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

princesskitty29

Hi all, I was really sick yesterday so just recovering this morning and catching up on here. I always knew it wouldn’t be any fun looking after a toddler whilst ill and I got to experience it yesterday – not easy! My lovely DH got up with Wiggle this morning and has taken him out so I’m just having a rest. I’m definitely on the mend and having a cup of tea so I must be getting better! I received one of the Grandad’s Goodies tins I ordered this morning, hopefully the other one is on its way and they haven’t accidentally sent one instead of two! I also received a Studio discount catalogue so I’m just about to have a nosey in there.

Hello Gwendolyn, welcome! You’ll find most of us on here strive to get sorted by December, I always aim for that but never seem to be ready before December! I made my own Christmas crackers a couple of years ago and they went down well, I put scratchcards and some chocolate in mine.

04624181 The Ikea kitchen should sell well – they always get snapped up!

Peppa we are due to find out a date for definite (apparently) next Friday, and at the moment it seems likely to be the 14th October – I do hope it is!!

Ellie ha ha it sounds like the go karting was fun, hopefully worth the achey muscles! I do hope your laser eye surgery goes well today, keep us posted!

Sammy sorry to hear you are still feel poorly. Oh no about the Furby, it’s dangerous giving kids a choice! We went to Thomas Land for our nephew’s birthday and we said we’d get him a token gift from the shop (we’d already bought him a present) and he went straight for the most expensive thing! Luckily his parents managed to talk him into something cheaper! I hope you have a lovely wedding anniversary.

murie Wiggle is still being extremely high maintenance but has tamed a little in the last few days. He’s just so unpredictable at the moment!

mandco sorry to here Taz is struggling with school, as you say hopefully once he gets used to it he will be a lot better.

Fiesty I can fully understand how you feel, it is a daunting feeling leaving your little one but it is surprising how adaptable they are. I really think we imagine things to be worse than they will be. If you can pump at work or little My can visit you then that’s a great bonus! If it means things are better for you in the long run then I say go for it!

mrsinvisible

Hi, wow, a mammoth catch-up, but l cant remember who has what, so sorry, hello, newbies, we are pleased to 'meet you' .
Have had a manic few days, with only boring stuff, but the good stuff is in there somewhere.
My dear friend is retiring on Friday, she has mixed feelings about it, but is glad to be having more time for herself. She has just got back from a 7 night cruise, with her husband.
She doesnt want any kind of party, or anything, to celebrate, so l thought l might put together a ''time for me'' hamper, that she can dip into when she feels a bit lost. So far there is a small bottle of fizzy wine, some hand made chocolates, a selection of fruit and green teas, a bath pillow and an eye mask, a bath bomb and l need a book about retired fun, and savings, and a couple of miniature baileys, and gin etc. Any other ideas? after all l have 6 whole days to do it!!!
The wind has blown all my remaining pots over , so l need to get out there and empty them ready for the winter plants to go in . mainly primrose and pansy, but l keep looking for cyclamen to be reduced in B&Q, ho hum!
Arghhhhh, washing off the line alert, gotta gooooooooooo...........

newthrift

Popping my head round the door quickly to say hello :wave:
Having a crazy couple of days cake making so will catch up on last couple days later xx

Gettingtherequickly

mrsinvisible wrote: »

She doesnt want any kind of party, or anything, to celebrate, so l thought l might put together a ''time for me'' hamper, that she can dip into when she feels a bit lost. So far there is a small bottle of fizzy wine, some hand made chocolates, a selection of fruit and green teas, a bath pillow and an eye mask, a bath bomb and l need a book about retired fun, and savings, and a couple of miniature baileys, and gin etc. Any other ideas? after all l have 6 whole days to do it!!!

I was invited to a surprise 60th party, she was also retiring but we were given strict instructions that there were to be no gifts, unless we could pick something up from a charity shop for less than £10. I found an electronic bingo game, which I bought & just added a note to say that playing bingo is apparently what old people do! She thought it was hilarious

nic2075

Evening.

Fiesty- it's so hard going back for the first time. But I found it easier just doing it sooner rather than later. I felt worse when I waited 3 years before working with my 2nd. It was so much harder going back then. Just think of the money.

Welcome to all the newbies. Nice to see everyone.

Having a nice quiet Saturday night as I'm away at a dancing comp with my girls tomorrow. Early as usual.

I made KFC style chicken and king prawns tonight. It was lovely, but not sure all the effort was worth it and think I'd just buy it ready made next time lol. I just really fancied some crunchy prawns and wanted kfc batter.


I know some of you have fit bits. Can anyone tell me where to start? My DD(11) has asked for one for xmas, she is into dancing and fitness, so I thought it might be a good idea. But I dknt know anything about them.

sammy_kaye18

Morning all
Well I think I may finally be getting past this cold - breathing is becoming slightly easier and the chest is getting gunkier......so all in all - getting there me thinks.

Main goals for today are sorting out my bedroom - I went through my mountain of clothes last night and sorted them into mine, minx's and dudes - so they are all in the right rooms now - I just have stuff to put on Facebook pages to try and shift them out the way!

Also have been sat this morning looking up recipes for Christmas - I think some of the gifts to our local friends are going to be sugar cookies or shortbread although they all tested my jam as well so I think Ill be doing a homemade jam and lemon curd for them - plus we will eat it too and so will mother in law so saves some pennies as well

Currently also scanning the 3 for 2 at Argos so I can have a look at actually starting my Christmas shopping! But for now I'm still furby hunting.

