Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Greying_Pilgrim

Definitely sending good vibes for your DN. Hope the medics find out what it is and can reassure the family. In the meantime, I hope your nephew is less bored

Good idea about the gifting of money (or time?) for those who can and want to. Its daft how I got more satisfaction handing over food for the FB at the event last week, not knowing who would receive it, nor what their situation is (not that I need to know - anonymity is all), than I do gifting to several family members who now would be termed 'young adults' and don't seem to remember where the 'thanks' button is. Frankly, I can't wait until they're 21 and we don't have to do this anymore. We ditched gifting to adults years ago, and have never regretted losing the stress associated with it. People who wish to still gift to us do so - despite protests that we want nothing - sometimes the items are useful, other times less so......

Good that the house plans are all back on track, despite the set-back in timings. But good for you, seeing the positives and rolling with it.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Thabk you lovely people :kisses3: I am pleased to report that your vibes worked and they all got to go home this evening :j however poor sister is instructed to check the status of the rash every hour and report back to the hospital at 8am for more antibiotics. Not a good nights sleep ahead for her! :blink:

Thank you for sharing your experience with gifting Greying We're a small family and have always bought presents for everyone so it's a bit weird. I'm still not quite sure how I feel. We only have one young adult (who will be getting a present - I am sure they will appreciate it, even if it does effectively lump them in with the 'children'!) We always give presents in person so difficult not to say than you (although this one would anyway).

Anyway, I shall ponder some more. I think I would like to get *something* small for some people but we'll see. And while most of us will get presents from partners etc, my mum is on her own so will effectively get no presents at all and I don't feel comfortable with that. We'll see...

Anyway, bed!

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery - great news on your nephew! But every hour - tough. I hope all is well though, and actually, your sis has 'nothing' to report and the rash goes away - either because of the treatment, or of its own accord.

You must do what you feel comfortable with regarding the gifting. To go from thoughtful gifting to nothing is tough. We'd got to the stage where (other) people were just giving novelty 'c*ap' as to be able to say that they had got a gift for so-and-so. The young people we still give to, get money, and have done for many a year, due to logistics and them being given 'everything' by parents (we decided early on, not to try to compete). I would have thought that it wasn't much to say 'ta' pretty quickly for an amount of money (even if they think it 'chicken feed'), as who ever has no need for a bit of extra cash? But that's our family, not yours

Have a great week!

Greying X

Karmacat

That's great that your nephew got to go home, Cheery! Less so for your sister's sleep patterns I really hope all's well this morning - they must be at the hospital by now, as it's 8.30 or so ...

It sounds like it's been a tough year for your family as a whole - now that your Christmas isn't going to be so overwhelmed by packing/unpacking, I hope you can turn *yours* around, at any rate.

redofromstart

I'm glad your chain is back up and running again. Like you say, at least you should move in time for the brightness of early Spring and longer days to get things done.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely people :kisses3: Sadly nephew landed up back in hospital just after I posted that - but is now out again (for the time being, at least!) What a palaver for them all. Fingers crossed he stays out this time and nothing new appears!

It has indeed been a tough year KC, for all of us for various reasons. However, we are trying to remain stoical and cheerful where we can :j

I think I may suggest spending no more than £5 each for presents next year if people are still struggling. That'll get a box of biscuits, a pair of socks, a candle etc - something little to open. We'll see. Everything might be back to 'normal' by then, who knows?!

Just done YNAB for the first time in about 10 days :eek: SO MANY RECEIPTS :eek: :rotfl: Seems I do all my Christmas shopping and food buying in tiny dribs and drabs here and there :eek: :rotfl:

Hey ho, all balanced, and only a little bit moved from various places into the budget fiddling category I really must get back into the habit of using the app as and when I spend things! :eek:

Right - work!

EssexHebridean

Fingers crossed that your Nephew remains at home and your sister is able to catch up on at least some of her sleep.

We have a bit of a mix with family presents - still buy for (and receive from) our parents, but for MrEH's siblings we buy for the children (one brother has 4, the other has 2, and the third has none that we know about!) up to the age of 18 and no more than a "token present" for the adults if that. At £20 per child it gets quite pricey for everyone otherwise. For the children we do "goodie bags" have done since they were small and the younger two are now of an age to start getting the full version too - so a right mix of craft items, small toys and games, noisy things to annoy the parents, the sort of things we used to love when we were little, and random stuff like that. Generally speaking nothing costs more that a couple of £ and the kids LOVE them!

The £5 gift idea is a lovely one - and might even mean a bit more thought being employed about what would suit people from some avenues, who knows!

Cheery_Daff

Well they have had a whole day and two full nights at home, test results came back clear so canula can be taken out of his hand now and drugs stopped so all good :j

Had a chat with my sister earlier, seems we may all be trying to sneak out of the no presents rule... :rotfl:

Just made these mince pies

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2174/unbelievably-easy-mince-pies

If you look at the time they are coming out of the oven, that might give you an indication of how 'unbelievably easy' they are in fact not :rotfl: My butter was room temperature and I now suspect it should have been in the fridge (recipe doesn't say that though - although I do have a vague memory of my grandma saying it once :rotfl: )

Anyway, they were an absolute pain to make and took FOREVER - would be looking for a roll out recipe next time. However they are absolutely DELICIOUS :j :j All butter pastry, and @ldi's cheapest mincemeat and I am now fighting myself not to eat ALL of them before tomorrow... :rotfl:

PurpleFairy26

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Well they have had a whole day and two full nights at home, test results came back clear so canula can be taken out of his hand now and drugs stopped so all good :j

Had a chat with my sister earlier, seems we may all be trying to sneak out of the no presents rule... :rotfl:

Just made these mince pies

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2174/unbelievably-easy-mince-pies

If you look at the time they are coming out of the oven, that might give you an indication of how 'unbelievably easy' they are in fact not :rotfl: My butter was room temperature and I now suspect it should have been in the fridge (recipe doesn't say that though - although I do have a vague memory of my grandma saying it once :rotfl: )

Anyway, they were an absolute pain to make and took FOREVER - would be looking for a roll out recipe next time. However they are absolutely DELICIOUS :j :j All butter pastry, and @ldi's cheapest mincemeat and I am now fighting myself not to eat ALL of them before tomorrow... :rotfl:

I’ve made them too Cheery bl00dy lovely if a pain to make. I found this time, cold butter to start but leave for an hour after making to crumbs. Then you could ‘knead’ it in your hands to a pastry. Still didn’t roll out but was much easier at pressing in the tins. Had to put mine in the freezer to stop me eating them

redofromstart

I tried those a few years ago and had the same problem. I now cheat and use the food processor to make a standard shortcrust mix and use egg instead of water as it is easier to roll out.