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

Ruth_honey

I had my friend check asda for the gingerbread latte sachets as she was going there anyway and they're not out here yet. Sure it won't be long, though.
Won a £2 voucher for doing tv surveys, so spent that on a Christmas kindle book straight away! :-)
There's some great books on The Works site (in the 6 for £10 offer) and a 30% off code today if you're spending £30+
Really loved Jill Mansell's Three Amazing Things About You-although not a Christmas book.
Put up some Halloween decs this afternoon. When they come down, the Christmas stuff will start going up. Hurrah!

freespirit66

Evening everyone,

DUMPLING oh i cant wait til Thumper is old enough for kids panto, i havent been since my kids were small

MRSMONEYPENNY i hope you are finished now :rotfl::rotfl:i love the snuggle sack and the stocking is really coming along now, its so sweet! Congratulations on winning the Trisha Ashley books what a fab prize to win, when i have finished all of Carole Matthews books i want to read all of Trishas books!

PRINCESSKITTY ah bless him! you must feel loads better having the extra sleep!! How is he now? Is it going?

IRISHROSE oh i love the dressing gown and the slippers thanks for the price

BBROSIE oh yes she has, it went in the first hour, sorry! thanks for reminding me about disney bogof, almost forgot!

CHRISSY i just looked at them before coming on here, how cosy would that be mmmm

RUTHHONEY yes i checked in asda yesterday and they had none, yet i bought some in sainsburys weeks ago! I drunk my last one on saturday night ooh what christmas kindle book did you get? Omg my DD1 would love you, she is mad about halloween!!

Ruth_honey

It was Melissa Hill's 'Christmas at lilac cottage'. Have also bought Make a Christmas Wish (Julia Williams) recently and have two more on pre order-Trisha Ashley and Catherine Ferguson. Don't think I'll have chance to read them all by Christmas, mind you!
Trisha Ashley is having a get together in November at Waterstones in Piccadilly, London if anyone is interested. Details on her twitter account.

I love Halloween decs. Most of mine were bought in America, but they're getting easier to find here now. My bat lights were from home bargains!
Cross stitch designs on a Halloween theme work so well too. I've got Meg and Mog stitched on orange Aida and it looks great. :-)

On the subject of Christmas magazines, have any of you thought about seeing if your local library has access to Zinio? It's an digital magazine viewer and our library can get tons of magazines for free to view on ipad/android. I just needed a pin for my library card and they've got an app to access zinio and ebooks/audiobooks. Love it!

FeistyFidget

Peppapig wrote: »

Feisty, to behonest in your position I think I’d just say no pressies for the adults andtoken pressies for the small children (the older ones aren’t children now – do theybuy for you and DH? I bet they don’t.) If the adults choose to still buy for you thenthat’s their choice, if they can afford it easily then they probably do itbecause they enjoy it. If they can’tafford it then hopefully they’ll follow your example. I don’t buy anyone for anniversaries, onlycards unless they’re big ones (25, 30, 40, 50 or 60 years) – to meanniversaries are personal between the two people involved and I never expectanyone to buy for our anniversary except DH lol. Whatever you decide, the main thing is thatyou and DH are happy with what you’re doing – the people that care about youwill understand and support you and the others aren’t worth stressing over.

Had my flu jab yesterday and woke up with sore throat and sniffles today. I know there's no reason why they're connected because it's not a live vaccine but I'm still blaming the jab

Been getting ready for the winter this weekend – sort ofSpring Clean but in reverse. We’ve takenthe garden furniture apart and packed it away, thrown out the summer beddingthat’s more or less died, generally tidied up outside and washed the outsidesof all the window. It’s a sort ofnesting instinct with me, I love throwing everything open to welcome Spring butI also love battening down the hatches ready for Winter too.

OK so my ‘must do’ list for this week is now:

• Take stuff to the tip
• Go to the Range to see their Christmas things
• Get decs down and decide what will be used this year and what won’t
• Decorate the dining room end of the lounge (this one might be a bit optimistic)

Wish me luck

Good luck with your list! I love your reverse spring cleaning and January box, very inspiring! Sadly still no house to do it for lol

I don't know if I can bring myself to say no presents whatsoever (although our wallet would appreciate it!) I think I may just go for either a handmade selection of treats, or a M&S tin of biscuits. I am so worried about their reaction as technically they can't afford to lavish gifts either, but they'd rather scrimp in other areas in order to do it, so I feel doubly guilty iyswim.

murie wrote: »

Peppa- I have mixed up the paint in a small container and am working out of that. I will try putting another coat over it and see how that goes- if its still cr*p then they will be in the bin! They only cost £2.99 from B&M so I wont be too worried if I do end up binning them, but will make a note to not get involved with painting again! Your DD's cabinet sounds lovely, very classy. Can you post a photo when its done? Hope you feel better soon x


Well, Im on here late as I am usually in bed by 9.30. But DD's BF (recently reinstated BF!) has been up to stay with us over the weekend trying to mend bridges with the family) but set off to go back down to Brighton as its his first day back at Uni tomorrow. He has crashed on the motorway, rang DD who is in a panic cus she cant go and get him cus she has an 11pm curfew on her cars black box.He is stranded on the side of the M40 (no relay cover on RAC it transpires!) so had to get DS up, (who had just come in and gone up to bed after being at his girlfriends) so they have gone to fetch him. He is unhurt as it the car he went into, but he is really shaken (only had car since May). He admits he is at fault cus he indicated to pull out, the lorry in front of him pulled out without indicating- he panicked, slammed on the brakes and skidded, hitting another car. His car is a write off from pics he's sent. My kids have reached him now but they have to wait for the car to be recovered before they can bring him back (they are bout 100 miles away). Honestly why does it never rain when it pours??? Im thankful that everyone is all OK. but things were just starting to look up for them, one step forward 3 steps back!
Sorry to moan, just scared/frustrated/ relieved I suppose.


