*Stop The Cavalry* It's The 2014 Christmas Chatter Thread

PenguinOfDeath

I have managed to not spend on Amazon BF, but I have got OH to get himself something for his hobby half price, and a box set that's on my wish list cheap :j

FeistyFidget

newthrift wrote: »

Feisty – Fantastic bargins!!!! Much like MrsI I used to feel I was a good bargin hunter until I came on here!! Have got some good ideas for planning Christmas presents next year and making it cheaper though!!
GTQ – Whoop holidays are coming!
MrsM – I watched that too, it was really good. I think I missed the very beginning, also not sure what it was called I’m afraid!
Ruth – Ooo looking forward to seeing the pictures of the Christmas organiser.
Pixtotts – Will be nice for your Gran to have the tree up and how nice that you are all so lovely and helping!!

I finished wrapping basically all the Christmas presents on Saturday as planned :T Just need to get 4 gift bags for the cookies and fudge which are for aunts&uncles plus one with a candle and drawer fresheners in for my cousin (she always gets me a little something so this year I am organised and picked her the bits up in Sains sale bit ago). My brain has already begun thinking about what I could do next year for gifts - I must remember we have a year of birthdays yet :rotfl: I am off work on Wednesday and plan to get up in good time to decorate our Christmas cake and finish or at least make a good start on one of the cakes I am doing for others, will marzipan both tomorrow night.
Still not 100 sure what to do on our one and I have an idea what to do on the other....luckily I know what i'm doing on the other 3 which I will do later in Dec! Also I am booked off work Monday which I will be having my hair trimmed and then doing all my Christmas decs up :T:j

I forgot to feed my cake last week :mad: and I'm slightly confused about the icing! The good house keeping recipe has said not to marzipan until a few days before Christmas? I see lots of lovelies have already started and although I want to wait until December, I also don't want it all to be a mad rush and make myself ill again. Any advice would be gratefully received! :beer:

mandco wrote: »

I would advise giving yourself a little more time than you think you'll need to get there depending on time of day as traffic can be awful and the one way system can be a pain if you want to go into the town centre. Not a huge amount of shops but the xmas market has just started so hopefully you'll find some inspiration.
Goodluck to your sister
hope things go ok for your uncle
Sorry things are worse for your nan

Pinksteps I'm browsing the deals but have a list of things I'm after and will be buying anyway so if can get a decent deal on any of those great otherwise if its not on the list I'm not buying no matter how good a "bargain"

picked up some of the 1/2 price choc and the rocky road house kit at the weekend so that's a few more bits off the list.

Do you have a link to these rocky road house kits? I've scoured the net and can't find them and they sound so up my street!

princesskitty29 wrote: »

Hi all, long time no 'see'! :santa2: I've been a very busy Christmas Fairy recently and haven't had time to post or catch up i'm afraid!

First of all I don't want to dredge up past disagreements but I just wanted to say sorry for causing bad feeling on our lovely thread a little while ago, as someone said I was just using you guys as a sounding board. Being a mum for the first time is tough not to mention mind-boggling and i'm just trying to muddle my way through. I will try to stick to chatting just about Christmas now!

My Christmas update: I've bought most of my presents now but don't have much time to wrap them so the ones who get wrapped presents will be the lucky ones! I've tuned my radio into Smooth Xmas and put together my home-made crackers today. I bought 2 kits half price about 3 years ago and i'm finally getting around to using them! I filled them with a scratchcard and a little Lindt bear. I bought wiggle a reindeer suit and a lovely stocking with his name on it. I've bought a couple of stocking fillers for him and just need to get him a big present now. We don't want to get too much this year as he has no idea what's going on!

Anyway I must dash now, but I hope you're all ok and Christmas preparations are going well! xx

Lovely to 'see' you! No need to keep it just to Christmas chatter my lovely! As long as we all remember to respect each others opinions, we will continue to be the group that supports each other through thick and thin xxx

Well the green light seems to have been given to the radio to start with the Christmas songs (I listen to classic gold at work) loads were on yesterday and it meant that you lovely lot were in my thoughts even more than usual! xxx

mandco

fiesty I got the rocky road house kit from asda http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml?cmpid=ahc-_-ghs-d1-_-asdacom-dsk-_-hp#/product/910001448059 will have a proper look at it once I drop the kids at school and add some more info

Always_after_a_bargin

mandco wrote: »

fiesty I got the rocky road house kit from asda http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml?cmpid=ahc-_-ghs-d1-_-asdacom-dsk-_-hp#/product/910001448059 will have a proper look at it once I drop the kids at school and add some more info

That's sounds lovely. In town on Thursday so will pick one up. we are not a fan of the traditional gingerbread houses even though they look lovely. So we tend not to buy them as they only get thrown but will pick this up as I love Rocky Road. Thank you.

pixtotts

lazysheep & mandco - thanks for the Winchester info I'm quite looking forward to it now!!

