As we creep ever closer to the end of 2009, I thought it would be nice to note down for posterity some of my highpoints of the year. And to make it more fun, I thought I’d turn it into a game and get some of my blogging friends to share their best bits from the year too by starting The High-5 Meme. So here are some of my potted highlights from this year.

#downingtweet
Being invited to Downing Street scores pretty highly in the highlights of my life, never mind my year, so the Downing Tweet Christmas Party is this year’s runaway winner. We’ve already blogged about it in detail, but the main reasons why it made my year were because it provided the perfect excuse to go shopping and pamper myself (with no expense spared!), I spent my first ever night away from my children in a swanky London hotel (and they survived 24 hours without me, which means I can do it again!), I met the Prime Mininster, his lovely wife and loads of other inspiring people, and I got to order a full English Breakfast from Room Service!

The Twilight Saga
I love books and this year I was thrilled to discover Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga which provided me with 4 stonking good reads! Bella, Jacob, Edward and the rest of the Cullen family have been my companions throughout much of this year, and accounted for a large proportion of my ‘me-time’. Once I’d read the first installment I was equally excited to watch the film, and I’m just as excited about watching New Moon next year when it comes out on DVD.

My ‘Fry’ Tweet
Another high point which has already been documented on the blog is the day I got a tweet from Stephen Fry. Twitter has, without a doubt, opened up a whole new world to us this year, and many of this year’s highs wouldn’t have come about without it. So to say I’m excited about what next year will bring is a bit of an understatement! 

Northern Ballet Theatre’s Wuthering Heights
I went to my first ever ballet back in May. As I knew (and loved) the story of Wuthering Heights so much I thought it might be a good introduction, as I would be able to follow the storyline regardless.  But to my amazement I loved the dancing more than I ever thought I would. The whole production was spellbinding, the dancer who played Heathcliff was sheer perfection, and I spent the entire performance utterly enthralled. A complete joy from start to finish!

Mum’s The Boss 1st Birthday
This was a high point for so many reasons. Firstly it was a measure of our achievement – we had actually kept going for a whole year! It was also a good yardstick on which to measure how far we had come, from our humble beginnings with just 6 of us meeting in cafe twelve months before. Our birthday meeting was the busiest one yet (complete with a specially commissioned birthday cake topper!) and provided the perfect ‘good news’ story for us to generate some fantastic local PR about the group.

Closely missing out on the Top 5, but still well worthy of a mention are:

Joining the RSPB – this is a bit of a strange one but back in the summer we went along to our local RSPB reserve at Sandy Lodge for a walk in the woods. We absolutely fell in love with the place, so much so that we took out a family membership for the year. It was quiet, tranquil and so, so beautiful. But more than that it was a totally safe, open space in which the girls could run around and explore. Often when you take toddlers and young children out for the day you are so preoccupied with the potential dangers of traffic, water, heights etc that you cannot relax yourself. But in the RSPB woodland (or The Forest as my girls call it) they are free to be inquisitive children, and we can relax and enjoy ourselves too.

2009 Mumpreneur Conference – this was such a happy, positive day, as well as an opportunity to meet face to face loads of the people we were following on Twitter, and make some really helpful connections. Working for yourself can be a lonely experience, but to meet so many other mums, all busy making their own businesses a sucess, really highlighted to me that even when I’m on my own, I’m not alone. Can’t wait for next years Conference on 18th September!

Discovering Mojitos – like a dripping tap I kept hearing mention of this cocktail throughout the year but had no idea what it was. After 4 fairly sober years where I had either been pregnant or breastfeeding, 2009 was the year when I rediscovered alcohol! And thanks to some really glowing recommendations I finally tried my first Mojito in December – and I fear I may now be ruined forever!

