Not everyone is super duper organised for the holidays so here’s a quick last minute gift guide for all you last minute shoppers.
Framed Photos
I feel like nowadays most people tend to post their pictures on their Facebook or Instagram accounts and no one ever prints them anymore. So one of my favourite things to do is to print a photo of myself and whoever I’m giving the gift to and get it framed nicely. This is a real easy cheap idea but it’s a nice personal gift to give to a relative.
Christmas Decorations
I love buying Christmas decorations as gifts for people. They’re a perfect keepsake and so easy to pick up in a hurry. Newbridge Silverware or The Ornament Shop have lovely ones. I particularly love The Ornament Shop as you can get the decorations personalised for whoever you’re buying them for. This is where we got the McNamara Snow-People decoration from.
Dinner Vouchers
I come from a big family who all love their food so dinner vouchers are a perfect last minute gift for someone who loves their food.
Cook Books
Continuing on in the food theme, cook books or baking books are always a great option for the chef or baker in your life.
Pyjamas
You can’t go wrong with a good aul pair of Christmas pyjamas! Pennys is your best friend when looking for pjyamas. I love these Grinch ones (have I mentioned The Grinch is my favourite Christmas movie?) they had in stock a few weeks ago.
You can’t go wrong with vouchers if you’re really struggling to find a gift for someone. One4All vouchers are the perfect one to get for someone you’ve no idea what to get them! They can be used in so many different places so your gift receiver will be spoiled for choice with this one!
I’ve recently been using the Inglot YSM foundation & just got a couple of shades darker than my usual ghostly colour cause I was slightly covered in fake tan!
I mentioned this in my 2017 favourites post. I used both the contour powder and highlighter from the Sleek Face Form palete but in the “Fair” shade because of my ghostly complexion.
I love love love the Naked Palettes for my eyes and for the Christmas party I used one of my go too looks, I didn’t want a very dramatic eye look as I was going for a dark lip so I used the Naked 1 Palette.
I used the colour Naked in the crease, Sin for the lid and toasted in the outer corner.
A thin line of Inglot’s Gel Liner, a little dust of Inglot’s Pure Pigment (no. 75) and a quick swoop of Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara and the eyes were done!
Putting up the Christmas tree is one of the things I look forward to every year however in my house I’m never allowed put it up too early. It usually goes up a handful of days before Christmas. We’re not ones for having the most stylish Christmas trees, our decorations are a collection of things we gathered over the years so here are some of my favourites.
Snowflake
I’m not sure where this one came out of but I love it and it’s always the first decoration on the Christmas tree whenever I decorate it.
Angel
This is one of the more sentimental decorations we have on our tree. Christmas 2015 my aunt hosted a Christmas get together in her house and bought us all this angel decoration for our trees. The March after that my aunt sadly passed away. It’s a nice touch to add to our Christmas tree to remember her.
Mickey and Minnie
Quite a few years ago my aunt, uncle and their kids went to Disneyland Paris and brought us back a Mickey and Minnie tree decoration. They went to Disneyland in Florida this year and brought us back another Mickey and Minnie decoration!
Mickey and Minnie Paris
Mickey and Minnie Florida
Santa
Again this is another one I’m not too sure of it’s origins but it’s a little Santa decoration I absolutely love.
The McNamara Snow People
In one of my many trips for Christmas shopping in Galway my brother and I decided to get a little decoration made up for our tree at home. Just 4 little snow people with our names on them.
Train
Another sentimental decoration. This one belonged to my Granddad before he passed away. Christmas time was always a special time for my family and again having something that belonged to him hanging on our tree helps me to remember all the memories I have of him.
We had Christmas Decorating wars at work this week where each section of the office was going up against each other in a battle of who could decorate their area the best. We decided to go with a Grinch/Whoville theme as it is one of the best (and my favourite) Christmas movies however, much to our disappointment we ended up loosing to a Polar Express theme, a “snow experience” ( a bucket of Styrofoam beads, which I must say was pretty cool) and a pretty nifty home made snow globe machine. Although we lost I thought I’d share some of our Grinch/Whoville decorations anyway!
Many hours were put into these creations and although unfortunately we did not win, I’m still pretty impressed by our hidden artistic talents we managed to uncover!
I love traditions and our routine at Christmas is something I look forward to every year. Although some traditions have changed in the last few years some have stayed the same even though I’m technically an “adult now”.
Christmas Eve Shopping
My brother, dad and I used always go into town to do a last bit of shopping (usually to get mam’s present cause she was with us every other time we went shopping!) Although now we’re usually much more prepared in our Christmas shopping, myself and my brother generally always go into town on Christmas Eve. I love just walking around a busy town on Christmas Eve watching everyone rushing to get their last few bits, plus we’re killing two birds with one stone as we’re not cluttering up the house as dad is preparing the Christmas Ham!!
