Back in July on one of the hottest days of the year I headed to Lidl’s Christmas event; whilst most people were thinking about beaches and ice-cream I was sampling Lidl’s Christmas range. Now that it’s November and officially acceptable to mutter the C word, here’s my to picks of the very best from Lidl this Christmas…

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a canapé or ten! The smoked salmon canapé with salmon caviar looked amazing and tasted even better, these are definitely making an appearance on Christmas Day in our house.

All the pâtés were delicious but the one that really stood out for me was the smoked salmon pâté with cream cheese topping, everything from the taste to the glass jar packaging gave it a luxury feel; my only complaint: it’s not available all year!

The picky bits are the unsung heroes of Christmas food, yes I love a turkey Christmas dinner, but for me Christmas is all about the delicious picky bits that have me returning to the fridge again and again. Pigs in blankets, stuffing balls and the like manage to tick picky bits and main plate in one fell swoop and the variety available is second to none.

I’ve been getting my turkey from Lidl for over three years but I was excited to explore their Christmas meat range further. The lamb Wellington was perfectly cooked and was really tasty, I’m not even sure I could pretend I’d cooked it myself, it tasted too good for my cooking skills! I saw this in my local Lidl last week and at £8 for two it rivals, in fact it beats the Christmas pants off the likes of Waitrose and Marks and Spencer’s festive offering.

The profiterole tower is a real showstopper of a Christmas dessert, it comes with its own tower and whilst assembly is pretty simple, it’s a great activity to get the kids involved with, with its taste living up to they hype of its presentation. If profiteroles don’t float your christmas dessert boat then there are plenty of alternatives from the traditional Christmas puddings (some with a delicious twist) to mini tarts plus the all important cheeses – because what’s Christmas without a decadent cheese board.

The Marc de champagne truffles were absolutely delicious, they’re my favourite chocolate so I’ve tried lots of different brands over the years and I have to say Lidl beats the pants off some of the famous chocolatiers. The children’s chocolate range at Lidl is always a highlight: from mini chocolate brussel sprouts to the obligatory chocolate Father Christmas, they’re great not just for sticking fillers but throughout the festive period as a perfectly sized morsel of a festive treat. The chocolate coated almonds were lovely and I can’t wait to get these in for Christmas as an alternative to chocolates.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Lidl mini stollen bites, so handy, so tasty, so easy to finish the whole pack in one – delicious but dangerous, ha!

Pushing the boat out at Christmas isn’t reserved just for food, lets’ not forget that drinks are a big part of Christmas, which doesn’t necessarily mean just alcohol. I tried the chateauneuf du pape and was amazed to learn that it came in at less than £10 for a bottle, one of my favourite wines and it doesn’t break the bank. Operation ‘buy all the bottles of chateauneuf du pape’ will begin tomorrow as we head to our local lidl. I also tried the rosé and again couldn’t believe little it cost, it had enough body to be drunk in winter, and a great alternative to white wine as I’m not the biggest fan. The Sicilian lemon soft drink was so refreshing and a very adult alternative to the boring lemonade that is so often offered to the designated driver over Christmas. And the drink of the moment, gin isn’t forgotten with some great new flavours of Lidl’s Hortus gins arriving in stores over the coming weeks.

Lidl has long been a brand that I’ve loved, they offer high quality (often hard to find) products at amazing value, and their Christmas range just shows how they continue to improve. Lidl is the busy mothers’ amazing helper, helping Christmas to go off with a bang for all the right reasons, meaning that maybe just maybe I might find time to out my feet up and enjoy a glass or two of chateauneuf du pape!

I’ve long been known as the queen on Lidl amongst my friends and families, I’m hoping that this year’s Christmas range will inspire them to switch to Lidl, not only will you be saving lots, but you may just have the best Christmas food… ever!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

Halloween is a great time of the year, especially if your name is Boo; October half-term is the best for family days out in London as it’s not too cold yet if you’re lucky you can escape the queues that are often horribly long during the summer months.

We were invited to London Zoo by AttractionTix for a spooky day of fun and to take part in Boo At The Zoo – and with a name like that, how could we refuse.

AttractionTix are one of the UK’s top websites for parents to buy attraction tickets. Whether you’re planning a day out in London or are heading to a water park in Spain, their mission is simple: to make your day out or holiday amazing! Some of our bestselling tickets include London Zoo, Disneyland Paris and Siam Park in Tenerife.