My KitchenAid Artisan mixer – it is a fact universally acknowledged that I like baking, and eating, cake. So when Father Christmas kindly brought me my very own KitchenAid mixer – in Boysenberry (which is a blackcurrantly/purple shade to you and me) – my first thought was ”more cake baking!” My favourite celebrity chef is, without doubt, Nigella Lawson, and when I first saw her using her KitchenAid mixer I just knew I had to have one. So to christen my mixer (who I think I shall name Boycie!!) I will be making Nigella’s Chocolate Guiness Cake. Nom nom.

So now, after my trip down memory lane, I am going to pass on the baton to 5 of my blogging buddies - Sandy at Baby Baby, Natalie at Bambino Goodies & Self-employed Mum, Josie at Sleep is for the Weak, Wendy over at The Life of Wendy Wife and Liz at Living with Kids. Ladies, will you share with everyone your High 5 of 2009 and then tag 5 of your pals so they can do the same?

Popularity: 18% [?]

When I was young, as soon as the Christmas festivities were over, I was made to write thank you letters.  Whilst still around, thank you letters are becoming less common and are more likely to be replaced with an email, text or phone call. But despite the change in appearance the sentiment is still there – the importance of thanking people and showing your appreciation. So, in keeping with advances in technology this is our Thank You blog to all the many people who have helped Mum’s The Boss this year.

I never cease to be amazed at the kindness and generosity of people I have never met.  In the last year I have lost count of the people who have given their time freely, just to help us and give advice. This help has come in many guises, the first of which was an incredible show of faith in us and our idea. This was a real ‘gift’, with no strings attached, of £400 from somebody completely unknown to us, who lived in a town miles away. We allocated the money to cover the cost of our crèche provision for the year, but in the end it was that money that papered over the cracks in our cashflow and without it I can’t say we’d be here today.

The list of other people to thank is enormous, but included in this are all our fantastic speakers who gave their time completely free of charge to help, encourage, inspire and support others. There are also all  the professionals and other business people who have given their time to us on a personal level in the development of Mum’s the Boss. And we really ought to mention our supportive other halves at home who have lived all our highs and lows and put up with long telephone conversations and been in charge of babysitting duties so we could have our evening meetings! 

We had enormous support for the business raffle we held in conjunction with out start-up events in September, and were astonished at how generous people were, both those we know and have met, but also our many Twitter friends. The prizes peopled donated were not just physical items - for many the prize involved giving their time. This is something that as working mums we are all short of, and we realise not only how precious that time is, but also how much of an impact a 1:1 with someone is. A good conversation is worth countless books, articles and programmes on business.

We are also grateful to all the authors who have given us books for our book library, and all the discounts and offers that have been forthcoming in response to our  “we are a worthy cause but poor” emails.  It has been necessary for us to bargain and barter, but is not something which we take lightly, and only ever do so for the furtherment of the group. In the ever increasingly fast-paced world in which we live, it is heart-warming to know there are still so many people willing to help, to give of their time and encouragement and have faith in the ideas and visions of others.  

When we wrote to our benefactor, thanking her again for her generosity, she told us that, at the start of her career, someone had given her a sum of money, so she was just paying it forward. So we have agreed, as a thank you to her, to do the same one day to someone else starting out on their business journey. We just hope it won’t be too far into 2010 before we will be in a position to pass on some the kindness we have been shown throughout this year.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I find New Year a strange mix of emotions - a time of reflection on the year just ending and the promise and potential of the year to come.  7 years ago I started a little personal tradition of writing myself a letter on New Year’s Eve. I have usually started to think about this in the weeks leading up to New Year, as I open the one from the previous year just after Christmas. I tend to forget over the course of the year what I have written, and it is lovely to open the envelope and rediscover what I had hoped for.  It is a lovely way of reflecting on the different aspects of the year and noting what has happened as hoped for, but also that which hadn’t been expected or planned.

So, what do I write about?  It is usually a mixture of hopes, wishes and goals, which relate to me, my friends and family and my work life. Since I have started doing this there has always been at least 1 and sometimes up to 5 new babies expected in the coming year, and so their safe arrival is something which always features. However on a couple of occasions I get to New Years Eve and we have had new babies born which were not even known about at the time of writing!

