It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

And just like that, December is here! Although technically, my first festive activity was on Thursday as I officially watched my first Christmas film. Netflix has got all the cheesy Christmas chick flicks going on this year and I started with The Princess Switch. It's a new take on the Princess and the Pauper story (the Barbie film, obvs). Two lookalikes from different worlds meet by chance and decide to swap places. Obviously Stacy, the baker from America, falls in love with the prince who's destined for her non-twin Margaret. And Margaret, who craves a more normal life than her duchess one, falls in love with Stacy's best friend and co-baker, Kevin. The movie is super cute and festive with a lot of sweet moments, although it's also filled with clichés, cheesiness and over-reactive declarations of love ("I'm the most in love I've ever been" after 2 whole days seems legit and reasonable right?). It had a sweet if entirely predictable ending and although it was littered with cheesy, cringe-worthy things (not least, Vanessa Hudgens' attempt at a British accent), it's a must-watch that you'll never have realised you needed in your life.

Then on to Friday and although it was still technically November and not technically a Christmas-related activity, it did get me feeling all festive. I mean for one, it was payday. Which is like a Christmas present. And then also, I headed out with Laura and Amber for a few drinks, where the bars were already kitted out in festive cheer. It was a dranks night rather than an out out one, so I wore thigh high boots (they're back baby) with new orange faux suede skirt and floral crochet crop top. After a few glasses of wine at mine, we headed to Bendigo, which is one of my favourite spots in Beeston. Classy venue with Wetherspoons prices - what more could you want? Then we walked up to the secret gin bar which is super cute and has a really nice menu. Although Amber's drink arrived looking a little suspicious and it turned out they'd made the wrong one - they'd done a cherry coke one instead of a cherry one. Can I just please ask what kind of psychopath would put coke in gin?! Anyway, then we went for cocktails at the Berliner before finishing up in the takeaway - of course.

And then Saturday was the official start of the festivities! You can't beat a good old white chocolate milky bar calendar - you can keep your fancy Lindt or Hotel Chocolat ones. And although I wasn't feeling too hungover, I did still feel like treating myself to lunch to get myself feeling 100%. That, and also we had no food in. I had another couple of Christmas presents to buy too, so I went in to Beeston to get them and to get myself some lunch from Costa. I'd tried the orange and cream hot chocolate last week (which was amazing) so this time I went with the gingerbread cream hot chocolate plus the brie, bacon and cranberry panini. And I have to say, I wouldn't recommend either! The hot chocolate was too much ginger and not enough gingerbread (it needed less ginger and more cinnamon, nutmeg etc). And the panini had barely any filling in it. All I could taste was bread and cranberry, no bacon or brie. This is why I don't shop in chain places like Costa; independent cafes make them 10000x better!

Then when I got back home, it was time to decorate the tree! I really got in to the festive spirit by watching not one, but two more Netflix Christmas chick flicks. A Christmas Prince was actually kind of cute; a story of an aspiring journalist who finds herself undercover in the palace to get the exclusive scoop on the Prince (who's also the King-to-be). But as she gets to know him as a person, not a royal, she finds herself less interested in exposing his secrets. Of course, the whole thing blows up in her face eventually but there's a happy (and of course, predictable) ending. So then I let Netflix autoplay roll onto the sequel, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding, and it was possibly the worst movie ever. The whole thing was a remake of Cinderella II (the cartoon version - there's probably a reason you haven't seen it or heard of it). So with a royal wedding coming up, Amber has to fight against royal protocol versus what she wants for herself, while there's some suspicious stuff going on in the kingdom too. So she follows her journalist instinct to try and figure it out. The whole thing was very cheesy and there was an absolutely terrible bow and arrow scene at the end, but it did help with the whole Christmas spirit thing. So not a total waste of an hour and a half.

Then it was time to get ready for round 2 of the weekend which was a night out with my friend Paige. I was really stuck on outfit choices (unusual for me actually) and after trying about a million things on, eventually fell back on my trusty leopard print. This time, I wore these satin shorts with brown bardot top and black trusty boots. You know how December is meant to be all crisp and fresh and frosty? Well Saturday was the complete opposite of that. It was a total wash out. After prosecco at mine, we went in to town and were drenched within about 5 seconds of stepping out of the taxi. We weren't really sure what to do with ourselves because everywhere we went had a big queue (queuing in the rain was not on our todo list) so we ended up starting at Revolution with a vodka shot paddle and a couple of drinks. We stayed in Hockley to try and minimise the walking around, although my feet were already soaked and I was resembling a drowned rat by this point. So we went to baa bar and then to what was market bar (I think it's now called trade). Even though it was technically new, all they seemed to have changed was which side the smoking area and which side the entrance was; everything else was exactly the same! We had a fab night though despite the rain - the tequila shots probably helped us forget (or not care) about the weather.