* It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year * - It's the 2016 Christmas Chatter Thread

04624181

Hi all, Hope everybody is ok and you have all had a good weekend. I see a hint of good weather on the horizon. Is it sad that it excites me purely because I can get some washing done and out on the line LOL
Kids stayed at my dads last night and we went out for an indian. We came home and laughed our socks off at an old peter kay dvd. Lovely evening. Kids are tired tonight and looking forward to a lie in tomorrow. Got a to do list as long as my arm and I keep adding to it. Need to be realistic so am going to split the jobs up so I can do a few a day rather than overface me and I don’t do any.

ChrissyG-Thanks for the info about amazon account. I did not know that,Will look into it.
Nitnurse-not2-Thanks for the heads up on yankee candle calender. I think I may treat myself to one. What a lovely surprise for your 50th have fun x
Free- Sounds like you had a lovely day and very MSE x
MrsInvisible-Sounds like you had a great time catching up with your crazy friend. Laughter is good for the soul. I always try to treat the kids after parents evening and school reports. Its worked up to now so will keep going.
Princesskitty29-Glad to hear you are managing to get a little more sleep. Hope your 2 men gave you some smiles throughout today xx
Moneymission2015-Pink hamper is a fantastic idea. Does she like milkshake? How about pink milkshake straws, the ones that has the milkshake mix inside the straws already. A snuggle blanket, a nice pink snuggle pillow, a pink age appropriate reading book, pink bobbles, slides, pink sunglasses. A pink plastic tumbler with pink million sweets in or other pink sweets.

freespirit66

Evening everyone, another hot day here, we have brought the air cooler in for the next few days as its going to be even hotter here, dreading tonight though its only going down to 16 degrees I forgot to tell you all about a lovely good deed someone did for DD1. She bought a tankini top from sainsburys in the sale for her hols but they had no bottoms in her size so she contacted sainsburys and they said no they couldnt locate any stock for her, well on a forum site she was on she put on there if anyone happened to be near a sainsburys could they look for her and she put a pic on, well she had about a 100 people all say they would look, and a very kind lady from up north contacted her and said she had bought her 2 pairs and would post them for free!!!!! Just to pass a good deed on, how lovely is that? In this cruel world we live in there really are people who restore your faith in humanity. Ha we tried to have a bbq tonight as it was so warm, but we couldnt get the flipping coals alight and i ended up cooking it in the oven :rotfl:

MRSINVISIBLE well i now have 3 litres of cranberry juice so a two pronged attack is on the horizon
Well done to the grandchildren on their fab reports and well done to DGS on just being a fab person! Glad you had a good laugh with your friend

PRINCESSKITTY flipping eck your photos are far from naff i just bung mine on, no filters or anything even DD1 said mum you could have moved the buddha to hide the plugpoint on one of my photos :rotfl:Glad you have had a bit more sleep and hope Wiggle and DH werent too grumpy yes i cant wait for the christmas ones it was lovely seeing the shops christmas photos last week

MONEYMISSION ooh loving all the ideas everyone is coming up with, at this rate it will be massive

04624181 Oh i love Peter Kay i think he is hilarious, my kids cant stand him! Glad you had a lovely kid free evening before the mad summer holidays

freespirit66

:bdaycake:HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRSMONEYPENNY :bdaycake:

murie

Just quickly popping on to post a few pics of DDs cake and canapes that turned into a buffet. Will be back on later. The decorations didn't happen unfortunately as I realised after the cake fiasco that I have bitten off more than I can chew in my current situation! Never mind its her 21st next year so I can really go to town then!


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Gettingtherequickly

Well, I am giving up on everything at the moment! Think that will take the pressure off

Made 4 Christmas cakes at the weekend, so at least half way there before I go away. Had to repack, as I have been asked to get something else, if I have the space and weight capacity. They are willing to forego some things they have already bought, but I don't want to be tripping over them, so will work it so that they can have everything, this will include taking a small case as hand luggage, not fussed about the case, so will leave it behind. All I can say it thank goodness for 2 x 23kg allowance!

Hopefully had some really good news at the weekend. My brother was made redundant about 16 years ago and decided to follow his dream and set up his own business. Needless to say, it has been tough and he decided at the beginning of the year that he couldn't continue with the uncertainty of income, having to borrow from me to keep afloat etc, so started looking for something that appealed rather one that paid a salary, iyswim. Anyway, had an interview last week and it all looks good, They are taking up references, and want an asap start, so hopefully it will all happen for him. He did have an unexpected bonus, in that the prospective employers are also involved in a charity & he will be paid an additional £6k to do the charity accounts, just hope that it all falls into place for him, he has tried so hard to make the business work, that he needs a bit of good luck.

Weather too hot & humid, can't sleep :mad:

murie

I have followed a few of you who have posted your instagram use names, mine is mpb192. I don't use it very much as you can see- Ive put a few on this morning as it looked pathetic with only 5 pics!


DD had a lovely birthday, it was soo hot tho! The decorations didn't go to plan as I mentioned above but it didn't matter in the long run. DH always says I end up doing enough food to feed the 5000, and he's right but we had enough to share with our neighbours. We decided to shower Ruby on Saturday as she was getting a bit whiffy from the park and stream, but if any of you have GSD you know what they are like when they shed- everywhere she went there was a cloud of fur following her, poor dog looked like she was losing her stuffing! Its bad enough when she sheds but on the day of a party its not so good, and there is always the not so delicious fragrance of wet dog in the air! I had to light loads of Yankee candles to get rid of the smell. She was a lot cooler though so it was the right time to do it. I really feel bad for super furry animals in this heat.