I always like to reflect on my personal relationships with those closest to me and think about how they can be maintained or improved. However, sometimes the letter has included a resolution to be stronger and cut ties with relationships which are not so positive.

Since being a mum my working life has been very varied, very eclectic and almost constantly changing so I always tend to give myself at least a general direction, or vague guidance about where I would like to be with regard to work by the end of the following year. For example last year I made the decision that I would stop working in the evenings as it no longer fitted in with family life.

I have found my annual letter a really helpful way for me to deal with some of the bigger and more emotional hurdles.  When I wrote my first letter my mum was terminally ill, so I made a wish about how those last few months would be. The following year I wrote “……and I hope that the pain of losing my mum will not be so raw every day and we all learn, not to forget,  but just miss her less”. More recently mentions of my mum have been to do with how I think she would feel about my life, or how I am going to ensure my children learn about the Gran they never knew.

I also write about the small, the practical and the more mundane things – like repaint the hall, tidy the front garden and remember to put the bins out on the right day! Very often different things can be related to each other - so ‘get a better paid job’ will also help with ‘have a family holiday abroad’ and my ‘not working in the evenings’ also had a positive effect on ‘spend more time with husband’.

The idea of the letter is not to be a list of ‘New Years resolutions’ (which are likely to be forgotten and broken by January!).  It is more a series of reflections and feelings,  a purely personal dialogue, and one which I don’t want to see pinned on a wall or shared with anyone. Many of the things I hope and wish for I have no control over - they either will happen or not. Other times they are things I can control, and if they continue to be important to me then I am likely to achieve them. Sometimes the letter has been a list, sometimes a couple of paragraphs and other years it may be a few pages.  As it is purely private and personal there is no pressure on its appearance or grammatical accuracy…..it is more a stream of consciousness.

So right now I am looking forward to reading last year’s letter to myself to see what I managed to achieve and to see how far I’ve come this year. And on New Years Eve I will be putting down on paper everything I want to improve and would like to achieve in 2010, no doubt accompanied by a nice glass of wine to help my letter writing flow!

Popularity: 5% [?]

We are delighted to be hosting our very first Carnival on a subject very close to our hearts – baking! We asked you to send us links to recipes for some of your favourite festive cakes, biscuits and puddings and we have had some scrumptious entries which we will definitely be trying out ourselves. And so without further ado, we are pleased to introduce:

The Mum’s The Boss 12 Bakes of Christmas!

Cranberries are synonymous with Christmas and Mum’s The Boss member Sarah Barnes from Ivy House Interiors sent us a fabulous recipe for White Chocolate and Cranberry Christmas Cheesecake – how can you possibly resist that one?!

Wendy Mallins has shared another cranberry-inspired recipe with her Festive Rocky Road Crunch Bars – they might not look pretty, says Wendy, but what they lack in looks they more than make up for in yumminess!

There is always an abundance of chocolate around at Christmas, and if you have any going spare you could always melt some down and have a go at Sam Thewlis’  recipe for Christmas Caramel Slice, which she has provided in a traditional version and also in an allergy-free version which, incredibly, is wheat, gluten, dairy, soya and egg free!

Our recipe for Chocolate Brownies is perfect at any time of the year, but can be given a festive feel with a liberal sprinkling of icing sugar (otherwise known as snow!) – and if you’re feeling really festive, how about a holly leaf and a glace cherry too. And you don’t just have to take our word for it – Insomniac Mummy wrote a poem dedicated to these brownies on her blog! 

If Christmas Cookies are more your thing, then we have 3 cookie recipes for you to choose from. Liz Jarvis from LivingwithKids posted her favourite recipe for Annabel Karmel’s angel cut-out cookies, perfect for threading with ribbon and hanging on your Christmas Tree.

Another Mum’s the Boss member Helen Lindop from Business Plus Baby is wishing everyone a Very Biscuity Christmas by sharing a simple recipe accompanied by a touching story about the true meaning of gift-giving at Christmas.

