* Walking in a Winter Wonderland * - It's the 2015 Christmas Chatter Thread

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Hugs JJ your positive attitude makes you an inspiration to us all. I hope everything goes well for you and you don't have to wait too long for the next surgery. Hugs.

Chrissy sorry to read what a disappointment your trip was

Hugs to all who need them and special hellos to the Mia's and awols.
Omo and nanamia, hope you are both well

Opee92

*Peeks head around the door* Hello everyone! I've been lurking around in the shadows for a while now but thought it was finally time to pop on and say hello to everyone! I've been a member of this thread for the past couple of years now but I see there's lots of new names now so I doubt I'll be remembered :rotfl: Oh well I'll just introduce myself again, I'm 22 and have 2 gorgeous children (DD who is 4 and DS who has just turned 2) and a HUGE family (11 brothers and sisters all of which have between 1 and 5 children EACH) So as you can probably tell I NEED this thread to keep me organised for Christmas since it proves to be such an expensive time" :xmassmile

Freespirit66 - I've just applied for the M&s account too (For the exact same reasons too!) I received an email yesterday to say my request had been approved and they're going to send my welcome pack in the post. Then I just have to wait for My card to arrive in the post before I can switch an old account to qualify for the £100 giftcard....such a fuss but I can't really complain when it's free money

Sorry to hear that so many people are having a bad time at the moment,, my thoughts and prayers go out to you all!

Christmas prep is going fairly well for me this year, I normally do really well in the after Christmas sales but then don't seem to buy much until about October. Thanks to the fantastic Argos bargains that have been popping up just recently I've made a HUGE dint (or is it dent? - I never quite know which....poo I should have googled it) in the children's presents for this year and have bought for ALL the kids in the family so I'm feeling quite relaxed about things this year

Oh well I really should crack on with the housework while the kids are at nursery, hope to speak to you all soon!

Peppapig

Welcome back Opee - I remember you from quite a way back and I'm sure others will too. Well done on your Christmas prep - makes mine look very poor. Actually mine is very poor lol.:rotfl:

JJ - all fine here thanks and lovely to see you posting again. Sorry to hear all the problems you've been having but glad to see you're still the usual positive JJ. Can't believe you've managed to keep up with the uni work - hard enough with nothing else going on - and good luck with the exams! :A

Chrissey, so sorry to hear York was a disappointment. It's horrible when you revisit somewhere you loved and it's not as nice when you go back. Miserable people should not be allowed to work in Christmas shops!!!

Nothing much going on here but had a lovely day with littlest DGS on Wednesday and going to see DGD tomorrow so looking forward to that too.

junior_j

Thanks for your lovely comments guys .

Went for a quick lunch with my friend today and came back and my auntie popped round , me and mum then went to pick up my prescription and came back had dinner and then headed to my friends work to pop her down painkillers and a snack and fruity water (she had a headache bless her)

Home for a soak in the bath , morphine , pjs and crap telly but an evening with my mum is priceless .

I also need to look at more bargains for Xmas. x

freespirit66

Evening everyone, well i have got most of the Bank Holiday weekend to myself, DD1 has gone to work at Tough Mudder until sunday night, DS is on call at work sat morning, sunday and monday, and DS is going with DD2 to London tomorrow pm/evening to see Thriller the musical, so i have a pile of magazines, tv, my kindle, and a bar of chocolate to see me through haha

JUNIORJ oh honey i hope you havent been suffering with too much pain throughout this latest episode, you do have it so rough, no wonder we all admire you so much and how hard working you must be to still be up to date with uni work???

CHRISSY oh no after looking so forward to this trip for such a long time, what a disappointment! How could anyone be miserable working in a christmas shop?????

OPEE of course we remember you my lovely, glad to see you back! Wow cant believe your little boy is 2 already i remember you being pregnant with him!! Oh glad you got accepted for the account, i havent heard anything yet, dont know if that is no news is good news or not I dont blame you for doing it for the same reasons as me, luckily i dont have any DDs coming out of that account so it should be straightforward, i have also been buying presents for DGS in the Argos sales and got some fab bargains for him

PEPPAPIG have a lovely time with DGD tomorrow

FeistyFidget

Hiya Opee I remember you

I was tempted to do the M&S switch, but with mortgages going through at the moment, additional credit checks are probably a really bad idea.