GTQ - the gift sounds fab. Hope your feeling better.

Feisty - good luck going back to work.

MrsInvisible - the wind was horrendous here too last night - I thought my greenhouse was going to take off at one point.....thats what you get for living on top of a mountain by the sea though :eek:

Gwendolyn - thank you - Ill look into Black Friday - I like looking at the deals :-) Hoping I might snag hubbys Xmas present at a bargain price.

Karrie1uk

Morning all. Three months today and it will be Christmas Day. I'm getting so excited

Plans are coming on. I wrapped all my Santa presents yesterday, hubby is getting the last part of the present so not sure if it will be wrapped or not (will probably be brought just as the shops close on Christmas Eve) however the rest are wrapped and in a box in the attic. DH was going to send for the men in white coats yesterday when I started to wrap in September but he was kindly reminded that it is me who does all the wrapping and isn't it great that all we have to do is bring down the box on Christmas Eve and build one present but it's not a big job and that's it done. Bed by ten pm on Christmas Eve lol

On the Rest of the Christmas front I am getting there. Had a good check through the stock pile yesterday and thinking only a few people left to get now. Some can't be got until nearer the time. My granny always gets a gift voucher for a local restaurant as she is the biggest hoarder so at least this gets her out and she loves going for breakfast out however their gift vouchers are only valid for three months so will need to get it in December.

feisty - I only went back off maternity leave there in August and to be honest I don't mind being in work now. It gives ds time to be with other people and it has done him the world of good. I am only back part time but with the leave I had the option of using it up and not going back to January but I thought it was better to get back to it. The extra money is nice and really good this time of the year.

Sammy Kaye - happy anniversary

Hello to all the newbies there are some really great ideas on this page even if you are a lurker just like me

I seem to have been reading Christmas books are year ...I don't know if that is intentional or not

Clumsy42

nic2075 - I'm looking at getting a Fitbit for Xmas (not that I can do any exercise with the ME, but for tracking my weird heart rate :rotfl:).

They range in price from about £40 to the best part of £200. They also range in what they track and features: heart rate, steps, floors climbed, sleep, clock, calories, distance, silent wake alarm (vibrate on your wrist), etc. Many fitness trackers also require a smart phone to link up with.

I think you'd have to decide what features she actually needs as an 11 year old. Plus, other brands make cheaper trackers too. Groupon have a few at the moment, including these ones that are cheap but possibly rubbish lol: https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/kids-activity-and-sleep-tracker Hope I've helped. :j

princesskitty29

Hi all, definitely feeling on the mend today thank goodness. Still a bit tired but getting there, goodness knows where I got that bug from! I made an order with Studio yesterday, I haven’t made one with them for yonks! I ordered another candle arch identical to the one I bought from them a few years ago so that I can put both of them in my front windows at Christmas. I also ordered what looks like a lovely red robin snowstorm lantern, it lights up and blows the snow storm on its own which looks lovely. I hope it is as nice as it looks as I bought a couple for presents too! You just never know with Studio. I also bought Wiggle a personalised cutlery set. He always wants to use our cutlery rather than his children’s cutlery with Thomas the Tank on etc so as this set is stainless steel I thought it might look more grown up to him but be more his size. I also got DH a Guinness pint glass as his one got smashed a while back, I’ll give that with some Guinness cans. I feel a bit better about getting some more presents but still lots to do, I need to plan an actual shopping trip soon!

mrsinvisible is your friend into any kind of craft to keep her busy? Or puzzles/crosswords etc and a nice pen?

Karrie ha ha whenever my DH starts to say anything about me doing Christmas things early I always say ‘and aren’t you glad when it gets to Christmas and you don’t have to do anything?!’ he always agrees and shuts up then!

freespirit66

Afternoon everyone, 04624181 and PEPPAPIG and MANDCO, i am here thankyou for thinking of me, i just had a few days relaxing and time out before the kids came home from Jordan yesterday. I have had a real me me me week this week it has been fab and i have enjoyed every minute of it, although its lovely to have them back. Looked after Thumper this morning as DD2 did the local village fun run so had a lovely time grabbing cuddles as and when i could haha. My snow craft is all finished ready for Fridays piccie I opened DS christmas present and everything was all present and correct so i was well chuffed with that. I ordered his novelty lounge pants for christmas eve just need a t shirt to go with them and then that is another thing out of the way.

04624181 congratulations on the job my lovely i hope you enjoy it

PEPPAPIG good luck with chemo this week i hope it all goes smoothly, glad your Santa Paws project is coming along nicely, so glad you enjoyed the feelgood session i hope it was a nice boost for you

MURIE yes i have been baking again, baked a nice apple and caramel icing cake for the kids coming home and some brownies and shortbread

SAMMY_KAYE happy anniversary for tomorrow

MANDCO aww i hope Taz settles into school soon, it is a big jump for them when they are so little. Good Luck for the new job

FEISTY good luck with going back to work temporarily, im sure little my will get used to DH

ELLIEW8 i hope the laser surgery went ok

PRINCESSKITTY i hope you are feeling better now after your bug

MRSINVISIBLE the time for me hamper sounds fabulous what a lovely idea

NEWTHRIFT i hope the cakes all turned out well