And over at Who’s The Mummy, Sally Whittle is sharing her hilarious Christmas Baking Masterclass. While the biscuit recipe itself isn’t that important, the chaotic experience of baking with your kids will be familiar to mums (and culinary dads) everywhere!

Your Spice Rack will undoubtedly provide some of your key ingredients at Christmas, particularly spices like Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Allspice. Amanda Morison from Angels and Urchins has a wonderful recipe for Christmas Spice Muffins which contains a big teaspoon of mixed spice as well as orange and lemon zest for some extra zing, and make a lovely alternative breakfast treat, fresh from the oven.

Plus Liana Stevens from Star Bakery has shared with us a multi-purpose recipe for Gingerbread dough, which can be used to make cookies or to build a magical Gingerbread House, adorned with icing and sweeties of your choice.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a recipe for Fruit Cake and Bev Toogood from Little Sunflowers has kindly pointed us in the direction of Delicious Magazine’s How to make a Christmas Cake Guide, featuring step-by-step instructions along with the most amazing ideas for contemporary ways to decorate it.

And if you fancy trying somethng really different, how about this recipe for Baked Mincemeat Doughnuts. I am a massive fan of the BBC Good Food 101 series of cook books (I have 12 of their themed mini-sized books at the last count!) and love their magazine and website too.  So if you are ever in need of some cooking inspiration www.bbcgoodfood.com is a great place to start.

And our Twelfth Cake of Christmas was sent to us by Penny Woolf from Journey Training, and originates from one of my personal favourites, the fabulously decadent Nigella Lawson. As Penny doesn’t have a blog we have included the recipe for Chocolate Cloud Cake in it’s entirety at the end of this post, for your delectation.

So there you have it – the Mum’s The Boss 12 Bakes of Christmas. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed a recipe and we hope you will have found at least one new recipe to try out before the 25th. All that remains for us to say is have a very merry Christmas and a calorific, cake-filled 2010!

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Chocolate Cloud Cake (Serves 8-12)

Ingredients

Cake
250g dark chocolate minimum 70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, softened
6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated
175g caster sugar: 75g in the cake, 100g in whites
2 tbspns Cointreau (optional)
grated zest of an orange (optional)
23cm springform cake tin

Cream topping
500ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbspn Cointreau (optional)
half tsp unsweetened cocoa powder for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

2. Line the bottom of a 23cm Springform cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate either in a double boiler or a microwave, and then let the butter melt in the warm chocolate.

3. Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 75g caster sugar, then gently add the chocolate mixture, the Cointreau and orange zest.

4. In another bowl, whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the 100g of sugar and whisk until the whites are holding their shape but not too stiff. Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites, and then fold in the rest of the whites. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly. Cool the cake in it’s tin on a wire rack; the middle will sink as it cools.

5. When you are ready to eat, place the still tin-bound cake on a cake stand or plate for serving and carefully remove the cake from its tin. Don’t worry about cracks or rough edges: it’s the crater look we’re going for here. Whip the cream until soft and then add the vanilla and Cointreau and continue whisking until the cream is firm but not stiff. Fill the crater of the cake with the whipped cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake, and dust the top lightly with cocoa powder pushed through a tea-strainer.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Hillary Graves is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Little Dish, the first and only brand to launch a range fresh, natural food for toddlers and young children made with 100% natural ingredients and no added salt or sugar. Replicating what parents make at home in their own kitchen, Little Dish recipes are created with a paediatric dietician, and every dish is taste tested by kids.

Little Dish has been recognised with numerous prestigious awards including the Marketing Society’s ‘Best New Brand’ for SME and a short list for the IGD Outstanding Small Business. This year the company was voted by Glamour magazine as one of the top 50 places to work in the UK and also won the Bronze Practical Parenting Award for its meals range.

