I have an announcement to make. In the New Year, I am merging my various blogging efforts into one place over on http://kateonthinice.wordpress.com

If you follow Celebrating Mums and like doing so, please follow Kate On Thin Ice and soon to make me feel like I am doing the right thing.

The most popular type of content on Celebrating Mums will be featured so you can rest assured that mouth-watering recipes, sound advice and information on good causes will feature in coming days and months.

There will also be an increasing emphasis on sharing the stories of real mums, all very ordinary and, hence, very extraordinary indeed. I am keen to see Mums valued far more in society and will do my bit towards this. That was the intention last year and I did not make as much progress as I intended on that score so if you have a story you would like to share, just let me know by emailing me on mums-the-word@live.com

The reasons for the change to my blogging habits are …

1. I have more confidence in what I am doing this year.

2. I am pursuing other writing opportunities including a novel so need to make the most efficient use of my time

Please bear with me in the first month or so as http://kateonthinice.wordpress.com develops but there is already some pretty interesting stuff on their already if I do say so myself.

Right, let’s jump of that New Year cliff and see if we fly.

Much Love

Kate x

I loved Matey. I really did see him as a little friend to keep me company during bathtimes.

Matey is back and they have put together two Matey Christmas gift sets.

Not only is Matey back but there is a female looking Matey now. How fab is that?

So if you want to relive your childhood or introduce your own children to a world of fun, games and adventure, put Matey on your Christmas list this year.

Just take a look at the attractive gift set for girls. How could you resist?

Serves: 4

Nutritional Analysis: 200cal/1g fat per portion

Ingredients

· 2 slices Warburtons Winter Fruit Loaf
· 1 tbs dried cranberries
· Fresh cranberry juice
· Brandy (optional)

Method
1. Sprinkle the cranberries in the base of a dariole/ramekin dish.

2. Roughly tear the slices of bread and place over the cranberries.

3. Mix a little brandy with some cranberry juice and pour over the bread, ensure the bread is fully soaked but not soggy. (For a deeper coloured pudding mix cranberry juice with a little blackcurrant juice).

4. Press the bread firmly down into the mould.

5. Chill for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator before turning the pudding out onto a serving plate.

For that extra Christmas touch, flambé with brandy and serve with brandy butter.

We think we have the answer in this wonderful and very special ‘Me to You’ Christmas pack including a 100g Belgian milk chocolate bear and a dear little plush Tatty Teddy, all for £6.99 at selected Morrisons stores.

It is a wonderful extra for your own children or perhaps as a main gift for those of family, friends and colleagues.

Celebrating Mums thinks the only possible person who would not enjoying receiving this gift pack is someone who hates chocolate.

Children will love having a little friend to keep whilst gorging their chocolate in breakneck speed.

Mums tend to like chocolate and things that are cute. There is a little girl in most of us.

Dads, despite themselves, almost always enjoy having a cuddly friend from a loved one.

We genuninely feel it is a gift that is appropriate for friends, grand-parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, neices, nephews, colleagues and just about everyone.

The pricepoint is also very attractive so it might fit in for those Secret Santa intiatives too.

Both bears feature Tatty Teddy’s signature blue nose, and the joy of the Christmas pack is that you can have your bear and eat it! Once the chocolate bear’s gone, there’s still a fluffy grey Tatty Teddy with a festive red gingham bow that will be treasured forever. Small enough to sit on a bedside table or a desk, one little paw’s embroidered with the message that says it all at Christmas – ‘Me to You’.

You are strongly advised to buy a few of these and have them in reserve for any unexpected guests over the festivities.

It is affordable and it guarantees great family fun.

If you have ever wanted to become self-sufficient, here is your chance to give it a try.

Go Green is a new board game suitable for ages 7 plus although my 6 year old played it quite happily too. It is for 2 to 4 players.. It is really different from the run-of-the-mill and we love it.

As a parent, I like to know that my children are learning whilst having fun and this game certainly delivers.

The board, game cards and other tools of the game are really attractive to look at and make you think about fresh fruit and vegetables and where they come from. It is a good game for any family but if you are interested in healthy eating, the environment and green issues, so much the more so.

Use your wheelbarrow to move around the board to collect fruit, vegetables, pigs and chickens.

The winner is the first to fill their garden and allotment with the most produce and animals.