Christmas Pyjamas
One of my favourite parts of Christmas Eve as a child was having my “Christmas bath” and getting a new pair of pyjamas. Thankfully my parents know I’m still a really big kid at heart and I still get my new pyjamas every Christmas Eve!
Christmas Morning Routine
As kids my brother and I shared a room and me being the younger more excitable child, I always woke SUPER early! I remember a couple of times being sent back to bed cause it was way too early! Luckily for me Santa always left our stockings at the end of our beds so when I did wake super early I had some gifts to keep me occupied in the early hours of Christmas morning. At a more respectable hour of the morning my brother went upstairs to my parents room to give them their presents from us.
One rule in our house was that we were never allowed open our under the tree presents until after we had our breakfast. After a quick scoff of a bowl of coca-pops, when the fire was lit and the video recorder was set up my brother an I were allowed to open our presents.
As we’ve grown up this has changed quite dramatically, for one I don’t get up SUPER early anymore, in fact in more recent years, all my family is up before me and I have to be nearly dragged out of the bed. I blame college and exams on this one so here’s hoping this year might be different!
Visitors
Just before dinner on Christmas day my mam’s brother always pop in for a cup of tea and some foxes biscuits on his way to dinner in my mam’s sisters house. I don’t see this uncle as often as I see a lot of my other relatives but it’s lovely to get to catch up over Christmas.
Dessert Stops 1 & 2
After dinner every year we go to see my Granny. This is probably my favourite part of Christmas. Ever since we were kids we always went into Granny’s house to show off all the cool stuff Santa brought us and spend a couple of hours there with dad’s family. This is still very much a big part of our Christmas day and is still my favourite part because I get to see so many relatives in the one place. Plus it’s also the first stop on our mini dessert tour!
Dessert stop number 2 is in my dad’s brothers house. As I mentioned before there is a bit of an over lap of godparents and godchildren between this family and mine so a lot of time is spent here, presents are exchanged and many more desserts are eaten.
Sandwiches, Movies & Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special
It wouldn’t be Christmas day without coming home after eating all those desserts and not having turkey, stuffing, & ham sandwiches taytos and chocolate while watching the newest Disney movie of the year and staying up to watch the Mrs. Brown’s Boys Christmas Special.
St. Stephens’ Day
St. Stephen’s day was always special to me cause that’s when Mam’s dad would visit us fro Christmas. He’d come out for Stephens Day dinner which was always cold turkey & ham with chips. Since Granddad passed away in 2009 Stephen’s day just doesn’t feel the same anymore as we have no tradition it’s just like any other ordinary day in the McNamara household.
There has been many more products tried, movies watched and songs listened to that I’ve loved but these are the highlights and most loved things of this year!
I always loved my stocking presents, I have a thing for the nick-knacks you get in them. Our stockings were always the only presents we could open before we had our breakfast on Christmas day.
Besides the obvious tube of jelly tots, toothpaste and toothbrushes here’s some inspiration for some stocking fillers this year.
As I said in a previous post, I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore, I tend to make goals for myself for the year and try to focus on achieving them throughout the year rather than giving up on my resolutions 2 weeks in.
Photography
One of my goals this year was to take a photography class – which I did do, but I find it difficult, or else I stop myself, from going out and actually using my camera. I bought my DSLR camera 3 years ago and I’m still not sure how to use it properly. Next year I would love to somewhat master it and actually start using some of the functions on it rather than just auto!!
Travel
I guess it’s safe to say I’ve some what been bitten by the travel bug and there are so many places on my wishlist to go to but the big one for 2018 is my trip to Philadelphia and Chicago (and hopefully a day in New York, just cause) with my brother. It’ll be the first time myself and my brother go on holidays together outside of family holidays and I’m really looking forward to seeing other parts of the US.
A sun holiday this year will also be a must come the summer, I’m not 100% sure where I’d like to go yet but somewhere where I can sit, relax and enjoy many a strawberry daiquiri!
I definitely want to do some city breaks next year. There’s been a few places pretty high on the list for the last while including London, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and I’d love to go back to Edinburgh again. Obviously all of these are not possible next year especially since I’ll be saving most of my pennies for my long awaited trip to Melbourne in 2019 but I definitely want to get one or two in before the year is out!