Hillary is married to Dean and they have two children; Monty who will soon be turning 3 and Ridley who is 7 months. Hillary is originally from the States and her area of expertise is start-up businesses and marketing to women. Before Little Dish she was Managing Director of iVillage UK; a women’s website, and before that, she was Vice-President of Marketing at iVillage.com; the no. 1 website for women in the US. She moved to the UK in 2000 and when she met Dean she decided to stay in London…

What inspired you to start your business?
I’ve always wanted to run my own business, and in 2004 I met my business partner John Stapleton, who was on the founding team of the New Covent Garden Soup Company. We’re both passionate about healthy food for kids and wanted to provide a truly healthy alternative to home cooking that parents could feel good about feeding their children. As a result, Little Dish was born in April 2006 offering busy mums something that hadn’t been available before – a fresh, nutritionally balanced meal that allowed them to feel a little less guilty when they didn’t have time to cook.

What has been your biggest challenge?
As a start-up we have faced many challenges in different aspects of the business, but two of the most significant have been finding the right suppliers and getting listings in the major multiples. My background is in marketing so I’ve focused on sales and marketing. John used to work at New Covent Garden Soup so he’s been in charge of the operational side of business, drawing on his wide experience of working with fresh food with no additives or preservatives. Our clear roles have helped the rest of the team work really well together to overcome our challenges, as have our investors who wholeheartedly support the brand and want to see it grow and reach as many kids as possible.

What have you learnt about yourself since you became a business owner?
It’s definitely challenging and a lot of hard work. As a working mother of 2 young children, you have to be extremely organised (and have a sense of humour as nothing ever goes exactly to plan!) I work 4 days a week and am also fortunate enough to be able to work from home some days, so that I can spend time with my two little ones. The key is getting a good team in place; whatever you do or make, your business is all about its people and we’re really lucky to have a brilliant team helping us fulfill our vision of feeding fresh, healthy food to as many kids as possible.

What has been the best thing about being your own boss?
Being able to develop and launch the only fresh range of children’s meals with no added salt or sugar!  The 11th April 2006 was the first day of trading for Little Dish; our meals launched on Ocado and sold out in hours. The range continued to sell out every day for a week despite increased orders. The buyer said ‘he never expected to sell so many so quickly’. Achieving distribution in the major multiples including Tesco and Waitrose has driven huge growth for the business. The fact that Little Dish is feeding 50,000 children a week and supporting a healthy lifestyle is incredibly rewarding.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring ‘mumpreneur’ what would it be?
If you have a good idea you can always realise it. Stay focused and make sure you have a good support system around you through family, friends and co-workers.

Little Dish is available to but in Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado.com. For more details visit www.littledish.co.uk

Popularity: 12% [?]

I’m meant to be working
I’ve so much to do
But the beds all need changing
And I must clean the loo

I want to be blogging
I’ve so much to say
But I’m constantly cooking
Or clearing away

I must make a phone call
But the kids won’t stop squealing
There are crumbs on the rug
And cobwebs on the ceiling

I need to start working
I’ve emails to send
But I’ve just had a text
From a newly dumped friend 

It’s toddlers nap time,
I need to get cracking
But the food’s been delivered
And the bags need unpacking.

I must cook from scratch
Something quick and delicious
Cos takeaway’s quick
But it’s hardly nutricious

I promised I’d schedule
Some ‘me time’ today
But the chances of that now
Are dwindling away

The kids are in bed now
There’s just no excuse
But I’m dead on my feet now –
Oh, what’s the use!

But admit it, you wouldn’t change it for the world!!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Around this time of year I always start thinking about New Years Resolutions. In fact part of me likes the anticipation of a fresh start that the new year brings more than Christmas itself. All too often these resolutions include things like losing weight, eating more healthily and getting more sleep. But this year lots of these resolutions relate to the business, as well as my waistline!

Having just finalised our business plan for 2010 we now have a very clear set of resolutions or goals for the coming year.  Our main goal is to expand geographically, setting up more networking groups across the country. We have one new group launching in January and two pilot groups starting in February in Leicestershire and Warwickshire. 

