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

Cherry24

Hi,

Nothing Christmassy to report today apart from the Hotel Chocolat brochure coming through the door.

Free - Love your decs Yes, I had a great holiday thank you. Ready to get back on track now.

Salmagundi - We went to Pitlochry in Scotland and did lots every day even though it was supposed to be a relaxing holiday, we did love it though.

I have loads of December / January birthdays - 8 in total so tend to buy them alongside my Christmas presents so I don't forget any in the Christmas rush

whitesatin

Just bought an upright freezer from John Lewis which I have made space for in the room at the back of my garage. I Freecycled a display cabinet although the collectors, who were meant to come today, have messed me about. Should be gone in time for arrival of freezer hopefully.

There are only two of us but I fully intend to get full use out of it, and not just at Christmas. I always cook too much but now I will freeze leftovers for those days when I don't feel up to cooking.

I have a good budget for Christmas food but need to plan best use of the money. I will have 9 adults, a seven year old, a six year old, a four year old, an eleven month old and (if all goes well, pray) a four week old baby - all of my grandchildren. I am envisaging chaos so need to at least be organised with the food and drink.

I intend to buy some frozen stuff, freeze some of my own too but just need to get a plan in my head. Saw the QVC meat TSV the other day and was tempted but didn't go for it. I've looked at M&S food to order and am also thinking of using Donald Russell again. I just can't decide which to use but need to think ahead as the new baby will take up a lot of my time over the month before Christmas.

We were meant to be moving house but have decided against it for the moment.

mandco

Freespirit belated birthday wishes. How is thumper doing? hopefully he'll love dinosaurs most boys do and this yr is a good time to introduce them esp if you start with the more colourful cartoony style ones quite a few good dino story books around too.
love the halloween decs taz isn't too keen so won't be decorating this yr.

JJ sorry your still in so much pain sound your like xmas is going to be pretty different this yr

GTQ its def not selfish to want xmas to yourselves I gave up trying to please everyone else yrs ago we'll see them before or after but xmas is visitor free in our house

princesskitty sorry to hear you lost precious photos its devastating when that happens. sorry to hear about dh's run in too he must have been pretty shaken up.

pinknfluffy congrats on the new house takes time to settle but hopefully it'll be feeling like home in time for xmas

fiesty sorry to hear the new house is still causing issues I know its stressful and money is a big worry but please do try and take it easy.people will understand that xmas is going to be difficult for you this yr and true friends & family will know that bubs is the most important thing right now.

On the xmas front picked up various xmas books today including argos & m&s xmas food.
primarni have frozen themed chocolate coins. Didn't really see much I fancied but picked up some avengers choc tree decs & minion crackers for a couple of minion hampers I'm doing.
wilko have xmas themed/coloured choc coins xmas pud/snowmen/santa @ 50p for something different. They also had an advent calendar filled with nail art stuff for £5

Need to pick up some choc oranges while they are still on offer

if anyone sees any offers on junior lego I would appreciate a heads ups

not loving how cold it is already though its a good excuse for fleecy blankets on the sofa & hot choc

lazysheep

Saw in the local news today that our John Lewis has put their Christmas decorations up already - didn't want to read the comments as I was sure it would be full of people moaning about how 'it's not even December yet'

Also the guy on the radio yesterday afternoon was saying he thought he had seen the new JL Christmas advert - cute orangutan, fairground rides, sentimental, soft music etc then saw at the end that it was for an energy company which made me laugh so loud I was glad noone was in the car with me at the time :rotfl:

Still trying to think of what to get my friend's children for Christmas - they vary in ages and there's 5 kids between the 2 of them (they only have to buy for me!) so need to get my thinking cap on or alternatively text them so they don't bite my head off for mentioning the festive word 'this early'..

3forholidays

PinknFluffy The new house sounds lovely. Enjoy!

Hope everyone is doing ok. Not done a lot on the Christmas front so need to get started soon.

Think that I will just do the usual for the children of the family - sweets and money which will be the easiest option.

