"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling."

While most families are reaching the peak of their Christmas excitement this evening, in anticipation of the visit from that jolly red chap. For us at the Gifts from the pirates HQ it is just another night, as every other year Santa makes a special delivery to us on boxing eve as Seth isn't with us. Although December 25th doesn't feel the same without him here, we can't avoid the festive cheer as we have had an amazing month in preparation for the big day.

Making the house look Christmassy is such a huge thing in our house, last year thanks to the boys grandparents we ended up with a second Christmas tree and this year the boys were desperate for one in their room so two became three. Me and Opeie spent some time making paper chains from extra copies of The Grinch we had to make their room feel even more festive.

We had had a LEGO Santa and Reindeer (wearing a dickie bow and polka dot jumper) that we had built, adding a splash of colour to our kitchen window since late November but Mrs M and the boys were desperate to get some lights up. They did make a huge difference to everyone's festive cheer, which was awesome.

Last weekend in preparation of the special day we all went out for a walk (in the cold wet weather) in search of holly, ivy and other greenery to make our annual wreath for the door although the night we were all going to make it the boys were off playing with their friend so Mrs M made the lovely wreath herself.

This morning we were all feeling really festive and tonight technically not being our Christmas eve, the opening of the final doors on the boys LEGO calendars meant that we couldn't get away from the fact that it was the day before Christmas day.

So today we fully embraced the fun filled family day and spent the afternoon together making (Opeie friendly) gluten free gingerbread cookies...

And a pretty awesome gingerbread house if I do say so myself.

The weather hadn't really been great so me and the boys did our usually Christmas LEGO building session and came up with a festive looking mini Star Wars AT-AT and Tie Fighter.

Although we wont be celebrating the big day officially tomorrow it will be nice to have that extra day for preparation. A HUGE Merry Christmas, however you are spending your holidays this year. We hope you and your families have an amazing time together.

“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun to have fun But you have to know how.”

Opeie loves celebrating his toys birthdays, Rose the cat has had three birthdays in the last 3 months and it always seems like someone is getting the star treatment for the day. Last week the birthday boy was the Cat in the Hat and after receiving a package from Bigjigs toys Opeie came up with an elaborate plan on how we were going to celebrate. The sun was out and we had an afternoon to do what we wanted so Opeie informed me of his plans and we set about trying to make them happen.

The Plan:

• Pack a bag each full of relevent items for our mission
• Scoot to Ironbridge and embark on an adventure collecting items for the ultimate toy birthday party
• Convince local business owners to let us do what we want in their establisments
• Document our adventure with pictures (Opeie loves us taking pics)
• Make sure the Cat in the Hat has a Birthday to remember
• On completion of our tasks make our way home and party for the remainder of the afternoon

 He certainly doesn't ask for much that boy of mine, but who am i to deny him his fun.

The first stop on the Birthday mission was the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron where we pulled up our Micro scooters for a spot of tea and scones. We explained to the lady running the Cafe that it was the Cat in the Hat's birthday and that we needed to pick up supplies for a party (yes we did go through this story with everyone we came in to contact with that day). We spotted the perfect box of twelve biscuits skillfully baked by Bigjigs toys, delicious!

Like Opeie and myself, the cat in the Hat is quite partial to a peanut butter and jam sandwich and Opeie wanted to make sure that his friend had all his favourite food at the birthday shindig. As we were leaving the cafe we walked through the shop connected and noticed exactly what we were looking for, so with the help of a very excited Opeie we explained to the staff about the celebration and what we needed and they happily obliged. With our Bigjigs toys Peanut butter and Jam acquired we jumped back on the Micro Scooters and continued our adventure.

While scooting along the high street Opeie shouted "Cake!". You cant have a birthday celebration without Birthday cake and Opeie's sighting of Queenie's cupcakes made it quite clear where the next stop on our destination was going to be. The lovely lady on the counter asked all about the Cat in the Hat and his birthday and Opeie was loving telling her all about it. It was so great how everywhere we went staff were embracing Opeie's plans and being really friendly. We left Queenie's with our Bigjigs Birthday cake a perky cat and a very happy little events organiser.

There was only one thing left on Opeie's list and i think it was bright, hot sunshine that was keeping it at the forefront of his mind. We knew as soon as we spotted the sign for Vanilla ice it was time to pick up the Bigjigs Ice lollies and again the chap in the shop was very friendly, he even said we can go wandering behind the till for pictures. There must be something in the water in the river Severn that makes everyone so friendly. Well that was our shopping for previsions done and what a great spread we were going to be putting on.

The weather was far to nice to go straight home so we made the most of Ironbridge's beautiful park before heading home. Scooting around for an hour before parking up and having a run about. It was the perfect way to spend the cats special day.

