Merry Birthday

Merry Birthday? Well I received a lovely present of my Best Friend Jemma at the start of December and the label on it said Merry Birthday and I thought this was a good name for this post.

As I don't really buy Christmas presents for my best friends and only for they're birthdays this came as a kind mixed present as my Birthday was back in September as you will know hehe.

I love this website called Tofu Cute that sell really Kawaii items as well as different snacks, candies and drinks. To my surprised after feeling the present and not having a clue what was inside I opened it up to see it was a Tofu Cute Christmas goodie bag filled with plushes and snacks.

I have had one of these goodie bags before but just the blue snack version which was amazing and to see that they had done a special Christmas one was amazing. Even the red draw string bag had a special cute christmas picture.

Inside were 4 different snacks all of which I have had before due to having either buying them myself or that they came within my monthly Tokyo Treat boxes. Also it included 3 really cute soft toys which are all Amuse plush's as they are the official UK distributors and my I couldn't tell you which was my favourite because they are all super soft, cute and small.

Along with this she also put inside some retro sweet stickers from Paperchase which are amazing and this super tiny weeny plaque.

I absolutely love this as the quote it is very true about our friendship even though we don't see each other very much often we are always there for each other and always will be. Look how amazing those stickers are.

These goodie bags are still available on they're website and range from £24.99 to £59.99 and include such a good variety of items so go and check them out. Even the just Snack and just Plush bags are amazing.

Thank you Jem for my lovely present <3

Review: December Tokyo Treat Box

So after my November box turned up super late my December box actually turned up a week early but with it being Christmas and me going to my partners this year I haven't actually had time to write this review until now. After Novembers box being delayed I was worried about whether this box would show up but all faith is restored and here we are.

As mentioned in my November review the December boxes theme is CHRISTMAS and I was super excited to receive my box it was jam packed with special Christmas treats. By just looking at the contents included in this box you can see its filled with lots of special Christmas treats with a lot of chocolate and ramune flavours.

As always here is the booklet which they always provide so you can see the full descriptions of the items along with my thoughts and comments below;

Items Received:

This time instead of writing in"Italic" what the products are as mentioned in the little book provided I will just give my own comments along with pictures and a rating out of 5 so here goes ...

Christmas Edition Shimi Choco Corn (5/5)
We have actually had these before but not with the Christmas packaging and I am glad to see these again in another box because they are delicious. They are like chocolate corn snacks that feel like they have a layer of chocolate over the top as well even though they don't.

Christmas Edition White Milk Caramel Corn (+5/5)
Caramel Corn again? Put it in every box and I would be happy. Ever since I tried the peach flavour in my March box I have been obsessed and cannot wait to try more flavours. This one is the Christmas themed milk flavour which tasted very sweet and melted in your mouth.

Bireley's Soft Candy (5/5)
These were a small little round chewy candy that came in 4 different flavours although I don't think I had any of the peach flavour because I couldn't see that colour in the packet. My favourite out of the 4 is the grape flavour because I just love anything Grape.

Christmas Edition Chocolate Umaibo (5/5)
We have had these again before in another box but they only difference this month is the Christmas theme and just as tasty as last time.

Strawberry Roll Candy (5/5)
In the UK we have a thing called a Fruit Winder and this was essentially the same thing but with more of a strawberry kick which is a win win for me used to love them as a kid so brought back memories.

Christmas Fugashi (2/5)
This was like a soft rice puffed snack that had a harder outer shell. Well that's what it looked like when I was eating it anyways cause it was darker than the middle of the treat and it tasted nice and had a good texture but it was lacking flavour? Seemed a bit bland.

Puchi Puchi Art Gummy DIY (0/5)
Ugh is all I am going to say! I hate DIY kits haha!

Cocoa Flavour Chocobi Ramune (1/5)
Now you would think with me loving Ramune that I would have rated this a 5 and the main reason I didn't was because I was disappointed with how hard the candies were :( I was looking forward to a fizzy chocolate candy and it was solid and tasted powdery. The reason I gave this a one was because the packaging is super cute.

Komekko Scallop Flavour (2/5)
I still haven't actually finished these yet and that's because they're are nice but they aren't amazing. I like the taste of them because they are fishy but not the texture its kind of like a weird cracker biscuit that I don't like.

