The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

Welcome to the British Mummy Bloggers festive carnival! The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms is honoured to be hosting and we hope our North American audience will enjoy a small turkey-and-all-the-trimmings (hold the Brussels thanks) taste of some of the great British mummy blogs out there.

I had a bizarre conversation with my parents last weekend where I learnt that I spent my first two Christmases in a pub, the second year behind the bar messing with the mixer bottles no less. Hmmm, now that has to be the subject of my next post, but I didn’t have time to write it to be included here as I’ve been so busy reading all these fantastic posts and trying not to make a pig’s ear of compiling them. I mistakenly thought hosting the carnival would be an easy job; after all other people do the hard work by writing all the posts. Boy, did I get that wrong.

Christmas lover Victoria of It’s a Small Word After All deserves top billing as she recounts the things she loves about Christmas at home and what she’ll miss next year when she spends the festive season in New Zealand. She paints such a lovely picture of the festive season she almost makes me like Christmas too. Also trying to persuade me that Christmas Rocks! is Janine at 21^stCenturyMummy’s Blog. Almost, ladies, but not quite, I’ll stick with my “Bah Humbug”. I nearly had one comrade – Geeky Mummy at The Hair Dog Chronicles was teetering on the brink when the Christmas spirit crept up on her.

Insomniac Mummy Ellie reminds us that Christmas doesn’t have to be all about the presents with her heartwarming post “Recession and the Rekindling the Magic of Christmas”.

Liz at Living With Kids is reminded of Christmases past when hunting out the Christmas decorations. Steffi at Mummy Do That! is also remembering as she bakes the German Christmas cookies of her childhood. Mmmm, can’t you almost smell them? Now this is a part of Christmas I do like.

Trish at Mum’s Gone To… has fun and games with Christmas afternoon fun and games.

Ellen’s Tired Mummy’s Blog is opening the door to an early unwelcome holiday visitor. It’s a visitor a lot of us might have over the festive season, made all the more unwelcome by the presence of our little darlings and their unsympathetic attitude to the hangover (groan).

Hot Cross Mum Hazel has written some new lyrics to one of our favourite Christmas songs, especially for us parents.

Karin is comparing US and UK Christmas traditions at Cafebebe. Mid-Atlantic English Michelle is thinking along similar lines and looking at varying Christmas traditions and wondering What Do You Put in Your Christmas Stockings?

Laura at Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy? regrets her decision to get a certain no-go present for Christmas. I understand your pain – Lego City Police Station was our headache this Christmas. Thanks to Uncle Robert in the States for coming to our rescue and shipping one over.

My husband returned from B&Q with the ridiculously huge 7’6” tree. It won’t stop screaming ‘BIG’ at me. Vic at Glowstars only has a little tree, but a lot of love and memories go into decorating it.

At Angels and Urchins, Amanda is offering up some great tips for keeping the family Christmas on a harmonious footing.

We have some rookies to welcome to the BMB carnival. However judging by their posts I think they should keep submitting, don’t you? New mummy blogger ‘Give a Girl the Right Pair of Shoes’ Steph doesn’t want the headline ‘Santa. WARNING: Contains Adult Content’ to put you off reading her post. She’s simply saying there’s information in her tale not meant for little Santa believers’ eyes. And as I’m finding it stressful keeping a lid on the whole Santa scam, this led me to write my Survival Guide for Rookie Moms Christmas post on a similar subject. Then Wendy from The Life of Wendy is setting some beautiful Christmas scenes as she ponders what makes the perfect Christmas? And Holly at It’s a Mummy’s Life is winding down for the Christmas holidays.

Amy of And 1 More Means Four has a Christmas list with a difference. Presents a lot of moms would gladly receive, if only they could be wrapped.

The good news is that Sandy at Baby Baby is Finally Feeling Festive after weathering the storms of sickly kids – ‘tis the season and don’t I know it! As I type this (late Monday night of course) my head feels tight and my throat scratchy so I’m probably succumbing to whatever bug the rest of the family have been suffering with for the last few weeks. So while I can still talk I’ll throw in one last “Bah Humbug” – I’ll probably be the one trying to swallow her turkey with a throat full of razor blades.

Last, but by no means least, as a round up to the year Susanna A Modern Mother sums up what happened in the parent blogging scene in 2009. Susanna is hosting the first carnival of 2010 on Jan 5^th. Please email entries to amodernmother (at) gmail (dot) com

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE MUMMY AND MOMMY BLOGGERS

FROM LORRAINE AND ERICA

XOX

Filed under: Parenting Tagged: | British Mummy Bloggers, British Mummy Bloggers Carnival, Christmas, Festive