The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

floss2

We're having goose, there will be either 4 or 6 of us and it will do Christmas dinner, Boxing Day cold cuts and butties plus stock & curry from the scraps. I will also do a piece of ham/gammon (usually in coke or ginger ale) to have on Boxing Day & cold afterwards.

When we've had beef rib joints from our local butcher, it has looked like something Fred Flintstone would eat, more of a dinosaur rib joint!

kezlou

I can't stand the OTT part of christmas myself and OH don't bother with any of that.

I hated xmas with a passion when i was child, my birthday is 3 days after xmas day. so it wasn't celebrated in the slighted, i'd be lucky if i got a card!

It was only when my children did i start to enjoy it as i promised my children where never going to feel that way. I still despise my birthday though, its just not important to me.
But he kids like to make a fuss and they make cards for me. For me thats the best present ever.

As for turkeys we normally don't eat it. Instead we have to have gammon every year. Its the one meat all the menfolk like.


I bit the bullet today and bought a fold-able walking cane £16.49 inc vat, i nearly didn't buy, but then i thought no way am i ending up in a wheelchair again over winter.

So its pure black and came from the local mobility store. could of whacked OH he slapped me on the back earlier and i was in absolute agony. The idiot said oh you said your lower back, err no my whole back, if you hit one part it goes all the down you moron. He's knows i'm in agony, yet if i had touched him the whole would end.

the coffee morning went really really well, we had more people than chairs! :eek: It was so good, meeting lots of new people and putting others at ease.

Well better get food ready yet again.

Byatt

Pooky, it's £48 delivered, so not a bad price I thought having seen them nearer a £100. If you are having a few people for dinner and then Boxing Day, and as Mrs LW says, the initial outlay may seem high but when used completely, it's a pretty good price.

My mum and dad loved Xmas day, we were very poor, (play the violins :rotfl:), but they both made sure we all had a main present we wanted, and then a stocking. It was a day when there were no worries, fires were lit, lights on and everything was happy and fun. Special food treats which meant all the more because we rarely had treats. My dad would make some of the toys, my brother's fort for instance, he was up late one Xmas eve. I remember wishing that life could be like Xmas day every day, when my mum smiled a lot, no upsets and peace. They also included those that would normally be on their own, a lad who had lost his mum weeks before; a maiden "aunt", relatives. Sharing a meal for a neighbour who wanted to stay at home.

Life wasn't easy, but I have many happy memories of Xmas Day.

Shegar, no, your darling Rosie can't be replaced. She's left a Rosie shaped hole in your life.

WC, I love your posts about your life in Canada.

I don't want winter though, apart from the cold, I have to drive in bad weather for my job. Just don't have the stamina anymore.

edit: Kezlou, my DD's birthday is Xmas Eve, but I always made it very separate from Xmas day, by not putting up decorations until she had gone to bed on her birthday, and using balloons only for her birthday, so the night before I would be blwoing up dozens of them, and hanging them inside and out. Family would say is it ok to give her one present...errr, no! Others would wrap up using Xmas paper...or combine a Xmas card.

I think it's time to take your birthday back and do something special for you. You are a very kind person, so what would you do if you were a friend?

floss2

Byatt wrote: »

... My dad would make some of the toys, my brother's fort for instance, he was up late one Xmas eve.....

My dad used to make our presents - my older brothers got a fort one year, we had a zoo, and I can remember him making my younger brother a garage with a slope for the cars. He made me a dolls house too one year, it was a flat-roofed one, that slotted together.

Pooky

£48 doesn't seem much for a free range bird. I do love turkey, its one of my favourites.

We had a lot of homemade pressies, anything wooden or metal made by dad, anything knitted or sewn made by mum. One year I had a beautiful rocking crib for my baby doll (baby doll was a present when I went to have my tonsils out).... It was made of scraps but painted cream, mum had made mattress,pillows, blankets and drapes with lace edges and Dad had stenciled my dolls name on the side.....it was the best present ever.

I try to make DDs something every year that makes them smile....DD1 got a patchwork quilt made from a teletubby duvet cover last year (she was mad about them as a toddler) and this year DD2 is getting one made from a tweenies duvet cover.....silly but they do love pressies like that.

DD1 has just had a "I'm nearly 18 and I know everything" row with me......she didn't win.....I've been 18 and I did it better than she does.

Wonder collie - id love to live in temperatures like that, I always wanted to run away to live in Canada.....got a spare room?

kidcat

I am buying a turkey butterfly from Makro again this year - absolutely no wastage at all and so moist. It cost so much less than a crown yet is better value in my eyes. Costco had similar last year I seem to remember too.

I have overdone it today and am paying for it now, will need to be more careful tomorrow.

pooky I have always wanted to run away to Canada too - all those mounties:D

Pooky

Get packing then Kidkat

Mounties and snow....what more could a girl ask for (aside from some thermal undies)

Possession

My parents are doing 2 of the £3 Morrisons turkey legs for Christmas - one of them fed 6 of us easily and we're still eating the turkey soup.
I believe the turkey legs have now reverted to £4.50 each but still a pretty good deal.

mardatha

There is no way in hell I would pay £48 for a turkey! Two weeks entire food budget? never.
Agree with those who have birthdays at xmas - I never got cards as people always forget. My youngest is worse though, he was born on new years day lol.

lobbyludd

I'm between christmas and new year - as a child I would be very cross that aunts etc would get me essentially one present split across christmas and my birthday (i.e. the talc of a gift set for one, and then the bubble bath for the other) but my little brother would get a pile of token gifts from these same caring relatives on my birthday so that he didn't feel left out - as the eldest I didn't get any presents on his birthday.

It wasn't the spitting of the present across both events - I did appreciate the cash problem - it was the unfairness of my brother getting presents on my dang birthday - he'd just had christmas - I was all for letting him feel left out frankly

I generally ate his easter egg to even things out - ahh - sibling love.

not surprisingly my kids do not get presents on each other's birthdays from me and I actively discourage it from other family members - we get one birthday a year each!

I'm not actually very keen on turkey, I eat it if put in front of me, but it's not something I am that bothered about - for me it's "all the trimmings" that I enjoy.

in fact a plate of veg, roast potatoes, stuffing and gravy with bread sauce and I would be a very happy woman - no need for the main meat event, certainly couldn't justify £48 for a turkey - perhaps I've never had a decent one?