Starting the week by writing the Monday Happy List  is something I’ve been doing for a while. It’s a chance for me to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures. It’s a post I always love to write. We’re counting down the days until we all finish work and school. We’re really looking forward to having some time off and starting our Christmas holidays.

Monday Happy List {Week 322}

We had a few jobs to do this weekend like ice and decorate our Christmas cake. It’s the first time we’ve made one and it’s been resting for a few weeks. We actually bought a Christmas cake kit from Waitrose, and it even included the marzipan and icing to finish it off. It’s a simple square cake and the children helped decorate it with white icing stars and marzipan trees.

I’ve been crafting a lot lately and couldn’t wait to make the gingerbread house gift boxes in a recent issue of Mollie Makes. I hadn’t got my paper cutting equipment out for ages but it was fun to cut the boxes out, fold them and glue them into little houses.

There’s been baking too. We went out for lunch to The White Bear in Ruislip and I spotted a winter spiced bread and butter pudding on their menu. Although I didn’t order it (I was far too full!) I knew it was something I wanted to try at home. As well as spreading the sliced bread with butter, you add mincemeat! It tasted amazing and it’s a great way to use up mincemeat, or just a delicious winter pudding.

My children enjoyed wearing their Christmas tops to school on Friday for Christmas Jumper Day. This year Little Sis wore her Pikachu Christmas jumper and Big Brother wore his Christmas BB8 Star Wars one. Even our little elves joined in the fun!

Have you watched The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix? We binge watched it over a week and absolutely loved it. Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world. Hopefully they won’t ruin the show by trying to make a prequel or sequel.

Have a great week everyone.