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

MoneyMission2015

freespirit66 wrote: »

Afternoon everyone, thankyou for all your good weekend wishes, i had a fab time the shopping was fab, i went to Yo Sushi for the first time DD1 was disappointed with the hotel but i still had a great time, she had ordered a birthday box of chocs for the room, it wasnt there, you are led to believe you will be staying in this country manor hotel but the reality is you check in there and then bedrooms and dining are all in a modern annexe the lounge was out of use because of a wedding, dinner was nice but nothing special (definitely not 4 star) breakfast was blooming gorgeous though! I enjoyed Bletchley but it was a bit marred with a) a grotty cold and b) my trapped nerve :mad: but i still feel as if i have had a break and that is the main thing! DD1 looked after thumper yesterday because i was still grotty and could hardly walk, but i have him today but am feeling a lot brighter (who wouldnt??) haha. I have felt so yuck that i couldnt even be asked to open my laptop to come on here!

PEPPAPIG oh why did i for some reason think you lived in wales???? :rotfl:Actually we were very lucky with the weather when it turned for the worse on sunday we were in the car starting to drive home. But wow it was busy all weekend around milton keynes is it always like that? You have some fab sized shops, i really enjoyed it!

MOJOWORKING thankyou i did quickly log on my phone to read your answers at the weekend, yes we did really enjoy it, was surprised how busy it was, i dont know why!! i think its because i dont get out much haha

SAMMYJ hi and welcome to our lovely thread, im so sorry to hear about your little nephew and hope he is doing well, it breaks my heart when little ones have to deal with these terrible illnesses

HARIBO oh im so sorry to hear about your brother but very glad to hear he is improving each day, these things take time and the help and support you are giving him is invaluable, sending you both hugs and keep strong my lovely

TINYDANCER hi and welcome to our lovely thread

I'm from Wales Free :hello:


I'm also getting exclamation marks everywhere on the posts. They must have a bug.


More Christmas shopping done last night, Matalan again! The great thing is I get student discount now because I'm doing the OU course so 10% off the Matalan purchase :j

Ellidee

Thorntons 5 for £20 offer inc Advent Calendars https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5345053

Cherry24

Chrissy: I hope your daughter's ok, must be really painful for her. I know what you mean regarding food / drink. It's really easy to go overboard at Christmas and end up with way too much.
msgigglewick - I had a look on Mark's website after your post and couldn't really see many biscuits at all.
Free - glad you had a good time overall despite your cold etc.
ellie - Derby is still about an hour from me but was so good last time that I had to make a return visit. Got a VIP ticket so you get a nice room to sit in after you've done all your shopping and cake & prosecco are included. I know I'm going to end up spending a fortune!

Actually did some Christmas shopping today (the online variety). Spotted a lovely robin wooly hat on the M & S website so bought that for myself and while I was there picked up some cards, nail varnish sets and games.

FeistyFidget

mrsinvisible wrote: »

hi all, gosh what a lot of brainboxes, OU no less!
Christmas is coming hugs to everyone here, and apologies that although l have read back, l have no hope of commenting on all that has happened to you.
Christmas wise DD had her annual Av*n sale, and got herself a tidy sum to help with presents, and our (me, she, and fave cous) Christmas savings are at the £480 stage, just £20 to go.
My fave nieces DH is a star wars freak, and at the weekend DS1 said to his DD he wanted the Death Star for Christmas, so l got him a Haynes 'Death Star' manual, and the other one got a 'millennium Falcon ' manual, from the book people, £3 99 each.
Also got an electric toothbrush for my DD. (not from the book people)
l have decided that my other SIL and her DH will get a 'home produce' hamper, 3 sorts of jam, lemon cheese pickled onions beetroot and a chutney or picallilli. lt will cost virtually nothing, will look lovely and l know they will love it. l only have the beetroot and the picallilli to do and will get them done soon.
l made a start on writing my cards a couple of weeks ago, but never got back into it, so they are still to do.
On the subject of outside hanging baskets, l make them every year with conifer greenery, (from the hedge,) holly, (from the garden,) and wired baubles, and ribbon, and a pack of solar string lights. l sell quite a few, and give them to my lovely neighbours/friends instead of a present.
Sorry it is a long post, now l need coffee, byeee, be good all.

