Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

Hmm - I wonder what he gave you as an early present in stockings?! According to NORAD he is in Romania now.

funny old route he takes, innit? funnily enough the dogs didn't have their stockings or the cats yet...

I should put a photo of our stockig=ngs up sometime....we made them, and they are very funny. I made dh's out of dark plum velvet and put lots of beads on it, some sequins and odd earings and a glass necklace, he made mine from pink silk, a vintage riboon and some plastic peral trim. He did sew some beads on one side but decided it was too fiddly and boring...which I'm quite pleased about, the plain side is rather lovely.

no way I'm cavorting about in the other type of stocking. I'm really cold today and am currently wrapped up in a duvet.

lostinrates

BTW...when santa DOES drop in can one of you ''thank'' him for me for the ukelele he delivered from my dad to dh....dh is watching father ted and playing ukelele fath ted theme tune and carols alternately. Not good, not good at all.

fc123

zagubov wrote: »

Merry Christmas to all posters and lurkers.

Noticed the shops weren't as bustling as usual (even Oxford Street was calmer than most years) and some shops are getting the sales notices ready for an 8AM start on Boxing Day. I can't imagine anything worse!

Unofficially, Oxford St is down 9% this year (mostly based on lost trade to Westfield, Stratford according to 'insiders' )
The Boxing day opening has got to be the worst thing ever about 'modern times retailing'. I recall when it first hit a few years back and we felt under pressure to join in.....sadly we took a lot of ££££ too despite only opening 11 - 4. This year will be our last for a while as we close our concession on 31st Dec Yippee :j Took 8 months to convince OH to move on. I have had a slight yearning to do indie retailing again but common sense prevails...so we won't.... plus just our weeny, niche webstore now does more per month than our old shop used to do. Strange how things turn out.

PasturesNew wrote: »

So, here I sit .... the world's most eligible woman .... alone and home well before 9pm.

Not many people out on the roads tonight.

Visited the old earlier.... old wasn't even awake and wouldn't waken, just curled up in a strange gnarly ball in bed with odd noisy breathing. So we ticked the stuff they'd want for Xmas dinner on those slips you get in the H places.... and left after an hour. Not going tomorrow, the old will never know., so no point dragging all the way over there to sit and stare at a sleeping person, or even an awake person that's talking nonsense.

I have no tree, no decs, there are no presents, there's not even any Xmassy food here... I think I've got 2 slices of bread in the freezer and some cheap cheddar to put on it, so I won't bother trying to feel jolly about that. At least I won't be putting on weight.

If you lived near me I would come and drag you around ours........the second post? Did you say you will be with siblings tomo or was that next week?

Generali wrote: »

Merry Christmas all. Enjoy the quiz. I plan to do a question each day.

What quiz? Is it on the main board? I don't want to miss out

And to all the NP's, happy Xmas and enjoy tomo....we are, as Miss Kool put it, on Lock Down too now. The best bit is the e-mail dies, no ping, no queries, no nothing.:)

..........and I spent the past few nights sorting photos on various sticks and cards, trotted off to a local snappy snaps to print out, got some albums + Pritt stick and did some picture books for grandmas/grandads so feeling very virtuous now.

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

BTW...when santa DOES drop in can one of you ''thank'' him for me for the ukelele he delivered from my dad to dh....dh is watching father ted and playing ukelele fath ted theme tune and carols alternately. Not good, not good at all.

Wow, a ukelele is a cool pressie My stepfather has one and taught himself to play in that George Formby stylee. He plays it at every opportunity he gets. No doubt it will appear on Boxing day at some point. He has had a couple of nasty strokes this year and is, unfortunately, having some memory issues but his ability to play his ukelele hasn't been affected

LydiaJ

Well, I have fed everybody several times today, taken everybody to the park, made kids tidy up a bit, umpired several arguments between them, packed them off to bed, & waved my dad off to church for the midnight service. I'm now grabbing a few minutes' peace, before checking whether the clothes the kids want to wear are clean - which they probably aren't - and then putting on a quick wash that takes 53 minutes. That should be enough time for me to wrap the presents, then I'll hang the washing on radiators, set the heating timer to make the radiators come on early tomorrow because the kids will get us up early, do their stockings and go to bed. Kids have been told they can get up at 5am if they want to but must not open anything other than stockings and must not wake grown-ups until 7am.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

If you lived near me I would come and drag you around ours........the second post? Did you say you will be with siblings tomo or was that next week?

With both siblings tomorrow. Eating a dinner, but nobody's mind's on it. "No presents" rule this year as there's been no time/care for shopping and jollity ... however, I now realise that I've got the shortest straw as the siblings both have lives and therefore mates.... who have bought them gifts. So I'll sit and watch them open piles of presents from their mates.... I didn't think that one through properly did I

fc123

Enjoy the midnight silence Lydia. I remember when the kids were small, bursting with excitement........mind you DD still is despite being nearly 18. She spent the day making amazing cupcakes for all the small nieces and nephews for Boxing day, with a kit I bought her. It had a pot of fine silver sparkles in it so she dusted them all then we wondered if this stuff was actually edible. We kind of assumed it was as it came in a decorating kit. I guess it can't digest properly....so all the small ones may have sparkly poo the next day.

PasturesNew wrote: »

With both siblings tomorrow. Eating a dinner, but nobody's mind's on it. "No presents" rule this year as there's been no time/care for shopping and jollity ... however, I now realise that I've got the shortest straw as the siblings both have lives and therefore mates.... who have bought them gifts. So I'll sit and watch them open piles of presents from their mates.... I didn't think that one through properly did I

awwww......enjoy the dinner. They staying over at yours?

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

With both siblings tomorrow. Eating a dinner, but nobody's mind's on it. "No presents" rule this year as there's been no time/care for shopping and jollity ... however, I now realise that I've got the shortest straw as the siblings both have lives and therefore mates.... who have bought them gifts. So I'll sit and watch them open piles of presents from their mates.... I didn't think that one through properly did I

My siblings keep trying to have a "presents only for the kids not the grown-ups" rule and never seem to notice that us single people don't get any from partners so might appreciate them from siblings. Still, this year my kids have got me some things with a bit of help from my dad. Will be thinking of you tomorrow, Pastures.

SingleSue

Well that is 100 mince pies done and the cake in the oven (will come out at 2.30 eek!).....taking it easy, Sue style.

Think I got a second wind today, I almost collapsed in Lidls earlier and felt really awful and needed the wheelchair to complete the rest of the day but have perked up this evening. The mince pies did take me longer to do than usual though as I was resting up in between (and watching Merlin, Eastie etc) and generally not doing my usual 2 hours of intensive baking with no breaks.

GDB2222

Well, Happy Christmas to all the NP.