Film Review - Rise of the Guardians

In a display of spontaneous parenting (and because I wanted to see it) we took the boys (10 and 5) to see Rise of the Guardians (PG) on Tuesday night. We normally try and see a film as a family around Christmas because I think it's a nice family activity and it's more enjoyable than standing around freezing in the park, pushing the youngest on the swings while the oldest does his best to break his neck flinging himself around on his scooter. So, Tuesday night I felt all Nice-Mum and surprised them with a trip to the flicks.

As with all great kids films Rise of the Guardians is about a battle between good and evil and includes a voyage of self discovery. It has an exciting plot that progresses well. It was enough to keep both kids interested, and even though it was a late night for the youngest he didn't get bored or (too) fidgety. It's not always easy to find a film they both enjoy but this is one of them. It's just over an hour and a half long, although I'm going to voice my normal complaint about Vue's overkill with the whole ads, preview, Edith Bowman bit where they just show clips from all the films they've just showed the preview for. Adding half an hour of bumpf before a kids movie is pushing their patience somewhat.

Rise of the Guardians is by Dreamworks (who brought us the likes of Shrek, Puss in Boots, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda) and it lives up to its family film pedigree providing entertainment for children and adults. The characters and sets are well drawn and gorgeous to look at with beautiful colours and detail. Each of the main characters has their own unique personalities and quirks and is totally believable. I could quite happily suspend my disbelief in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, et all for the duration of this movie. The plot is a little wooly at times but not in an annoying way. I loved the casting - Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny was funny without being cheesy, Isla Fisher was perfect as the Tooth Fairy in raptures over Jack Frost's white teeth, I loved Alec Baldwin's Santa Claus and Jude Law's husky voice added just the right amount of threat to the Boogeyman.

It was a little scary at times for the five year old who spent the second half cuddled up on my lap. In the spirit of all great children's films it has an uplifting finish and he's suffered no repercussions with the portrayal of nightmares and fears. It is definitely PG rather than a U. It's not about Christmas as such, but the inclusion of Santa and plenty of snow provided courtesy of Jack Frost (the leading character) make it nice and festive. I recommend you go and see it and if you go to Vue, take advantage of their Cheap Tuesday where adults get in for the same price as kids and it's much quieter than on a weekend. Rise of the Guardians is out in both 3D and 2D. We saw it in 2D because I'm not a massive fan of 3D films and the youngest drives me crackers by forever losing his glasses because they don't sit on his face properly. Some of the flying scenes are probably great in 3D, but I don't think I lost anything by seeing it in 2D.

Elf on the Shelf... ish

My five year old son is, well, five, so I thought that Elf on the Shelf might be an extra carrot/stick in my December parenting arsenal. When I investigated the cheapest I found was around £25 and I am far too tight to pay that for something that looks like this:

So I shelved (sorry...) the idea until I was in the pound shop last week and I discovered these beauties. I think you'll agree that they could practically be twins - in the freaky sense, anyway.

Son was sceptical about the origin of the "elf" but the beauty of him being five is that he is a die hard Santa believer and when he suggested we get rid of it I said we couldn't possibly because Santa had sent him. It's kind of working in that he's a little freaked out but I'm sticking with it because he hasn't had a nightmare or anything and any way I can get someone else to be the bad guy "do you want the elf to tell Santa?" is a way I can stay looking golden.

He's on a high shelf which would require a chair to get to, but this is how I frequently find him

If you get a chance you definitely need to google Elf on the Shelf related blogs. Some parents really get carried away, some totally tongue in cheek and others really creative and funny, like Lil Blue Boo's

Reindeer Gingerbread Men

 

Check out my cool reindeer bickies made from upside down gingerbread men! They're in plastic bags because I made them for the school Christmas Fair/Fayre (never sure on the spelling of that one). Copied from Inspired by Foodie Quine (awesome foodie blog - check it out). I was so impressed with how easy they were. I tend to make more cakes than biscuits and I'm still a bit hit and miss with the temperature sometimes on my new-ish oven, but I used this recipe from CookUK and it was a doddle. I did muck around with the spices using 1tsp of ginger and 0.5tsp of cinnamon.

I also tried making snowmen with the bickies turned the other way around but they looked like something you'd see on Cake Wrecks so my kids made short work of them.The recipe is easy and foolproof enough to do with the kids and icing anything is always great fun (unless it's the cat, in which case I don't recommend it).