Today is hot and humid and I have to spend the day clearing the mess left over from yesterday, The living room is just about done but the kitchen is another matter ........... gonna be a looong hot morning methinks!

System

Murie - The buffet looked amazing .
I know the wet dog smell well ! we have a terrier cross who is too skittish to go to a doggy parlour so we shower him in the wet room needless to say the mess he leaves behind looks like he's been plucked.!

I know i'm in the minority but I Hate this heat with a passion roll on Autumn.

Nothing Christmas related other than a full Amazon basket waiting for pay day.

Peppapig

Belated Happy Birthday MRSMONEYPENNY!!!

MONEYMISSION thanks for the Amazon link, they're lovely.

GTQ good idea to take a step back from everything but your trip. Really glad to hear about the potential new job for your brother too, fingers crossed it all works out for him.

FREESPIRIT that was lovely for DD, there are some really nice people out there it's just that they get a bit eclipsed by the nasty ones. Hope she loves the tankini once both bits are together. Good luck with the cranberry juice. Do you take statins? Only asking because you can't have cranberry with certain statins though not all of them.

0462 I love Peter Kay too. I really enjoyed Car Share and am very happy that they're making another series.

MRSINVISIBLE well done to all Grandnibs. DGS may not be academic but praise for attitude and behaviour are just as important.

MURIE love the pics. I'm on Instagram although all I've managed to do so far is set up the privacy levels on my account. Think I'll go through this thread and follow people so it'll give me an idea of the sort of things people post. Yet again you've made me chuckle imagining you frantically trying to mask the smell of wet dog with scented candles lol. Glad the day went well anyway and I bet DD had a lovely time - can't wait to see the pics next year!

If anyone wants to follow me on Instagram I'm on there as angelahaggar I think but there's nothing to see at the moment.

Getting on well with the upcycling of the vintage cabinet although left the spraying of the red doors to DH, his spraying skills are better than mine. Even though I know you have to do light coats I always spray it too thickly! Unfortunately won't be seeing littlies today as DH not feeling up to it but hopefully will get to see them at the end of the week after chemo. DGD will be staying with DD then too so can hopefully see all three in one go.

Hope everyone enjoys the sun today.

FEISTY hope everything is ok.

mrs-moneypenny

Thanks for the birthday wishes free and peppapig, I had a lovely day. Al, the kiddies and DGS round and I was totally spoilt.

MoneyMission2015

Wow, lots of great ideas. This hamper will be huge if I'm not careful :rotfl:


Belated Happy Birthday moneypenny, I hope you had a fab birthday.


Murie - we are the same with food. We invite a few friends over and end up buying enough food to feed the whole street. A few weeks ago we were going to have a BBQ, but only with 2 of our friends and their daughter, so altogether there would have been 7 of us. My OH went shopping and bought 6 steaks, a tin of hotdogs, 8 burgers, 24 bread rolls, skewer kebabs and various dessert options! Your table looks amazing, well done you. Your cake is awesome too, not at all 'gold acne'.


Free - what a lovely thing to happen to your DD. I love hearing all these kind deeds that people do but it makes me a bit sad that it has become such a rarity for people to be kind and helpful that when something nice does happen everybody is overwhelmed by the act of kindness. However, it also makes me sad and so angry hearing all the terrible news like what has happened in France again. What is this world coming to?!


I know a lot of you shop on Amazon so wanted to just share a tip with you. I use TopCashback but they don't give cashback on Amazon, but I have found a site that does. It's a site called Kidstart, Next and Amazon both give cashback on it. It's actually aimed for people saving for their kids, so you can link a child trust fund to it or whatever, but I have had no trouble just linking my daughters normal savings account to it and my eldest daughters normal current account. Then when it reaches a certain amount it automatically pays the money straight in to the nominated account. I won't post my referral link as I think it's presumptuous but the website is www.kidstart.co.uk. If you do want my referral link just PM me, but it's no bother if you don't. I've been using it for the past year and have managed to earn over £50. It doesn't sound much but it's still free money and goes directly into my kids accounts so I can't spend it myself anyway



I've also found a website that looks pretty cool. I haven't had a proper look yet but will update if I find anything really good. The website is www.thegreatgiftcompany.co.uk


I hardly post anything on Instagram but have found a lot more of my friends are using it now so I might start making the switch over to there instead of Facebook, as Facebook just bores me at the moment because it's full of adverts and stupid videos.


I came to the realisation yesterday that most of my pj's are Christmas pj's. I was looking for a pair to put on as all my comfy leggings etc were in the wash, so I needed something comfy to put on after my shower and out of all the pj's I have, only 1 pair is non Christmassy. I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I don't mind wearing them all year round, but I think I might get some funny looks if somebody knocked the door or I had to put the rubbish out :rotfl:


GTQ - fingers crossed for your brother, sounds promising :T


Nitnurse - I didn't see the ones on Amazon but I managed to get some off yankee candles website, they were £12 each so I bought 4. Maybe a bit over the top, I went a bit yankee candle crazy, but I'm sure I can find some lovely lucky person to gift one to


I'm loving all the hamper ideas, keep them coming


xx