The excitement of Opeie's garden party was getting too much so he asked if we could go home and start getting things ready. With all the great Bigjigs food we had collected on our shopping/scooting adventure the party preperation was going to be a huge job, but the sun was shining and everyone was having a great time. Opeie organised everything pretty much by himself and then it was party time.

 After a couple of hours serving our guests, playing pass the parcel and dancing it was time to relax with a good book. An eventful afternoon was had by all. Great food, Great company and some fast wheels to run our errands on, Perfection!

Until our next Birthday adventure... Have fun! x

"Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good."

Ive been meaning to write this post for a week but haven't got round to it till now. Gifts from the Pirates has been asked to join the Nintendo parent bloggers and we can't wait to get stuck in. I'm a big Nintendo geek and the boys have gone Mario crazy since being introduced, so we're really excited to be reviewing products for a company we love so much. All that's left to do now is pop our feet up, hit the tea and biscuits (courtesy of Nintendo) and switch our consoles on.

Our first Nintendo review will be up in the next few days and the boys have been having a good play of our first game Yoshi's New Island and its a good one. Stay tuned for more gaming fun.

“May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart”.

Today was day three of the Shropshire snow, we checked online to see if Seth's school was open but then decided it wasn't safe enough for him to go in so we kept him off. Obviously Seth was over the moon at that. We wanted to make sure that we made the most of the snow and i asked Seth what he wanted to do. Seth decided that he wanted to build an Igloo, one that he can sit inside. I asked him what shape he wanted it and he decided on an Igloo shaped like Jokers head (Oh dear).

When i told Mrs M what i was going to try and attempt she looked at me like i was losing my mind. in hindsight i guess it was a bit much for an activity that should be finished in a couple of hours. It was a very cold afternoon after all. I decided to give it a try anyway.

First we got our sledges and filled them with snow from the front garden and pulled them round the back as we knew we were going to need loads of it. We made a really huge pile of snow and started to shape it. It did take us some time but Mrs M being the thoughtful thing that she is she broke up the cold afternoon with an outdoor tray of hot chocolate and cookies for us.

I think at that point Seth could see that a Joker shaped igloo was going to take a long time to make. Which i guess is the reason Seth said "it looks a bit like a Lego mans head, could we make a mini figure shaped one to go with the snowman we made?" It was like music to my ears, that was definitely doable so we shaped the pile into a Lego head shape.

Seth wanted the mouth to be the door so after patting the pile until it was solid and adding the Lego bump on the top we started to carve the door and insides out.

Opeie came out to join us for a bit after his nap too which was nice. He didn't really know what to make of the igloo and he definitely wouldn't go inside. Mrs M was pretty impressed with what me and Seth had been doing with our morning.

The whole thing took a few hours to make but we had lots of fun and i really enjoyed our 'boy time'. The end result didn't come out quite how i wanted it but Seth loved it and was pleased that he could sit inside it. It was starting to get really cold so after tidying up our creation we headed in to get changed and have some warm drinks.

As we were heading in i found some carrots in my pocket from feeding the rabbits and Seth decided he wanted to give our Lego head igloo a classic snowman nose...

“Me going off me rocker—please give me Betty Crocker”

Opeie has always loved Sesame street, it seems on a daily basis though that we watch the same videos over and over. I sometimes cant tell whether its Opeie or Mrs M that likes them more with all the dance moves that i am lucky enough to be entertained by (she's certainly got some moves). This weeks most popular video in the house is the spoof of Carly Rae Jepsen's song sang by cookie monster called 'share it maybe'.

We have literally just had this song on about 10 times and Mrs M has laughed at the same part every single time. I thought i'd write the post so that when Opeie is a bit older he can see what it was that used to put a smile on his face (i only wish i could get a sneaky video of Mrs M dancing to it so you can see what i have to deal with on a day to day basis).

Some of the songs i dont mind, its usually the playing of them over and over again that gets annoying,but if they make Opeie happy then that's a good thing. I don't really remember any of the things i used to like when i was really young. I wish my parents had kept some sort of diary of all the little things, it would have been an interesting read and something great to compare what the boys like to.

There was a time when the only way we could get Opeie to calm down in the car was to play him . . . 

Although i prefer Yo Gabba Gabba i do think Sesame Street is a great show too and I'm really thankful that I'm not subjected to episode after episode of In the night garden or Teletubbies. Well I'm always interested to see whats going to be next to excite our little boy. but in the mean time I'm happy to watch him (and Mrs M) dance around the lounge like crazy.

I'll end the post with some amazing lyrics from cookie himself

"Me trade me soul for a bite
Me spell it out black and white
Me look at you and me see
You like an elf in a tree"

I have no words to follow that! speechless!!!