A Christmas & New Year Update

It's somehow 5th January already {how on earth did that happen?!},Christmas has been and gone and I've been absolutely rubbish once again at this whole blogging thing. Truth is, our Christmas this year ended up being quite the opposite of what we were expecting, so the blogging unfortunately took a backseat. You may remember last year when I posted this post about a typical Christmas at home with my family? Well, this year I was SO ready for another magical Christmas at home with all our usual family traditions, especially after such a busy few months. I was longing for some quality time at home, to relax in my pyjamas, help mum with the baking and embrace the festive spirit.

But this year things were different. We have a new little addition - our lovely little Rosie - and as adorable as she is, she's hard bloody hard work at the best of times! It turns out that this Christmas she had different plans! To cut a long story short, sadly things just didn't work out quite as we had hoped back at my parents house. Rosie didn't settle well at all, mostly because of the family cat, and I think that being in another new environment completely offset the routine that we have worked so hard to achieve with her. It was absolute chaos. So after being at my parents no more than 24 hours, we made the heart wrenching decision to leave and travel all the way back home which meant that Rob and I would spend Christmas just the two of us {and Rosie of course!}. It was a difficult decision, I had teary eyes for most of the journey home and I felt really awful about it. It felt like Christmas had just cancelled. Never the less, I was determined that we could enjoy ourselves, even if it was going to be quiet at home and a tad lonelier than we'd expected. 

And infact, although it was indeed rather quiet, it was one of the most special Christmases I've ever had. If there's anyone who is utterly amazing at turning a shit situation into the best one then it's my wonderful Rob. I'm so lucky! Swoon. 

A few photos from our first Christmas in our first home, if you'd like to see...

Christmas Baking: Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Whilst flicking through recipes this past week for some ideas for Christmas bakes, I magically found this chocolate orange cheesecake recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was immediately tempted. Tis the season for Terry's Chocolate Oranges after all and I love chocolate oranges, they're one of my favourites!

The Halls are Decked!

You may remember my post from last Christmas where I shared a few photos of our little flat all decorated for the festive season... Well looking back on the blog has made me feel a little bit sentimental. My final words in that post were: "maybe next year we'll have a house to decorate! Now there's an exciting thought!" and here I am, just 12 months later, sat on the sofa in our very own home. I feel incredibly lucky that our dreams came true this year and we were able to finally become homeowners, it's something that many people my age can only dream of so I'm making a conscious effort to remind myself often of how fortunate we are.

Anyway - I thought I'd do the same as last year and share some photos of our home adorned with Christmas decorations. I'm so excited about our first Christmas here and even though we aren't celebrating Christmas Day at our house, it's nice to enjoy some festive sparkle and decorations at home whilst counting down the days...

Project Grey Kitchen: Our Kitchen Makeover

The open-plan kitchen, dining and living area was the first part of the house that we wanted to get sorted first. Our house is only four years old so it's very new and structurally doesn't need anything changing, but we were reluctant to move in all of our belongings before painting the walls exactly how we wanted them. Avoiding paint splashes once all moved in would have been much more of an ordeal, so painting first seemed more sensible. Luckily the majority of our furniture was in storage at my parents', so we didn't have to worry about paying hefty storage fees and this meant we weren't under any pressure to get things finished quickly. That said, we couldn't wait to get going!

Our house and the house next door were built as a pair in 2011 and are identical but mirrored. All of the fittings, floors and windows are exactly the same. Goodness knows why but the kitchen, dining room and part of the living room were painted in a dark, chocolate brown with chocolate brown interior doors throughout the property to match. I assume that the designer wanted the houses to feel rather contemporary but it was such a poor choice of colour given the size of the house. It made the whole of the downstairs feel incredibly dark and the first time we viewed the house I remember saying to Rob "the chocolate brown has GOT to go!"