Secret Santa Adventures

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not! For those of you who do, Merry Christmas!!! 

Now that it is out of my system, I wanted to tell you about my Secret Santa this year. I had it all planned out, 15 of us were playing so I was super excited.  I cut up small pieces of red card, wrote the names in gold glitter pen (of course) and sealed them with gold glitter and a snowflake. Everyone picked a name out of the santa hat in late November. Up to there it was going well, but then I went back to uni and all hell broke loose! Clearly my little elves playing the game should not have been left in charge haha, my request for everyone to take some of the wrapping paper failed miserably. The plan was for one person to bring the wrapping paper and everyone to take some and use it for their present, attaching the name tags I had lovingly prepared. The wrapping paper was plain blue, I mean come on! It wasn't even christmassy, but I told myself it would be fine and we would make do, but then one person waltzed off with it leaving no paper for most of us, myself included! Come the big reveal we ended up with all sorts of wrapping, including one wrapped in tissue paper and duct tape, however, it was a fantastic laugh with some weird and wonderful gifts being exchanged. Obviously I had to take photos of our surroundings too, they were so deliciously festive...

Moral of the story is this: 

1 - if you want it doing how you imagine, do it yourself! 

2 - who cares about organisation really, all that matters is the love, laughter and smiles exchanged on the day! 

Overall we had a fabulous time and laughed the whole night long, we spent the evening in our local pub the Queen's Head in Burley where they had the most beautiful decorations and also do some rather lovely food. If you live in the New Forest or are coming on holiday then check them out here. I have something a little different planned for secret santa next year, though for now it is a secret...shush! Enjoy the holidays y'all, eat, drink and be merry! :-) 

xoxo 

Review - Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Hello everyone,

I have finished reading Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Oh my God, I could not put this book down, I read it across two days and loved it. The blurb reads:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of peculiar photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children. As Jacob explores its decaying bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine's children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive. 

I originally saw this book in the horror section of my local book shop and picked it up because the cover art was so intriguing. I then realised it was actually a photograph, one of many that feature in the book. I am so glad I picked it up!

Jacob is a sixteen-year-old boy bored of his mundane life in America with a head full of fantastic stories of magical children and gruesome monsters. He believes these are stories made up by his Grandfather to entertain a child and detract from the real horror of the Nazis...How wrong could he be? All the stories his Grandfather told him are true, but he only begins to realise this after the brutal murder of his Grandfather. His dying words about the island of his childhood haunt Jacob and spark off his journey to find answers, turns out he finds more answers than he wanted. He stumbles across more photos of the peculiar children and they lead him to the children themselves. Children that haven't aged in decades, children running from a terror...

This book has everything, spectacular narrative from Jacob, a thrilling story line, love lost and terrifying monsters. To add to the draw of this story are the chilling black and white photographs dappled throughout the book. 

My only slight nit pick is that this book was in the horror section and I picked it up expecting a chilling ghost story, but it turned out to be less scary and more fantasy! So I would give it 4.5 stars. It does, however, have the potential to become a scary story in the next books. Much to my delight on reaching the end I found out that it is from a series and I will most definitely be picking up the next one soon! 

Have any of you read this book? Let me know in the comments below :-) 

xoxo