Speaking of mortgages we got some terrible news yesterday - to keep the house we are buying we need to find an additional £10k. It's shared ownership and we are severely restricted by the lenders we can go to. Nationwide have valued it at 20k under the shared ownership market price and as both were from independent surveyors, there is no wriggle room. We had out money aside for a dream holiday for our our 30th (with DH so poorly, we aren't too sure if this may be our last chance) and some decorating budget (as the house is in a sorry state) but even with using up all of this and our savings, we fell short. Lucky for us the inlaws had planned to gift each of their sons with a sum of money from their Nan's house sale, but I am deeply saddened that this precious gift is having to be wasted as technically we won't be gaining a higher % of ownership or reducing our mortgage payments. Plus my only chance to get DH to see Tokyo has been cruelly snatched away along with all my plans to make the home as comfortable as possible for him.

A small silver lining is that with things so tight (and me desperate to at least get the house decorated to a liveable standard) we will need to be going back to living very MSE something that we had definitely been slacking on!

System

freespirit66 wrote: »

CHRISSY oh no after looking so forward to this trip for such a long time, what a disappointment! How could anyone be miserable working in a christmas shop?????


I left a comment on their Facebook page [Christmas angels] and it appears that there have been a few unhappy customers .

Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy so I must hunt out the dogs chill pills to take the edge off for him.

Christmas wise I have ordered a few dvds from Amazon ,now that their min spend for free delivery is £20 I'm trying to bulk order items.

3forholidays

JJ Great to 'hear' from you again. Well done for keeping up with the uni work. :T Hope that the much needed operation comes round quickly!

FiestyFidget I'm sure that Nan would have wanted her money to be used to benefit you & DH - so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Pity about the dream holiday as I'm sure Japan would have been a lovely place to see.

Nothing much to report here but on holiday from work on Monday due to it being the public holiday. Might go shopping with Mum today but I'm not managing to do much on the Christmas front as I don't seem to know what to buy people! I try and buy adults consumable items to avoid adding to their clutter as I'm trying to get rid of mine.

Opee92

Freespirit66 I was told by the customer services that applications are taking a little longer than normal due to the bank holiday and having more applicants than normal (probably due to the gift card incentive) watch out for your email though as mine went in to my junk folder. For anyone interested I've also done the halifax switch and earned myself £125 towards the Christmas pot.

Chrissy Sorry to hear about your disappointing visit to York....I'm about a 40 minute drive from York so go quite regular. I agree the Christmas shop has seriously gone down hill the last couple of years....and the miserable staff don't exactly help.

Really struggling to save for Christmas at the minute....every time I get a bit saved I end up spending it so now I've decided to start buying gift cards instead (a lot more difficult for me to dip in to) I just managed to bag myself a £20 sainsburys gift card for £9.25 through my works benefit site so that along with the m&s gift card I'll hopefully receive for opening my new current account should be a good stet towards my savings :-) has anyone else got any saving tips that work for them? I considered Park but I hate leaving all my shopping till last minute and I think i'm right in thinking that I wouldn't receive my vouchers until November (correct me if I'm wrong) but I usually try to have all my shopping finished by then

Gettingtherequickly

Considering we are supposed to be rushing towards summer, some of you are not having the best of time, so hugs. Good to see "oldies" back, sorry things haven't been great for you Jess, but you are a tough cookie as we all know. Feisty, I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, I truly hope that this means you will have a little bundle of joy as compensation.

The littlies in Egypt want Frozen costumes, Elsa fine but does anyone know where I can get Prince Hans, a lot cheaper than the £100 plus they seem to cost? :eek: Apparently he is the nasty character in the film but the lad wants it on the basis that bit he and the character have a sword! Got to admire childrens logic:D