Behind The Scenes December 2022 – Plus Giveaway

December 2022 was an incredibly busy month, with all the end of year activities at school, preparing for Christmas, and going away to my parent’s farm.

***Disclosure -The links in this post may contain affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on a link.***

December 2022

Blogging Award

In December I was nominated for a blogging award by Galore SA, along with four other bloggers. It was then up to the public to vote for the winner. I won the award and I am so grateful for the incredible support I received from everyone.

Part of the prize that I will receive is wine sponsored by Porcupine Ridge and Wolftrap Wines. I’m an alcoholic and addict in recovery so I can’t drink the wine myself, which makes it the perfect thing for me to add to my #KaboutjieTopFan hamper giveaways. It is quite fitting for me to give it back to my fans since so many fans voted for me.

Thank you to everyone that voted, I really appreciate it.

 

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December Date With Hubby

Going on a date once a month is something that my husband and I started in 2022 to help get our marriage back on track. It has been wonderful spending quality time alone with my husband and it has been very beneficial for us.

In December we went to Deli On Main in Dwarskersbos for breakfast. Click here to read my Deli On Main review.

 

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December Birthdays

We celebrated my son’s 9th birthday and my father in law’s birthday in December by gong to the River Market Restaurant in Velddrif. It was our second visit there and we loved it so much that my son chose it as his number one choice for his birthday lunch.

I thought I wrote a review on it after our first visit but when I wanted to share the review I realised that I shared pictures on social media but writing the review on my website had completely slipped my mind. I’ve now written my review, you can read it here.

Throwing a birthday party for my son is a bit tricky each year since his birthday is on the 20th December. I usually organise a birthday party for him in mid November which is long before his birthday, but it means that all his friends are around since the Christmas holidays have not yet begun, it also means it is before all the school end of year madness begins.

This year I held his birthday party on Saturday 03 December and oh my word was that a mistake! The party was amazing, but it was the day after his Grade 3 farewell event, it was also the day after my daughter’s last exam and I always like to take the kids out for a milkshake after school on the day exams finished. I really put myself under a lot of pressure this year.

I found myself sitting at the Wimpy writing shopping list for the birthday party while the kids drank milkshakes. It was less than 24 hours until the birthday party and I was making a shopping list. I only managed to start baking for the birthday party at 6pm. I was beyond bombed, but I managed to make a cake, chocolate muffins, blueberry muffins, a strawberry cheesecake, and a lemon meringue pie before I went to bed at midnight. In the morning I popped some frozen sausage rolls into the oven and made a fruit platter.

The party was awesome and the kids loved playing the chocolate game as always and I even managed to make a video of it and wrote a post on my website sharing how the chocolate game works.

End Of School Year

Every year I feel burnt out when the last term of school hits. This year was slightly better than other years because I made sure to remind myself at the end of the third term to rest and be as organised as possible. It helped a lot but it did not prevent me feeling exhausted.

The exams, assessments, prize giving ceremonies, end of year class parties, teachers gifts, and more really take it out of me. In addition to that both my kids have their birthdays during that time so I have to arrange birthday parties for them.

 

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Beautiful Dress From Amazon

I am beyond pleased with the dress I bought from Amazon and it is now my to favourite dress. Funny thing is that I ordered the wrong colour but I think it worked out better than if I had ordered the correct one. I had a few of these dresses in my Amazon wish list – the same dress but different prints.

My plan was to order a pink one but instead I ordered the beige one by mistake. I was not sure if the beige one would suit me but it does. I bought the dress from money earned through completing surveys, playing games and referring others to Ysense. Check out my Ysense review. And click here to sign up for Ysense.

I will be publishing a review on the dress soon, in the meantime check it out on Amazon.

 

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Quiet Christmas With Family

We had a fantastic festive season. My family got together at my parent’s farm. My older sister and nephew came from UK, and my younger sister came from Cape Town. The last time we were all together was in February 2020 and my sister and nephew only just managed to get home when the pandemic hit and the world went into lockdown.

Christmas was very lowkey and we all only bought gifts for the children. It is the first year we have done this and it really took the pressure off and kept the expenses down. I detest that feeling of going shopping when it is so busy and hunting for a gift for someone for the sake of buying a gift and not being able to find something suitable. It feels so pointless.

I was asked to bring the Christmas tree and decorations to the farm… and I forgot #Facepalm. However, it worked out beautifully since we decided to put the gifts under the tree by the braai area. It was our best Christmas tree ever.

 

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After Christmas my sisters, kids and I traveled to Cape Town for a few days and we hooked up with some long time friends for a braai. It was fantastic seeing them all again after such a long time. These are friends I’ve had for many years, the earliest since 1985 and others since about 1993. They are all the same amazing people, just grey and with wrinkles.

I hope you all had a fantastic festive season, and that 2023 brings you great things.

Current Coupon Codes

• Get 10% off your FYI play it safe subscription using my coupon code kaboutjie
• Get 10% off keepsake jewellery by Megan Goldner Designs using coupon code mgd&kaboutjie
• Get 50% off my addiction ebook The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn using coupon code TG36N

Win A Pamper Hamper

This hamper includes the following items:

• Journal from The Papery
• Happy Event firming cream
• Hada Labo deep wrinkle corrector eye & mouth area cream
• Therific Ideas Mai-Thaim Protea & Fynbos magnesium sulphate bath salts
• Sorbet feed me fabulous intense treatment for hair
• Oh So Heavenly foam bath
• Cadbury Chocolate – Fruit & Nut, Rum & Raisin and Biscuit slabs
• Nuttikrust biscuits
• Hug In A Mug Hazelnut Cappuccino
• Durbanville Hills merlot
• Clicks detoxifying Charcoal peel-off face mask
• Yardley Stayfast nail polish – colour Rebellious Rose

Steps To Follow To Enter This Giveaway

Make sure to follow both steps below to enter this giveaway. The more you engage the better your chances of being chosen as my #KaboutjieTopFan for this month.

1. Enter Your Details Into The Form Below
2. Engage on Kaboutjie website

• Comment on this blog post
• Comment on at least one other blog post - the more blog posts you comment on the better your chances of winning!

This competition is open for residents of South Africa and Terms and Conditions apply.

The winner will be announced on our competitions page - this competition is open from:

06 January – 02 February 2023

This Competition Is Closed For Entries

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