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

nitnurse-not2

Hi all

Well Freespirit. As you say I am exhausted. Only one weekend left then I can rest up. I must be getting old. Your jingle bells project is right up my street. I would love that in my home.
Gettingtherequickly. It has been the most incredible year and all of my family and friends have really embraced the idea.
Murie, I love your jingle bells make. Really unusual. Maybe you could add to it with other Christmas people
Plumduff55. The stocking is lovely. I can just imagine candy canes poking out the top.
Pinksteps. The bells are so creative. Never imagined that you could kit them. I will have a set in red, gold and green please
Peppapig. The chair is fab. I love it
Nic2975.. I'm hoping to take part in the monthly craft this time.

Not much to report Christmas wise.
I had a fab party yesterday at m humble abode. Having people visiting gave me renewwed vogour to clean properly...not just shove everything in to a corner. I got up this morning and DD had shifted the remnants of the soiree- although most of it was done before I toddled up to bed.
Hugs and best wishes too all
xxx

princesskitty29

We get to see our house today! :j Woohoo! :j I’m not going to keep going on about it, but I’m excited!

Pinksteps Teddy is adorable!

sammy your pooches are so cute too! It’s so good to hear you took Mabel in, some people are despicable. She looks very happy now though.

nic Congrats to your DD for getting a medal, you must be a very proud mum! How lovely for your sister finally having a baby, a Christmas miracle! I hope it all goes well.

vulpix great minds!

Peppa I’m a bit like that, as soon as we get a few cooler days towards the end of summer I start kicking into autumn/winter getting-snuggly mode! I’ve decided in my new house that I’m going to have a spring/summer living room and an autumn/winter living room, so I’ll change curtains and cushions etc probably in March and October. I just love all the reds and oranges come autumn but will want something lighter in the summer so this seemed a good compromise!

princesskitty29

I have finalised my advent activities list, I just need to get a wooden advent calendar with the little drawers and I will put an activity each day for us to do. I just thought i'd share my list of activities with you:

1. Fairylight Express (driving round with hot choc & Christmas music to see houses lit up with fairy lights)
2. Ice skating
3. Make a Christmas decoration
4. Donate food to food bank
5. Decorate the tree & house
6. Have a festive Starbucks/Costa
7. Put some food out for the birds
8. Visit local garden centre/shopping centre to see the Christmas display. I live near Milton Keynes and they do an amazing one!
9. Sing Christmas carols
10. Have a hot chocolate with whipped cream & the works!
11. Watch a Christmas film.
12. Have a North Pole breakfast
13. Light a Christmas candle and give thanks
14. Make gingerbread men
15. Carry out a random act of kindness
16. Donate some money to charity
17. Make cookies for Father Christmas
18. Go to town's switching on of the lights (although after typing this I just realised that will probably be before December so need to change this one!)
19. Play a Christmas game
20. Visit a Christmas market
21. Make dried oranges to hang around the house
22. Write a letter to Father Christmas
23. Go for a festive walk (take hot choc etc)
24. Have a festive indoor picnic

They're not in order yet, I need to sit down with the calendar and figure out what day i'm doing what. I'll keep the list on my spreadsheet and look at the next day's activity, if I feel we won't be able to manage them that day i'll swap them around a bit! I'm hoping we can manage all of them, i've tried to put lots of little things in there so it's easy to do in a day. Obviously Wiggle can't do them all but it's as much for DH and I as for him! And as he gets older he'll be able to do everything. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

nic2075

freespirit66 wrote: »

NIC i hope you are okay my lovely! Aww a little christmas baby will be lovely for the family. This months theme is Snow, any craft that you want to make made of whatever you like, join in its great fun! We all put our pics on the last day of the month and then a new theme starts on the 1st of the next month.

I'm ok, thank you for asking. Just caught up in life and being a mum and not really feeling like me. A little crafting will get my mind back into something I enjoy. I ended up losing my crafting mojo and gave up my crafting business, but I have tons of supplies to still find something to make. Looking forward to having a go. X

