Sammy has been intrigued by ice this week. The weekend before Christmas we had booked to go ice skating at a temporary rink at Cadbury Garden Centre. Unfortunately it tipped with rain and as they allowed us to postpone our booking, we changed the date and prayed for sunshine on Sunday 6th January! Fast forward to the 6th and we got our sunny day. In fact it was so mild, my husband skated in just a polo shirt!

We tried to explain that the ice had to melt, as our session finished, as it was the last day of the rink being open. He didn't really understand so we played a game at home to learn how ice melts. I set several of his favourite dinosaur toys in a bowl of water in the freezer. Then we let it defrost and chipped away at it with a wooden spatula! The defrost button on the microwaved helped a little and we had a good question and answer session!

I would definitely recommend the ice skating as a Christmas activity for next year. Poor Ollie couldn't go on as you had to be 2 and over but was happy to watch from the side as long as one of us was holding him. He found the glass a curious barrier!

Here are some of my favourite snaps we took. I warn you there are loads!

This weekend I have been thinking a lot about my family. When we lost my Granny, 12 years after my Grandpa died, we all wanted her funeral to be a celebration of her life, albeit with unstoppable tears but with laughter and sentimental anecdotes as well. You know the old saying one makes room for another. I was actually just pregnant when she died although I didn't know it. My cousin Simon read a letter she had written him whilst at University featuring her shopping list and the bargains she had found in a DIY store. We set up a projector screen and a beautiful collection of photographs streamed silently whilst we all watched them. Except there wasn't silence there was laughter and giggles from everyone as we looked through the photographs of her life.

Granny's Collage

I have a number of her old memory boxes bursting with cards and letters, scrapbooks and albums. I made up two huge collages and left them for the guests to ponder.

Granny's Collage

Granny's Collage

My favourite bits was their original engagement announcement from 1949, their wedding invitation (I'm saving that for later in the week as it is so delicate it deserves a post of it's own) and a letter from her mother congratulating her on the birth of my Auntie "Thank God it is all over & the baby isn't called John... What a clever girl you were to get it over so quick & not keep us all in suspense. We are so thrilled... I bet Geoffrey is as pleased as a dog with two tails & Mamma doesn't know whether she is on her head or her heels with pride & joy."

Granny's Letter

Granny's Letter

I hope you can make it all out!

Granny's Collage

Granny's Collage

I feel so lucky to have this treasure chest of memories and I hope my own grandchildren one day will adore pouring over our old love letters from university days and thousands of photographs! I wonder what that future generation will think of snail mail! With email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs as the modern way to record and document your life, I treasure my things like the shoe box of old champagne corks we have written the date and occasion on.

This week a very brave family said goodbye to a beloved mother and wife. It inspired me to write this post. You can read a touching account of the celebration of her life here. Please take a moment to read it.

Do you keep memory boxes, are you a sentimental hoarder like me?!

I was really surprised about the number of people who were brave enough to take a break from blogging over Christmas and devote some time away from their laptops to the festive times.

A little break has left me swimming with ideas and I hope this post can help a few others, who may feel stuck in a rut or lacking the motivation to pick up their blog again after the holidays.

I love reading blogs and stay up until the early hours most nights catching up on my favourites. The reason I love them is their variety. It's easy to get pigeoned holed into a bloggy corner and whilst this blog features the boys A LOT, I want it to fully encapsulate me rather than just being a "Mummy blog". Not that there is anything wrong with that (it is big business), but being a Mummy is one part of me and I want to share all the different aspects of our life, all in one space (I am in awe of those who can keep up several blogs at one time - I bow to you!).

I keep a notebook with ideas in for blog posts, which helps when I want to look for inspiration.

I have created 12 inspiration envelopes for each month of 2013 each with a good few ideas to help kickstart the weeks in that month. One idea always leads to another.

I love the thought of opening them at the beginning of each month and seeing what I had planned back in January. For example there were loads of things I didn't quite get round to photographing before Christmas or making at all, so those will be saved for Christmas 2013!

Those are a selection of a few of the things I have planned for this year, I don't want to give them all away! It was a great excuse to use my new vintage looking number ink stamps that my husband bought me for Christmas!

How do you collate your ideas? I hope to post a new article every day but that takes some planning and organisation. I usually have the next 4 days or so ready to go but sometimes they shift around if I get distracted!

Share your blog inspiration tips too and we can all help each other. Happy blogging!