Freespirit- I don't eat steak at all , that's why Im treating myself to lobster tails. I very rarely eat red meat (as in maybe once a a year if I HAVE to)- I don't like the texture. OH and I couldn't be more different in our taste in food- he is a real caveman, has to have meat at every meal whereas I only really eat fish (which he only eats if its covered in batter and comes from a chippy!) Although I am partial to a chicken madras on Friday nights!


Night everyone

I'm so glad everyone is safe, but that must have been so scary!

Our lovetoshop vouchers from changing energy suppliers have finally come through! I may be optimistic and say that they need to be used for all presents I have to get for (apart from DH). He is in charge of his mum and dad though as I don't mind spending triple our usual £10 a head budget as they have been so bloody fantastic and supportive.

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Hugs murie that must have been so scary, I hope that by now they are home safe.
Thank you for the kind comment re. The sack and the stocking free, yes all ironing is now done and put away. Trouble is I to.d the lads they needed to tidy their rooms after I'd put the ironing away so they have filled the laundry basket up again! grrr

I hope everyone is as well as they can be, must dash really busy d as planned here.

mugwump79

Morning all,

Delurking once again to say that all the Christmas bits are now live on the M&S website xxx

Louise xxxx

Clumsy42

Freespirit - Yep it happens. If you search for 'Primark Harry Potter' loads of stuff comes up! :eek:

Morning all. Went to Asda yesterday. They had a Christmas chocolate aisle this time. Saw a lovely big Santa Babies (jelly babies) tub in the shape of a santa. Think it was about £4. My little niece (16 months and adorable!) would love it. She goes absolutely mad for jelly babies.

Also saw Asda had orange Matchmakes for £1. We totally didn't buy a box to eat now. Not at all...

KiWi13

Hi everyone I’m finding I only get to catch up every couple of days and there are more and more pages to read through. Must try to do it more often.
Hugs to those that have had a horrible time of it recently. (Murie – hope DD BF is ok) (gettingtherequickly – your workplace has really had it rough so sorry for your loss)
Arthien – love the xmas photo idea of you and bear – sounds like something I would do too. J
Feisty – Money Missions hamper/night in idea might be the easiest way to go – can spend a little without making it look too cheap but yet still save plenty of pennies for wee one. If they can’t appreciate anything you do / buy for them then I wouldn’t be wasting money trying to make them happy – not worth it in my opinion. Also love the wallpaper – I went mad this year and have dog wallpaper and its light grey so we went with magnolia as the yellow we had already up was just too bright for the shade.
Free – my son has that fleecy dino blanket and loves it – snuggles under it at night with me when he has his milk and he also has the dino sheets and pillowcases on his bed. Dino mad he is!
Mai – I have the transfomers variation of your batman egg and toast cutter for a friend for xmas got it in home bargains
Kaya – well done on blog (bookmarked for free moment) and congrats on book hope it all works out for you
On the Christmas front I have just had my first studio order delivered. Not sure if signing up was such a good idea or not lol think my bank balance may start looking a little bit more sparse as a result.
Was getting a bit worried about my first delivery from them. We were in house all day Saturday when the text came through to say sorry we missed you and to reschedule delivery. I checked hallway – no card and no-one had come to the house. So tried to phone only to be told lines were all closed. (lot of use that was!) so had it rescheduled for Monday and told DH not to leave without putting a note on door. He only had to walk down to nursery (5 mins away) twice that day and of course didn’t the delivery guy turn up – thankfully though just as he was leaving so YAY all sorted. So that’s a few more Christmas presents in my stash.
I love the sound of the book swap Christmas eve tradition – although I can’t see that working in our house just now – not with an almost four year old running around getting annoyed at people not paying him 100% attention. I can dream to set it in motion some day.
Was having a conversation in work the other day and noticed someone on here saying about wrapping different kids presents in their own design (fab idea by the way). We have always had our presents wrapped and I’ve always wrapped presents for others but both the people I work with have always just set the toys out for their kids on Christmas day either in their own corners or on a sofa. I get that putting the toys together or adding batteries so they are ready to go can make a lot of sense and ease the stress of Christmas morning but I have always thought the unwrapping was part of the surprise etc. Started making me think I was the odd one out lol what way does everyone else do it??
So sorry really have waffled on haven’t I – ooops.
KiWi x

princesskitty29

freespirit Wiggle is doing well thank you, he's been in good spirits and is coming out the other side now thankfully. Another good night last night! I meant to say to you I've just started following you on Pinterest, so you'll probably get hundreds of notifications saying I've pinned your pins!

kiwi do you mean they don't wrap their children's presents? I can't imagine that because as you say half the excitement on Christmas morning is ripping open the presents!

mrs-moneypenny

I can't imagine giving children non wrapped pressies, as you've both said that is part of the magic seeing the packages and wondering what they might brand the magical anticipation as they are revealed one by one. Otherwise you could just scan the room and see what you had at a glance without really bothering to look properly.