Nine to Three Thirty

Advent Calendar Guide

For Those With A Sweet Tooth

haribo advent calendar

An advent calendar with something sweet inside provides a lovely daily treat as Christmas gets ever closer. This year H is enjoying his HARIBO Advent Calendar and I think he prefers it to a chocolate one. He’ll be treated to seasonal mini bags and themed jellies and he will be looking out for Santa’s boot, a red hatted reindeer and gold star topped Christmas tree!

personalised retro sweets advent calendar

The Retro Sweets Advent Calendar has 24 doors and behind each is a different old school sweet including Refreshers, Love Hearts and more! It really is the perfect alternative to your classic chocolate advent calendar and can even be personalised with a name of your choice for an extra special touch! – www.retro-sweet.co.uk/retro-sweet-advent-calendar.html I love the fact that I can have many of my childhood favourites in one advent.

For Beauty Fans

The 2018 Amazon Beauty Advent Calendar is great value as it contains a combination of 24 products and deluxe samples from some of our most-loved beauty brands. All this for only £30 as it’s a limited edition, but it’s actually worth £195. A great chance to try new products and brands across skin care, hair care, make-up and nail care.

For Children

For a number of years H loved having a Playmobil Advent Calendar. This year’s offering looks particularly exciting. It features the ever popular pirate theme, but I love that it includes a glowing pirate figure and firing cannon. You can create your own Treasure Island scene complete with a chest, row-boat and barrel to use as a table for the maps.

For Gin Lovers

It’s good to have a fun advent calendar and here’s one for gin lovers. I love that this contains 24 Bottles of beautifully made, Craft Gin. Certainly one to savour and enjoy in the evening after a long day.

Win A HARIBO Snuggle Pod Worth £250

HARIBO Snuggle Pod

In our house HARIBO always goes down very well. Like most kids H has been a fan since a very early age. He’s very partial to a packet of HARIBO’s Supermix in particular. HARIBO have now unveiled an even creamier, soft, smooth and squishy HARIBO Supermix!

To celebrate the new even creamier mix of tasty pieces which now feature in HARIBO’s Supermix, HARIBO have created a bespoke HARIBO snuggle pod worth £250 which brings to life the comforting feelings that come with enjoying the new mix. Just like Supermix, the snuggle pod brings to life the comforting feelings that the new, creamier treats provide and offers the perfect opportunity for a #SupermixMoment of comfort. We’ve teamed up with them to offer one to readers in our latest competition. Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Supermix now boasts vibrant colours and creamier flavours; experience the new lemon meringue and peach flavoured Little Jelly Men and delicious vanilla in the Sheep and Ice-Cream treats. You can also enjoy popular raspberry, blackcurrant and apple flavours, in vibrant pink, purple and green colours.

For more details about HARIBO Supermix and the rest of the range, please visit www.haribo.co.uk.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter.

5. Competition closes on 31st December 2018.
HARIBO Snuggle Pod

Tween Boys Gift Guide

Buying for younger children is relatively easy I find, but as they get older it does become more difficult to pick out the right thing. It’s got more tricky as my tween boy has grown as some of the easy present options of earlier years are now a bit old hat and he does need something a bit more grown up. I’ve picked out a few suggestions though that have proved popular with my tween boy for this Christmas.

maps international

H is keen to make his new room look as good as possible now that it has been redecorated. We have recently added this great looking map from Maps International to decorate his room. It provides a good-looking focal point with its different colours. It comes in a smart black frame and is ready to hang when it arrives. H is really pleased with his map because it does look so good on his wall above the fireplace. I like the fact that it can help him with his homework and his knowledge of the world. It also has the flags of the world underneath the map, so there’s a lot of information available there. Maps International have a great range of both maps and frames to choose from, so you should be able to find the right one for you.

tween boys gift guide

We like to have something we can do together as a family in the stocking at Christmas. We’ve had a lot of fun in the past doing a Treasure Trail. A little while back we did one with some friends which was called the Tipton Slasher. The kids had great fun tracking down the answers to the questions asked along the way and we got to explore a local town that we didn’t know much about. It’s great that you can just print it out yourself if you want as a last minute gift (although you can have it printed and sent to you or you can opt for a personalisation option).

