So Christmas is looming and while we make most of our gifts and totally believe that gifts should be home made from the heart we do like to shop and buy a couple of little things.
This past week was our week for Christmas shopping… we actually do have a plan! I always try and do our shopping the week before schools actually close for the year because it reduces the crowds significantly – a definite bonus to home schooling!!!
- Noordhoek Village Well we started our shopping last week at Noordhoek farm Village. Got what we were after in about 30 seconds, but had to look and ooh and ahh.
And smell the flowers.
And play.
And have some coffee, and I am not one to say no thank-you to whatever goes with the coffee.
- The Waterfront: Now the Waterfront is a very popular place for Christmas shopping – who knows why!!! It has heaps of the most expensive shops in Cape town and markets packed with lovely goodies for the rich and famous, and did I mention shops as far as the eye can see… and I can honestly say we went there we browsed there and we stopped for essential refreshments.
Did you for instance even know there was such a thing as a Haagen Dazs store – I didn’t and I feel quite educated now.
Also the reason no-one else is in the store, apart from the fact that it was close to ten o’clock at night (I know what on earth was I thinking – fun folks – there is nothing as exciting as a night time outing and since it is summer here we have to wait quite late for the dark!!!) is that this ice-cream is not free, it is not even cheap – but it is value for money!!!
- The Reader’s Warehouse: I know I should have blogged about this place so many times and I haven’t – seriously if you live in Cape Town and you haven’t been here yet then you haven’t lived. You can get books galore, great books, current books, just released books for between twenty and thirty rands (think $2. – $3. – the dollar store of all book shops).
My kids totally love this store we always buy a load of books. And my little kids who had never seen a play pen in their lives before think it is the most brilliant cage and leap in and play “zoo”… what can I say a parenting trick I should have taken care of before – then again it wouldn’t be such a novelty!!! Wouldn’t you like to live in such a bright funky place and wouldn’t I love some of their nice colorful posters for our Book Nook.
I firmly believe in a book for Christmas and was able to get one for every child for less than R150 (about $15) – total!!! I know I am satisfied. And then we stopped for breakfast and custard croissants to sustain us!
- Hart’s Nursery: Now some of the gifts we are making need herb and vegetable plant supplies and our favorite nursery for these is Hart’s, by far:
And then we had to stop of for ice-lollies, because one must. Not to mention this is my December catering. I pack the freezer with them and when we have guests that’s our snack. Catering problem solved!!!
- The Market: There are a lot of local craft markets and they are all especially active at Christmas time but I still can’t resist our local market which is brilliant for fresh goodies and especially vegetables that we are planning to use for a lot of our gifts.
Luckily there is plenty to eat and snack on at the market, not to mention the prettiest cup cakes and fudge… the kind of place we are all set to shop at!!!
- LongBeach Mall: Finally we decided on Friday night to do our last bits and pieces of shopping at the local mall. There are two shops there that we totally love:
The Craft Market is full of lovely goodies that my kids love picking out and the Feel Good Bazaar is felt heaven – all sorts of yummy bright gorgeous little felt finds. But just two weeks before Christmas on Friday night all the shops were shut! I guess I am missing something here!!! So we ended up at our local super market buying essential supplies: glitter for life, tiny balloons for mini-pinatas, glue sticks – you know essential Christmas shopping. But let me explain this was not the outing we were anticipating and things were a little bit glum… all the anticipation of a night out was very soon descending into a mini-monthly shop…
So we dashed home … and beyond (!) to our favorite haunt – Kalk Bay, which was of course “happening” on a Friday night.
There is a new restaurant we have been wanting to try: “The Home of pancakes and waffles.”
Be patient, the staff are friendly, the patrons worth watching and the food when it finally arrives is excellent!!!
- Chart Farm: This is traditionally our last minute shop an outing and a dash for fresh flowers (our grannies love them)…
Not to mention they have cherries this time of year and there are few things that say Christmas better than a bowl of fresh cherries.
And our Christmas shopping is totally done – one last stop just before Christmas and that will be:
This post was meant to be our Christmas shopping post, but then you must know that I am not a natural shopper… I just can’t love shopping! I discovered this week that we are far better at restauranteering than Christmas shopping. Turns out this post was all about feasting as we leapt from one shopping experience to another! Not to mention, fun as it has been, thank-goodness our shopping is over and we can stay home and collapse now!!!
WOW! I’m always so impressed that you get out and do so much with your crew… sometimes I get overwhelmed just going to the post office with my wee ones… and we don’t even THINK about taking everyone out to eat out!!!! Looks like some FUN TIMES. That BOOK NOOK is fantastic. CHEERS!!!!!
Hi K-M, Lovely to hear from you as usual, you are always so positive!!! We had a great week of feasting and i think that was our eating out quota for the next year or two!!! We sure had fun and we love eating out… There is no reason not to take kids out – I tell you they are a lot better behaved than most adults!!! I guess it never occurred to us not to take them with us everywhere until we already had and trust me it is a whole lot easier than trying to find a baby sitter for eight!!! Just trust me on that!!! Lots of love and I hope you are having lots of pre-Christmas fun!!!
wow that book store would be my down fall!! but then again our local library book store is definitely my favorite place to shop — books the library no longer wants for .10 cents to a few dollars, including books on tape, cd’s, magazines — the choices are wonderful! and i bring them home and place a large smiley face sticker over the Dewey decimal sticker so i know not to return them with our normal library books!
i’ll admit to owning a play-pen at one point in time if only for the fact that it was a wonderful place to put the christmas tree to protect it from the pets and the children 🙂
Hi G, Now who would have thought a playpen for the Christmas tree!!! The closest we ever got to a play pen or any baby paraphernalia was a baby camp cot because both grannies refused to believe that our baby would sleep in our bed (they should see our bed now!!!) and we kept the groceries in it when we moved house and otherwise it was all packed up in its bag till we sold it se7en years later… We live and learn!!! Have a great day!!!