share with us some of the favourite parts of the tour you have leave a comment. If you haven't been to the tour we highly recommend going. Leave a comment on your favourite things abut Harry Potter or some other frnchise films that you love. Please also follow our social media for more updates.

ThePolkaDotDaffodilx

Disneyland Paris- Day 1

This is a really exciting blog post for us as we are going to share with you our trip to DisneyLand Paris. We are both massive Disney lovers and so our first holiday without our parents was obviously going to be Disney and it wasn't disappointing.

We flew on 28th of October from Bristol airport to Paris. We flew at 8 but our flight was delayed which was a bit of a pain but we still got to Paris pretty early in the day so we had plenty of time in the park on our first day.

When we got to our hotel in Paris we left our luggage in the hotel in a room and we hoped straight on the shuttle bus to the Disney park and we couldn't be more excited. We got to the park and decided to go to Disney Studios first. The first thing we did as soon as we got in was fastpass The Tower of Terror. Then we looked on the app to see what rides had the shortest lines and went straight to the slinky ride. We didn't wait that long and was a good way to start and work our way up to the bigger rides.

After the slinky ride we walked past The Tower of Terror and realised it was only a 5 minute wait so decided to go on it now as well as go on it later with our fastpass. It was scary but possibly one of our favourite rides as it hit every expectation we had of it and also exceeded them.

After this we decided to go on the Ratatouille ride with the single riders and found that it was much quicker and allowed us to go on without using a fastness. We ended up going on at the same time as part of the same group and therefore we were able to enjoy the ride together anyways. This was also another great ride as you actually felt like a rat and despite the technical problems it was still a good ride and they had it up and running again very quickly.

After this we went to go on 'rock n rollercoaster' which is, for one of us, one of the best rides ever especially being a fan of Aerosmith and having the music play throughout the ride. It was full of excitement and was as fast as what everyone says and completely blew us away.

We then headed over to the flying carpets and decided to go on these as a throwback to when we were kids. It didn't disappoint and we seemed to turn back into 6 year old children on the ride. we were excited by the fact that we were able to control the ride and we were constantly moving up and down on our magic carpet as well as singing the cliche of 'A whole New World'.

After this we spotted Pluto and therefore decided to join the line to meet him as he is one of our favourites. When we met him we turned into little kids again so excited to meet him. It was also nice to see other little kids going to see him and parents even getting excited and joining in. The crew members were all really nice and offered to take pictures for us on our phones.

After this we used our fastness to go back on Tower of Terror as it was so good we couldn't wait to go back on it. After this we did all the small attraction things such as photos and seeing Boo's door and the Scream meter.

 

This is the first part of our first day to Disneyland Paris. Stay tuned for the next part of Day one as well as our other days in Disneyland. Follow our social medias linked below and leave a comment.
We would love to hear from you.
ThePolkaDotDaffodil X