Peppapig

Ooh Whitesatin I bought the food TSV on QVC - was a bit pricey but I thought how lovely it would be to just order it and then wait for it to be delivered in early December so I did it. Just the veg to think about now.

Pink, congratulations, so glad you're in the new house - hope you have many happy years there.

Free we don't really do Halloween decs but I have bought some plastic Halloween bunting and a couple of light up skulls to go outside on the night and I also bought a little plastic bucket and some sweets in Asda today. DGD will be staying with us on Halloween so thought we'd make the effort and she can go out and dish out the sweets. Of course it's usually feast or famine with trick or treaters here so hoping there are going to be at least a few callers this year.

Ha ha Vulpix, there'd be tears before bedtime for me too. My Mum once bought me a toilet seat for Christmas and another year some tea towels - not sure I managed to completely cover up my shock lol.

Sorry to hear things haven't been good JJ, hope it turns around for you soon. Your Christmas will be different but that doesn't mean it won't be as good, you can start to build some new traditions and memories.

Most of our birthdays are around Christmas too - me and one DGS on 1st Nov, DD on 26th, my Mum on 28th Nov, another DGS on 29th, other DD on 4th Dec and other DD on 1st Jan!

04624181

Elliew8
My hubby does the christmas quiz. It usually involves disney film/character questions, christmas word puzzle, famous faces. All christmas based. We all love it and look forward to it every year!
we even had a music round last year. we usually do it just after we have all eaten the main course. Gives us a bit of time to work up an appetite towards dessert.

kaya1991

Free - love the decorations, very spooky!

It's day 3 of my new job and I'm knackered. I agreed before I started that I would work 8.30-5 instead of 9-5.30, because I'm much more productive early in the day, but so far I've ended up doing 8.30-5.45, argh! People keep putting meetings at the end of the day, by which time I'm zombie-like and totally unable to think anymore. It's a shame, because it's casting a real shadow over the job. Any idea what I can do? I don't want to be seen to be rocking the boat this early, but there's a reason I requested the hours I did! We have offices abroad, so I was thinking about suggesting I work 8-4.30, but I don't want to get stung even worse and end up doing 8-5.45! Hmm...

Changing jobs also means I've lost a huge chunk of the holiday I saved up for the end of the year in my old job. I was planning on taking a couple of weeks off over Christmas, but it's not going to happen now Not feeling too great about this job in general at the moment, so I've not been in a brilliant mood this week.

Still, The Apprentice starts in an hour - I know lots of people find it horrendous, but I can't resist!

pinknfluffy28

04624181 wrote: »

Elliew8
My hubby does the christmas quiz. It usually involves disney film/character questions, christmas word puzzle, famous faces. All christmas based. We all love it and look forward to it every year!
we even had a music round last year. we usually do it just after we have all eaten the main course. Gives us a bit of time to work up an appetite towards dessert.

We did a disney quiz for dd2's 8th birthday sleepover last week, went down a storm. May borrow your idea and do something similar for xmas day, as I have refused to buy yet another board game that gets played once!

Gettingtherequickly wrote: »

:eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl:Misreading causes issues!

Glad it wasn't just me that (hopefully) wrongly picked up on this! I struggle to cope with one!

Ordered the girls advent calenders from amaz@n. A w7 cosmetic one for dd1, and lego city for dd2. Chose it over the lego friends, purely because it has the big man himself!

whitesatin

Peppapig, I am sure the meat from QVC will be lovely, it seems so popular and this isn't the first year they have done it. I wish I had gone for it to give it a try. That company does other offers too so I might go online and try something out when I get my new freezer.

I had a disastrous Christmas meal here the year before last, I don't have a large cooker, the kitchen was too busy with guests turning up and chatting under my feet etc. etc. Nobody complained but I wasn't happy. My daughter did it last year but she is having the baby in a few weeks so I am doing it again and am determined to get it right. I even got a hostess trolley on Freecycle to help me get things done in advance. This year I am putting a "Keep Out" sign on the kitchen door, lol.