Random Likings

1. Toothpaste Squeezer

Just recently - ok, for the last year or so - my eldest has been driving me nuts complaining that once the toothpaste tube is half used that it's "empty" and he can't get any toothpaste out. It goes against the grain for me to chuck things away unnecessarily and I remembered the little clamp we had on the old metal tubes of toothpaste when I was a kid (you know, back in the day when there was only one type of toothpaste and nothing for different ages). I picked these babies up for 99p on eBay and am hopeful they relieve me of the twice-daily irritation. 


2. December

 I love December! The whole excitement of the lead up to Christmas Day (or my personal favourite, Christmas Eve) is intoxicating. It's not just the whole kids and Christmas thing I enjoy, but the thought of being able to relax from work for a few days and eat lots of delicious food guilt free. I am being strict with myself now (both work and food wise) so I can really enjoy myself over Christmas.

3. Christmas Find and Colour

 These activity pads are £3.99 at The Works (online and in store) and well worth it. They're huge (50cm wide or so) Where's Wally type things where you have to find items in a larger picture. There are two levels of difficult in the one picture, with a list of words for older kids and drawings for younger ones. Each pad has heaps of pages, with the Snowman ones being in black and white for colouring. My 5 year old particularly loves them and he and his 10 year old brother will quite happily do them together. Anything they do together without arguing is a rarity so I am doubly glad for these activity pads! The Works have a good choice of Christmas stories and activity books and is worth a visit if you're looking for something to keep your kids quietly occupied.

4. Tweetie Tag Necklace

This cute necklace caught my eye when I saw a tweet about it this week. It's made by Victoria Wallop and costs around £50. I like this trend for identity and charm style necklaces (even though I'm not a necklace wearer myself. I you like this you might also want to check out Chambers & Beau. 

5. The Polar Express

Despite a love for, and a large collection of, Christmas films I have never seen The Polar Express, a fact which elicited shocked gasps from friends when they discovered it yesterday. Before I go crazy and spend a whole £5 on it tell me, is it really one I should watch. I think it's never appealed because it has a train so prominently in it and I always hated Thomas the Tank Engine, but I am willing to be convinced otherwise

Monopoly zAPPed - a Review

 

When catalogue shopping kings Littlewoods got in touch to ask if I'd like to review the new Monopoly zAPPed Edition I nearly bit their hand off. Would I?!  I played loads of Monopoly in my youth (back in the day when there was just the one version) and my kids are just as keen as me on the classic so both Monopoly and Monopoly Junior get played quite a lot in our house. Monopoly zAPPed needs to be played with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. You download a free app and you're good to go. As yet there is no android version.

Let's start with the look of the game. It's a lot slicker than the old version. The board has some snazzy graphics with the train stations looking more like bullet and less like steam trains. The old utilities have been replaced by modern counterparts like Satellite, but all the property cards are the same. The pieces are cool little plastic numbers with the car looking like a red Ferrari! My ten year old son held up one asking "do you want to be the chapel?" Chapel? It's the base of an iron love... Some domestic eductation required there. Setting up is almost the same except instead of dealing out the money (and keeping a few hundreds for yourself if you're the banker. C'mon - we've all done it) you register your credit card and scan it on your device (we gave this game a go with both an iPod Touch and an iPad), which then goes in the middle of the board for the duration of the game. 

Play is virtually the same as the original version of Monopoly except all monetary transactions are done by swiping your credit card. Chance, Community Chest and Get out of Jail are done on the iPad/Pod/Phone too, with little games to compete to see who won. These were my least favourite part as despite landing on Community Chest three times I never won the money as I couldn't get the hang of the game that went along with it. The kids, however, had no problem and thought my ineptitude was a great laugh. If you're the sort of person who is anal about lining up your money neatly in a line by denomination and always got a bit stressed when other players chucked theirs any old how into a pile you will appreciate the streamlined look of this game.

With such rubbish weather on the weekend we gave this game a thorough workout and generally agree that it was good fun and, the kids in particular, preferred it to the original version due to the novelty of swiping their credit cards, the screen (natrually) and the video games within the game. The downsides were that you can only have four players, sometimes the card doesn't swipe automatically and it takes a little while for the iPod/Pad/Phone to register it's there, and play is actually a little slower than the old-fashioned handing over of the money. 

Hasbro say it's suitable for ages 8 and up and I would probably agree with this. My five year old was totally confused by the money because it is in massive and unfamiliar denominations (like some sort of generic faux Euro) rather than the paper dollar denominations in numbers he can recognise. I liked that you can clearly see how much money everyone has, but then I'm nosey like that.

