Paris is always a good idea (at Christmas)

Christmas was exciting, busy, delicious and unforgettable and I hope yours was the same!

The prequel:

We hosted our first family Christmas in the "new" house and it was everything we had hoped for and more. I caught the worst flu and offered little to no help with any preparations but the mister stepped up to the mark and pulled together the most incredible mish-mash (technical term) of borrowed plates and chairs, dairy free, gluten free, hot, cold, silly and magical christmassy goodies that filled our tums and made us as sleepy as the tiny ones.

I couldn't fit everything into a collection of photos so here are a few photos from instagram.

"Rivers of London" - a must read for the graduates of Hogwarts, Red velvet cupcackes (festive and fantastic), Sleepy bear after all THAT food, my favourite faces not just for Christmas!

The main event:

We ran away from the mayhem of Boxing day to the bright lights of Paris. It's a completely different place in Winter to Summer and in my opinion the smoky breath of the frost air makes stopping for pastries and coffee that much sweeter. 

We saw "le sights", we explored old favourites (Montmartre and the Latin quarter) and stumbled upon new (the South of the river), we toasted to our 1st family Christmas and it's success, we could only laugh over the disasters (think pan fire swiftly extinguished by the Mister's sister!!) and wondered if our cat-sitter (my Brother) had eaten all the turkey yet and then......

The rain poured, the clouds gathered over the evening skyline of Paris and my favourite person in the world got down on one knee and I thought my heart would explode there and then.

Audrey Hepburn was right; Paris is always a good idea.

"Dec" the halls - Wilkinson's Super Scandi budget Christmas tree decorations

You'd be forgiven for not thinking of Wilkinson's as your first port of call for Christmas decorations. It wasn't the first place I had thought of and immediately headed to Next to gasp in horror at the prices of felt decs that I remember crafting at School. As our first Christmas in our first home approaches we're both bursting with excitement whilst our piggy bank is bursting with dust so this year will be Christmas on a budget.

We have been on the hunt for some (mainly) cool toned Christmas tree decorations for a little while now and were delighted to discover that not only did Wilkinson's have a nice little selection but they EVEN HAD GREY DECORATIONS which is exactly what we had been looking for.

Below are a few of the Scandi gems we bought today but I'm certain we'll be back as they have a fantastic "build your own wreath" display which is a lovely mix of berries, cinnamon sticks, foliage and mistletoe. All coming in under £4 means our frosted winter tree is starting to come together with some change to spare.

Clockwise: Grey wooden Robin, Red Tin Heart £2, Red Knitted Star £2, Foil Bauble £1.50

Clockwise: Snowflake Garland £4, Wooden Tree £1, Grey Wooden Tree £1, Knitted Candy Strip Bauble £1, Knitted Grey Heart £1.50

Clockwise: Knitted Heart £1, Grey Wooden Lovebirds £1.50, Teal Knitted Star £2, Bark Star £1

Grey Wooden Hearts Garland £4

The hunt continues for some more traditional Scandi decorations including the essentials such as a wreath for our red front door and the stockings for the fireplace. 

Where is your favourite place to shop for Christmas decorations and do you go all out to decorate your home during the festive season or keep things minimal?

Our next post will be all about trees and fingers crossed we find one before 1st December!