Christmas Edition Corn Potage Umaibo (5/5)
Ever since we had that little packet of Corn potage in a previous book I was super excited to see these in this months box. I love the christmas themed packaging and they still tasted as good as I remembered.

Tomato Pretz (3/5)
I'm not a massive lover of Pretz sticks and I prefer Pocky more because of the creamy coating they have but these tomato flavoured ones are actually really yummy which surprised me as I wasn't too sure in the flavour when I read the box.

Mokeke With Ball Chain (5/5)

Cream Stew Ramune (0/5)
When I saw this advertised the thought of it actually made me feel sick! And that it did when I opened it, it just didn't taste of anything nice and the fact that it was fizzy made it even worse!!! It was poured down the sink right away!

Hi Milk Chocolate CUBIE (5/5)
MMMMMMM these were amazing! They are like little cubes of chocolate that have a hard shiny outer coating and then a softer middle and just tasted of creamy milk chocolate.

Mini Choco Chips (5/5)
Cookies!!!!! These were so good, shame they were so tiny as I prefer bigger cookies and biscuits but these tasted really nice and were just a simple chocolate chip flavour.

Cola Ramune Candy (+5/5)
Ramune? Cola? Candy? Win Win! Since having these boxes I have become obsessed with anything Ramune flavour and I have to say these were not shared with anyone haha.

So my January box has been shipped and is on its way over from Japan as we speak, next months theme is New Year with it being January.

You can read my other Tokyo Treat box reviews for March, April, June, August, September, October and November here:)

Thanks for reading. I purchased this with my own money and I was NOT paid to review this by Tokyo Treats.

What I Got For Christmas 2016

Wow I have been truly spoilt this Christmas with visiting Northern Ireland this year. Usually for me its only me and Joel that exchange gifts because me and my family do Secret Santa instead and concentrate on the children but this year I was showered with presents and whats great is they know me so well hehe.

From Joel's mum and dad I received the super cosy Sleepy lounge wear, Tangled Art Book, a lovely pink River Island purse, lots of sweets and chocolate and the most beautiful Silver Minnie Mouse Disney watch.

I have been looking for a watch for ages and I just haven't come across one that I really wanted so when I opened this I feel in love. Its smart, classy and beautiful not a watch I will be wearing to work thats for sure because I wouldn't want it to get ruined.

From Joel's sister and family I received the little golden Disney book and a new hat and scarf. From his brother I got the two Fantastic Beast books and the lovely Minnie socks which are really comfy which is something I like. 

When I got back from Northern Ireland me my mum and her partner exchanged gifts and I know I said above that we do Secret Santa but I always like to get them a little something anyways to show them how much I appreciate them and this year my mum got me something which usually wouldn't happen. I love this author called Jenny Colgan and she got me the last two books in one of her series ... I have so many books to read its so bad.

This year me and Joel did presents before we went over to NI because there was no point lugging them to and from Bristol and I cannot believe what he got me! This year they were all surprises rather than me giving him a list which made them even more special.

What I loved about these two tops are the fact that he got me the Chip and Dale Tee because he knows how much I love these cheeky chaps on my visits to Disneyland Paris and how happy they make me. With the 2nd top its because one its the most awesome design ever and the fact that I can't stop obsessing over the new movie. Along with this he also got me another Fantastic Beasts book which I have read half of so far.

I love socks and especially socks that have characters from my favourite movies on and usually they are always Disney so when he saw that they had finally done Ghibli socks they were a no brainer as a present. Whats great about these are that they are my 2 favourite movies.

I don't usually collect blind boxes because of not knowing who you will get inside but when I saw the Zootopia ones last summer and picked one up I decided that I would give this one a go and I am glad to say I now have 3 different ones although I am still waiting on Nick, Judy and the purple Elephant. 

Now this is one of my favourite presents from my boyfriend it is just beautiful and from another amazing Ghibli movie and favourite of mine. The attention to detail is amazing and it is so cute as well. Only issue is remembering to change the date ;) this photo was took on the 6th I haven't just forgot to change it haha.