MrsI I'd love to see a photo of your hanging baskets

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

Here's the link SD and Feisty, http://www.next.co.uk/homeware/christmas-home/decorations-lights/16


They're from next so a little expensive but they arrived yesterday and they are very pretty. I ordered the ones with the white flowers in, but they do red flowers too or plain green balls with lights in. The only thing I would say is, they are slightly smaller than I thought they would be, but not so much smaller that I would send them back. I guess it depends on how big you want them on your front porch, but for me I think they'll be fine


GTQ - that's nuts, you would never think somebody would steal something like a nectar card. But I guess more and more people are using loyalty cards these days so it's just there for the taking. Plus they obviously got lucky with yours because you had so much on it, I wonder if it was somebody who knew how much you had on there, otherwise they could have ended up stealing somebody's card with only a few pence on it?? I'm going to be careful with mine now because I've got about £50 on there at the moment and due another £100 from an introductory offer from Amex. I'm glad you got it all sorted out though.

Thank you so much, they are beautiful, I may see if I can nab some in the January sales

CHRISSYG wrote: »

I ordered some for this year and like you have ordered next years.


Well the drama just keeps on coming ! DD had a seizure last Thursday evening and ended up breaking her nose ,she currently looks like an extra from a bad zombie movie .

Christmas wise things are coming together after a chat we have decided we don't need to go overboard on food /drink.so other than a few extras [pringles/nuts] my shopping will be fairly normal.

Oh hun, gentle hugs to your poor daughter.

Peppapig wrote: »

MrsI your outdoor baskets sound great. I might have a go myself as we have lots of greenery around here and my neighbour's holly is covered in berries this year as are lots of the ones in the woods. Do you put them in oasis? I've only tried using real foliage once and it all dried up.

Feisty, I really feel for you with DH but hope you can find the strength to carry on making the effort even if he doesn't seem that interested. At some level I'm sure he is but he must feel pretty bleak about his own future and it's probably stopping him from showing it. My DH was very like this due to health problems although I think we're finally coming out of it now but it must be doubly hard for you two because you're so young and must feel even more robbed than we did.

p-pincher I know exactly what you mean. I think sometimes I get so focussed on getting the best deal I miss out on the fun of buying the present. I'm doing the same as you - get the best deal I can at the time and then don't look at the prices after that!!

Chrissy your poor DD, she's certainly entitled to be a bit fed up (understatement) as are you. Hope the nose heals ok.

Come on Free, we need the lowdown on the weekend lol.

Thanks lovely, we had a lovely day out yesterday with pizza express (buy one get one free :money:) and to see crimson peak at the cinema (super saver Tuesday at £5 a ticket :money:) and it seems to have perked him up

freespirit66 wrote: »

Afternoon everyone, thankyou for all your good weekend wishes, i had a fab time the shopping was fab, i went to Yo Sushi for the first time DD1 was disappointed with the hotel but i still had a great time, she had ordered a birthday box of chocs for the room, it wasnt there, you are led to believe you will be staying in this country manor hotel but the reality is you check in there and then bedrooms and dining are all in a modern annexe the lounge was out of use because of a wedding, dinner was nice but nothing special (definitely not 4 star) breakfast was blooming gorgeous though! I enjoyed Bletchley but it was a bit marred with a) a grotty cold and b) my trapped nerve :mad: but i still feel as if i have had a break and that is the main thing! DD1 looked after thumper yesterday because i was still grotty and could hardly walk, but i have him today but am feeling a lot brighter (who wouldnt??) haha. I have felt so yuck that i couldnt even be asked to open my laptop to come on here!

PEPPAPIG oh why did i for some reason think you lived in wales???? :rotfl:Actually we were very lucky with the weather when it turned for the worse on sunday we were in the car starting to drive home. But wow it was busy all weekend around milton keynes is it always like that? You have some fab sized shops, i really enjoyed it!

MOJOWORKING thankyou i did quickly log on my phone to read your answers at the weekend, yes we did really enjoy it, was surprised how busy it was, i dont know why!! i think its because i dont get out much haha

SAMMYJ hi and welcome to our lovely thread, im so sorry to hear about your little nephew and hope he is doing well, it breaks my heart when little ones have to deal with these terrible illnesses

HARIBO oh im so sorry to hear about your brother but very glad to hear he is improving each day, these things take time and the help and support you are giving him is invaluable, sending you both hugs and keep strong my lovely

TINYDANCER hi and welcome to our lovely thread

So glad you had a nice time

kaya1991

I have a question for you lot - do you normally ask for anything specific from anyone for Christmas? My aunt ALWAYS asks me for ideas and every single year I really struggle to come up with things. I love surprises! Does that make me a nightmare?

(on the flipside, I hound my brother for months before Christmas, because he never comes up with any ideas until about 23rd December, which is when he does all his Christmas shopping - there's no point in surprising him, because he has such particular taste).