Events
It’s always a goal of mine to include some charity events and the main one I always make make the time to do is the Darkness Into Light Walk for Pieta House. For the last 4 years, usually on the morning of one of my college exams myself and my mam have walked the 5km walk for Pieta House to raise money and awareness for the suicide and self harm crisis center. There’s something about this walk I find really inspiring, I’m not sure if it’s the dedication of the participants and volunteers who get up in the middle of the night to do the walk, the fact that it’s a global event to raise awareness for these issues or the feeling you get after completing it, whatever it is, it is incredible and it’s something I want to be a part of for as long as I can.
For the last 2 years mam and I have done the Cook Medical Women’s Mini Marathon, although it’s a bit tougher it’s definitely something I would like to do again this year.
Moving Out
Although I do love my home comforts and the fact that I live 10 minutes from where I work, this year I want to move out of my parents house and into somewhere in the city. This has been on the cards for a while now and I think next year it’ll be time to bite the bullet and become an actual grown up!
Finances
Speaking of being a grown up, one thing I’ve been massively struggling with lately is managing my spending and my savings, or lack there of savings. I’ve a lot of stuff coming up, including that trip to Australia, so saving and minding my money will unfortunately have to be a big priority for 2018.
Fitness
One thing I’ve seriously let slide since starting college is my fitness. I was never super fit but I was always active since I was a child between playing camogie, Gaelic football, basketball and Irish dancing but after my first semester in college I gave up the last sport I played which was basketball and since then I haven’t really gotten back into exercise at all. Next year I definitely need to try and do some form of activity. I kind of want to give boxercise a try but I haven’t managed to find a gym near me that does it.
Blogging
I definitely want to become more consistent with my posts next year and keeping my blog, Facebook, and Instagram pages more up to date with new content frequently. I’m already trying to plan out my January posts!
When I was trying to pick out my favourite songs for this post, I realised I’m a real sucker for Christmas songs, so I have quite the lengthy list for my Christmas Playlist.. but because I’m super nice, if you don’t feel like reading the entire list just skip to the end where there’s a link to my Spotify Christmas playlist!
All I want for Christmas is you – Marhia Carey
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – Johnny Mathis
Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
A holly jolly Christmas – Burl Ives
White Christmas – Elvis Presley
Have yourself a merry little Christmas – Frank Sinatra
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – Andy Williams
Merry Christmas everyone – Shaken Stevens
O Holy Night – (not sure which singer I prefer this by but I love the song)
The Little Drummer boy – Johnny Cash. Also Bing Crosby & David Bowie’s version
Merry Christmas everyone – Slade
Silent Night – Elvis Presley
Step into Christmas – Elton John
This Christmas – Picture This
Happy X-Mas (War is Over) – John Lennon
Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty McColl
There’s definitely so much more so I’ll probably be updating the spotify playlist as I find more of the songs I love!
Well, 2017 you’ve been interesting! You were off to a pretty rocky start trying to balance final year of university with working part time and trying to cope with all the stress that that brought on.
January to May was probably the busiest, most stressful and exhausting few months I’ve ever spent in college, and I was one of the few students who was lucky enough to not have to do a final year project, I’d have gone totally bananas if I had to add that to the list!
After just about surviving the semester, the assignments & group projects, many mental breakdowns and exams university was finally over. Desperately needing a break from the craziness that life brought over the previous few months myself and my parents set off for a holiday in the sun in Fuerteventura.
June 1st came around and it was time to officially go out into the real work and start my first ever full time job. Luckily enough having worked in the company since January 2016 it wasn’t a massive change for me, I just needed to get used to getting up at 7am daily.
June also saw the beginning of a friendship with a girl I could not imagine my life without. Having met on St. Patrick’s day at a friend of a friends party myself and Vanessa were both delighted to meet the “other girl in Mark snapchats”. Vanessa and I spent most of the summer drinking and dancing the nights away but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
August came around quickly and so did my college graduation, probably the biggest day of my life so far. I know I said it before but I genuinely never thought I’d graduate from where I did, studying what I did and have been so proud and happy about it!
September hit and I decided I needed to start saving my pennies for my impending trip to New York so the Saturday nights out came to a halt and the countdown to New York began. I also made a trip with mam across the Irish Sea to Cambridge to meet a cousin of mine I had never met, it was really great to be able to put a face to the name.
October saw me off to New York and do I even need to tell you how much I loved it? It was everything I hoped it would be and more, so far it’s definitely my favourite place I’ve traveled to. I’m already planning my next trip back!
2017 has been a whirlwind of a year for me. I graduated university, started my first permanent job, partied my way through the summer, made some new friends, and made my first ever trip across the Atlantic. Some highs and some lows but thankfully 2017 you brought more highlights than lowlights & I’m excited to see what 2018 has in store!
Niamh's World 