Peppapig - Not at all, you feel awful saying it but I totally agree. She's totally given up, and it just makes it harder on everyone else. Problem is shes with it enough as I think she should engage filter for the sake of my Mum, I'm rather angry with her actually... lol.

FeistyFidget - Our icing usually goes on Christmas eve.... mostly because we keep putting it off until then, actually I think last year we beat the record and I did it Christmas day while mum was cooking Christmas dinner ! It was just plain white icing, with my play mobile from my advent calendar on it, I loved it though, I came up with the idea of using the characters to make make marks across it like footprints in snow, it was very simple, justified the purchase of the advent calendar though haha!
We actually haven't made one this year, or Christmas puddings...
last years -

princesskitty29 - Theres no need to apologise, and no need to stick to Christmas, I think the fact most of us are here posting year round, has made it more than just a Christmas board, don't stick to Christmas just spit it all out .

x

princesskitty29

Peppapig good idea with the B&M crackers! Don't get me wrong, it didn't take me much time! The kit came with a hat and joke and bits to tie it up with, I just had to pop the treats in the tie the ends up! It was a bargain too, 6 crackers for £1.50 in the half price sale. :money: Although of course I've ended up spending more than I would have done with the treats inside!

3forholidays your stocking sounds lovely, I love that you still use it. That's exactly why I wanted to buy wiggle a nice one - so that is lasts for years.

Thanks Feisty. I wanted to say on here actually that I bought one of Feisty's lovely papercuts for a Christening I went to and it was beautiful! It looked really lovely in the frame and was very well received. I would highly recommend!

Thanks pixtotts. I love the cake from last year, what a great idea with the footprints!

Well I've finally started on my Christmas book, The Magic of Christmas by Trisha Ashley. It's taken me months on end to read My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and whilst it's very well written and thought provoking it was a little depressing for this time of year so glad I've now moved onto something a bit lighter and in season! :xmastree:

newthrift

Afternoon Christmas Lovelies
I'm so excited for my day off tomorrow as I will be doing our Christmas cake, we like to get full use of it through December :rotfl:
feisty don't worry I forgot the other week and just did it when I remembered. With regards to icing/marzipan - Marzipan 24 hours before putting the icing on, this is so it has time to settle and the 'yellow' won't seep through to your lovely white icing. I have heard some people brush the alcohol they have been feeding it with over the marzipan also at this point. Then the following day warm up some apricot jam (or something similar) and brush over, then on goes the icing! Don't worry about waiting until just before Christmas, it will just be 'fresher'. Just store it in a box and not an airtight container (otherwise the icing will go sticky which is lovely but messy )
If you are using Royal Icing instead of roll icing you can just do the marzipan and royal icing the same day I just do a little bit of royal icing for the writing and around the bottom of the cake to cover up the join to cake board. I always do our cake the end November/Beginning of December and we can still be eating it in Feb and it tastes lovely, so ignore the magazine hope that helps
pixtotts ooo i love the cake, and the idea for making footprints

Not much else to report in here, icy and white when I got up for work this morning, it feels like Christmas is truly in the air :snow_grin

mandco

princesskitty nice to see you back like pixtotts said we're here because we share a love of xmas but that doesn't mean that's all we can talk about

Pixtotts love the cake design

Feisty we always iced the cake a few wks before xmas. marzipan 1 day then iced 24-48 hrs later aslong as you keep it well covered no need to wait just do it as and when though the longer you leave it the more you can feed it. You could always get it covered then finish off the actual decoration closer to xmas.

Re the rocky road house
the roof panels are roughly 5x6 inches
the front/ back stands approx 5 inches highest point to floor
comes with 2 big bags choc buttons, icing, broken biscuits, marshmellows, red choc beans, 4 mini icecream cones(for trees) and 3 candy cane sticks. I think I'm going to get another one as you only get 1 mould and need to make it twice to complete the house so having 2 will be easier/quicker when making it with the kids.

Lego are doing black friday-cyber monday deals starting 28th I know a few people have mentioned some of the more expensive/exclusive sets so maybe worth a look.

MILLYMOLLY

Hi I have been looking for ages for snowman soup tags but they are all so big and I wondered if anyone could help. TIA

Peppapig

Our Asda didn't have the rocky road houses. Asked two members of staff - one said try the seasonal aisle but don't think we have any, one said try the Christmas specials at the back of the store, if we've got any they'll probably be there. Also looked by the baking stuff and in the sweet aisle and no luck. Can anyone tell me where they were in their Asda and I'll try again. Might do a gingerbread one too - thinking maybe the Ikea one?

I'm going to make myself a list with at least one festive thing to do every day from 1st to 24th December - making the most of not being at work this year