Just wondered what the norm is for everyone else!

3forholidays

nic2075 wrote: »

Evening all, I have too much time on my hands, anyone want some figures from these threads over the last few years? I was curious how each year varied on post and page number around the same time of year.

20th October 2012- Let it snow thread. - we were on page 314 post number #6275 first post of the day was by springdreams

October 20th 2013 Holly and the Ivy we were on page 286 post number #5702 first post of the day was by Junior J

October 20th 2014 Stop the Cavalry thread- page number 263 post number #5256 was by Chrissy G

October 20th 2015 Walking in a winter wonderland thread- page number 131 post number #2616 first post of the day by Fiestyfidget

Just shows how quiet the threads are really over the years. We need more chat :-)

Thanks for this - really interesting. Maybe real life has got in the way for a lot of people this year.

Soon be time to start next years thread. I am happy to start the thread again but I could do with some suggestions regarding the title so any ideas welcomed.

murie

Evening everyone- its been good to read what everyone has been up to whilst Ive been MIA.
Free- so glad you had a lovely time you deserve it (not the cold tho x)
Feisty- your new house looks like it will be a lovely home for you and your little family. Im glad Mr F came round to enjoying his birthday in the end.
Peppa- how is the cabinet going? Ive given up on the frames - they just don't look right.


Chrissy- hugs to your DD as Feisty said.


Money Mission- those baskets look nice- I think QVC do something very similar.


On the subject of QVC, I read a few million pages back about the meat hamper from there. We had it about 2 years ago- it was really nice but very expensive.

Newthrift- congrats on becoming a Mrs! Glad it went smoothly x


Kaya- Im sure the new job will settle down in a few weeks x


I haven't done too much in the way of Christmas things. I brought a few half price bottles of whisky from Tesco and today went to the opening of the new outlet village that has opened at The NEC. TBH it was rubbish- only about a third of the stores were open and those that were weren't much good! Not well organised and I left feeling that if that is the best we can do as a City to encourage visitors then we're not going to get many!

Crowdpleaser

Hi all.

Glad you enjoyed mk Freespirit. Yes us locals all avoid primarni like the plague on match day!

Got up early today and did the sainsburys toy sale. There wasn't loads for my 2 but managed to pick up some craft bits and a couple of games.

Definitely finished Dd1 now. Still on lookout for playmobil for dd2.

Have done some quick cakes for dd2s school bake sale tomorrow and taken and collected Dd1 from a school halloween party !

X

nic2075

3forholidays wrote: »

Thanks for this - really interesting. Maybe real life has got in the way for a lot of people this year.

Soon be time to start next years thread. I am happy to start the thread again but I could do with some suggestions regarding the title so any ideas welcomed.

What about another Christmas song title? -

Merry Christmas Everyone
I'm dreaming of a white Chrsitmas
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Rockin around the christmas tree
It's the most wonderful time of the year
Deck the halls

pinknfluffy28

kaya1991 wrote: »

I have a question for you lot - do you normally ask for anything specific from anyone for Christmas? My aunt ALWAYS asks me for ideas and every single year I really struggle to come up with things. I love surprises! Does that make me a nightmare?

(on the flipside, I hound my brother for months before Christmas, because he never comes up with any ideas until about 23rd December, which is when he does all his Christmas shopping - there's no point in surprising him, because he has such particular taste).

Just wondered what the norm is for everyone else!

I never usually ask for anything, if dh or family ask what I want, I just say surprise me!
But this year, I have done a wish list for dh! I've asked for a couple more F1 model kits (sad, but I love F1 and really enjoyed putting the ferrari together he found for £8 in lidl over the summer!), and a Jenson Button shirt. We hope to go to silverstone next year so the shirt is a must!

Dh always writes a wish list for me, he has learnt that if he doesnt, he ends up with random carp that he neither needs, wants, nor will ever use!


CHRISSYG - Sending virtual hugs for your dd, poor thing, hope she is ok now.

Freespirit - Your shopping trip sounds lovely (except for the sushi part imo _pale_ ).

3fortheholidays - I second another song title, my favs are:
Wish it could be Christmas everyday
It's beginning to look a lot like...
Most wonderful time of the year

Or, as a spin on a song - The 12 months of Christmas!


Popped into sainsbugs, as I was told they had a lego movie set (rrp £18) reduced to £4.50, but they were all sold out. Wasnt overly impressed, lots for younger children, and tons of nerf stuff for boys, but very little for girls 5+. Came out empty handed, which I suppose is a good thing, seeing as I'm finished ... If I keep telling myself that, I may start believing it!