I'll admit I was a little sceptical that this would live up to the origianl version which I love so much but I was proven wrong. Hasbro have left the essence and rules of the game pretty much unchanged so it's just as competitve as it always was. If you're looking for a great compromise between a family game and getting the kids off their personal screens then, at £30, Monopoly Zapped is a fab choice not just for Christmas but for any time of year. It won't be gathering dust on our shelf, that's for sure.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, but all words and views are my own. I used stock photos because I couldn't work out how to play with my iPod Touch and take photos at the same time!

DIY Decorated Letters Tutorial

I'm actually going to attempt a tutorial today. I thought of doing this blog post retrospectively so please forgive the fact that I start with one letter and finish with another. I have eight nieces and nephews to buy prezzies for at Christmas, ranging from a 2 year old girl to a 14 year old boy. Three of them are in Australia which means whatever I give has to be light enough to send or something I order online and get sent to my mum's for her to wrap and deliver. This year I started planning in August (I kid you not) will the full intention of having everything done in time to post surface mail. Yeah... right... like that happened. In a fit of crafty passion and because I finally bought some Mod Podge and I was dying to do something with it I decided to do a personalised decorated letter for them all as part of their prezzie.

Here is what you'll need:

• Cardboard letters (I got mine from Hobbycraft but they're widely available online)
• Mod Podge (again, Hobbycraft) sparkly and plain
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Something to cut up for the pictures. Comics are great but I had a couple of these rubbish Hello Kitty books to butcher for the girls' letters

You'll need to get all your bits of paper and pictures cut up before you start gluing. The first two letters I did were comic ones and it was a bit fiddly trying to find the right pictures to cover all the brown of the letter. The later ones I did I used different coloured plain paper to cover the letter first so it didn't matter if I missed little bits here and there. I don't recommend using tissue paper, by the way, as I did on the K & M. It's ok, but it can get a bit soggy and wrinkly if you're a bit heavy handed with the Mod Podge.

Cover your letter with your choice of background paper. It doesn't have to be plain - spots or other wrapping paper could also work well. Cutting squares around 3cm x 3cm is an easy way to patchwork it, rather than trying to wrap it. Let it dry (it doesn't take long).

Then you need to cover your letter with your pictures of choice. Here is one partially completed.

... and here are two I made earlier. Give it all a final coat of Mod Podge which dries like a varnish to seal and protect everything. My boys have these on their doors stuck on with those sticky Velcro dots but they can also stand on their own on a shelf.

Christmas Starts Here

Here is my perfect November weekend. All the December mags I like, some hot chocolate and Jilly Cooper's How to Survive Christmas. My copy is battered and in danger of losing pages but it's been an annual staple of my Christmas preparations since I bought it at a jumble for 55p about ten years ago. It doesn't matter that my life is nothing like the O'Agas - the family in her book. I just love Jilly Cooper and Jilly Cooper doing Christmas is like, well... Christmas!

I make sure the house is quiet, make a mug of hot choc with the trimmings, and settle down to escape the clutter of my house into the pages of someone else's styled home with tables laden with gorgeous food, their glitzy sparkly party dresses and the pages of cute prezzies I always mean to track down but never quite get around to. For me, Christmas doesn't start with shopping it starts with this and it's one of my favourite traditions.

When does the whole festive season start for you? Do you have a routine like mine, maybe with cook books or writing lists? Let me know by leaving a comment because I'd love to hear.

PS: I'd just like to point out that is a shaggy rug (and very good for hiding spills by messy kids) and not shagpile carpet!

The Top 5 Christmas Books You Have to Read With Your Kids

I love Christmas and one of my favourite ways of getting into it is by reading my kids Christmas stories and hyping them up just before bedtime. My 5 year old likes three stories a night (as do I, since they make handy bargaining tool when it comes to getting him ready for bed). Here is my pick of the best Christmas stories for kids. I have linked them all to Amazon for ease but these are all widely available.

1. The Dinosaur who Pooped Christmas - Tom Fletcher & Dougie Poynter.

If the authors sound familiar to you it's because they're from once teen-sensation, now all grown up boy band, McFly. This book was only published last month and I knew as soon as I saw it that it had a place on our bookshelf. Dinosaurs, poo and Christmas - what more could a 5 year old boy want from a story? It's engaging and funny, with a good rhyming pattern that makes it easy and enjoyable to read. The pictures are big and colourful and there's a lot going on in them to discuss. Probably not one to read if you're feeling weak of stomach, but I love it.