Another important goal is to become financially independent, as this year we have relied heavily on the generosity of sponsors to run our meetings at a low cost to our members. We are also committed to raising money for our chosen charities next year, and raising their profile as much as we can. And our final goal (which is somewhat out of our hands, but it does no harm to dream) is to win an award.

If you have goals but you keep them to yourself it is much easier to give up on them. But once you have announced them to the world it makes them very real, you become more accountable and people can give you a gentle nudge when your resolve starts to waiver.

So, to focus your mind and keep you on track next year, why not tell us your business goals for 2010. Then, this time next year we can check back in and compare notes as to what we have actually achieved!

Popularity: 4% [?]

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen’ (Bobby – age 7).  In an ideal world this would indeed be the case. One of the best  parts of Christmas can be family get togethers, however it can also be the part many of us dread.. There is an over-riding expectation that people who may not often see each other (and may not get on) will come together, eat & drink too much away from the comfort of home, and will all be happy!

By now your family visiting arrangements will have probably already been discussed, debated and decided, so whether you are looking forward with anticipation or trepidation here are a few pointers for a harmonious gathering.

Christmas and family gatherings create quite a long list of jobs to be done, so in fairness to the host, distribute the work load. Ensure that everybody helps, whether they bring prepared food,  help with laying the table, washing up or making cups of tea. Most people are more than happy to help, and even children can be given a role. It means everything gets done quicker and you don’t end up with resentment because somebody has spent all Christmas in the kitchen!

When families come together there is inevitably a large age mix, and that means that different people want different things. Try to establish separate areas of the house where people can be quiet, an area where children can play and be noisy, and a separate TV area. If you have more than 1 TV that is a bonus as there will always be a conflict of opinion of what should be on. Just as you wouldn’t expect your Great Aunt to sit through 8 hours of CBeebies you can’t expect your 3 year old to enjoy carols from Kings followed by Coronation Street! With the current technology of iplayer, recordable DVD and TV nobody needs to miss much, and at the end of the day – it’s only TV!  I remember a particularly frosty Christmas afternoon when my Gran left the table mid way through the Christmas lunch to watch Torville and Dean on Ice (tut tut)!

Just as people need some space for different activities, part of the reason for gathering is to be together and enjoy being part of a family, warts and all! Decide on a few key times when everyone will be together, like a meal time, to watch a family film, play a game or go for a walk in the park. Fresh air is a vital element in keeping the peace. Children in particular need some exercise and space to run off all the excitements and sugar from extra treats and adults are can usually benefit from a walk to counteract all the extra food and drink. Take a football and have an all age’s family game……usually a big hit with the boys of all ages!

And finally, remember why you are together. Christmas is a time of togetherness, and although there may be members of your family you don’t get on with, there is a common bond of family and once a year most differences can be tolerated for a short time. Try to focus on the positives, and spare a thought for those who can’t be with loved ones at this time of year.

Popularity: 3% [?]

We wrote a couple of weeks ago about our honour at being invited by Sarah Brown to attend the Downing Tweet Christmas Party on 4^th December. Honour quickly turned to excitement, trepidation and a full scale shopping and pampering spree the like of which neither of us had never seen before! And now the party is just a memory - but for posterity we wanted to record the event so we never forget how amazing the 10 days leading up to it, and the party itself, made us feel.

Now, I don’t know about you, but we haven’t been invited to Downing Street before. In fact we haven’t been invited to many places where we’ve needed to get really dressed up. So it’s safe to say we don’t have that many cocktail dresses hanging idly in our wardrobes, which can only mean one thing – SHOPPING! We both bought everything new – dress, shoes, undies, bags, jewellery, the lot – as nothing we had was suitable, and it was the most amazing excuse to splash out and treat ourselves. As mums we often come last when it comes to treats and me-time, but it highlighted just how important it is to treat yourself once in a while – it really is good for the soul!