Seems simple. It is. But the Green Fingers’ cards turn up unexpected twists and turns just like running your own smallholding (speaking as someone who does it for real)

So you will have to protect your chickens from foxes, sell your crops and livestock at the village fair and avoid drought, bird flu, and your animals escaping.

And to make things even more interesting there are Natural Selection cards – thought-provoking multiple choice questions you answer to win haybales.

Now, are you ready to Go Green this Christmas?

Available to purchase from One Earth Games, at £22.95 at www.gogreenboardgame.co.uk and ‘The Entertainer’ toy shop chain

I love Radox bath products. For me, nothing really comes close to that sense of indulgence when you sink into a Radox bath.

The good news is Radox is not an expensive product either so you can have your pampering session in an affordable manner.

Radox have a range of Christmas Gift Sets this year. To be honest, if you got me some Radox bubbles, that would do me fine but how lovely to have actual gift sets available too.

Celebrating Mums trialled the Smoothis Collection. This comes in a lovely deep orange coloured box complete with a festive ribbon detail and attractive fruity pattern.

The set contains 250ml Soul Soother Bath Smoothies, 200ml Soul Smoothies Shower Smoothies and a pampering body mitt.

You certainly can’t say this set does not have the Christmas thing going on. Bursting with a natural blend of ingredients that include cranberry together with blackcurrant and chamomile. Relexation in two lovely bottles, one for the bath and one for the shower.

Lovely scent and that real sense of giving your body an all-over treat.

Celebrating Mums highly recommends this set and fully expects the others available to be of the same high quality associated with Radox.

From the exotic Eastern Spirit gift set to the delectable Smoothies Collection and even something for the guys, Radox has Christmas covered.

The Kid Cam consists of two wireless cameras and a companion screen. This means you can watch children in two different locations, say the bedroom and the garden. It really does help to give you peace of mind as a parent whilst you get on with other jobs but can keep an eye on your child too. Footage from both cameras can be viewed so it is a very versatile product indeed.

Both cameras incorporate night vision, perfect for watching sleeping babies and older chldren too.

We found the picture quality to be really good. Older children will spot the device and if you have them they may try and disable it by putting something over it. That is a discipline issue for parents to work out for themselves.

A car adaptor kit is availble to go with the Kid Cam. This enables safe driving without constantly turning round to see what the children are up to.

What we liked was how easy the thing was to set up in the first place with an instruction manual written in plain English. The only slight negative was the suction pads which were not the strongest in our experience.

The system has a range of up to 100 metres. It has built in rechargeable battery, including home chargers.

Overall, Kid Cam is a compact and portable system that makes keeping your children safe and supervised a breeze in the car, home or garden.

We were highly impressed.

Other products available for parents include;

BabyCam Car is a specialist baby back seat monitoring system, developed to help parents avoid the potentially-dangerous need to turn around and check on their children whilst driving – a habit, which according to research, puts them at a much higher risk of having a car accident.*

Working much like a Sat Nav, parents simply attach a compact wireless camera to the side rear window to get a clear view of their baby and to transmit a high-quality video picture to a display attached to their windscreen. The system is extremely easy to use and comes equipped with a host of useful features including night vision, a built in rechargeable battery with four hour life, as well as versatile window suction mounts.

BabyCam Nursery is designed for the home, and is equipped with wireless camera and a large 7”, full-colour companion screen allowing mums and dads to see, hear and even talk to their baby from any room across the home, giving them constant reassurance that the baby is safe and well. Either portable or wall-mounted, the monitor is extremely easy to use and set up, and is equipped with a soothing night light function.

Storage Options offers a wide range of surveillance technology products for home and business use. With an aim of making the installation of surveillance equipment as simple as possible, all products are supplied with a clearly-written and annotated manual and backed by a local-rate technical support phone line serviced by experts based in the UK. For more details visit: http://storageoptions.com

It claims to be suitable for ages 7-99 years and we can certainly say it entertained all members of our family from age 6 to age 84!

The first thing you notice about the game is its stylish and colourful design. Bright and cheerful with yellows, greens, oranges, purple and blues.

So what is the game about?

A virus has invaded your system. Can you get rid of it before it multiplies?? Different components and gamepieces move in different ways so it is not as easy as it looks. A real IQ-building challenge.

As a parent, I like to think my children are having fun when learning and this game fits the bill. It develops logical reasoning, higher cognitive thinkin and visual and spatial perception. All very good stuff.