2. An Aussie Night Before Christmas - Yvonne Morrison and Kilmeny Niland 

Ok, I lied. This one is not widely available in the UK, but my mum sent me a copy when my oldest boy was about 5 and it is now a favourite of my youngest at any time of year. It'll probably seem a little weird if you've never had an Aussie Christmas but because it keeps the same rhyming style as the original Night Before Christmas (which you should also have a copy of!) it will be familiar enough for them to enjoy the differences. C'mon - where else would Santa pull a ute instead of a sleigh, and use 'roos instead of reindeer?


3. Mr Christmas - Roger Hargreaves

I love the Mr Men and it's always been a point of disappointment for me that my kids are not the fans I am. I love the language, the joy of every picture, and the feelgood factor of the stories. Mr Christmas doesn't fail to deliver. It's all about helping out to make others happy with plenty of Mr Men nonsense and familiar characters. Short enough to read in a few minutes but long enough not to feel like a baby book, and small enough for your handbag it's a good one to read when you're waiting at the dentist (or something) or before bed.


4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr Seuss

I love reading Dr Seuss books. Their rhyming and cadence is fun to read and enjoyable to listen to. We have as much fun with the words as we do with the story and pictures. This book was first published in 1957 and I can't find that it has ever gone out of print. It has a great story along the lines of A Christmas Carol, about a cold hearted, greedy creature who wants to take all the pressies and pleasure of Christmas from the Whos only to see the error of his ways, yadda yadda. The pictures are full of character and perfectly match the story.


5. The Chrismtmas Story - Ian Beck

This one rounds out my list of the best Christmas books for children because I think it's important to balance the commercial aspect of Christmas with a little history. I looked for a book that wasn't OTT religious but which talks about the story behind Christmas. I can't help giving them a bit of a history lesson along with it (Romans, persecution, pagan solstice celebrations, different religions) but the simplicity of the story and the lovely pictures make it a gentle bedtime story that calms rather than excites with tales of Santa and presents.

What Christmas books do you read with your children? And do you read them all year around, or only get them out in December? Let me know with a comment because with a kid who likes three stories a night you can understand that I'm always looking for new stories.

Christmas goodies!

Here are some Christmas related things I am loving this week.

Marks and Spencer Scandinavian print wrapping paper. I can't link to the picture here, but have a look as it's really nice, and currently in their 3 for 2 offer.

Christmas garlands and ribbons at Dotcomgiftshop

 

Vintage style biscuits from Biscuiteers

Moet Camile Toupet from Selfridges

DIY LEGO Advent calendar

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning on making my boys my own version of a LEGO Advent calendar this year. They would love a Star Wars one, but at £25 each x 2 (because I suspected the youngest would come off worse in that deal) it was out of the question. Instead I've made my own version and I think they will like it better.

It contains:

3 x Christmas DVDs to go in on Fridays (Home Alone, National Lampoon, Muppet Christmas Carol)

Chocolate money
A LEGO minifigure

Random LEGO bits bought from www.lego.com

Vouchers

• choose a family outing (cost restrictions and distance apply)
• Stay up an extra half an hour on ANY night
• Choose whatever you want for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday
• A day with Mum and A day with Dad
• Choose whatever you want for dinner
• Boss Mum around for 1 hour and Boss Dad around for 1 hour
• A game rental of your choice (age appropriate)
• A DVD rental and snacks of your choice for family movie night (age appropriate)

I just need a suitable box now. I'll put an item in at night after the kids have gone to bed.

Top Christmas toys for boys

Forget the lists that are being hyped by the media. This is what is on the list in my house.

Lego

The Hogwarts Castle would be particularly well received, as would any pick and mix building blocks and this series 4 hockey player Minifigure.

Nerf

 The bigger the better as far as my boys are concerned. Keep dreaming kids... it's never gonna happen

Music vouchers

 Like Amazon, to download such classics as Sexy and I Know It and Make You Sweat

Activities/Experiences
A family outing to somewhere is on the cards for Christmas but where is still being debated.

Books

Sports equipment
Mine got hockey sticks last year but if they need equipment then now is a good time. Footballs are always received well here as the level of accuracy doesn't always match the level of enthusiasm.

Power Rangers
I honestly thought I'd seen the back of Power Rangers when my eldest grew out of them 3 or 4 years ago. Apparently I haven't. I've been told these are different but I can't see it.