elliew8

Morning all it's been 3 days and the thread is moving along really quickly now
I'm loving the pictures of the pups, glad to hear ted's on the mend and fingers crossed for the ones that are poorly. I REALLY want a dog but our jobs would mean it would be unfair leaving it alone for most of the day...then there's the cat to consider!
Congratulations on the new homes PrincessKitty and Cherry - I'm jealous you'll be getting all new Christmas decorations, I went to the range when we moved in and spent about 2 hours in there and far too much money!
It is rather wet and chilly here today which I don't mind except for the half hour walk to the station. The car has packed up and won't be sorted for at least 2 more weeks Supposedly we've got one more nice weekend of sunshine and I'm away for the weekend with both sides of the family so will be nice to finish the summer on a big family bbq...but we're taking scattergories and cards against humanity just in case!
Thanks for the heads up on John Lewis...I'm slightly scared to look since me and the DH both got JL vouchers from work for the wedding so we've got guilt free amounts! Was planning on putting them towards presents but if there are any nice decorations I can't be held responsible
Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start, I know lots of you have kids going back to school this week so hope it all goes smoothly xx

elliew8

Oh and PrincessKitty I really like your ideas, I hope you don't mind if I steal them! Thank you for sharing xx

Gettingtherequickly

Good morning! How are we all doing on this miserable Monday morning.

Had a fab time, it was my brother's Christmas present to me, so finally booked it in. Went to Hastings, took the scenic route there, which was a bit interesting in places as I had to avoid fallen branches:eek: We were actually very lucky driving there, saw 2 ambo's in front of us on 2's & blues, had to pull in to allow another 4 go by, then pull in again a minute later to allow police, fire brigade and another ambo pass. They were all going in our direction, but clearly pulled off someplace as we didn't see any incident on our journey, just hope there was nothing very serious happening.

Had booked neck, shoulder & back massage and a facial. Just under 1 1/2 hours later, felt amazing. Only complaint we both had was not being told that our arms would be done, not a problem, but we both had left our watches on, they could have told us to take them off beforehand, rather having to work around them, especially with the oils:( Was also given a head massage, which again was fab, but oh my word, my hair was disgusting afterwards, we probably had the same amount of oil used on it, but when you consider hers longer & thicker, & mine is a little above shoulder and fine.....

The accommodation was, what shall I say?:D Friend booked it, we were only having room only, but it was a bit of a shock to discover that the bathroom had to be shared:eek::eek: But because we were leaving early, it was as good as ensuite, think I will be sorting out in future:D We left there to go & see Bodiam Castle, this is a Natural Trust site and the grounds are stunning. The castle itself is merely a shell now, but the moat around it was full of huge carp (asked and was told they are about 35 years old) & ducks, all my friend wanted to do was catch a duck & take it home to cook! She took a really strange photo, I am in say the middle 1/3 of it, except there is only my body to to my waist, the rest of the photo is exactly as you would expect, just the top part of my body missing:eek:

Got back home early Saturday evening, but was in bed & fast asleep by 9!

Can now concentrate on Christmas, got my niece a Fiorelli bag, reduced from £55 to £20, think both of us will be happy with that. Think some of my cakes have been fed enough, so will finish wrapping them this week, and add to completed/wrapped list on spreadsheet, will try & get myself updated at some stage during the week, I hope!

Welcome to the newbies, well done to the crafty ones, yay to Peppa doing well & Pink getting to see new home.

Peppapig

Me too PRINCESSKITTY, some really simple ideas there that I wouldn't have thought of so I think I may be 'sharing' them with you too. Hope the house visit is fabulous, it must be so exciting to see it moved on and almost ready for you. I tend to do the same with accessories as I like it darkish and snug in the winter but light and airy in the summer!

Cherry24

Bit behind on the thread so sorry if I'm carrying on conversations from ages ago.

Peppa - My sister is the same. All of the kid's big toys are in permanent residence at my dad's Love the chair!

Vulpix - I know what you mean. Seriously having to downsize for my new house. Have already given 1 tree to my sister and some decs to charity.

Sammy-Kaye - Christmas baking? Gingerbread men or something similar.

Murie - Never heard of Japanese soft cotton cheesecake. I'm intrigued as I love cheesecake and trying new flavours / cuisines.

Pinksteps - Teddy is gorgeous

ellie - That sucks about the car. They always seem to break down at the worst times.

Princesskitty - Congrats, can imagine how excited you are.

lazysheep

Princesskitty - if you need to switch out the turning on of the town lights then how about 'making' some cards with Wiggle? For now it's probably no more than a handprint and some glitter(?) etc but handmade cards are always that bit more special imo. Loads of ideas if you google 'handprint christmas cards'.

GTQ - that sounds lovely, except the oily hair afterwards!

Yesterday and this morning felt like proper autumn/hot chocolate weather but it's apparently going to be 26 degrees again at the end of the week so I'm trying to hold onto the last days of summer before accepting that it's full steam ahead for Christmas. Really need to get the spare room tidied up so that I have room to start sorting out my presents..