The other big culture shock was the personal grooming side of things. We are both pretty low maintenance when it comes to beauty regimes – soap and water, a splash of moisteriser, and some rudimentary makeup to cover the bags under our eyes. However the week before the party we defuzzed, exfoliated and moisterised in preparation for our very first spray tans! We had our hair cut and coloured, our cuticles removed and our nails buffed and polished. And the worrying thing is - I think we both actually enjoyed being a bit girly for a change. I fear this could turn into an expensive hobby!

Last but not least we booked ourselves into a hotel for the night, so we didn’t have to travel down to London on the train in our glad rags.  This was an expensive luxury as London hotels don’t come cheap, but it proved the perfect excuse to gather together a group of other mummy tweeters, most of whom had travelled down on their own, for some pre-party drinks in the hotel bar. With safety in numbers (and a glass or two of dutch courage inside us) we were ready for our short taxi ride to No 10.

Now practically everyone in the Twittersverse who went on Friday night has already blogged about their experiences so we won’t attempt to reinvent the wheel by repeating what celebrities were there (but yes we did talk to Beverley Knight, Richard Bacon & Brian Friedman) and how amazing walking up the staircase is, looking at all the portraits of previous Prime Ministers (although it was absolutely fabulous and surreal!). Sandy at Baby Baby stayed in the same hotel as us and shared a cab with us, as well as a chat with the Prime Minister himself, so her account of events if almost identical to ours! Gigi at Mums Rock also gives a fabulous account of the night. And finally, let’s not forget the great lady herself, Sarah Brown, and her account of why she gathered us all together in the first place.

What we will tell you about though, are some of the amazing mums we met who are working tirelessly for some truly inspiring charities. @Sarah_E_Milne campaigns on behalf of Live Life Then Give Life, encouraging people to join the organ donor register, after her 5 year old son was given the gift of a bowel transplant earlier this year. This Christmas is the first time she has ever had William at home, and her story was heart-breaking and inspirational at the same time. You can follow her story about William’s second chance at life on her blog.

We also met @only1lucylocket, aka Lucy Smith, who, in 2007, founded Thomas’s Fund – a charity that provides music therapy in Northamptonshire for children and young people with life-limiting illnesses or a disability. Lucy started the fund after her own son Thomas died, aged 10, in 2004 of a life-limiting neuro-degenerative condition. His 11 year old brother Harry has the same condition and is the fund’s junior ambassador. You can find out more about the work Thomas Fund pays for and donate at www.thomassfund.org.uk 

All in all our visit to No 10 was undoubtedly one of the most exciting experiences of our lives. It was an honour to meet the Prime Minister and Sarah, as well as all the amazingly brave and giving people who work tirelessly for their own charity’s and campaigns, in addition to the Million Mums Campaign which ultimately brought us all together.  The atmosphere in the room was just so positive – there were no egos amidst the eclectic mix of bloggers, journalists, techies, campaigners, celebrities and polititians – and everyone seemed as thrilled to be there as we were.

Popularity: 4% [?]

As the list of business books we receive, read and review grows, what I am always keen to find is something a little bit different or something written from an original angle.

The main focus of this book – Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs: How Ten Leading Business Women Turned a Good Idea into a Fortune - is, of course, the 10 successful female entrepreneurs in the title. However the book does not use a traditional ‘biographical’ approach to their stories. Sue has set out ‘Seven Steps to Success’ which start with ‘The defining Moment’ and finishes with ‘Maintain fitness and focus’ and ‘Reach your goal – what next?’.

The reason for this Sue explains in the introduction;

These steps focus more upon the softer issues related to motivation and mindset ………..There are already many good business books which offer advice on how to write a business plan or create a marketing strategy – but not many that actually model people making a difference

By applying the same set of criteria to each woman’s business journey you get a consistency which allows for comparisons and a contrast of approaches and key situations in a range of businesses. Not surprisingly there are some consistencies throughout the different women; how hard work it is, the sacrifice of personal time, the need to persevere in all circumstance, and the central role of money, and in particular cash flow in business.