The game involves 60 challenges and you can play at different levels which means there is always scope for improving your performance.

Because it is for play by one player at a time, it saves all that family conflict all too often associated with other games.

Just one of a fantastic range of Christmas gift ideas suitable for different age groups over on the Jumbo Toys website.

RRP: £17.99, Available at Toys R Us, Amazon, and Play.com

http://www.jumbo.eu/ .

1. Membership to the Weather Club makes for the perfect present for weather lovers and those after a more interesting gift to give to their friends and loved ones, whilst also raising money for charity. At only £20 a year, membership benefits include a subscription to the quarterly magazine the Weather, which is packed with news and features relating to weather and climate, a free Galileo thermometer worth £15, the first four booklets of the collectable A-Z weather terminology collection, a set of weather postcards, access to exclusive web content and members’ forum on the website and a great range of discounts on weather related products. The Weather Club is a charity organisation run by the Royal Meteorological Society to advance the understanding of weather and climate through education and participation. To purchase a gift membership package or voucher, visit

www.theWeatherClub.org.uk/gift.

2. Kitchen Science Kit – rrp £10.99

Encourage kids to learn outside the classroom with this terrific educational kit. Let them experiment in their own time with rockets fuelled by baking soda and a light bulb powered by a fork and tomato. It’s unlikely to be something they’ve tried before!

http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/educational-gifts-for-kids-kitchen-science.html

3. Make Your Own Perfume Laboratory – rrp £15.49

This aromatic kit makes fragrant work of creating perfumes, potpourri and crystals! Create a laboratory at home so she can amaze her friends with weird and wonderful concoctions from sublime slime to her very own fragrances. With tweezers, measuring cup and mixing jar in hand, this may be the start of her scientific career.

http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/girly-gifts-make-your-own-perfume-kit.html

4. For your science related gifts Maps Toys have the Be Amazing range. There are so many great ideas including a snowy one so check out the range here.

http://www.beamazing.com/

9. Wild Physics & Cool Chemistry Set – £19.99

http://www.firebox.com

Keep visiting Celebrating Mums as next week we will have more present ideas that are science-related plus some tried and tested product reviews.

1. What is your tip for getting the kids involved in the Christmas preparations?

Christmas cards are always a great way to involve the kids – children love drawing and using glitter, coloured tissue paper and metallic pens to create their own designs. Spend an afternoon together preparing festive cards for loved ones – it adds a personal touch too which family and friends adore.

Another great way to get kids involved is decorations – popping baubles on the Christmas tree is a great family moment – just make sure no one steals the chocolate decorations before Christmas Day!

2. What is your favourite homemade stocking filler?

An edible gift always goes down a treat as a stocking filler – a really easy and impressive gift is chocolate fudge – you can use any type of chocolate – white, plain, milk or even orange or mint flavoured. This recipe is super easy, thanks to the Nestlé Carnation Condensed Milk – simply melt and combine with three other ingredients – icing sugar, butter and Nestlé Carnation Condensed Milk. The Condensed Milk gives the fudge a silky smooth texture and the result is just delicious, a rich chocolate taste that no-one will believe is home made.

To really impress your friends and family, you can decorate the fudge with dried fruit, nuts, chocolate sprinkles or even edible glitter – then simply pop into cellophane bags or gift boxes – they’ll look gorgeous!

3. What is your top tip for a stress free Christmas?

My top tip for any family gathering is the same – prepare everything in advance. It’s important for example to think about the ideal menu and shop for the items you’ll need with days to spare. Other aspects to consider are chopping the veg the night before, making up the stockings and wrapping your presents in advance of the big day – you’ll be surprised at how much stress will be relieved.

5. What is your favourite Christmas food and why?

Little sausages wrapped in bacon and a good old fashioned Christmas pudding – it’s the only time of year when people get to eat them.

Another one of my favourites’ are my Christmas Florentines which are made using a mixture of dried fruit and nuts alongside your baking staples of butter, brown sugar and flour. The all-important ingredient in this recipe is Nestlé Carnation Condensed Milk, which not only binds the ingredients but also gives a creamy toffee texture and taste. These delicious crunchy and chewy jewelled biscuits are the ideal after dinner treat.

See the Family Recipes section of Celebrating Mums for full recipes.