Now from my dad he always gets us one of those All Four One Vouchers that the Post Office does which are really great as they can be used in a whole range of shops and changed to over vouchers. So far with mine I have changed part of it up to an Amazon voucher and purchased Finding Dory, Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon, Secret Life of Pets, Downton Abbey S6 and the Finale and then finally 2 Broke Girls S5. I still have a little bit of money left on there which I plan to spend in Primark as they now accept the vouchers.

I have been truly spoilt and I am so grateful for everything I have received this year. Getting all Joel's families presents home was a big struggle and my fault for packing to much haha.

Belfast, Dublin and Christmas 2016

Hey everyone sorry for my absence I failed to actually mention on here that I was spending my Christmas over in Northern Ireland with Joel's side of the family as he hasn't been home for Christmas in a while and I thought I would go with him as I haven't been over since 2014 which has flown by.

This for me was quite a big thing as this was the first time I have not spent time with my family over the Christmas break so I was a little worried about it at first but it turned out fine and I was made to feel super at home and was lovely to meet and spend a lot more time with his family and to meet some of his friends.

We arrived on the evening of Tuesday 20th and we stayed a whole week before returning on the Tuesday 27th on a flight around the same time. On our first day there we headed in to Belfast to do some Christmas shopping for Joel's family as we decided it would be easier to pick up some bits out there rather than bring it all over from Bristol.

Before we returned back home we ended up visiting the Christmas Markets which were amazing compared to the one back here. There was so much more variety of stalls and food plus the whole vibe was lot better which made it feel more like Christmas as I hadn't really been feeling in the festive spirt.

On the Friday before Christmas Eve we booked to go to Dublin for the day and I have to say at that moment in time we couldn't have picked a worse day to go as it was absolutely tipping it down and at one point we did get drenched right through but we didn't let that ruin our day because after lunch it was like a completely different day and the sun was shinning so we dyed out pretty quickly haha.

Dublin is so beautiful the cobbled streets, shops and pubs just all look so beautiful I have never seen so many shops in one area before and where ever you turned there was a little side street that looked beautiful full of shops and cafes. Some shops were your standard high street stores but then there were over quirky shops we hadn't seem before.

We took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse in the morning when we arrived and it was so worth the 20 euros it cost us to get in. At first Joel thought I had taken him to the wrong place because of where the location was and because I am bad at reading maps apparently.

The factory actually took a lot longer than we though to walk around as it is on lots of different levels starting at the bottom making your way up to the very top where there is an glass dome with 360 degree views of Dublin which would have been beautiful if it wasn't packed and raining outside.

There is loads of different sections of the museum from the making of it, history, tasting and advertising of the brand as well which was one of my favourite bits. At the end you could claim your free pint but with Joel not drinking and me not being a massive lover we decided to skip.

I would recommend taking a visit here even if you don't drink the stuff because its Dublin and very interesting to learn about the whole process.

By the time we had actually done the tour and had lunch in Eddie Rockets which was an amazing american dinner we only had two hours of our day left which was a shame because there was so much more to do and see so we headed around the shops popping in the Disney Store obviously before heading back to get our train. I think next time I shall come back in the Summer and stay for a few days.

On Christmas eve we went and visited on of Joel's best friends David and his girlfriend for lunch at this place called The Sassy Elephant which do all manner of foods, cakes, drinks and ice creams which all looked amazing. The sandwiches that me and Joel had were so yummy to the fact that we actually went back again after with his parents before we left to come home.

Now for Christmas woo by this time I was feeling in the festive spirt and was great to spend time with Joel's mum, dad, sister and her family on Christmas day. It was nice because I really felt like I fitted in and got on well with them all especially Joel's niece Tilly oh how cute she is and she really took a liking to us which was great. On boxing Day Joel's brother and his family came over for the afternoon so was nice to spend some more time with them as well and get to meet the children who were very sweet.

In the evening we ended up over Joel's best friends house for board games and chills as we still hadn't had a chance to meet up with them with it being such a busy week. I have met Jayne before but not his other friends so was nice to put faces to the names and have a great laugh making fools out of ourselves.

Until next time Northern Ireland which we are hoping will be sometime in March for a few days. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas? I am still lucky to have a few more days off so these will be enjoyed chilling out.