The lack of sunshine didn’t dampen our spirits as we kicked off our adventures at London Zoo by heading to the butterfly house; they may not be mighty or ‘cool’ but butterflies and moths are always one of my favourite collections – there’s something mystically mesmerizing about their delicacy yet immense resilience to thrive. Boo adores them too and the hot and humid house was a perfect mid morning warm up!

It wasn’t long before we were taking full advantage of the Halloween events that were taking place throughout the zoo: from pumpkin carving to face painting, plus a Halloween trail which Boo absolutely loved – there was plenty of fun events going on.

Lunchtime beckoned and we weren’t disappointed…

After lunch we happily lost ourselves in the zoo catching up with old favourites and making new animal friends.

Fun fact: Did you know that all the giraffes at London Zoo are female?

There’s a special place for London Zoo in our life – it’s such an integral part of any London child’s life – lions, tigers (but no bears) nestled in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world.

Disclosure: We were guests of AttractionTix

If you were honest with yourself, would you say that you like who you are? Or are you one of those people that are performing makeovers on your appearance or personality? If you are feeling upset or anxious about who you are and you see all the imperfections every time you look in the mirror, are there ways for you to change this? How can you like yourself better rather than critiquing yourself constantly?

 

Learn How to Look at the Things You Like About Yourself

When we look in the mirror we can think that we need to change so much about ourselves. But for most of us, a facelift isn’t on the cards. When you look at yourself in the mirror rather than focusing on the negatives you can look at the things that you do like. Your hair, didn’t you do a great job on it? If you think there’s absolutely nothing you like about yourself, this is when a little creative license can come in handy. We can learn to highlight our attributes better by finding a mirror with better lighting.

 

It’s About the Long Haul, Not the Here and Now

We can all make efforts to be a better person. Where we fall down is that we expect these changes to happen instantaneously. If there’s something you really don’t like about yourself, such as your weight, you need to give yourself a timeline that is realistic. In addition to this, you need to set small and achievable goals. This is the most important thing to ensure you don’t dig deep into that negative well. It is about the long journey rather than immediate results. The journey of losing weight is something that has resulted in many people looking for a quick fix solution. But this can be very dangerous. Lifestyle changes are more efficient than dietary ones.

 

The Past Is in the Past

Most of us think that we would love to turn back the clock and when we have regrets about things we’ve done, we can’t undo them. The most important thing we have to remember is that we’ve learnt something about ourselves in the process. It can be incredibly anxiety-inducing when we’ve made a massive mistake in our lives. But time heals all wounds. And when we’ve got regrets about certain life choices, we have to remember that they have led us in a certain direction. We now know that was a mistake, so we can now go in a better direction.

 

Get to Know Yourself Better

You may think you know yourself perfectly well, but when there are things about you don’t like, you can reflect on the negative rather than taking the time to understand the great things about you. Many people don’t like the idea of being by themselves but this is the perfect opportunity to reflect. Taking time alone to think about your life and your experiences can be better than a handful of life lessons gleaned from someone else. Spending time by yourself doesn’t mean scrolling through social media. But instead, think about enjoying a movie or going for a meal by yourself, where you can take the opportunity to enjoy the quiet and think about everything in your life.

 

Spend an Evening Without Worrying How You Look

When we think so much about reapplying our make-up and checking our hair this pressure seeps into our lives in other ways. Having one evening or an entire weekend without wearing make-up or nice clothes can give you the opportunity to see what it’s like being yourself without needing to impress anybody else. These “duvet days” can be the perfect rejuvenator. When we don’t need to impress everyone else and we take that opportunity to recharge with a box set, it can make us think about what we are doing to ourselves. If we have to continually impress others, what is this saying about how we view ourselves? 

Liking who we are isn’t about 100% satisfaction, but if we can get up to 75% or 80%, where we are happy with most of our personality, we can pat ourselves on the back and think that’s good enough. Liking who we are isn’t something that occurs overnight we have to learn to enjoy who we are, but this also means embracing our imperfections. But if we focus on these imperfections, we can magnify them so much that we think we are worthless. Liking who we are can be about doing a reality check on occasion. Nobody is perfect, and neither are you.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.