nerf guns

Nerf guns have been so popular over the years, but the darts get everywhere. H has been enjoying these new Nerf Laser Ops Pro Alphapoint guns. As a parent they are a game changer because there are no darts! H loves them too because he can track his performance in a fire fight on his phone, but you can use them without a phone too. We have been taking with us when we have visited friends and they have been a major hit. And once again with no darts to worry about, you don’t have to try to find them and pick them up before you leave. H has now got his eye on some of the other guns in the range.

learning to drive

Last year I gave H a Young Driver lesson for Christmas and it was a big hit. An experience based present like this doesn’t clutter up your house and provides lasting memories. In this case because it helps to develop an important life skill too, it’s especially valuable. I love that H has a greater appreciation of what is involved with driving (much more than he thought) and I think it will be good to do more lessons as he gets ever closer to the age when he can think about taking lessons on the roads. You can read my full review of one of H’s Young Driver lessons here.

Neuro Rest Review

I started taking Neuro Rest during a particularly bad week. I’d been under a lot of stress the previous week because my mother had been quite ill (now improving) and then before I’d got over that, one of my cats became ill and died. Most nights I was waking up at 4am and I was struggling to get back to sleep after that. So I was in need of a bit of help and I hoped that Neuro Rest would provide it.

neurorest sleep supplement Neuro Rest is a natural supplement that has been developed by doctors, biochemists and expert nutritionists. It’s nice to think I’m using a natural product that’s full of whole food and plant extracts – I prefer that to taking something artificial. Neuro Rest has magnesium, L-Tryptophan, L-Tryptophan, 5-HTP (from Griffonia seeds), Montmorency cherries, Grape skin, Watermelon, Chamomile, L-Taurine and Biotin. This combination of ingredients calms and relaxes you whilst giving your body the signals it needs to get you into a better sleep pattern.

The first night I took a single capsule (you are advised to start with 1 a day for 4 days) about half an hour before I planned to turn my light out. I’ve never had real problems getting to sleep at night, in fact I’m often asleep pretty much as soon as I hit the pillow, so I wasn’t expecting a great effect at that point in the night. What I did experience though was a real uplift in mood. I felt more positive, in a quiet, calm sort of way. Since then I’ve almost been looking forward to bedtime because the effect is so good.

In terms of sleep hours I didn’t notice any improvement the first 3 nights and I was still waking at 4ish. I did manage to drift off again all 3 mornings, so that was good and a bit unusual for me as I usually find that tough. I did feel though that sleep quality had improved as I woke up feeling fresher, but it was a fairly slight improvement. On day 4 I slept through till nearly 6, which was a nice 8 hour sleep for me.

Day 5 saw me upping my dose to two tablets. I didn’t really notice any difference (between taking one and two tablets) before bedtime. I did wake once during the night, but I’m not even sure what time it was. My surviving cat was wailing (he’s done this a lot since his friend died) and I was just keen to get him quiet, so I could get back to sleep and I was asleep again pretty much straight away. Then I went through to 5.30, so a nice 7 and a half hour sleep. Day 6 was very similar although I was later to bed.

I didn’t notice any extra benefit to taking two tablets a day, so after trying it for a few days, I dropped down to one and that works well for me. I find that taking it a half an hour or so before going to bed means I go to sleep in a happy mood and for me its worth taking for that alone at a very stressful time. I find that my sleep is deeper and of better quality since I’ve been taking Neuro Rest. This means I feel more rested and I have more energy during the day because of it. I have still woken up in the night sometimes, partly because of wailing cat problems (it’s been a few weeks now and I’m not sure how to get him to stop and he might need to spend some nights in the kitchen). When I wake earlier than I would like though, I find that either I feel I’ve had enough sleep or I get back to sleep pretty quickly.

I’m impressed by Neuro Rest and I’m planning to buy more when my bottle runs out. I’m also considering trying Neuro Focus Plus, also from Utmost Me, to help me during the daytime.

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