Marzipan penguins / snowmen and a Merry Christmas!

These are our Christmas sweets, made by my oldest two and me.
Penguins and snowmen are from marzipan and leftover food colouring. Easy to do, will do a separate post on how later.
Kulkuls madewhen my Mum was here with the children.
Chocolate truffles in coconut.
Fruitcake with no icing or marzipan - icing not liked loads in our house and marzipan used for the penguins.
Bolinas from Mapusa!

Next time I blog will be from India :)
Merry Christmas and lots of happiness and good wishes!

Westfield Merry Hill review

Though we are 10-12 minutes drive from Birmingham city centre, with hundreds of shops etc and the beautiful buildings near the Library, Bullring etc etc, I have chosen for a few years now, to do most of our non food shopping at Westfield Merry Hill in Dudley. Its 30 minutes away. A few of my reasons.

1) Most important - plenty of parking and free. Underground, multistorey, outdoor, all around the centre, so you can choose where you need to be closest to. On a day like today, 2 days before Christmas, dragged the children to Merry Hill and found ample parking in the basement of the multistorey within a few minutes. A few years ago, we spent Sat and Sundays waiting in the long line of cars for hours to get into the Bullring. Last Sunday, ventured to city centre looking for a gilet, to come back an hour later, fed up of the long lines to park and traffic jams. City Centre has a fabulous atmosphere and is great to get to on public transport, just not to drive to in the festive season.

2) Huge selection of shops - miles ahead of the other shopping centres in North and South Brum.  There's Eat Central, with around 15 eateries, plus the ubiquitous chains dotted around. The only shops I miss which are in city centre are Zara and House of Fraser. No Selfridges or Harvey Nichols for that kind of shopping.

3) Largely free children's activities in the holidays - my children have seen Mr Tumble, Ben and Holly, Peppa Pig, Charley Bear and around 5 more CBeebies characters, got given goodie bags for all kinds of shows and things and have been sent freebie vouchers in the post - with their Kids Club. Lots of the restaurants have children's meals for around £2-3, which are not the standard chicken nuggets/fish fingers. There is a lovely indoor children's play area free to use where the children have enjoyed many play sessions and 2 outdoor play areas. Lots of toilets, always clean and a separate baby change toilet with play facilities, baby change, toddler toilets etc.

Can go on but this is a long enough post and the shopping needs to be sorted out/wrapped up etc!

Easy Cornflake chivda / chura

Clearing cupboards before holiday/Christmas
Found huge pack of plain cornflakes
Remembered Gujarati cook who came to us for a few weeks and her recipes
Looked it up online
Made in 10 minutes in the morning

Its easy to make, not deep fried and tastes gorgeous.
2 tbsps of oil, put in some haldi, chilli powder, amchoor and rai. Mixed cornflakes in and added some dry roasted peanuts and cashewnuts. It tasted fine without the nuts, added later when I found them.
Have had people over most of the evening so the picture of the big bowl was never taken. This tiny bit is all thats left.

Handmade paper hearts - free decorations...

Handmade paper hearts by my almost 8 year old - seen on SuperScrimpers and then online. Very very easy and quick to make, and, free! Need a stapler, some paper (plain or printed or even newspaper) and some string.
Made in 10 minutes by her, the joys of not having to worry about scissors, stapling and measuring as the children get older. The youngest happily cut all the leftover paper with his plastic scissors.
Bit of a break in our house from the bright colours and lights of Christmas decorations.
Now to sort out and wrap the pile of gifts for everyone except the children, their stuff is all from Amazon, will hopefully arrive this week.

Frozen bananas et al

Having discovered the pleasure of a guilt free frozen treat in the form of a frozen banana on a stick, I've managed to get the children into it as well. A must try for anyone, just remember to poke a skewer or lolly stick through - might need to cut the banana in half. Even in this cold weather, children like it as an after school snack and I try and have it to control my junk food cravings. It takes ages to eat and tastes similar to a mini milk?

This link made for great reading, at 5am, up with a sick child sleeping on me, and includes the frozen banana whizzed up as icecream! I like the first link and want to try out stuff. The second is interesting reading, if you have the time :)

Two Ingredient Recipes
Christmas Food Hacks

Tiger cake and Number 7 cake

Have been tending to make two cakes for each birthday, one for the children's friends party and one for our friends and their children who come home.
This 7 one was put together very quickly with leftover icing flowers and Wafer Daisies from Sainsbury's.
The tiger cake was done for my son's party at the zoo - seemed the simplest.

Meandering thoughts on going back to work....

So many conversations with other mums about going back to work, finding the right job and of course, earning enough to pay for three children's childcare.
I am trying to find work in what I have been trained to do and had a career in, without success. Haven't searched wholeheartedly because my youngest has a few months before preschool but there are much less jobs around than when my first went to the childminder's 6 years ago.
I would like to work part time but that in itself is a rarity in my field, where there are tons of applicants for each job.
At this age and with this experience, I need to build my career, not start doing administrative work or something unrelated.
Have been told often to start a business, its the right time etc etc, but cannot get my head around it.
Also have been told to enjoy my children at this age and that it won't last long, I have all my life to build a career etc.
Fortunately, I'm not the only seemingly wishful thinker around, most mums I speak to, who have given up work when their kids were born, feel the same and cannot find appropriate work.

On the other side, a few more weeks before we go to Bombay/Goa!

Broad Street view from the Birmingham Big Wheel

Took the children for their treat to the Birmingham Eye / Wheel on Friday night.
Thought it would be a different treat from the usual, plus, in the dark would be a different perspective for them. Reality was freezing cold.
The cabins were heated when we went last 6 years ao, this time there was nothing, probably why the price was £4 each instead of £8 last time. Too cold to hang around for long, so bought them some hot dogs from the German market next door and hot mulled cider for my mum which was gorgeous. I had a big glug which was super warming and then realised I was driving so one glug was all it was.
Lots of people at the Market and a few kids at the rides......end result was our kids overjoyed with the ride which was the whole point, fortunately!

1st Dec - Start of the Christmas season - Kulkuls

Its the 1st now and time to get started with some sort of planning for Christmas - first step - making kulkuls.....hopefully they will last until the 25th.

This is all that's left after making, double this has been scoffed by all already....