Each woman gives some tips at the end of their chapter, and these are usually very reflective of their own personal journey and key things they have learnt along the way. The final chapter takes you through the Seven steps, and how to apply them to your own business.

An interesting book, and despite being relatively short, an informative one which does not leave you feeling inadequate by virtue of being ‘in awe’ of what these women have achieved, just a little wiser as to how they got there.

Popularity: 5% [?]

As you know, cake is very important at Mum’s the Boss. We like baking it, decorating it, eating it and blogging about it! And what better time to get excited about cake than at Christmas!

So we have decided to host a Christmas Baking Carnival. The idea is, you post a blog about a favourite festive cake or biscuit, including the recipe, and then the week before Christmas we will put them all together, so we hopefully end up with our very own Twelve Cakes of Christmas!

Email us the link to your Cake post at info@mumstheboss.co.uk by Sunday 20th December. If you don’t have a blog but would like to contribute a recipe then please leave your offering in the Comments section after this post. Then on 21st December we will publish your posts, so that everyone has a few baking days to try out any recipes that take their fancy.

My mouth is literally watering at the prospect!!!

Popularity: 12% [?]

I don’t know about you, but Christmas seems to have become a huge retail opportunity and December seems to have been overtaken by school plays, parties and shopping for endless presents, cards and food.  Plus the hype starts so early these days, with shops & TV adverts advertising Christmas months in advance. Some years you can arrive at the big day itself totally exhausted, and glad it’s almost all over!

So, how can you counteract all this and rekindle the spirit of Christmas? Christmas means different things to different people, so first of all it’s worth just spending a little time reflecting on what makes it special to you, so that you can recapture that which lies at the heart of the celebration.  Start, or reintroduce, some family traditions which will help you ‘signpost’ Christmas and help make the focus not the presents or the shopping, but the things you do with family & friends. Here are some of mine:-

Writing Christmas cards is one of the bigger tasks, but also one I find really enjoyable. There are many different categories of people who I send to – friends, family, colleagues etc, some of whom the annual Christmas card is our only contact of the year. However it is still important as it is a way of staying connected, of letting people know they are in your thoughts, and a chance to let them know all the important things which have happened in your life in the past year.  Rather than avoid this ‘task’ or do it all in one go,  why not pour yourself a drink and aim to do few each night. Think about why you are sending a card to that person and include a special personal message – so much nicer than a mass produced round robin or just your name. The added bonus is a short period of sitting will help you relax in what is a manic month. If you print your address labels this also makes the task shorter and easier.

I love Christmas trees, and decorating a real tree is one of my favourite jobs. Since having the children we have always done this one evening when they are in bed, and part of the excitement is to bring them down the next morning and show them the tree with its lights on in the still dark lounge. We also buy each of our children a new Christmas decoration each year, so they love trying to find the new decoration hidden in the branches. This is an idea I read about a few years ago, and the reasoning is when your children leave home you can present them with a box of decorations to have on their first tree.

Christmas Eve is a really key time for us, and we always go to church to watch the Sunday school nativity. It is something which I have pursuaded my friends to try doing with their families as well. You don’t have to be a church goer, and most churches are welcoming of everybody. It is a lovely way to spend an hour with candles and carols and hearing the story of the first Christmas.

For me Christmas spirit is also about great smells and tastes and an excuse to cook and bake even more than normal! Simply baking some gingerbread cookies, making a pan of mulled wine or warming some mince pies to have with a hot chocolate, all creates lovely rich flavours and aromas which help you feel Christmassy. Lighting a cinnamon spiced candle and putting on a Christmas CD all adds to the atmosphere.

It is very hard when you are so busy to find time just to stop and enjoy and feel, but even if you can find 5 minutes each day to do/smell/think/feel the Christmas Spirit it will make the whole experience more enjoyable and bring back some of the magic that came so naturally when we were children.

Popularity: 4% [?]